Archive for the ‘Health Care Reform’ Category

Health insurance premium increases in five states have been deemed “unreasonable” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced recently. After independent expert review, HHS determined that Trustmark Life Insurance Company has proposed unreasonable health insurance premium increases in five states—Alabama, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wyoming.  The excessive rate [...]

Twenty-three states that have implemented at least five of eight programs to streamline children's health insurance coverage and meet enrollment targets will receive more than $296 million in federal performance bonuses, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department announced Wednesday. The performance bonus payments are funded under the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA), [...]

In a move that seemed to please neither side of the argument, President Obama has agreed to let the states decide benefit levels for health insurance policies that will be sold on the exchanges being set up for 2014 to service individuals and small groups. As initially envisioned in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care [...]

The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a proposed final rule on Multiple Employer Welfare Agreements (MEWAs) regarding provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), allowing the DOL Secretary to issue cease and desist orders and/or seize MEWAs that aren't fulfilling their obligations. A MEWA is an alternative method of providing health [...]

In a rebuff to insurance agents who pleaded that their commissions should not be included in the administrative expense ratio of health insurance policies, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Friday (Dec. 3, 2011) issued final regulations locking in stone the 80/20 ration envisioned by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [...]

The U.S. Supreme Court today announced it would take up the issue of the constitutionality of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the federal health care reform legislation, with oral hearings in March and a potential ruling in June, just ahead of nationwide elections in the fall. Two constitutional issues loom large: [...]

The U.S. Supreme Court, in secret session today, is debating whether to take up the issue of the constitutionality of the Obama administration's health care reform legislation, now dubbed the Affordable Care Act (ACA). At issue is whether the law's individual mandate that all Americans must purchase insurance if it's not otherwise provided for them [...]

POTUS beseeched SCOTUS on Wednesday (Sept. 28, 2011) to review the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' August ruling that the individual mandate contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is unconstitutional. When a Monday deadline passed for the Obama administration to ask the 11th Circuit Court to rehear the case, it became [...]

Under provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), beginning Sept. 1 states and the federal government will begin reviewing health premium increases in the small group and individual market, with any increase above 10 percent triggering an automatic need for the insurer to submit detailed justification. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid [...]

In its annual report to Congress, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) said it is developing audit protocol to conduct audits of up to 145 covered entities in an ongoing effort to enforce the privacy and security rules of HIPAA. The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is [...]