Breaking down the barrage of new Obamacare guidance & forms

By Jared Bilski

With the main part of the Affordable Care Act set to take effect in a little over half a year, the feds have been very busy releasing new guidance. Here are the highlights of their latest efforts.

Exchange notices, SBC changes

The most recent guidance came from the DOL and offered some highly anticipated info on the notices that businesses are required to distribute to employees on the availability of health insurance exchanges.

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Open Enrollment Season is Here

The fall season is a time of change, especially for HR and benefit professionals.

Fall brings more than just daylight savings time change or the colors of the trees, it brings open enrollment. Each year HR and benefit professionals must provide employees with options for the next plan year. The list of activities for this season should include the following:

Summary of Benefits & Coverage (SBC). A new requirement for this year is the SBC, under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). You must provide an SBC to all applicants and enrollees for all group health plans, except for those that are excepted benefits under HIPAA (e.g., stand-alone dental, vision, most Health FSAs). This requirement is effective for open enrollment periods that start on or after September 23, 2012.

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Feds’ new rules & deadline for health summaries

February 14, 2012 by Christian Schappel

The healthcare reform law requires employers who sponsor health plans to provide workers with “summaries of coverage.” But after some delays, the feds just published the final rules, deadline and sample documents.

Under the final rules, insurance companies and plan sponsors with plan years that start September 23, 2012 or later will have to supply the documents during their next open enrollment. 

Originally, employers were tasked with providing the documents beginning March 23, 2012.

The two documents the healthcare reform bill says plan participants must receive from insurers and plan sponsors:

1. A short, easy-to-understand Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) , and 
2. A glossary of terms commonly associated with health insurance, such as “deductible” and “co-pay.”

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