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No More Gags The Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) of 2021 prohibited “gag clauses” in contracts between insurance plans, insurance issuers, and providers. The law provides that a group health plan can’t enter into an agreement with a healthcare provider, network or association of providers, third-party administrator, or other service provider offering access to a network […]
Q. Can we make it mandatory for employees to enroll in Medicare upon turning age 65 even if they don’t plan on retiring and continue using the group medical plan? If so, how must this be communicated to employees approaching Medicare eligibility?
While the number of COVID-19 cases appears to be plateauing in much of the country, employees continue to have more questions and concerns about their health benefits and coverage than ever.
Medicare is a government-funded health insurance program for elderly and disabled individuals. Employers that offer group health insurance plans to their employees have an interest in learning how employees’ entitlement to Medicare benefits can affect the administration of those plans.
Hospitals and health systems can discard three myths of employee engagement to improve patient satisfaction and Medicare reimbursement and raise their image for patient safety with well-designed initiatives, according to the new report Data-Driven Insights for Your 2017 Employee Engagement Strategy, released by Advisory Board.
A few months ago, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) clarified in Information Letter 2016-0082 how Medicare enrollment and health savings account (HSA) eligibility sometimes collide when an employee retires shortly after turning the age of 65. More recently, the IRS provided guidance on another overlap between Medicare and HSAs—a rehire after Medicare enrollment.
One key difference between health savings accounts (HSAs) and health flexible spending accounts (FSAs) is that in some circumstances HSAs can reimburse Medicare and other insurance premiums; health FSAs cannot. Recent guidance from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Information Letter 2017-0004 confirmed this fact.
In California, a worker can seek treatment for a work-related illness or injury that’s expected to be covered under the employer’s workers’ compensation policy. To be paid for services performed for claims that aren’t yet finalized, the healthcare provider can file a lien (a claim for payment) against the employee’s workers’ compensation benefits claim. Unfortunately, […]
The Internal Revenue Service is passing along a reminder to eligible employees that now is the time to begin planning to take full advantage of their employer’s health flexible spending arrangement (FSA) during 2017.
In a recent article, I talked a bit about the complicated intersection of Medicare and The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), with assistance from Paul M. Hamburger, Esq., author and contributing editor of BLR’s publication Mandated Health Benefits: The COBRA Guide, which I used as background research.