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The Spencer’s Consumer-Driven Health Report is a summary of the week's news items posted in the WHAT'S NEW pages of Spencer’s Consumer-Driven Health Report Online. For questions regarding this email service, contact Customer Service at (800)449-9525.
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Firms with more than 50 workers that did not offer health insurance coverage to their workers would have to pay a penalty of $750 for each full-time worker who obtained subsidized coverage through the insurance exchange, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, an amendment introduced in the Senate on November 18 as a substitute to H.R. 3590 by Sens. Harry Reid (Nev.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Christopher Dodd (Conn.), and Tom Harkin (Iowa)…
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The Senate health care reform bill introduced on November 18 (see News, Nov. 23, 2009, Minimal Employer Penalties For Not Offering Health Coverage In Senate Health Reform Bill) would yield a net reduction in federal deficits of $130 billion over the 2010-2019 period, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)…
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In cases where an employer that is subject to COBRA and responsible for the 65% COBRA tax subsidy does not have enough payroll tax liability from which to recover the subsidy amount, the Internal Revenue Service treats the excess as a tax overpayment to be refunded to the employer, the agency clarified in a September 25 letter to Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa)…
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Benefits costs and wages both rose 0.4% for the period July 2009 through September 2009, according to the most recent Employment Cost Index from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In three of the last four quarters of BLS statistics, benefits costs rose more slowly than salaries (see News May 11, 2009, Benefit Cost Increases Rebound Ahead Of Wage Increases In First Quarter Of 2009); however, during the last ten years, benefits cost increases typically have outpaced increases in wages and salaries…
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Effective health care reform could save as much as $3,000 per employee in 2019, according to a recent report from Hewitt Associates commissioned by the Business Roundtable. In the report, Health Care Reform: The Perils of Inaction and the Promise of Effective Action, Hewitt points out the potential benefits of revamping the nation’s health care system, if done wisely, and the pitfalls of inaction…
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At a press briefing on November 9, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs indicated the Administration would consider an alternative vehicle such as budget reconciliation for getting a health care reform bill to the President’s desk by the end of 2009 if one cannot be sent through the normal legislative process…
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The actual future impacts of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, H.R. 3962, “are very uncertain,” according to a November 13 memorandum from Richard S. Foster, the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which estimates the financial and coverage effects of the non-tax provisions in the proposed legislation…
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The Internal Revenue Service has announced that it has selected four new members and a chairman for the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC). The Treasury Department and the IRS Commissioner have approved the new members to serve a three-year term that began in October 2009 and will end in October 2012…
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For the last few years, states have been leading the way toward more comprehensive health care coverage to ensure that more people have or can obtain health insurance. Because of the potential impact of this ongoing activity on employer-provided health insurance benefits, Spencer’s Benefits Reports provides regular updates about state health care reform (see News, Oct. 12, 2009, State Health Reform Update)…
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For 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provided incentive payments totaling more than $92 million to more than 85,000 physicians and other eligible professionals who successfully reported quality-related data to Medicare under the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), according to a November 13 CMS report. For 2007, the CMS paid $36 million in PQRI incentives to 56,700 eligible professionals. In 2007, eligible professionals could only participate in the program during a six-month reporting period, whereas in 2008, the program expanded to allow reporting for either a six-month or a 12-month period, the CMS explained…
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