It’s now just a matter of weeks before the first healthcare reform provisions start kicking in for plan years beginning on Sept. 23 or later. But changes to your plans aren’t the only things that are required.
Employers must also provide their workforces with a slew of notices regarding the reform law’s mandates and coverage changes.
Here are four notices you’re required to give plan participants:
- Notice of grandfathered status. If your plan will maintain its grandfathered status, you’re required to tell that to plan participants.
- Notice of special enrollment for those who’ve hit their lifetime limit. The law bans health plans from putting lifetime limits on the dollar amount of healthcare coverage participants receive. So those who’d reached their limits must now be given a special enrollment notice indicating that they are eligible for coverage again.
- Primary care designation and OB/GYN notice. You must communicate that each employee has the right to designate a primary care physician who will coordinate his or her health care. You must also inform your female employees that they can obtain OB/GYN care without prior authorization.
- Notice of new dependent eligibility rules. Health plans must now offer coverage to participant’s dependent children under the age of 26, and participants must be notified that their dependent children are now eligible for enrollment.
Your insurance provider should be able to supply you with these notices, but it’s ultimately the employer’s responsibility to make sure plan participants receive them.
Info: For model language you can use to satisfy these notice requirements, click here.
