If you’re company has been granted – or wishes to receive – a waiver from the provision of the health reform law that phases out annual dollar limits on health benefits, the application deadline is fast approaching.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) just announced that if existing waiver recipients want to extend their current waivers, they must apply to do so by Sept. 22, 2011.
The Sept. 22 deadline also applies to applications for new waivers.
Any approvals or renewals received by the deadline will be good through the end of 2013.
In 2014, no health plan can have any annual dollar limits on health coverage in place.
The waivers will only be granted to plans showing that their compliance with the reform law’s annual healthcare coverage limits would result in a significant decrease in employees’ access to benefits or a significant increase in premiums.
To maintain the waivers, plans are required to comply with all the other provisions of the reform law and alert their participants that it has restrictive coverage and low annual limits.
Info: For the Department of Health and Human Services’ Fact Sheet on the waivers and annual limits, click here.
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