Congratulations to Brandon Scarborough for being Benefits Selling’s 2012 Broker of the Year Power Group Consultant Wins Top National Honor SAN ANTONIO, Texas, May 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Benefits Selling magazine, published by Summit Business Media, announced today that Brandon Scarborough has been named the 2012 Broker of the Year at the 8th Annual Benefits Selling [...]
Continue reading PowerNotes: May, 2012
As of July 1, 2011, a new Kansas law (HB 2075) became effective prohibiting any health insurance plan, contract or policy from providing elective abortion coverage, except by optional rider with additional premium. Abortion is defined as “the use or prescription of any instrument, medicine, drug or any other substance or device to terminate the [...]
Continue reading Change in Coverage for Elective Abortions in Kansas Effective Early 2012
Under health care reform, non-grandfathered health plans must cover women’s preventive care services, including contraception, without charging a co-pay or deductible. This rule is effective as soon as August 2012 for some plans. Churches, other houses of worship and similar organizations are exempt from covering contraception on the basis of their religious objections. However, this [...]
Continue reading Compromise on Contraceptive Coverage for Religious Employers
Have you made your 2012 Medicare Part D Disclosure to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) yet? If not, we want to remind you that the deadline is approaching. Employers who sponsor group health plans that cover any prescription drugs generally must disclose whether the plan provides creditable or noncreditable prescription drug coverage [...]
Continue reading Medicare Part D Disclosure to CMS Due February 29
New 2013 FSA Limit Requires Plan Amendments in 2012 1/13/12 The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) imposed a new $2,500 limit on the contribution or election amount for health care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA). The new requirement applies to all FSA plans whose taxable years begin after Dec. 31, 2012 — even plans [...]
Continue reading New 2013 FSA Limit Requires Plan Amendments in 2012
IRS Modifies Forms W-2 Guidance The Internal Revenue Service Jan. 3 issued Notice 2012-9, which amends interim guidance for employers on reporting the cost of their group health insurance to employees on Forms W-2 beginning with the 2012 tax year. Like the initial guidance (Notice 2011-28), these latest modifications are in question-and-answer format (62 BTM [...]
Continue reading IRS Modifies Forms W-2 Guidance
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) established the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP). The ERRP is a temporary program that provides reimbursement to eligible employers (and employment-based plans) for part of the cost of providing health care coverage to early retirees and their families. Early retirees are those who are age 55 and [...]
Continue reading HHS Announces End of Early Retiree Reinsurance Program
The 2011 Thompson Reuters HCPlexus National Physicians Survey was conducted with 2,958 physicians in the US in September 2010, follow-up information was gathered in December 2010 and January 2011. Physicians were asked to respond to a series of questions: the quality of health care in the near future in light of the Patient Protection and [...]
Continue reading Physicians on Health Care Reform: Frustration and Dismay in a Time of Change
(From Employee Benefit News) In July, EBN issued the PPACA Challenge, a 30-question quiz designed to test benefits professionals’ knowledge of the landmark health care reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Of the hundreds of practitioners who took the quiz, there were six questions that stumped you most often. True or False: [...]
Continue reading The top 6 things you might not know about health care reform, but should
Power Group’s Matt Weaver is featured in this month’s Benefits Selling magazine.
