Wellness Programs Get Booster Shot from Feds

With some recent proposed rules, federal agencies should make it easier for employers to get serious about wellness in the quest to cut healthcare costs.

By Tom Starner

Thanks to the latest federally issued healthcare-reform guidelines, wellness in the American workplace should end up getting a welcomed booster shot in 2014 and beyond.

Even with that positive news, however, experts say the next two years remain full of uncertainty and complexity, warning employers and HR executives to stay focused as the Affordable Care Act continues to unfold bit by bit.

Specifically on the wellness front, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor and the Treasury Department in late November jointly released proposed rules for employer-based wellness incentives, which would apply to plan years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2014.

The proposal, which increases the caps on employee incentives, should result in a positive impact for employers who either already are serious or are thinking about getting serious with their wellness-program strategies, according to experts.

In 2014, according to a government fact sheet, the proposed maximum financial incentive for “standards-based” wellness programs (those that have metrics or specific goals attached) will jump from the current 20 percent to 30 percent of the cost of coverage. Also, the maximum incentive for wellness programs designed with . . Click here to continue

Employers Must Offer Family Care Regardless of Cost

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — In a long-awaited interpretation of the new health care law, the Obama administration said Monday that employers must offer health insurance to employees and their children, but will not be subject to any penalties if family coverage is unaffordable to workers.

The requirement for employers to provide health benefits to employees is a cornerstone of the new law, but the new rules proposed by the Internal Revenue Service said that employers’ obligation was to provide affordable insurance to cover their full-time employees. The rules offer no guarantee of affordable insurance for a worker’s children or spouse. To avoid a possible tax penalty, the government said, employers with 50 or more full-time employees must offer affordable coverage to those employees. But, it said, the meaning of “affordable” depends entirely on the cost of individual coverage for the employee, what the worker would pay for “self-only coverage.”

The new rules, to be published in the Federal Register, create a strong incentive for employers to put money into insurance for their employees rather than dependents. It is unclear . . click here to read more.