Tag Archives: worksite market

As industry practitioners continue to peel the onion on health care reform’s impact, a new layer of concern is now reverberating across the worksite market.

The survival of so-called mini-medical plans, most of which are offered on a voluntary basis and target part-time or seasonal employees, hangs in the balance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. At issue is a provision stipulating that health insurers cannot offer such coverage through state exchanges and ruling that the plans do not qualify as “essential benefits.”

Dave Evans, senior vice president of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, known as the “Big I,” says the uncertain fate of mini-med policies hinges on a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ruling on whether the new health care mandates will apply to these plans.

“There has been an appetite for these products,” he observes, “and we hope that they are not taken off the menu under the guise of health care reform.”

One industry official was quoted in a recent report as saying HHS has the “regulatory latitude to completely destroy these plans, eliminating them from the marketplace, if they choose to say that the market reforms – no annual or lifetime limits – apply to mini-med plans.” Continue reading →