Part 2
Yesterday, on this Silkin Management Group blog site, which you can link to here: www.silkinmanagementgroup.blogspot.com, we discussed some of the aspects of the new health care legislation relative to how it affects group health plans. All of Silkin’s clients are small businesses and many of them have group plans. Therefore wanted to relay the information we have found on this aspect of the legislation.
Here are 5 additional points that are important to know if you have a group health plan:
1. You insurance company should provide you with a summary of benefits as you are required to distribute such a summary to all employees covered under your plan.
2. There are some preventative care benefits that are required to be covered 100 percent. Which ones? That is still being figured out although vision and dental exams for children might be included. Any plan “grandfathered” will have the same preventative care benefits until 2014.
3. Any employer with 25 or less employees with an average wage less than $50,000 per year may be able to use the tax credit to deduct up to 35% of the premium payments from their taxes.
4. Employers with 2 to 50 employees may be eligible for a federal grant program to help with providing wellness programs for their employees. The details of this are still being figured out.
5. Emergency services (the definitions of which are still being figured out) will be paid at the in-network level whether or not the provider is preferred or non-preferred. Grandfathered plans will continue with the same emergency services benefits until 2014.
Bill Hickey
Consultant for Silkin Management Group
Please visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com for more information about Silkin’s services.
