HEALTH CARE FOR PART-TIME, LOWER PAID WORKERS    Health reform law curtails "mini-meds"; some employers shift to fixed indemnity products Employers seeking to provide some health insurance for part-time, seasonal or low-paid hourly employees, have fewer options than ever. The "mini-med" that provided low-cost and low-limit co-insurance group medical insurance is mostly dead now, thanks to health reform. However, there are still some options to meet employer needs to provide some supplemental health benefits for employees. "There's certainly been a slowdown in the traditional limited medical benefit market," explains John Duczak, benefits producer and vice president of The American Worker, Inc., in South Barrington, Illinois, an employee benefits agency that specializes in high deductible health plans, limited medical plans and voluntary benefits. "For many years, the biggest interest in these plans was from the large group marketplace, employers with 5,000 or more lives, with a lot of part-time and seasonal workers. But since health reform began to kick in, they aren't looking anymore." The mini-meds, also called "co-insurance plans," featured small annual benefit limits of $5,000 to $25,000, but often first dollar coverage for doctor office visits and preventive care. The low limits also meant lower premiums than major medical plans, making them attractive to the low-paid hourly employees. The plans also allowed policyholders access to other insurance benefits, including network discounts and better treatment by providers as "insured" patients. Click here for the complete article …

HEALTH CARE COSTS AND WELLNESS INCENTIVES    Brokers have an opportunity to bring options to the table A dominant concern for benefits brokers in 2011, as it has been for the past several years, is the inexorable rise in health insurance premiums. What may be a particular challenge this year will be decisions about how much more of the health care price tag can be passed along to employees. Hewitt Associates projects that overall health insurance rates will go up this year at their fastest rate in five years--an average hike of 8.8% for employers in 2011, compared to 6.9% in 2010 and 6.0% in 2009. Never mind the uncertainties that accompany the new health care law. The sobering message that brokers must deliver to their client companies now is that the cost of the program they have been providing is rising at roughly four times the annual rate of inflation. When there is greater general inflation in the economy, businesses can respond to cost increases by raising the prices of their own products. That is not an option in today's economy. So brokers will be proposing cost- saving measures for their clients' health plans. The difficulty they face is that the primary cost saver--increased employee contributions--has been utilized so heavily in the past few years that employers who go to this well again run the risk of becoming uncompetitive in the labor market, as that market begins to strengthen. Hewitt's analysis indicates that employees of large companies will be asked to contribute an average of 22.5% of their total health care premium this year, or $2,209, which is 12.4% more than they contributed in 2010. The impact of rising health costs on employees is far more dramatic when total out-of-pocket medical costs are added to employee premium contributions. Click here for the complete article …