Lack of cost containment, onerous tax reporting among biz concerns over health care reform

What can Michigan businesses expect as federal health care reform gains momentum?

That was the big question being asked during a Health Care Reform: Defined event and panel discussion Tuesday at the Detroit Regional Chamber.

The answer, of course, depends upon many factors, including the shape of yet-to-be-written regulations and how the Nov. 2 election shakes out in both Washington, D.C. and Lansing. But the consensus was that businesses will likely need help both from tax and employee-benefit advisors as well as from statewide insurance exchanges set to be established in 2014.

Technology, medical equipment driving health care costs

The rising cost of health care has been a topic of intense national debate over the past two years, as legislators, health care experts and insurance companies ponder the reasons for the high cost of care and explore possible solutions.

Most studies addressing the reasons for rising health care costs put technology at the top of the list.

As Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan President and CEO Daniel J. Loepp pointed out at an employee meeting, “Everyone today wants the newest, the best equipment. And every new machine costs significantly more than the last. As a culture, we demand the newest and best.”
 

Health insurance 101: Health savings accounts help consumers fill gaps in coverage

[Fifth in a series of blog posts to help you better understand health insurance and how recent changes affect you]

As we’ve noted throughout this series, consumers are shouldering more responsibility for their own health care spending. New consumer-directed health plans incorporate tools to ease the burden and help individuals make smarter decisions regarding their care. One way is through health savings accounts.

An HSA allows you to pay for current health care expenses not covered by your high-deductible health plan and save for future ones, all on a tax-free basis. The account is funded by the employee, the employer, or both, but the account is owned by the employee. Leftover balances can be rolled over from year to year.

Pairing an HSA with a high-deductible health plan, which generally doesn’t cover the first several thousand dollars of your health care expenses, can be a smart way to go for some. Withdrawals are tax-exempt when used to pay for qualifying medical expenses, and contributions to an HSA reduce your taxable income.

Money used to pay for nonqualified expenses, however, is subject to a 10 percent tax penalty, an amount that rises to 20 percent after Dec. 31, 2010. A partial list of qualified medical expenses is available on Publication 502 at irs.gov.

When you set up an HSA, you determine your annual contribution. You can estimate these needs by:

• Reviewing your eligible expenses from the previous year
• Determining how your upcoming expenses may differ from the previous year

For 2010, your contribution cannot exceed the maximum of $3,050 for individual coverage or $6,150 for family coverage. A variety of other rules apply, but money not used during the year rolls over to the next year and can earn interest tax-free. You can also place your unused funds in a longer-term investment through the bank that administers your HSA.

You can contribute money directly, through deductions from your tax return, or via withdrawals from your 401(k) or other retirement plan. Employer contributions are not subjected to payroll taxes.

The use of health savings accounts has risen dramatically since being introduced in 2004. The ranks of Americans who supplement their health plans with HSAs was expected to rise as high as 45 million by 2010, from 438,000 in late 2004.

Next week: A glossary of health insurance terms

Health insurance 101: Rising costs spur changes in health plan designs

[Second in a series of blog posts to help you better understand health insurance and how recent changes affect you.We welcome your comments and questions]

 

As health care costs rise, the types of plans offered to employees are expanding. The following is a frequently asked question:

 

My employer provides me with health insurance but keeps asking me to chip in more money to cover costs. Why can’t I just get a PPO that covers everything without asking me for any contribution, like before?

Health insurance 101: Costs are rising. What’s a consumer to do?

[First in a series of blog posts to help you better understand health insurance and how recent changes affect you.]
 
Let’s face it: Health insurance can be a dry and complicated business. And it’s not easy deciphering the various concepts, jargon, and not-exactly-household words that define the business of insuring your health.
 
But your health insurance is important. And with health care reform, ever-rising costs for care and other trends that are transforming the industry, it’s a good idea to keep yourself abreast of what the changes mean to you.
 
That’s why we’ve put together this guide to help you understand what’s happening in health insurance, why it’s happening and what it means for you.
 

Our commitment to a healthier future

The statistics are compelling.  A healthier future is not just about health care legislation, but about people being involved in taking better care of their own health. Dan Loepp, President and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, emphasizes to National Management Association members that without personal responsibility, lives will continue to be lost and costs will increase.

The Blues are leading the way to a healthier future by strengthening collaborations with health care providers, promoting patient safety and investing in partnerships that improve quality of care. We are reaching out to youth by supporting community and school programs that teach exercise and healthy eating. We are the leader in offering wellness-based heath care plans that help manage member costs by rewarding healthy behaviors.

Being accountable for our own health contributes to a healthier Michigan.

MyBlue helps Michiganders through their career transition

As companies are downsizing or finding ways to improve their bottom line, many Michiganders are now finding themselves without health insurance from their employer. It’s not an ideal situation, but in the midst of this tough economy, many individuals and their families are being forced to make changes in their daily lives – finding individual health insurance just happens to be one of them.

Looking for individual health insurance is a task many have not had to face before. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan knows how important it is to have options when it comes to health care coverage. How do you get the most health care coverage at the lowest cost? What plans will fit your needs? The Blues offers MyBlue^SM, a suite of individual coverage options for Michigan residents, designed to protect your health and your finances at your specific stage of life.

Not sure what MyBlue plan will fit your needs? Check out bcbsm.com/myblue and click on the AskBlue icon. AskBlue is an interactive program that helps make the complicated process of selecting an individual health plan easy to use and easy to enroll.

Everyone should have access to health care coverage. As times change, the Blues are leading the way to help Michigan’s residents to a healthier future.

Medical home: Looking good so far.

Today, we announced meaningful, forward progress in the Michigan Blues'

Patient-Centered Medical Home program.  In looking at initial pieces of data, we found that Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) practices are changing the way they practice medicine to be more attuned to their patients' ongoing needs.  In fact, we found that patients in PCMH practices have lower hospital admissions, fewer ER visits and lower use of radiology services.

How health care reform impacts ‘Cadillac’ plans, small businesses and group plans

One of the central talking points for health care reform during the long and heated push for its enactment was that if you currently receive health insurance from your employer, and you like your plan, you get to keep it.

But health care reform does make a few important changes to benefit-rich “Cadillac” group plans, and it will incentivize small business owners to begin offering health insurance for workers by providing tax credits.

As part of our weeklong series exploring what the changes mean for Michigan Blues members, we delve into some of your most commonly asked questions. You can also check out yesterday’s post about individual-market policy impacts, or our earlier post outlining the changes more broadly.

And as always, we welcome your comments and questions.

Using Manufacturing Principles to Get LEAN

Imagine you’re the third parent to call in to the pediatrician’s office one morning, to make an appointment for your child, and being told you had to wait 60 days to get your child in to see a doctor.  Or, imagine your doctor tells you that your screening mammogram looked suspicious and you need some follow up tests, but you can’t have those tests for about 20 days.

Unacceptable, right?  That’s what the doctors and staff at Borgess Ambulatory Care thought too.  This Kalamazoo-area organization applied to take part in a Lean Collaboration offered through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.  The Lean process improvement method, first used in the manufacturing industry, is a systematic way to analyze an organization’s processes and procedures, and find more efficient ways of doing them. 

It is a long, complicated process that requires entire staffs to break down their typical processes into a series of individual steps.  Once these processes are mapped out, the staff finds ways to reduce steps, reduce variation, and create efficiencies.

New Healthy Blue OutcomesSM Makes Health Care More Affordable

What if there was a plan that made health care more affordable for those who actually set and achieve healthy goals? Well now there is… 

We’re proud to announce the launch of Healthy Blue Outcomes, a groundbreaking outcome-based health care plan. Healthy Blue Outcomes is a new, innovative PPO that is part of the Blues’ Healthy Blue Choices^SM suite of products, services and resources designed to promote personal wellness and member accountability. Learn more at bcbsm.com/outcomes.

The cost of care: navigating an uncertain health care landscape

All across the country, people are mystified by the cost of care. Why have health care costs soared so dramatically over the past 50 years? What elements contribute to the cost of care? What is being done to turn the situation around?

While Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan doesn’t have all the answers, we are committed to exploring what can be done to stem the tide of rising health care costs.