National Healthcare Update September 2011

By Bonnie Bochniak
MBPA/MFBA, Director of Government Relations

The Michigan Business and Professional Association (MBPA) and the Michigan Food and Beverage Association (MFBA), work diligently to keep you up to date on the happenings in Washington D.C. as our new healthcare law continues to move forward. What follows is an update of what is and what will be happening in this important arena.

Our government relations team has been working full speed ahead and lobbied diligently against the legislation to form a universal healthcare plan since the first discussions of such a proposal began. We continued the charge as President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 30th, 2010, to ensure our members are able receive the same high quality service by their agents. We have had countless meetings with both key federal and state officials that are responsible for making critical decisions on how Michigan interacts within the federal healthcare exchange. Most recently on July 13th, 2011 we testified in front of a Senate Health and Insurance Joint Committee on the need for a state run healthcare Exchange. Michigan must retain power over what happens with our healthcare, from providers to agents.

Below are recent updates and notes pertaining to our new healthcare law, and you may also visit our website www.michbusiness.org, and click the National Healthcare tab for more detailed information. In addition, please use our website to find more helpful links to understanding your healthcare options, obligations, and frequently asked questions.

• On July 11th, 2011 the federal Secretary of the Health and Human Services (HHS) released much sought after information in regards to initial proposed regulation governing the health benefit exchanges under the PPACA.  Highlights are:
  • Proposes a pathway for states to ensure that individuals and small groups have access to information about agents and brokers, should they wish to use one, on state exchange websites and in other publicly available materials.
  • Requires that navigators, including agents and brokers acting as navigators, not receive commissions or other payments directly from health insurance carriers, but specifies that these requirements only apply to health insurance exchange products.
  • Navigators must meet any licensing, certification or any other standards prescribed by the state or exchange, which will allow the state or exchange to enforce existing licensure standards.
  • A State does not have to be completely ready for federal certification as an independent state exchange on January 1, 2013.  They would in turn be provisionally certified by HHS instead.
• Repeal of the 1099 reporting requirement: Under the reporting requirement, that was set to begin in 2012, all companies would have been required to issue a Form 1099 to any individual or corporation from which they purchased more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year. The expanded reporting requirement would have resulted in an unnecessary and unfair burden for small businesses/your clients. This is now gone
   
• Michigan’s role in the Exchange – Keeping Insurance Agents: MBPA was recently involved in assisting key state officials in how our State will function within the healthcare Exchange. A compilation of discussions from all stakeholder meetings is set to head to Governor Snyder soon for his thoughts and approval as we move forward.
   
• Michigan continues to remain one of 20 states challenging the federal healthcare law under the direction of our Attorney General Bill Schuette.
   
• Effective January 1, 2012: The new law provides incentives for physicians to join together to form “Accountable Care Organizations.” In these groups, doctors can better coordinate patient care and improve quality of services, help prevent disease and illness, and reduce unnecessary hospital admissions. If Accountable Care Organizations provide high quality care and reduce costs to the health care system, they can keep some of the money that they have helped save.
  • Accountable Care Organization: A group of health care providers who give coordinated care, chronic disease management, and thereby improve the quality of care patients get. The organization’s payment is tied to achieving health care quality goals and outcomes that result in cost savings
• Reminder: The Affordable Care Act imposes an excise tax on employers that do not satisfy the market reform and consumer protection provisions of the Affordable Care Act equal to $100 per day for each affected participant, up to a maximum fine for unintentional failures of $500,000 per taxable year. The IRS (or HHS) has discretion to waive the tax in whole or in part to the extent the failure was due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect, and small employers with no more than 50 employees may be exempt from such tax with certain exceptions.

Please visit our website for more and detailed information. Contact our Government Relations Team with questions/comments at: bbochniak@michbusiness.org or by phone at: 517-374-9128.