Covid-era Medicaid plans coming to an end to Nevadans over the next 12 months
The State of Nevada partners with the federal government in sponsoring Medicaid coverage to eligible Nevada residents. Medicaid is health care coverage provided at no cost to eligible participants and their dependents. The federal government expanded the eligibility of Medicaid during the Covid epidemic which started in early 2020. Nevada now has over 900,000 residents on Medicaid versus the 600,000 prior to the Covid epidemic. The national emergency and public health emergency declarations will end 0n May 11, 2023.
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Efficient and Transparent Method of Delivering Renewal and New Business Proposals
Has an employer, have you ever wondered if your medical insurance plan was the best value for the money? With six insurance carriers offering dozens of medical plans in Las Vegas, how does one make a valid comparison?
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Affordable Care Act Developments
Legislative activities during the week of December 16, 2019 produced significant developments with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). On December 19, Congress passed a spending bill that contains the full repeal of three ACA taxes. These developments will have a positive effect on employers.
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DOL Finalilzes Association Health Plan Rules
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in October of 2017 for the creation of Association Health Plans that would allow small businesses more opportunities to access affordable health coverage. The Department of Labor (DOL) released its long-awaited final rule on June 19th that will now allow the development of these association plans to begin. For more details, click on the link below to read the 4-page Benefits Bulletin produced by my back office compliance team at Acrisure.
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Help employees avoid 5 health insurance mistakes, then reap the benefits
During open enrollment, employees usually familiarize themselves with their coverage. But just a few months later, much is forgotten. Even the savviest employees can get confused – and frustrated – with their health insurance. Over time, two out of ten employees regret their benefits decision, according to an online Harris Poll.
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Health literacy: A medical conundrum and a health insurance hurdle
Do Your Employees need a Benefit Concierge Team? Studies show that the average American has trouble understanding basic health insurance plans. My office team offers a one-on-one concierge service to your employees for issues such as benefit explanation, claim denial and patient navigation for specialty care. Your employees need help to best utilize a very costly benefit that you provide them.
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Managing ACA Subsidy Notifications and Appeals
The Affordable Care Act requires the Marketplaces (otherwise known as the exchanges) to notify an employer if an employee is determined to be eligible for a premium subsidy. Marketplaces throughout the country, including Nevada, have started sending these letters to employers in late June. The Marketplace will send an employer a notice if (1) an employee received a subsidy for at least one month in 2016 and (2) if the employee provided the Marketplace with a complete employer address. See the first attachment for a sample of this letter.
The Affordable Care Act - The Next Chapter
View the video to the right to hear Frank Nolimal's speech regarding the Affordable Care Act
Click here to view outline of speech
Millions in red, a Nevada Obamacare insurer has failed
Nevada's health insurance exchange is losing its only locally based carrier.
Nevada Health CO-OP, a nonprofit insurer created by the Affordable Care Act and federally funded to offer health coverage through the Nevada Health Link marketplace, said Wednesday that it cannot make enough money to stay in business after Jan. 1.
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Employees may unknowingly lose their exchange tax subsidies
Employees who work for businesses with greater than 100 employees may find themselves losing their advance premium tax credits or “insurance subsidies” in 2015. Starting on January 1st, 2015, large employers with greater than 100 full-time equivalent employees are subject to the Employer Shared Responsibility Provision of the federal Affordable Care Act. They must offer any employee working over 30 hours per week an affordable and qualified health insurance coverage or be subject to a tax penalty. Employees working for certain businesses may not have been eligible in the past for the employer sponsored plan, thus eligible for tax subsidies medical coverage from the exchange since they opened on January 1st, 2014.
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IRS Forms used to report employer medical insurance plans for calendar year 2015
Many human resource and accounting firm newsletters are starting to publish the news about the reporting tax forms that the IRS will be requiring for participation in employer plans in 2015 and reported in early 2016. Here is what your employees can expect and what you as the employer will need to be aware of in early 2016. I have attached the three IRS Forms along with their instruction page mentioned below in the article and have used a fictitious employee and employer as an example. The fourth attachment is a brief explanation to the Section 4980H Safe Harbor rule.
Subsidized exchange policyholders prepare for their 2014 tax returns
Nevadans and Americans throughout the country who have purchased subsidized health insurance from healthcare exchanges should have received a Form 1095-A from their state or federal exchange. This Department of the Treasury form is used to provide the insureds purchasing health insurance on the exchange with coverage, premium subsidies and household information needed to file their 2014 tax returns.
The Intended and Unintended Consequences of the Affordable Care Act
View the video to the right to hear Frank Nolimal's speech regarding the Affordable Care Act
Exchange insurers’ rates lower than predicted for ’15
That wasn’t so bad.
When the state Insurance Division released the health-plan premiums that insurers have proposed for 2015, the numbers held a couple of surprises.
First, they showed a new carrier agreeing to sell coverage through Nevada Health Link — an addition that seemed unlikely in spring, when some of the state’s biggest insurers were threatening to withdraw from the exchange.
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State law stays in place even as U.S. rules have changed
In some ways, the Affordable Care Act doesn’t resemble the bill that passed in 2010.
The Obama administration has made more than 30 changes to the law, issuing executive orders that delayed the employer health insurance mandate, suspended a tax on high-dollar “Cadillac” coverage, and put off the launch of the Small Business Health Options Program.
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EDITORIAL: More premium hikes coming, thanks to Obamacare
Hardly a day goes by without more depressing news about the effects of the Affordable Care Act, on both the state and national levels. And what’s likely to come next has the potential to affect far more Nevadans than did the initial rollout back in October.
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Own a small business? Brace for Obamacare Pain
Local business owners might be hoping the Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandates cover sticker shock.
The law’s employer coverage mandate doesn’t take effect until 2015, but early plan renewals are starting to roll in. And for some businesses, the premium jumps are positively painful.
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Sandoval pressures Xerox to fix Nevada's ailing insurance exchange now
Gov. Brian Sandoval said Wednesday he has run out of patience with the failures of Xerox, the company contracted to run Nevada’s health insurance exchange, to fix the many problems with the system that began operating Oct. 1.
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Provider network problems in Nevada Health CO-OP frustrate consumers
"Nolimal said a client called last week to tell him that a local cancer center turned her away because the center was no longer in the CO-OP’s network as of Jan. 1. Nolimal said the cancer center confirmed this when he called to follow up."
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Employees, employers will have more options on insurance coverage starting Oct. 1
Quick: What comes to mind when you think of the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange?
If you’re like many business owners, managers and employees, you’re drawing a blank. And that means you’re in the dark about a key part of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, the federal law designed to reform health insurance.
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Some Nevadans may see higher premiums under Obamacare
Post-reform, insurers won’t be able to reward or penalize employee behavior. The community rating will be the same for all. Those rating changes mean young, healthy people could see big increases in premium costs, while unhealthier populations could get a break. “One side of the fence is subsidizing the other side to keep premiums level,” Nolimal said.
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Businesses face questions as health reform rolls out
After attending a health insurance conference in February, Larry Harrison’s reports to fellow brokers took on the trappings of an Abbott and Costello routine.
They would ask him about the overriding message from the presentations and Harrison, with the benefits firm National Healthcare Access Inc., would reply, “I don’t know.” But certainly, they would continue, he took notes or received the program CDs. What theme emerged from them? “I don’t know,” he would reiterate. “When the speakers looked at what was coming, they would say, ‘I don’t know.’”
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