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On Dec. 11, 2020, the Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Treasury (Departments) announced a final rule that provides greater flexibility for grandfathered plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

A grandfathered plan is a group health plan or health insurance coverage that was in existence on March 23, 2010 (the date the ACA was passed), that has not made certain prohibited changes to lose its grandfather status. Grandfathered plans are exempt from certain ACA requirements.

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Many experts expected employers to continue to inch further and further away from the typical 70/30 employer/employee cost split, but that trend seems to have slowed.

As the Coronovirus pandemic sweeps the nation in 2020, a crucial pillar supporting the U.S. workforce is employer-sponsored healthcare. While we wait to see how postponed preventive care and delayed elective surgeries will affect the health of the nation's workforce, and how the total costs of COVID-19 testing, treatment, and vaccinations will be financed, we are already leveraging our local knowledge, as well as the data from this survey to recommend renewal strategies for 2021.

Employee benefits aren’t always simple.

In fact, for many young employees, they’re downright confusing. Look at basic health insurance term knowledge, for example. Only 7% of individuals can define terms like premium, deductible and coinsurance, according to UnitedHealthcare. And that limited understanding can result in significant—and often unnecessary—expenses for both employees and employers. To put it monetarily, low health literacy is estimated to cost between $106 billion and $238 billion annually, according to the National Library of Medicine.

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Employees again this year contributed about 32% of the premiums while employers covered approximately 68%, quelling fears that we were moving rapidly away from the typical 70/30 employer/employee split.

As the Coronovirus pandemic sweeps the nation in 2020, a crucial pillar supporting the U.S. workforce is employer-sponsored healthcare. While we wait to see how postponed preventive care and delayed elective surgeries will affect the health of the nation's workforce, and how the total costs of COVID-19 testing, treatment, and vaccinations will be financed, we are already leveraging our local knowledge, as well as the data from this survey to recommend renewal strategies for 2021.

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The Affordable Care Act (ACA) imposes a fee on health insurance issuers and self-insured plan sponsors in order to fund comparative effectiveness research.

These fees are widely known as Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) fees, and were originally scheduled to expire for plan or policy years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2019. However, a federal spending bill enacted at the end of 2019 extended the PCORI fees for an additional 10 years.

Trends at a glance header image

Employees again this year contributed about 32% of the premiums while employers covered approximately 68%, quelling fears that we were moving rapidly away from the typical 70/30 employer/employee split.

As the Coronovirus pandemic sweeps the nation in 2020, a crucial pillar supporting the U.S. workforce is employer-sponsored healthcare. While we wait to see how postponed preventive care and delayed elective surgeries will affect the health of the nation's workforce, and how the total costs of COVID-19 testing, treatment, and vaccinations will be financed, we are already leveraging our local knowledge, as well as the data from this survey to recommend renewal strategies for 2021.