RMAC Meeting Report for June 25^th 2010

Attendees;

John R Kotson—IBM Retiree; RMAC Chairman

Hazel Floyd—AUSWR CO/WY President; RMAC Member

Barbara Wilcox—AUSWR Health Care Specialist; RMAC Member

Helen Domaratz—IBM Retiree; RMAC Member

Pat Finley—AUSWR Member; RMAC Member

John Romelfanger—AUSWR CO/WY VP Membership; RMAC Member

Joe Halpern—AUSWR member; RMAC Member

Jerry Pifer—Community Liaison Staffer for Congressman Ed Perlmutter

Healthcare IT News  

The New Landscape

THE NEW YORK TIMES 

By MICHELLE ANDREWS

Published: June 21, 2010

Fighting with a health plan over a denied claim can leave people feeling they’ve been injured all over again.

The options for challenging an insurance company’s decision are limited. Appeals can be slow and cumbersome, if they are available at all, and most patients are barred from suing for damages resulting from denials and delayed treatments.

The new health law makes the system somewhat more consumer-friendly. Starting this fall, patients in all health plans can contest claim denials in an independent state-level review procedure — a recourse that has not generally been available to employees of companies that pay their employees’ health claims directly.

Patient Money

What to Expect in Next Year’s Health Benefits Offerings

By WALECIA KONRAD

The New York Times

Published: June 11, 2010

RIGHT about now, as you’re dusting off your beach gear, may seem the wrong time to talk about next fall’s open enrollment for health insurance.

But now is when big employers are busy assembling their benefits packages for 2011. And this year, they are having to factor in the new health law’s requirements, said Pearce R. Weaver Jr., a senior vice president at Fidelity Consulting Services.

Not to rain on your beach parade, but come fall you’ll probably be asked to absorb even bigger cost increases than in the last few years.

By ROBERT PEAR

The New York Times

Published: June 13, 2010

WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday will issue new rules that strongly discourage employers from cutting health insurance benefits or increasing the costs of coverage to employees, administration officials say.

The rules limit the changes that employers can make if they want to be exempt from certain provisions of the health care law passed by Congress in March. Many employers want the exemption because it allows them to keep their existing health plans intact with a minimum of changes. More than 170 million Americans have employer-sponsored insurance.