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Health Plans Covering Yoga: The Next Frontier?

"Insurers should cover 'new wellness- and prevention-oriented treatments such as yoga and meditation,' Sukanya Soderland, a partner in consulting firm Oliver Wyman's health practice, wrote recently in the Harvard Business Review.... Especially as the so-called 'Cadillac tax' on high-cost employer-based health plans is going to start sinking its teeth into those plans, why would any employer want to increase the likelihood of incurring that tax liability by channeling more of employees' compensation in to health plans that pay for benefits like yoga?"

Market Uncertainty Driving ACA Rate Increases

"Two market influences, in particular, are complicating 2018 rate setting: the uncertainty surrounding continued funding of cost sharing reduction (CSR) payments and the question of how the relaxation of the individual mandate will impact enrollment and risk pools.... [Up] to two-thirds of 2018 rate increases will be due to the uncertainty surrounding these two market influences."

With ACA Repeal on Hold, Return of Health Insurance Tax Worries Business Groups

"[T]he 'annual fee,' which insurers call the Health Insurance Tax or HIT, remains on the books. The HIT took a holiday in 2017 thanks to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2015, but is scheduled to return next year.... [A] new report by Oliver Wyman estimates that the tax will increase premiums by 2.6% in 2018, and between 2.5% and 2.7% in later years when amounts collected are tied by law to premium trends."

New Regs Released on ACA's $100 Billion Health Insurance Tax; Premiums to Rise

"A 2011 report by Oliver Wyman found that nationally the health insurance tax alone 'will increase premiums in the insured market on average by 1.9% to 2.3% in 2014,' and by 2023 'will increase premiums 2.8% to 3.7%.'"

Analysis of the ACA Annual Tax on Health Insurers, Allocated by State

"The [ACA] will impose taxes beginning in 2014 on insurance companies that offer fully-insured coverage. The taxes will be assessed on earned health insurance premiums, with certain exclusions.... On average across all states ... additional premiums to be paid over the ten-year period would increase by [1] $2,171 for single contracts and $5,140 for family contracts in the individual market; [2] $2,794 for single contracts and $6,883 for family contracts in the small-group market; and [3] $2,636 for single contracts and $7,186 for family contracts in the large-group market."

Will Employers Dump Health Insurance Coverage?

"Multiple consultancies have studied employer attitudes toward providing health insurance coverage in the wake of reform and the results are mixed. McKinsey & Company found that 30% of employers will probably stop offering coverage and the number is even higher for employers with a high awareness of health care reform. In a study released ... by Oliver Wyman, only eight percent of employers said they plan to discontinue coverage and 42 percent would like to maintain status quo."

Estimated Premium Impacts of Annual Fees Assessed on Health Insurance Plans (PDF)

17 pages; Oct. 31, 2011. 'One significant provision of the Affordable Care Act ... is the imposition of fees on health insurance providers offering fully insured coverage beginning in 2014.... This report quantifies the impact ... on private and public sector coverage.

Stabilizing the Individual Health Insurance Market (PDF)

23 pages. "Market stabilization proposals currently under consideration include [1] appropriating and paying for the enhanced benefits insurers provide to low-income insureds through cost sharing reductions; [2] strong enforcement of the individual mandate; [3] external funding of $15 billion per year; and [4] the elimination of the 9010 HIT fee.... [The authors] find that the cited market stabilization provisions, combined, would increase enrollment by roughly 2 million individuals, reduce average premiums by more than 20 percent, and cost relatively little, when considering federal outlays for CSR spending and APTCs."

Senate Hearing: 'A New, Open Marketplace: The Effect of Guaranteed Issue and New Rating Rules'

Video of full committee hearing on April 11, 2013. Includes links to testimony by Gary Cohen, Director, CCIIO; Kevin Counihan, CEO, Connecticut Health Insurance Marketplace; Sabrina Corlette, Research Professor and Project Director, Georgetown Health Policy Institute, Center on Health Insurance Reform; Stacy Cook, Carroll, Iowa; and Chris Carlson, Principal and Consulting Actuary, Oliver Wyman Consulting.

CMS' Proposed Medicare Advantage Cuts Will Result in Higher Costs, Fewer Benefits for Seniors

"[A new analysis by Oliver Wyman prepared for America's Health Insurance Plans] estimates that the new proposed payment cuts combined with the reform law's payment cuts and taxes will result in benefit reductions and premium increases of an average $50 to $90 per month for a typical Medicare Advantage beneficiary next year.... CMS recently proposed a 2.3 percent reduction in Medicare Advantage payments for 2014 at a time when medical costs are projected to increase by three percent."