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Can Better Health Insurance Literacy Reduce Employer Medical Costs?
"If your employees do not understand how to utilize their healthcare benefits, they may avoid seeking care when it is indicated, resulting in more complicated conditions and higher costs to the employer. Likewise, if they are unable to understand what different plan structures provide for the employee (and their family), individuals may choose a plan that results in a greater cost burden to them, producing additional financial stressors and inhibiting their wellbeing and engagement. It is likely that up to 60% of your employees have limited or below average health insurance literacy with the lowest competency in their ability to manage benefits."
Hill, Chesson & Woody
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Finding the 'New Normal' in Medical Cost Trends for Employers
"PwC projects a 6.5 percent medical cost increase for 2018 or 5.5 percent after plan design changes.... [T]hree things to consider. [1] Target wellness programs to the right people. Use biometric data and analytic tools to create wellness programs tailored to your population. [2] Evaluate your pharmacy claims data. Identify what conditions and drugs drive spending in your population. [3] Work with providers to reduce health care costs."
The Alliance
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Big Employers Take U-Turn, Vow to Continue Offering Health Insurance
"Two surveys of large employers ... show companies continue to try to control costs while backing away from shrinking or dropping health benefits.... That's a marked change from three years ago, when many big employers -- those with 1,000 employees or more -- contemplated ending medical benefits and shifting workers to the [ACA]'s marketplaces."
Kaiser Health News
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Generic Drug Prices Are Falling, But Are Consumers Benefiting?
"Dozens of old generic drugs have risen in price in recent years, for reasons that include supply disruptions and competitors' leaving the market....Despite these cases, the trend toward deflating generic prices appears to have accelerated as companies have more aggressively undercut each other's prices.... [M]ost of those with health insurance pay a fixed co-payment -- $10, for example -- for each generic prescription, and therefore don't pay more or less, regardless of any fluctuation in the actual price. And even those who pay cash for generics may not notice a drop in price because many are already cheap."
The New York Times; subscription may be required
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Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Military Health System
"Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) comprises a large number of therapies (e.g., acupuncture and chiropractic) that developed outside the conventional biomedical model of care. About one-third of the general population report using CAM either on their own (e.g., yoga) or through the services of a CAM provider (e.g., massage).... Eighty-three percent of [military treatment facilities (MTFs)] offer one or more of a variety of CAM services with relaxation therapy, acupuncture, progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery, and chiropractic being the most common. MTFs most commonly cite not having the necessary providers as the reason for not offering CAM."
RAND Corporation
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Lawmakers Regroup to Consider Possible ACA Fix
"A group of more than 40 bipartisan House members ... vowed to [1] create a stability fund that states could use to reduce premiums and limit insurers' losses; [2] change the requirement that employers provide coverage to affect companies with 500 or more employees, as opposed to the current 50-employee minimum; and [3] repeal the medical device tax[.]"
InsuranceNewsNet.com
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[Opinion]
Has Obamacare Become Trumpcare?
"[O]pen enrollment for the ACA's marketplaces begins November 1, and insurers have to decide by late September whether they will participate. There are a host of actions the administration could take to make it successful. [1] Provide clarity around the rules ... [2] [Maintain] outreach and consumer assistance ... [3] [Encourage] insurers to participate ... [4] [G]ive states flexibility to experiment through Medicaid waivers and ACA waivers under section 1332 of the law."
JAMA Forum
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Benefits in General
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DOL Announces Review of Regs on Disability Claims
"[T]hese rules also apply to ERISA-governed retirement plans that make disability determinations.... While nonqualified retirement plans are exempt from many ERISA requirements, the claims procedures requirement is not one of them.... These new disability claims procedure regulations do not apply to any plan (health and welfare plan or qualified/nonqualified retirement plan) that provides a benefit the availability of which is conditioned on a finding of disability made by a party other than the plan itself."
Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP
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Executive Compensation and Nonqualified Plans
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[Guidance Overview]
Brace for 2018: The SEC's Pay Ratio Rule
"Develop a process for collection of information, and consider a reasonable, documented approach to the calculation that is defensible to the SEC, investors and employees.... Conduct a simulated exercise ('dry run') of the pay ratio calculation and disclosure using 2017 compensation data as a baseline.... In drafting disclosures, consider how to frame the methodology, including assumptions, adjustments and any exemptions relied upon.... Provide the compensation committee with a draft of the CEO pay ratio disclosure as early as possible."
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
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David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Holly Horton, Business Manager
BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9595. Copyright 2017 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. All materials contained in this newsletter are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., or in the case of third party materials, the owner of those materials. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notices from copies of the content.
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