HealthCare Bill Surprise For Businesses

A report from Bloomberg Business week reveals that on page 737 of the Health Care Bill approved by Congress there are 3 paragraphs that have nothing to do with health Care. The provision inserted by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee to help offset the cost of the bill, requires companies to report to the […]

Milliman Medical Index 2010

The  Milliman Medical Index has been released for 2010. This is a very good study of healthcare costs and the effects that they have.  2010 marks the 6th year that the study has been performed. The top 100 leading insurers read this report to estimate future health insurance claims costs.  You would think that our […]

Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act

Recently Wellpoint took some really bad press on the treatment of Breast Cancer. Some of that bad press was wrong. Anthem was accused of purposely rescinding policies of women diagnosed with breast cancer. This accusation was really way out of bounds. Wellpoint has paid for the treatment 10 of  thousands of women who have suffered from […]

Possible Extension of COBRA Subsidy

Congress is poised yet again to consider another extension of the current May 31, 2010, eligibility deadline for the COBRA subsidy program provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Eligibility for the Federal COBRA premium subsidies would be extended through year-end and employers would have more time to fund their pension liabilities under […]

Medicare Reimbursement Reduced as of June 1st 2010

As it stands as of June 1st  the Medicare Reimbursement rate for Medicare is going to be reduced 21%. This means the Doctors and Hospitals are going to be paid 21% less for treating Medicare patients. This is going to have a huge impact on physicians practices. What could happen is Doctors will not be […]

Implementation Of Healthcare Law Slowing

The House prepares for action on a physician payment fix while the administration trudges through early implementation steps for a new health coverage law.” Notably, “this week marks the two-month anniversary of its enactment on March 23.” The law’s “implementation gets slower as the wheels of regulatory agencies churn through new rule making…prior to a […]

Simple Cafeteria Plans Changes

A cafeteria plan is an employer-sponsored plan that allows employees to choose certain pre-tax benefits or cash. For example, an employee may choose to pay his or her share of premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance before taxes through the plan. A cafeteria plan must have a written plan document governing the plan and may not […]

What is Driving Health Insurance Premiums

This is the question that’s at the heart of the matter. And it’s what we need to understand before we can try to control costs. It’s important to look at the real drivers behind high and rising health care costs and health care premiums. More expensive technology, used more often — No doubt, modern medicine […]

Where does the Health Premium Go?

On average, 87 cents of every dollar you pay us is spent covering medical care and services that members receive like doctor visits, hospital costs, prescription drugs and more. So when the costs for these services go up, so must our premiums. Another 10 cents of every premium dollar funds the services we provide like […]