Large Group Medical Insurance

Stay informed with the latest news and updates on large group medical insurance in California from various insurance carriers.

2023 Oct 13

2023 Medicare Deadline for Employers

By |October 13th, 2023 |Categories: Medicare and Medicaid, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Business Medical Insurance|Tags: , , , , , |

Employers Must Notify Medicare Eligible Employees and CMS of “Creditable Coverage” by October 15, 2023 If you offer medical insurance to your employees and any of them are eligible to enroll in Medicare (typically age 65+) then you must send notices to the employee and complete an online form [...]

2022 Mar 30

How to Keep an adult child over age 25 on a group health plan

By |March 30th, 2022 |Categories: Small Group Health Insurance, Children's Health, Individual Medical Insurance Articles, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles|

California employers that offer group medical insurance often ask how they can keep a child on an employee's health insurance plan after turning age 26.  This article answers questions like this one: My son turns 26 in May and was diagnosed with Autism several years ago. I received a [...]

2020 Dec 07

Walmart Health: a New Approach to Health Care

By |December 7th, 2020 |Categories: Changes in Medical Care, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance Reform, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Group Health Insurance|

Walmart has taken a big step towards fixing the “broken” U.S. health Care system by creating Walmart Health.  These are clinics that offer primary medical care, mental health counseling, X-rays, labs, dental services, and vision and hearing services at one location.   As of December 2020 Walmart has 14 health clinics.  [...]

2019 Apr 12

Why Kaiser Permanente Small Group Benefits and Rates Continue to Lead the Field in California, 2019

By |April 12th, 2019 |Categories: Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, ACA, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance Reform, Small Business Articles, Small Group Health Insurance|

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 [...]

2019 Mar 25

Group Health Insurance Cost Trends and Benchmark Comparisons

By |March 25th, 2019 |Categories: Small Business Articles, Benchmarking, Health Care Costs, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Group Health Insurance, Trends|

Many employers want to know why medical insurance rates continue to rise and whether they're paying too much compared to other businesses. Two recently released reports address these questions: Medical Cost Trend: Behind the numbers 2019, is prepared by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC)'s Health Research Institute and it projects [...]

2016 Oct 07

Can an employer contribute different amounts towards employee medical insurance?

By |October 7th, 2016 |Categories: ACA, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Group Health Insurance|

NOTE: The answer to this question requires compliance with both the HIPAA Nondiscrimination Requirements and the IRS Section 125 Nondiscrimination Rules.  IRS Nondiscrimination Rules apply when employees make pre-tax paycheck contributions for employee benefits using a Section 125 Premium Only Plan (POP). If you are a client of Benefits [...]

2015 Jan 19

Do Employers Need to Give Employees IRS Form 1095-C in 2014 for Health Insurance Coverage in 2014?

By |January 19th, 2015 |Categories: ACA, Health Insurance Reform, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles|

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.

2014 Nov 25

Group Health Insurance Rates Increase for 2015

By |November 25th, 2014 |Categories: ACA, Health Insurance Reform, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Business Articles|

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.

2014 Nov 07

For the Third Time DOL & IRS say an Employer Can NOT reimburse employees for individual health insurance plans

By |November 7th, 2014 |Categories: (SHOP) Covered California Small Business Articles, ACA, Health Insurance Reform, Individual health insurance vs group health insurance, Individual Medical Insurance Articles, Large Group Medical Insurance Articles, Small Business Articles|

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 [...]

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