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CCH® BENEFITS — 06/29/09

Health Care Reform Update

from Spencer’s Benefits Reports: This is another in a series of regular health care reform updates from Spencer's Benefits Reports. Included are links to items already covered, brief summaries of actions taken by the federal government, recent reports and studies on health care reform, policy statements by major stakeholders, and other recent health care reform activity. Also covered today are comments made by President Barack Obama on June 24 at an ABC News health care forum.

Small Business Support For Health Insurance Exchange

At a House Education and Labor Committee health reform hearing on June 23, John Arensmeyer, chief executive officer of the Small Business Majority, released a new survey of small business owners in 16 states, which found that 81% of small business owners support a health insurance exchange and that 66% of small businesses are willing to share responsibility for paying for it.

“A system requiring an employer contribution, with appropriate levels of tax credits, sliding scales and exclusions, will give small businesses the relief they need, potentially saving as much as $855 billion over the next ten years, reducing lost wages by up to $339 billion and minimizing job losses by 72%,” said Mr. Arensmeyer. The committee’s draft is “workable,” he explained, “and if properly designed can produce substantial benefits for small businesses.”

For more information, visit http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/testimony/
20090623SBMstatesurvey.pdf.

Out-Of-Pocket Expenses For Americans With Employer-Based Coverage Rise To More Than $3,700 Per Year

Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on June 23 released a report that documents the rising cost of deductibles, copayments, and out-of-pocket expenses. “It doesn’t matter if you have insurance or not: when Americans go to the hospital or the doctor’s office, they are paying more and getting less,” Ms. Sebelius said. “Every year, copays, deductibles and other expenses are taking a bigger bite out of the family budget and the American people are demanding reform.”

The report, Hidden Costs of Health Care: Why Americans are Paying More but Getting Less, notes the following:

• A person with employer-based coverage paid an average of $1,522 for health care (not including premiums) in 2006, compared with $1,260 in 2001. Including the added burden of higher premiums, out-of-pocket costs rose even more sharply, with a 30% increase from an average of $2,827 in 2001 to $3,744 in 2006.
• Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have nearly doubled since 2000, a rate three times faster than wages. In 2008, the average premium for a family plan purchased through an employer was $12,680, nearly the annual earnings of a full-time minimum wage job.
• For preferred provider organization plans purchased through an employer, the average family deductible increased 30% in just two years, from $1,034 to $1,344. This effect is more pronounced for small firms, where PPO deductibles increased from $1,439 to $2,367—a rise of 64%.
• In 2004, only one in five people with health insurance through an employer had a copayment of more than $25, but by 2008 the number had jumped to one in three.

The report is available online at http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/index.html.

GOP Lawmakers Unveil “Centrist” Health Care Reform Plan

A group of Republican lawmakers called the “Centrist Tuesday Group,” led by Reps. Mark Kirk (Ill.), and Rep. Charlie Dent (Pa.), unveiled a health reform proposal on June 16 called the “Medical Rights and Reform Act.” The proposal’s main themes are guaranteeing the doctor-patient relationship, reforming state insurance markets and ending frivolous patient lawsuits. Republican lawmakers said that their plan also would provide greater incentives for small businesses, enhanced health savings accounts, and expanded rural health care programs.

A copy of the health plan can be found at http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/il10_kirk/
centrist_leaders_unveil_medical_rights_and_reform_act.html.

HHS Panel Begins To Define Meaningful Use Of EHR

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has begun to implement the health information technology provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), by defining the “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHRs), which are an integral feature of many current health reform proposals.

ARRA provides $19 billion to reimburse health care providers for the expenses of adopting and implementing EHR systems. The recipients must make “meaningful use” of EHR during each payment year to qualify for incentive payments; under the law, the HHS must set standards for meaningful use. The Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee, will make recommendations to the HHS to consider as it drafts its proposed rule.

The committee plans to recommend that the standards for meaningful use be established in three phases: (1) capture and sharing of clinical data; (2) use of the data to support decisions in advanced clinical practices; and (3) achievement of improved health outcomes. The quality reporting requirements are based on goals established for improvements with respect to specific conditions; the quality data to be reported measures the providers' actions and the outcomes for patients.

For more information, visit http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2009pres/06/20090616a.html.

Employers Concerned About The President's Plans For Health Care Reform

By wide margins—and regardless of their personal political affiliation—those who are responsible for structuring and managing employer-sponsored health plans expressed serious concerns about many features of health care reform that the President and several congressional leaders have embraced and the absence of sufficient attention to improving the quality of health care and containing the costs of health coverage. This is according to the results the second annual Corporate Health Care Policy Forecast Survey, conducted by Miller & Chevalier Chartered and the American Benefits Council.

“Clearly, this is a group of voters that supports health care reform and supports the President. A higher percentage of this group than the country as a whole—including a quarter of those who are Republicans—voted for President Obama,” said James A. Klein, president of the American Benefits Council. “Yet, they are very concerned about several issues that are front and center right now. The people responsible for employer-sponsored health plans covering over 130 million Americans believe it is vital that key elements of reform be properly addressed.”

The survey results also confirm that nearly unanimously, business leaders believe maintaining the federal framework of ERISA, is vital to continuing employer-sponsored coverage. Regardless of their company’s size, geography, industry or even the respondent's own political affiliation, respondents overwhelmingly support maintaining ERISA standards and oppose individual regulation at the state level.

The survey results are available at http://www.americanbenefitscouncil.org/documents/
corphealthcare_survey061709.pdf.

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