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Employee business benefits consultant urges patience during webinars

Health reform enacted into law Tuesday means short-term and long-term changes for employers. Lockton, a leading employee benefits consultant, advises employers to remain patient and focus first on provisions that take effect as early as October of this year.

On a webinar, Ed Fensholt, an attorney and Lockton’s Director of Compliance for employee benefits, outlined several provisions that mean action by year’s end for most employers with health insurance programs:
First Dollar Preventive Care– The new law requires health plans to pay all the charges for preventive health services like regular wellness exams and cancer screenings.
No Lifetime and Annual Benefit Limits – Annual and lifetime benefit limits are no longer allowed under the new law. This leaves limited medical plans or “mini-med” plans with an uncertain future, Fensholt says.
Adult Child Coverage – Benefit plans must offer health coverage for adult children up to age 26.

Fensholt urges employers to remain patient as guidelines and rules emerge. “Take a deep breath,” he says. “We expect specific guidance on these and other provisions of the law. And of course, the reconciliation bill adjusts many of these provisions. We are still early in this process.”
Lockton noted that the biggest changes for employers roll out in 2014. The biggest is a requirement that employers with 50 or more workers provide medical insurance for their full-time employees at an affordable cost. The law imposes penalties for such employers that do not provide it.

SOURCE Lockton