|
Announcing Extended Hours for the Health Plan Options Department As we get closer March 31st and the close of the Initial Annual Enrollment Period for Individual health both on and off the exchange, we are announcing extended hours for your convenience. URL’s Case Managers will be available to assist with your submissions so you can secure the desired effective date. The extended hour schedule is:
Highmark Agency Action Alert for March 5, 2014 Agency Action Alerts will provide your agency with the information you need to know all in one email. Breaking news will continue to be sent as necessary. Click here to read more. Capital Blue Common Ownership and Group Size Regulations Certification forms for Group Eligibility to Combine and Group Size have been created and are to be used to indicate aggregation rules on common ownership combinations and group size. Click here to read more. Independence Blue Cross Broker of Record Form If any agents are missing commissions on cases they wrote on or off exchange, URL has now added a link to a downloadable file that can be filled out so that all pertinent information can be collected. On the Independence Blue Cross Product Page, under Forms, click the "Broker of Record Form" link. Click here to visit the product page. Highmark Western PA Individual Producer Assistance Verification Highmark has developed a post-enrollment producer assistance verification process , which will allow producers to receive credit if they assisted a client on or off the marketplace with his/her health care insurance selection, but the producer's information wasn't properly reported to Highmark. Click here to read more. Highmark Central PA Individual Producer Assistance Verification Highmark has developed a post-enrollment producer assistance verification process , which will allow producers to receive credit if they assisted a client on or off the marketplace with his/her health care insurance selection, but the producer's information wasn't properly reported to Highmark. Click here to read more.
Another Obamacare Delay The Obama administration said Wednesday that insurers can wait until 2016 before canceling plans that don't comply with Obamacare. The administration released a host of final regulations that, among other things, ease reporting requirements for businesses and allow insurers to keep selling individual policies that don't meet the law's requirements. Those plans, which the White House first uncanceled in November, can now last until 2016 or, in some cases, 2017. Click here to read more. PPACA Implementation Chief to Leave Post (Bloomberg) -- Gary Cohen, the director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), plans to step down from the post at the end of the month. Click here to read more. Day on The Hill Registration Form On Tuesday April 8, your Association is inviting you to make a difference here in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania General Assembly is considering legislation which can affect how your business operates and how you are able to help your clients in the Exchange Era . Click here to read more. Administration Focusing ACA Outreach To Latinos As March 31 Deadline Approaches Several outlets report on President Obama’s planned efforts to tout the Affordable Care Act to Latinos this week, in what the Los Angeles Times (3/4, Parsons) calls “an attempt to boost enrollment in the healthcare law’s new insurance marketplaces before an end-of-the-month deadline.” On Thursday, Obama will “take part in a town hall hosted by the ‘Get Covered’ campaign, a partnership involving the California Endowment, the Covered California insurance exchange and several Spanish-language news outlets". Click here to read more. CMS Bulletin on Availability of Retroactive Advance Payments This guidance is being provided to Marketplaces that, due to technical issues in establishing automated eligibility and enrollment functionality, have had difficulty in providing timely eligibility determinations to applicants and enrolling qualified individuals in Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) through the Marketplace during the initial open enrollment period for the 2014 coverage year. Click here to read more.
Weekly PPACA Update Conference Call – There has been no extension on the Enrollment Deadline of 3-31-14. We recognize that many of you have questions that need answered in regards to the PPACA Law (Obamacare) and the opening of the Marketplaces on 10-1-2013. So, in a continuing effort to assist our agent-partners in getting the information they need to flourish within the under 65 group and individual health market, we are implementing a weekly telephone conference that will serve as a place to get your questions answered and discuss topics that will lead to your continued success in the health insurance market. Click here to register. Weekly PPACA Conference Call Archives Click here to view the archived recordings of the PPACA Conference Calls.
SEP Reduces your Modified Adjusted Gross Income For Health Insurance Purposes Joe Corio’s Simplified Employee Plan (SEP) product doesn’t only work for retirement plans but money contributed to an SEP also reduces your Modified Adjusted Gross Income for Health Insurance purposes! If you are self employed or you own a small business and you don't have another qualified retirement plan in place you're a prime candidate for a Simplified Employee Plan (SEP).s. Click here to read more. Despite Delayed Key Provision, Health Care Reform Triggers Benefits Action Among Employers NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With Affordable Care Act deadlines imminent in 2014 and 2015, employers are reporting the increased impact of health care reform on various aspects of employee benefits. Click here to read more. Individual Mandate Delay Bill Nears Vote House members have another chance to derail the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act individual mandate. House leaders want to bring H.R. 4118, the “Suspending the Individual Mandate Penalty Law Equals Fairness Act” bill, to the floor sometime this week. Click here to read more. Bipartisan Letter to Help Brokers is in the House Representatives John Carney (D-DE) and Charlie Dent (R-PA) have teamed up to write a letter highlighting the access issues agents and brokers are having helping their clients in the exchange marketplace. Click here to read more. Premiums See Big Jump in 2014 How much are consumers actually paying for insurance now that Obamacare is here? That’s what private exchange operator eHealth wanted to find out. And with its new research, it found unless you have subsidies, health insurance on the individual market is much more expensive under PPACA. Click here to read more. Tough Road for States Seeking Customized Medicaid Expansion as Result of ACA Of the 25 states that already have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, all but Arkansas, Iowa and Michigan simply added newly eligible adults to their existing Medicaid programs. That was the easiest approach. In contrast, the states that haven’t yet expanded Medicaid but are considering doing so want to tailor the program to fit their own priorities — and that will take time. Click here to read more. Survey: 7 in 10 of Employee Benefit Advisors Predict Negative Impact on Group Sales Due to Obamacare Not surprisingly, employee benefits advisors believe President Obama’s signature legislation – the Affordable Care Act – is not good for their business or the business of their clients. LIMRA, an insurance industry trade group, recently posted a blog on what members of a panel think about Obamacare and its effect on group benefits. Click here to read more.
| |||||
