Welcome to the Professional Insurance Solutions new Web site!

We hope that you will find informative and interesting information to help keep you up to date on trends and changing regulations that impact your company employee benefits. We will continue to stay up to date on the latest changes, and inform you if they will impact your plan. The National Association of Health Underwriters recently sent its members the following reminders to members, and we wanted to share it with you:

What to Expect in 2014

We’ve been talking about 2014, or as we like to call it, the year of requirements, since March of 2010. Now that it’s finally here, what can we actually expect from this monumental health reform year?

• Coverage Kicks In: Millions of Americans have been signing up, or attempting to sign up, for a health insurance plan since the exchanges opened on October 1, 2013. Those lucky people can now take advantage of their health plan and the related federal subsidies.
• Individual Mandates Get Real: The mandate is here and if you’re not enrolled in a qualified health plan either via the individual market or through an employer or other group plan by March 1 you can expect a bill for $95 or 1% of your income, whichever is higher, to arrive on your doorstep later this year, unless you fall into one of the excepted categories, of course.
• Insurance Exchanges: In every state must be up and running. Obviously “up and running” is a loose term.
• Insurance Subsidies: Premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions kick in for those who are eligible.
• Medicaid Expansion Begins: The Supreme Court ruled to expand the program. As a result, in 2014 as many as 3.9 million more low-income Americans will have access to the public assistance program.
• Small Business Tax Credit: Under PPACA, small businesses are eligible to apply for a small business tax credit that would help purchase health coverage for their employees. The credit is supposed to expand to more businesses. The catch: very few small businesses actually qualify for the credit and now they can only use it to buy SHOP exchange coverage.
• Individuals and Businesses take the HIT: The new national premium tax, which will ultimately be a pass through fee from the insurer to all consumers of fully insured individual and group health insurance, goes into effect. The tax will collect $8 billion in 2014, increasing to $14.3 billion in 2018 and increasing based on premium trend thereafter.
• Ninety-Day Maximum Waiting Period: This requirement for all employer plans goes into effect.
• Cost-sharing Limits: Group health plans, including self-funded plans, may not have out-of-pocket costs that exceed the annual HSA contribution maximum.
• Annual or Life Time Limits are No More
• Greater Wellness Discounts: Employers may now offer a discount of up to 30% for employee participation in a wellness program.