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HealthAmerica plan changes for 2015 Please be aware that plan sponsors and members will be receiving notification over the next week that certain Coventry HealthAmerica plans are expiring. Click here to read more. UPMC Producer Update 10/14/2014 - UPMC Health Plan Connect Reporting UPMC Health Plan is pleased to introduce UPMC Health Plan Connect Reporting. This new feature provides self-service reporting capabilities for select employers and producers. Click here to read more. New at PrimePay: ERISA Wrap Services! Contact us today to get appointed Your clients can now improve legal compliance & simplify administration with PrimePay's new ERISA Services! If your clients provide employer-sponsored benefits, they may be at risk for enforcement action by the DOL and plan participants. In light of this issue, PrimePay is proud to provide you with a solution to one of the most important compliance requirements that your clients will face – ERISA. Click here to read more. Correction: Capital BlueCross 2015 Group Product Bulletin Effective January 1, 2015, the Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM) will be administering all SHOP offerings online at www.healthcare.gov. Small Group SHOP portfolio remains the same as 2014 and includes eight medical products each with a packaged Rx product. There are two PPOs, three standard broad HMO network products and three Value HMO network products. Click here to read more. Highmark Individual Products Talking Points Talking points are now available to assist you in discussions with your individual clients regarding their 2015 benefit options. Click here to read more. Register for URL's seminar for Capital BlueCross Individual Plans for 2015! Capital BlueCross is coming to market in 2015 with a competitive edge! They’ve streamlined their product lines and are excited about their offerings for the upcoming 2015 selling season. Click here to register now.
Geisinger Health Plan Network Update Pinnacle Health has notified Geisinger Health Plan (GHP) that it plans to terminate our relationship effective January 1, 2015. An ad ran in the Harrisburg Patriot on October 16 announcing the termination. This termination applies to GHP’s commercial lines of business and does not apply to our Geisinger Gold Medicare Advantage plans. Click here to read more.
Register Now for 2015 Individual Product Training from Capital BlueCross Register now. Select the date that is most convenient for you below. Once registered, you will receive an email confirming your registration. Click here to read more. PrimePay Broker Webinar Series - October 2014 Last October, the IRS made an announcement that would cause an enormous, positive impact for Flexible Spending Plans - the addition of the $500 Rollover Provision. Numerous employers have taken the necessary steps to add this provision into their plans, but many employers will need to make this decision before their Plan Year comes to an end. Click here to read more. Register Now for 2015 Group Product Webinar from Capital BlueCross Join us for a 90 minute course designed to get you familiar with our newest products. From the comfort of your home or office, learn about the changes to the Capital BlueCross family of companies 2015 group benefit offerings for medical, Rx, dental and vision products. Additionally, we will cover group communication and renewal mapping. Click here to read more. Weekly PPACA Update Conference Call In a continuing effort to assist our agent-partners in getting the information needed to flourish within the under 65 group and individual markets in Pennsylvania, we are holding weekly live webinars. They will serve as a place to get your questions answered and discuss topics and strategies 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.
Help with health insurance On November 15, 2014, residents of Pennsylvania who are without health insurance will have the opportunity to enroll in a health care plan through the federal Health Insurance Marketplace. Click here to read more. Why are states expanding a failing Medicaid program? Few people would suggest a company offering substandard services at high prices should expect growth in revenues and customers. Assuming the service was something people actually desired, most would say the company either needs to change how it operates or go out of business and let someone else provide the service. Click here to read more. Get ready to enroll in SHOP coverage Starting November 15, for the first time you’ll be able to enroll your Small Business through the SHOP Marketplace entirely online! The Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) offers a simpler way to find and buy health coverage for small business that meets the needs of your employees. Click here to read more. HSAs: the next big thing in retirement planning? Plan sponsors are increasingly showing a willingness to incorporate new, more complex approaches to help their employees better prepare for retirement. But there’s at least one new plan design idea that remains largely unfamiliar to many of their advisors: The addition of health saving accounts, which are used to set aside dollars for medical expenses and which, according to a growing chorus of advocates, can help generate the money retirees will need to cover ever-rising health care costs after they leave the work force. Click here to read more. A maze to opt out of Obamacare individual mandate There are dozens of ways to escape Obamacare’s individual mandate tax — but good luck figuring that out come tax season. Tens of millions of Americans can avoid the fee if they qualify for exemptions like hardship or living in poverty, but the convoluted process has some experts worried individuals will be tripped up by lost paperwork, the need to verify information with multiple sources and long delays that extend beyond tax season. Click here to read more. Republican Governor About To Lose Medicaid Fight In Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Republican Tom Corbett seems more likely to lose his seat as governor, and with it a fight against Medicaid expansion. Gov. Corbett has said he opposes Medicaid expansion in Pennsylvania, arguing it’s an unsustainable program that already takes up 29 percent of the state’s budget. Click here to read more. Rethinking voluntary sales in PPACA's wake Several voluntary benefits vendors are reporting that it’s been a tough couple of years, as employers and their workers are more focused on basic medical coverage than other options that cost extra. Yet other research supports a case for a greater, if gradual, acceptance of voluntary benefits as part of standard package design. Click here to read more. Marketplaces – Your Stars are coming The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been aggressively working in the background to establish the Star Ratings program for the Marketplaces, thus consumers will have their first quality information by 2017. Selecting a Marketplace health plan will no longer be based only on price or provider. As such, quality ratings will have a bearing on market share. Click here to read more. What benefits do your employees really want? How much do you really know about your employees’ needs and desires regarding their group health and welfare benefits?There are assumptions you can make. For example, every workplace has vocal employees who ask a lot of questions. Because extroverts tend to think out loud, you’re likely to hear from them and have a sense of what’s important. Click here to read more. Aon Hewitt Expects Spike in Exchange Enrollees Aon Hewitt expects more than 1.2 million employees, retirees and their families to choose health benefits through the company’s exchanges — revising their earlier estimates upward by approximately 500,000. Click here to read more.
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