Employee Benefits updates
Employee benefits today            
November 24, 2015
Dear :

Every day there seems to be a new development or announcement in the employee benefits marketplace.  As a result, we have decided to send our newsletters more frequently to stay as current as possible. 

If any of our clients see an article or receive an email that they would like to share, please send our way. We are sure you are getting bombarded with year end info of all types, especially ACA reporting and disclosures.
 
If you have any questions please send us an e-mail.   Please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you know who owns a business.    We would also like to wish everybody a very Happy Thanksgiving.  Enjoy the time off.

Sincerely,

Bill Randell CLU ChFC
Vanessa Costa  CLU ChFC
Employer Premium Contribution based on Years Of Service

In the past employers could impose a 180 day waiting period for insurance benefits.  As most of you know, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), however, has dropped the maximum waiting period to 90 days.

We have also heard the following complaint from employers quite regularly now:
  • "We hired an employee, who told us they did not want benefits, but after 90 days, they want to be on the plan."
  • 'We hired an employee, who told us they only needed a single plan, but once they become eligible, they now need a family plan."

How do you prevent this?  

 

The simple answer is you can not prevent it .    

 

But, one possible option is to look at your employer contribution formula for the employer sponsored group health insurance plan.   Similar to how your pension plan has a vesting schedule, you can have a sliding scale for the group health insurance plan based on years of service. This is one way, you limit the exposure when either of the above scenarios occur. This also rewards employees who have been with the company longer.    

 

Make sure you have your employer contribution in writing and that you treat everyone equally.     

Teladoc

Our last  couple newsletters mentioned how Blue Cross was adding a benefit called TeleHealth, that will be effective January 1st with Blue Cross  Please note if you have Blue Cross, this benefit will not be added until your anniversary.   We just found out Health New England already has a similar benefit called TeleDoc:

Click on picture for TelDoc video



United Healthcare may pull out of Federal Exchange

This would be a huge blow to ObamaCare, since other carriers may/will follow suit.  Why is this happening? 

" Healthy people"
Happy Thanksgiving
Falstaff beer commercial from 1950's
are not signing up as much as expected.  But, the higher risk  claims group has, which is what we expected would happen. How anyone thought otherwise  is baffling? 

Meanwhile the insurance companies are being pressured to keep increases down.  Higher claims coupled with lower than desired premiums result in only one thing.....


  Advantage Benefits Group        78 Pleasant St Worcster MA 01609
     800-427-2412 (Bill)                800-426-2413 (Vanessa)
 508 414-8305  (Bill cell)          508-494-8303 (Vanessa cell)
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