On Wednesday, I was fortunate to be included in a round table discussion with the senior leadership of Kaiser Permanente's small group sales and account management team. To encourage discussion, Kaiser limited participation to a few key brokers. (2019 Kaiser Key Broker Engagement Luncheon, Pasadena, California. Third from [...]
Experts estimate that 50 to 70 percent of the small businesses in California that offer employee medical insurance will renew their plans in December 2016. Many California small business medical insurance companies have begun to release their renewal rates for December 2016 and for many employers the renewal rates look very [...]
Like the W-2 forms that employers give to employees and the IRS that report wages; beginning in 2016 employers with 50 or more employees must give employees and the IRS a completed 1095-C form. The 1095-C reports on an employee's medical insurance coverage.
The good news is that in July, 2013 the IRS issued Notice 2013-45 which gave large employers “transitional relief” from the “shared responsibility” penalties.... Accordingly, neither the reporting requirements nor the employer shared responsibility provisions apply for 2014.
Last week the Los Angeles Times reported that large employers estimate that the cost of group health insurance will increase about 5% in 2015. I was quoted in the last two paragraphs of the article, talking about the 2015 rate increases for California small businesses. We've seen rates increase from a few percent to twenty percent depending on the characteristics of the employees.While there are winners and losers among California employers; we have been able to change our clients to different insurance companies and different plans so that in most cases they won't have any increase and many of our clients will pay less for group health insurance in 2015 than they did in 2014.
Today the U.S. Department of Labor released yet another notice/guidance/ "FAQ" instructing employers that "an employer health care arrangement cannot be integrated with individual market policies to satisfy the market reforms." Obstinate vendors continue to push their high cost TPA services and claim that an employer can cancel a group [...]
Perhaps a company could give employees a salary bonus or "taxable discretionary wellness stipend" so that employees can buy their own individual medical coverage. If you’re considering a salary bonus or "wellness stipend" for employees to purchase their own individual medical insurance you should consider the following...Tax and worker’s comp savings are THE major reasons that companies sponsor group health insurance plans rather than offering a taxable stipend or salary bonus...A salary bonus or taxable wellness stipend for health insurance is extremely tax inefficient and forces employees to purchase inferior health insurance plans in the individual market.
With the high cost of health insurance many companies are considering alternative financing arrangements to group health plans. The Affordable Care Act (i.e., ACA, Obama Care, Health Care Reform) created exchanges to help individuals purchase their own coverage. Also, the ACA forbids insurance companies from asking questions about preexisting medical [...]
On July 7, 2014 Governor Brown signed SB 1446 into law. This legislation will have a significant impact on the health insurance options for many small businesses in California. Estimates are that up to 80 percent of small businesses in California “early renewed” their group health insurance plan in December [...]
With Health Care Reform (Affordable Care Act) (ACA), business owners want to know: •What's going to change? •How much will it cost? and, •What can I do to save money. We've created a short video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcQ5j8mu_Bk that addresses these questions. The video also describes what will not change, including: •No requirement for small businesses to offer benefits; •Benefits continue to be a tax deductible expense for the employer and non-taxable compensation to employees; •Benefits continue to be an excellent way to attract and retain good employees.
