The State of Health Insurance for Your Employees: What Businesses Need to Do Next

With a new administration in office, there are plenty of businesses concerned with the state of their employee’s insurance policies. Here’s what businesses need to know...and what they need to do next.

Continue to Notify Your Employees about The Exchange

Employers will still need to notify their employees of The Insurance Marketplace, or “Exchange,” until further updates to the law have been made.

This U.S. Department of Labor federal requirement instructs to all employers to provide this annual written notification by the 1^st of October. The notification should continue to include:

• Information about the Health Insurance Marketplace
• State that, depending on the coverage you may offer, employees may be able to get a lower cost on private health insurance through the Marketplace based on their income
• State that if they buy insurance through the Marketplace they may lose their employer contribution to their health benefits

Employers to Continue with ACA Reporting

Although the new President Elect has made repealing the Affordable Care Act a top priority, the ACA is still in effect. This means that applicable large employers – those with 50 or more full-time or equivalent employees - are still subject to reporting. For smaller employers (with fewer than 50 full-time employees), you will need to verify with your broker and tax advisor.

Kids Still Remain On Parents’ Plan until Age 26

With President Trump now in office, the new administration has made several indications that the ACA, as we know it, will soon be repealed. One item, however, regarding the ability to allow kids to stay on their parents plan up until the age of 26 does not seem to be on the chopping block.

HIPAA Privacy and Compliance

The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act requires the protection of identifiable health information.

To remain compliant, all employers must have in place certain safeguards and procedures to protect the security of electronically stored Protected Health Information. A good example of this type of information can be found in your typical medical flexible spending plans, which comprises both medical as well as personally identifiable information.

Employers Need to Stay the Course

Some of the key mandates - including the employer mandate - will likely go away, but not just yet. Changing the laws that built the ACA to what we see it as today takes time to overturn. The insurance industry is heavily regulated and a major overhaul of the system is going to take months.

In the meantime, employers need to continue business as usual and ask their brokers if they have questions or concerns about what they are hearing or reading about in the news.