On Wednesday, the federal Department of Labor (DOL) released a final version of its much-anticipated rule to address conflicts of interest in retirement advice, which is widely referred to in the industry and news media as the "fiduciary rule." The new regulation establishes how investment advisors who assist employers and employees with “investment property” components of a group benefit plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), including Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), may have fiduciary responsibility even if they provide advice on a one-time basis. Typically individuals who are a fiduciary of a group benefit plan regulated by ERISA may not receive compensation or commissions from third-party vendors that provide services to the group benefit plan. However, a separate piece of guidance issued by the DOL yesterday establishes a “best interest contract exemption” that allows advisors to be paid commissions for their work, as long as they follow very specific requirements.

While almost all of the attention surrounding the rule is focused on advisors who help employers and employees with Individual Retirement Account (IRA) options, the new requirements also extend to brokers who help employers set up HSAs in conjunction with the sale and service of high-deductible health plans. NAHU and others argued to the DOL that the inclusion of HSA advice or advice associated with the sale and service of any group health insurance policy in the scope of this regulation was inappropriate, but unfortunately when it came to HSAs, the Obama Administration did not agree... Read More

On Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released finalized guidance regarding Medicare Advantage (MA) rates for the 2017 plan year. The finalized guidance resulted in an average rate increase of 0.85%, down from the proposed average rate increase of 1.35% from the proposed guidance released in February. The guidance also addressed proposed changes to the roughly 3.3 million Medicare beneficiaries who are enrolled in Employer Group Waiver Plans (EGWP or “Egg Whip”) by noting that these will be phased-in over two years. NAHU advocated against these changes and joined the Coalition to Save Medicare Advantage Retiree Coverage in this effort.

The Administration will be moving forward with its projected 2.5% cut to EGWPs, but will help ease the impact of the cuts by providing a two-year transition period. The cuts stem from what the Administration deemed a “coding trend” to realign rates throughout the program to adjust for discrepancies in the program and that the effected increase would be 3.55%. This would bring the EGWP plans in line with other MA plans as the employer plans are currently paid more, resulting in a cut for EGWP plans. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission claims that the average payment for an EGWP enrollee was 106% of that of a traditional fee-for-service beneficiary, and 102% for individual MA plans. CMS is estimating that the EGWP changes will result in a 1.25% cut in 2017... Read More

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) held its spring meeting from April 2-5 in New Orleans and NAHU was present throughout to monitor the proceedings and provide input to state insurance regulators. On Sunday, NAHU provided testimony during a public hearing held by the NAIC’s Health Insurance and Managed Care (B) Committee’s Regulatory Framework (B) Task Force’s Model #22 Subgroup. This subgroup has been convened by the NAIC to consider updating the organization’s Health Carrier Prescription Drug Benefit Management Model Act (Model #22), which was originally crafted back in 2003. The purpose of the public hearing was to seek views from stakeholders about the potential direction that the NAIC should take with regard to the model. NAHU testified that even though the model is more than 12 years old and could use some minor updates to account for the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and improvements to technology regarding electronic publication of formularies, overall the document has stood the test of time well. Furthermore, yet-to-be-finalized federal regulations on preventing discriminatory practices in health coverage could impact the direction of any potential update to the model. So NAHU recommended that the taskforce wait on updating the model and concentrate on other current priorities for the time being instead... Read More

Congress is set to come back from their two-week recess on Tuesday and we want to hear from you if you talked with your legislators while they were away from Washington. The congressional calendar this year is expected to be extremely compact to give members time to campaign back in their districts, which means that it is now crunch time for legislating! We are continuing to make our push for the Medical Loss Ratio bills and permanent repeals of the Cadillac/excise and health insurance taxes, but the most powerful voice comes directly from constituents, which is why we need your help to echo the message of our legislative priorities... Read More

Join Gerald Graceffo from The Standard Insurance Company for a NAHU member-exclusive Compliance Corner webinar on Thursday, April 14, at 1 p.m. Eastern titled, “Economic Trends: Understanding the Climate for Employer Disability Plans.” Employee benefits are integral to the ability of employers to attract and retain employees. This one-hour session reviews the economic and employment trends, underscoring the uptick in employment and how disability benefits can help attract employees. What are the economic and employee population trends that you should be talking about with prospects and clients? What trends will impact pricing of disability coverage? How can employers control the costs of disability coverage? These are a few of the questions that will be answered by this webinar... Read More

In previous The ShiftShapers Podcast episodes, we've talked quite a bit about telemedicine and the role it plays in today's benefits arena. On this episode, we talk with Dr. Lena Cheng, vice president of medical affairs at Doctor on Demand, about how to increase employee engagement in telemedicine... Read More

The big shake up in the 2016 presidential race this week was Senator Ted Cruz’s (TX) win in the Wisconsin primary over businessman Donald Trump. Cruz took 48% of the vote compared to Trump's 35%. Cruz's Wisconsin win increases the likelihood that Trump will fail to reach the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination. Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com fame, has run the numbers and believes Trump needs to hit at least 40% in polling in each state going forward to stand a chance of securing the needed delegates; a tall order considering his track record so far in the primaries. Trump has won 18 out of the 30 states who have held primaries, but has only gotten over 40% of the vote in 10 of those 18.
 
It seems as though the winnowing of the field to only three candidates has not increased his share of voters, instead voters of the other candidates are going towards Cruz or Governor John Kasich (OH). Another issue for Trump is that late deciders have not been helping Trump. His polling averages have actually been on the nose as he has not over performed or underperformed the polls in each state... Read More

It’s one of our favorite weeks of the year—the first week of the new baseball season! Everybody started fresh this week at 0-0 with visions of the postseason. The 162-game regular season also puts into perspective the long-haul campaign season ahead of us in the 2016 elections as candidates campaign to win each day from now until November 8... Read More