Health Insurer Charging Unreasonable Rate Increases, HHS Finds
"Everence Insurance is charging small businesses unreasonably high premium increases according to the first federal rate review under the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced . . . . The HHS review has found that Everence's 12 percent rate increase for small businesses in Pennsylvania was excessive."
(U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)
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HHS Flags First 'Unreasonable' Premium Increase
"[Everence Insurance of Pennsylvania], a for-profit arm of the Mennonite Church USA, raised rates starting in September by 11.6 percent for its . . . policies covering 4,800 people working for small businesses in the state. Now the insurer has 10 days to either withdraw the increase or post on its website the reasons it finds the increase to be justified."
(Kaiser Health News)
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Young Adults' Health Care Coverage May Cost Parents Higher Premiums
"An increasing number of employers are turning to 'per participant' or 'unitized' pricing so an employee's payroll contribution increases with each dependent a worker adds to their coverage, according to Aon Hewitt . . . . This strategy differs from the more typical single or family coverage or so-called partner benefits that allow workers to include a spouse or domestic partner on their plan."
(New York Times; free registration required)
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Companies Go to High-Deductible Health Plans
"In plans where deductibles are covered by a health savings or health reimbursement account, workers have to pay an average deductible of $1,908, a 2011 Kaiser survey showed. Traditional health plans, on average, have deductibles well under $1,000."
(USATODAY.com)
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Health Insurance Premiums Up By Half Since 2003
"In the Commonwealth Fund's state-by-state survey -- which analyzed private health insurance trends for those younger than 65 culled from the federal government's annual survey of employers -- the average total premium in 2010 was $13,871 a year for family coverage."
(MedPage Today)
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Economic Woes One Way to Curb Health Spending
"A recent analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that even people with insurance are going to the doctor less frequently, with the number actually dropping most dramatically after the recession was technically over."
(POLITICO.com)
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Workers Want Employers to Help Them Stay Healthy
"[M]any employees don't feel their employers are fully supportive in helping them get and stay healthy. A majority of workers (60 percent) think their company is only moderately-to-not-supportive when it comes to their efforts to be healthy."
(LiveScience)
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Update De Minimis Fringe Guidance, Group Tells IRS
"The IRSAC Small Business/Self-Employed Subgroup . . . consists of eight tax professionals from wide-ranging backgrounds . . . . [and recommends that the IRS update] de minimis fringe benefit examples to deal with changes in the business environment that have occurred over the past 20 years providing greater certainty to IRS examiners, employers and employees and reporting income . . . ."
(U.S. Internal Revenue Service)
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U.S. Outspends Other Countries on Health Care
"[The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development] shows that the United States spent about $7,960 per person on health care in 2009 -- about 2.5 times the average of the countries studied. It also found that health spending in the U.S. has increased faster than in all other high-income OECD countries since 1970"
(Kaiser Health News)
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Health Insurers Fight Health Care Reform Bill's Tax
"The backers of the Stop the HIT Coalition, including groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, and the National Association of Manufacturers, Washington, say the tax would affect small businesses and self-employed people much more than it would affect large employers, because it affects only the market for health insurance sold by health insurers, not the self-funded plans used by many large employers."
(LifeHealthPro)
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Insurers 'Terrified' of Supreme Court Ruling on Health Care Reform Law
"[I]nsurers say sticking to [rules limiting how much older people can be charged, requiring family plans to cover young people up to age 26, mandating coverage of a broad package of 'essential health benefits' in state-based exchanges] without a mandate would drive up the cost of premiums while leaving insurance plans as the villain, since the law requires plans to justify rate hikes of 10 percent or more."
(The Hill)
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Surprising Decline in Consumers Seeking Health Information
In 2010, 50 percent of American adults sought information about a personal health concern, down from 56 percent in 2007. Use of print sources -- books, magazines and newspapers -- dropped by nearly half, to 18 percent, accounting for most of the decline.
(Center for Studying Health System Change)
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Recent Health Cost Hikes Were Moderate, But Increases Loom
"[T]he provision [of the health care reform law] that concerns the most employers is the stiff 40% excise tax on high-cost plans, slated to take effect in 2018, for health-benefit coverage that costs more than $10,200 for an individual employee or $27,500 for dependent coverage."
(CFO.com)
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California Court's Retiree Health Care Ruling Could Reach Far
"Courts should be cautious and require strong evidence before finding an implicit promise to maintain health coverage, making sure that neither the supervisors nor the public 'will be blind sided by unexpected obligations,' said Justice Marvin Baxter in Monday's decision. But he rejected the county's attempt to bar all such lawsuits."
(San Francisco Chronicle)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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Inside The Corporate Plan to Occupy The Pentagon
"[T]he push for pension cuts and other corporate 'reforms' at the Pentagon originates from an obscure advisory panel that has existed for a decade: the Defense Business Board. Its 21 members know little about military affairs, but they are rich in Wall Street experience, including with some of the biggest companies implicated in the 2008 financial meltdown."
(Mother Jones)
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