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Grandfathering Health Plan?
Benefits & Compensation
Grandfathering Health Plan?
Exchange ideas about health plans, retirement, work/life benefits, and employee assistance.
I'm debating whether we should grandfather our group health insurance plans under the scheme in place on March 23, 2010, as opposed to accepting all of the reform provisions? What is your company doin
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Forums » Topic Forums » Benefits & Compensation » Grandfathering Health Plan?
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Grandfathering Health Plan?
posted at 11/18/2010 3:38 AM EST
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Posts: 62
First: 9/13/2005 Last: 11/19/2010 |
I'm debating whether we should grandfather our group health insurance plans under the scheme in place on March 23, 2010, as opposed to accepting all of the reform provisions? What is your company doing and why? |
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Grandfathering Health Plan?
posted at 11/18/2010 6:02 AM EST
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Posts: 464
First: 6/30/2004 Last: 11/22/2010 |
Unless you are self insured, you may not get the choice.
Our carrier elected to not even offer a grandfathered plan as it was to expensive for them to maintain different platforms. We went out to bid as the initial quote was to costly, they ended up beating the next closest viable competitor be several percentage points so our decision to stay with them was easy. I have heard that some carriers do offer grandfathering, but they may be much larger than ours. |
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Grandfathering Health Plan?
posted at 11/18/2010 9:28 AM EST
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Posts: 1047
First: 4/11/2002 Last: 9/14/2011 |
I tend to think it's short sighted to worry about whether or not your plan is going to remain grandfathered, especially if you're dealing with an unpleasant renewal. Nothing is set in stone when it comes to 2014, so if you can make changes to your current plan that's going to benefit your company for the next 12 months, my recommendation would almost always be to make those chaanges.
If you have more than 100 employees, then there needs to be more discussion since the future health insurance exchanges are for groups with less than 100 employees. |
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Grandfathering Health Plan?
posted at 11/18/2010 9:56 AM EST
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
Our carrier is charging a 2% upcharge if we are grandfathering. For us, there isn't much value to being grandfathered. So I doubt we will stay that way. Checking into other insurers, their rates were much higher for the same benefits so we are staying with what we have, but not for grandfathering reasons.
One of the largest differences is nondiscrimination testing. There is one other, but for the life of me I can't remember because it didn't affect our setup. |
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Grandfathering Health Plan?
posted at 11/19/2010 10:07 AM EST
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Posts: 62
First: 9/13/2005 Last: 11/19/2010 |
Our current insurer and a competing one are both offering slightly reduced rates for grandfathered plans. If we aren't making changes that would prevent grandfather status, I'm thinking we might as well do it and take advantage of the lower rates. I do anticipate that we will have to make cost share changes in the future and will lose it eventually. |
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Grandfathering Health Plan?
posted at 12/1/2010 4:42 PM EST
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Posts: 1
First: 12/1/2010 Last: 12/1/2010 |
In CA, we have a "Carrier" (it is actually a TPA/Administrator who offers several carriers and plans for EEs to choose from)... they have - as a "Carrier" - decided that none of their groups will be even ABLE to be grandfathered.
This seems to go against the intent of the law and to be borderline illegal. Doesn't each EMPLOYER have the right to choose to try to remain grandfathered or not? For what it's worth, I think in the end, al groups will "pay" for reform. They will raise rates evenly across the board over time and grandfathered groups will carry the burden for non-grandfathered groups. And EEs in grandfathered plans will not understand why new provisions "promised" to them "by Obama" are not available to them. Only time will tell though and by then it will be too late. |
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Grandfathering Health Plan?
posted at 12/2/2010 2:47 AM EST
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
I know BCBS is requiring us to opt in rather than out of grandfathering. It leads me to believe that it is to the carriers advantage to NOT have grandfathered plans. I suspect it is because they don't want to deal with two sets of rules. They would rather it just be consistent. But that's just my opinion/analysis. Especially since BCBS is charging an upcharge to stay grandfathered. But I could be wrong!
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