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Ready or Not - Here comes PPACA!
September 23rd is nearly upon us and for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, you better start doing your research. When the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into effect last March, there were several major milestone dates identified. One of which is 9/23/10. Health insurance coverage, as we know it, begins a tremendous transformation for those of you who have policy renewals on, or after that date. Just a few of the considerations you should be aware of are:
- Preventative Medical Care - Insurers will be required to cover charges for common preventative care services without charging co-pays. Some of the most common of which are immunizations and mammogram.
- Adult Child Coverage - Dependants up to age 26 can receive "dependant coverage" with all individual and group policies.
- Pre-Existing Conditions - Insurers can no longer exclude children with pre-existing conditions from insurance coverage.
- Lifetime Limits - Limits on how much your insurance coverage pays out to cover claims are no longer allowed.
As you can imagine, with a Senate Bill that was 2,562 pages long, there are a lot more issues to discuss. Reporting changes - changes to HSA, FSA, HRA, and MSA rules - multiple tax & tax credit considerations. The overall financial impact to employers has been estimated by some to be an increase of approximately 13%.
The best advice I can offer now is to GET ADVICE! You may have some rights grandfathered if your policy was in place prior to March 23, 2010, however, there are multiple milestones over the next 4 years that will dramatically affect us all. Be proactive and contact your insurance provider NOW for the latest updates on how these changes will affect you and your company.
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