24 Hour ACA Extension - Sort Of

Monday December 23rd, 2013 is the last day to sign up for health insurance on the federal exchange for coverage that starts Jan. 1, but government techies have built in a little wiggle room.

People have until midnight tonight to get started. But just to be safe, the administration has sneaked in an extra 24-hour buffer, the Washington Post first reported, giving people until midnight Tuesday night to get enrolled if they start the process by midnight Monday.

Remember when enrolling online, please be sure to include us as your Broker so we can be of further assistance in the future:

Brenda D. Cutting
National Producer Number (NPN) = 6998229
Federally-Facilitated Marketplaces (FFM) ID = bcutting

Happy Holidays!

Statement of the Virginia Bureau of Insurance Regarding Extension of Individual and Small Group Health Insurance Plans

Virginia regulators say they may not have legal authority to require insurers to extend cancelled health policies as long as two years, as President Barack Obama requested last week.

The Bureau of Insurance instead asked insurance carriers today to give individual and small group market customers the option of renewing their existing policies early to extend coverage into 2014, as insurers already have done in many cases for people with policies that do not comply with higher standards under the Affordable Care Act.

HealthCare.gov won't be fixed by end of the month

The Washington Post is reporting that an official with knowledge of the technological demands on the government's online health insurance marketplace says it is not likely the site will be fully functional by the end of the month, as the Obama administration has promised.

Regulatory change affecting Individual and Small Group business announced by President Obama

On 11/14/2013, President Obama announced that insurers may renew certain individual and small group health plans for 2014 without having to comply with new Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2014. Eligible policies include those with an effective date between January 1 and October 1, 2014 that would have otherwise been terminated.

Individual mandate penalty delayed

The part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or health care reform law) with the biggest impact – the individual mandate – is getting a lot of attention lately. Under the law and regulation as written, people who buy health insurance as individuals (an individual plan) can go three months without health insurance and not have to pay the individual mandate penalty. Now that individual market open enrollment goes until March 31, 2014, coverage can start as late as May 1. The Obama Administration felt like it needed to fix the problem where someone who buys insurance in the last 45 days of open enrollment still would have ended up paying part of the penalty. Because of a change to the regulation this week, this will no longer be the case in 2014. As long as people buying individual plans are signed up for insurance by March 31, 2014, they will not get hit with the penalty.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put out guidance on October 28 that gives more information on the “hardship exemptions” for the individual mandate penalty. The Department of Health and Human Services is putting such an exemption in place for people who sign up for insurance before the open enrollment period ends on March 31, 2014. Without this exemption, individuals would have had to be covered by health insurance by March 31, meaning they would have had to sign up for it by February 15, 2014. Now, people who have signed up by March 31 will be able to claim a “hardship exemption” (without asking for it from the marketplace) on their taxes and not pay the penalty for the months in 2014 that they did not have health insurance.

Treasury modifies "use-it-or-lose-it" provision to allow a limited rollover of Health FSA funds

On 10/31/2013, the Department of Treasury issued a press release and informational fact sheet announcing a major policy change relating to flexible spending accounts (FSAs) that has many positive implications for all FSA employers and participants. The Department of Treasury has modified its FSA “use-it-or-lose-it” provision to allow a limited rollover of FSA funds (up to $500).

 

Details are as follows:

Here's Why So Many Americans Are Getting Letters Saying Their Health Insurance Is Canceled

"If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan." This was one of President Obama's key talking points when selling the Affordable Care Act, and it was never true — as many of the 14 million Americans currently covered by individually-purchased health plans are now learning.

As Kaiser Health News reports, individual market insurers are sending out rafts of cancellation notices, telling subscribers they have to change to new plans starting in 2014. Here's why: