The Healthy Michigan Plan, also referred to as “Medicaid Expansion” kicks off its open  enrollment this April 1st, 2014, allowing those eligible to submit applications, as originally prescribed as part of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA).

This past September 2013 Governor Snyder signed into law a bill creating the Healthy Michigan Plan, which had a start date of early spring 2014, expanding healthcare to an estimated 320,000 Michiganders, eventually providing care to as many as 470,000 residents that meet the criteria, which is highlighted below. The new plan is funded by the federal government through 2017 with the federal government’s share gradually declining to 90 percent, thus placing the remaining funding liability on the state to make up the difference after that point.

The State of Michigan’s Department of Community Health (DCH), who administers Medicaid, is advising individuals to visit their website(see link below) for more information on the new plan and that open enrollment through the Federal Marketplace for Healthcare Coverage is closing on March 31st, 2014.  DCH states if individuals are uncertain if they are eligible for the Healthy Michigan Plan and have not yet enrolled for any healthcare coverage, to please apply through the Marketplace at Healthcare.gov before the March 31st, 2014 deadline.

Eligibility for the Healthy Michigan Plan is established through the Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) methodology, managed through the Department of Human Services. All criteria for the MAGI eligibility must be met to be qualified for the Healthy Michigan Plan.

The Healthy Michigan plan provides healthcare to those who:

•    Are age 19-64 years
•    Have income at or below 133% of the federal poverty level under the Modified Adjusted Gross Income methodology
•    Do not qualify for or are not enrolled in Medicare
•    Do not qualify for or are not enrolled in other Medicaid programs
•    Are not pregnant at the time of application
•    Are residents of the State of Michigan

Per the federal ACA requirement, individuals eligible for services under the Healthy Michigan Plan must have access to the following 10 Essential Health Benefits:

•    Ambulatory patient services
•    Emergency services
•    Hospitalization
•    Maternity and newborn care
•    Mental health and substance use disorder treatment services, including behavioral health treatment
•    Prescription drugs
•    Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices
•    Laboratory services
•    Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
•    Pediatric services, including oral and vision care

The Healthy Michigan Plan will cover other medically necessary services as appropriate.

For More Information:

-DCH Healthy Michigan Website Link: http://www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,4612,7-132-2943_66797—,00.html

-Healthcare.gov

By Juliet Eilperin and Amy Goldstein
Published: February 10, 2014, washingtonpost.com

For the second time in a year, the Obama administration is giving certain employers extra time before they must offer health insurance to almost all their full-time workers.

Under new rules announced Monday by Treasury Department officials, employers with 50 to 99 workers will be given until 2016 — two years longer than originally envisioned under the Affordable Care Act — before they risk a federal penalty for not complying.

Companies with 100 workers or more are getting a different kind of one-year grace period. Instead of being required in 2015 to offer coverage to 95 percent of full-time workers, these bigger employers can avoid a fine by offering insurance to 70 percent of them next year.

How the administration would define employer requirements has been one of the biggest remaining questions about the way the 2010 health-care law will work in practice — and has sparked considerable lobbying. By providing the dual phase-ins for employers of different sizes, administration officials have sought to lighten the burden on the small share of affected employers that have not offered insurance in the past.

As word of the delays spread Monday, many across the ideological spectrum viewed them as an effort by the White House to defuse another health-care controversy before the fall midterm elections. The new postponements won over part, but not all, of the business community. And they caught consumer advocates, usually reliable White House allies, by surprise, particularly because administration officials had already announced in July that the employer requirements would be postponed from this year until 2015.

Congressional Republicans seized on the announcement as the latest justification for scrapping the health-care law. In particular, they renewed their opposition to the law’s requirement that most Americans have insurance, saying it is unfair to delay rules for businesses and not for individuals.

“If unilateral delays were an Olympic sport, the White House would sweep the gold, silver, and bronze,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said in a statement. “The White House is in full panic mode, and rather than putting politics ahead of the public, it is time for fairness for all.”

Originally, the employer mandate — which affects companies employing 72 percent of all Americans — was to have gone into effect Jan. 1, at the same time the law began requiring most Americans to have health insurance.

A senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the proposal on the condition of anonymity shortly before the rule became public, said the Treasury Department decided to allow medium-size businesses more latitude because they “need a little more time to adjust to providing coverage.”

The law says that anyone who works 30 hours or more is a full-time employee, and it compels many employers to offer affordable insurance to those workers and their dependents. It defines affordable as premiums of no more than 9.5 percent of an employee’s income, and employers must pay for the equivalent of 60 percent of the actuarial value of a worker’s coverage. Businesses that fail to do so will eventually face a fine of up to $2,000 for each employee not offered coverage, though workers are not required to sign up for the benefits.

Under the health-care law, small employers — those with fewer than 50 workers — do not have to offer insurance. Instead, they will be allowed to buy health plans through new marketplaces created under the law. Because of hardware and software problems, the federal small-business marketplace, which was supposed to open in October, will not become available until the fall.

But until now, the government had not spelled out important details. Nor had it defined exactly what insurance benefits must be covered by employer-sponsored health plans.

Administration officials said Monday that they will issue a separate set of rules in coming weeks that will cover related questions about how employers must report their workers’ insurance status to the government.

Trade associations — which represent many of the U.S. businesses affected by the new requirements — had a mixed reaction to the rule.

The National Restaurant Association, whose nearly 500,000 members were concerned because many industry employees work odd schedules and do not receive benefits, lauded the phase-in. “It’s welcome news, as is anything that helps employers figure this out and gives them time to comply,” said the group’s director of labor and workforce policy, Michelle Neblett, who noted that many members do not yet have systems in place to keep track of worker hours.

But Joe Trauger, the National Association of Manufacturers’ vice president of human resources policy, said businesses will still face massive new compliance costs under the law. “What they’ve released is doing what they can to make some things that are not great policy more livable,” Trauger said. “But at the end of the day, it’s not great policy.”

Ron Pollack, executive director of the consumer lobby Families USA and an ally of the administration, said he was “very surprised” by the new postponements. He contended that, because most large employers already offer insurance, the law’s requirements are not that burdensome. But Pollack added that for workers at large companies that do not provide coverage, “it’s very unfortunate . . . that they don’t have a guarantee it will be extended to them for quite some time.”

Senior administration officials said the latest postponement will have little real-world impact, because the vast majority of employers have fewer than 50 workers.

But employees of bigger companies represent a much larger fraction of the U.S. workforce, with nearly seven in 10 at companies and other organizations that employ 100 or more people.

The extra time before certain employers must offer insurance is among a variety of specifics that Treasury Department officials spelled out for the first time in the final rule they issued late Monday afternoon. Each addressed an issue that, while narrow, had become controversial among certain constituencies.

For instance, the rule pleased fire companies, which had feared that the government might have required them to offer insurance to volunteer firefighters and other first responders. The rule also said that educators who have summers off are nonetheless to be treated as full-time workers entitled to be offered coverage. Adjunct faculty members will be counted as working 2.25 hours for ever hour in the classroom. And the rule said that seasonal workers — such as farm workers or extra department-store hires around Christmastime — are considered full time only if they work for at least half the year.

Sandhya Somashekhar and Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.

By Lynn Drake
Compass Commercial

Your business is doing well and you are happy with your current landlord. You may or may notice that your lease is expiring in less than a year. You might think the landlord forgot. I guarantee this is not the case. You might think the landlord is going to allow you to go month to month! They probably will as you will most likely being paying significant hold over fees. What you ask is a holdover fee? 99% of all leases I’ve ever reviewed have a holdover fee of 125% to 200% or more. Which means on a lease that is for $1,000 a month if you stay even one day past your expiration date then you will pay $1,250 for the entire month. If you have a 200% hold over fee that is $2,000. Most leases don’t prorate holdover fees so a day can cost you more than an entire month’s rent. Read the fine print.

Some landlords will contact you just a month before your lease expires and offer you a renewal option. Most likely this rate will be over market. They tell you sure go ahead and move, but don’t forget you have hold over fees. This is the last minute gotcha!!!!

To avoid the “gotcha” pull out your lease right now. Find the expiration date and put a note on your calendar 6 months before the lease expires if you have under 5,000 square feet of office. If your firm’s space is bigger put the reminder between 9 months and a year. You will be glad you did when it comes time to renegotiate. While you have that lease out see if you have any renewal options. If you do determine when they are due and put a note on your calendar. Then put another reminder 3 months before that time so you have time to think about whether or not you want to renew. When working with a tenant we always take the tenant out to market for a couple of reasons. Sometimes tenants simply don’t know what they don’t know. Seeing other options can help them make better decisions. The main reason we do this is it shows the landlord you are serious about cutting your costs. If the landlord thinks you will relocate they are usually more aggressive with their rental rates. After all it is better to have a few extra dollars in your pocket than in the landlord’s pocket. Don’t forget to check your lease!

Lynn Drake is president of Compass Commercial in Troy, Mich., representing office and industrial tenants. Learn more by visiting www.compass-commercial.com or calling (248) 341-2410.

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