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FURTHER DATA ON THE NEW REGULATIONS FOR EXISTING HEALTH CARE PLANS

June 24, 2010 By 1 Comment
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We’ve written recent articles on the problems small businesses may soon experience with existing health care plans as a result of the new guidelines put out by the Obama Administration. You can read these previous articles on two of Silkin Management Group’s blog sites: http://practicemanagementblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-rules-for-existing-health-care.html & http://silkinmanagementgroup.blogspot.com/2010/06/more-information-on-new-rules-for.html

The following is a short summary of this issue for anyone who hasn’t read what we’ve previously written and/or who is unfamiliar with this recent turn of events for small businesses with existing health care plans.

Under the new regulations, any business that has an existing plan will be able to keep their current plans as long as they don’t significantly cut benefits, raise co-insurance charges, or increase co-payments by more than five dollars. Such plans also will lose their status of being “grandfathered in” if deductibles are raised appreciably or if employers reduce their payments to employees’ premiums by more than five percent.

As mentioned in our previous blogs noted above, we are keeping an eye on any further updates and information about these new regulations as it affects Silkin Management Group clients with existing plans. Today I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that I thought I should pass along to any Silkin client or small business owner reading this site. You can access this article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703513604575311013340405940.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

This article points out another aspect of these new regulations that is not helpful for small businesses with existing plans. These new regulations could easily end up limiting what an employer can do about his plan costs and, at the same time, prevents him/her from getting a new plan at a lower cost because he/she would then lose the benefits from the “grandfathering” rights of existing plans.

As the article points out, “Many small businesses would like to keep their grandfathered status but can’t afford the premium increases. Benefits consulting firm Mercer LLC says increases are averaging about 10% in 2010, and a Deloitte LLP estimate puts the range between 11% and 15%.”

With premium increases happening now, small businesses are forced to make difficult decisions to control their costs, many of which may not comply with the new regulations and which could then result in losing their “grandfathering” advantages. Truly a lose-lose situation.

I suggest all Silkin Management Group clients read the attached article, as well as the previous articles noted in the blogs sites referenced above in order to stay on top of this issue.

Dave McKevitt
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For information about Silkin Management Group, visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com



Filed Under: Legislation Tagged With: , , , ,

ANOTHER GOOD SUMMARY OF THE HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION

April 13, 2010 By 4 Comments
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On our various Silkin Management Group blog sites we’ve written summaries of the effects that the new health care legislation has on businesses as well as provided links to other articles that help clarify this 2500 page piece of legislation.

I recently ran across another article from USA Today that was an excellent summary of the legislation and covers the following points:

• Insurance Exchanges
• Subsidies
• Medicaid
• Mandatory employer provided coverage
• Mandatory personal coverage
• Pre-existing conditions
• Adult children
• Lifetime limits
• Preventative care
• Taxes
• Cadillac plans

As Silkin Management Group is a practice management consulting and training company, we try to keep abreast of these issues, but we also know that we certainly are not experts in the area. Therefore we are always looking for well presented written articles by experts to pass along. This was one and can be found here: http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/abrams/2010-03-26-what-health-care-reform-means_N.htm

We will be presenting information on these various areas over the next week to more closely inform any readers of the specific details on many of these areas. In the meantime, this article should be very informative to anyone wanting a good summary of the legislation.

Bill Hickey
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For more information about Silkin Management Group and its services visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com and/or email us at info@silkinmanagementgroup.com.



Filed Under: Legislation Tagged With: , ,

HOW THE HEALTH CARE BILL WILL AFFECT SMALL BUSINESS EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES

March 23, 2010 By 3 Comments
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I’m sure by now there are but a few people in the entire country who haven’t heard that the health care bill passed in Congress and was signed by President Obama. In fact the people who haven’t heard about it are likely the people who will benefit the most as they are the uninsured.

As the clients of Silkin Management Group are all small businesses and, as a consultant for Silkin Management Group, I was looking for a good comprehensive summary of how the bill will affect most small businesses in the country. I found this article on “CNN Money.com for Small Business” and think it is a fairly easy to read and understandable summary of the bill and its impact on small business. You can link to the article here: What health care reform means for your business

The article points out that the bill will only very marginally decrease insurance costs for small businesses – between 1% and 4%. That’s nice but certainly no great shakes.

Another key point is that starting in 2014, if you have more than 50 employees, you will be mandated to have health insurance for all employees or pay a $750 penalty per year, per worker. There’s a couple of things I suspect could happen: a) since premiums are more than likely much greater than $750 per year per employee, I think you’ll find most businesses of this size paying the penalty due to that being a lower cost way to go, and b) any business that is nearing 50 employees will likely not be in any sort of hiring mode in order to avoid this cost. That’s certainly not a smart way to incentivize business growth.

As we teach our clients at Silkin Management Group: if you reward production you are more likely to get increased production, but if you penalize production/growth, you will very likely not get any increase in productivity. I think most business people have an innate sense of this basic management rule. Unfortunately the people who make many of the laws that affect business have no business experience and/or innate sense of what works in the management of a business. The above noted “de-incentive” is certainly a sign of this.

There are many more areas in which the health care bill impinges on small businesses and the article noted above provides a good overview of these areas. I am suggesting to my Silkin clients to read through it and recommend it to anyone reading this blog.

Jack Hennessy
Consultant for Silkin Management Group

If you’d like to find out more about Silkin Management Group and its services, contact us at: info@silkinmanagementgroup.com or call 800-695-0257. You can also visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com



Filed Under: Legislation Tagged With: ,