J.P. Farley News and Blog

Private Exchanges are the topic of one of this morning’s Wall Street Journal articles.  The gist of the article is that when given a fixed amount of money to spend, the number of employees choosing the lowest cost option increases substantially.

Last week we ran a commentary on a New York Times article about the success of self funding for small and mid-size group employee benefit plans.  The employers quoted found self funding to be most effective.  There were also negative comments from Obama administration and state level regulators in the article.  Their negativity was based on the incorrect assumption that the only employers that would benefit from self funding would be young, healthy groups and their fear that these young, healthy groups would choose self funding over their insurance exchanges which will begin in 2014.   

I last reported on a New York Times article on small and mid-sized employers opting to self insure and the regulators fear that this would drive up the cost of coverage in the new Insurance Exchanges created under the Accountable Care Act (ACA).  The regulators fear was that groups with young, healthy employees will self insure leaving the Exchanges with the sick and older population. 

An article in the February 17, 2013 edition of the New York Times discussed small and mid-sized employers choosing to move from insured plans to self insured plans with stop loss coverage in response to the Accountable Care Act (ACA)  otherwise known as Health Care Reform or Obamacare.  Consultants and experts in the group employee benefit business began predicting the movement from insured plans to self insured plans as soon as the ACA went into effect so the fact that this is actually occurring is no surprise.  According to the article, the employers who were quoted have considered the move to self insurance to be successful.

Thanks to everyone who joined J.P. Farley Corporation for our educational webinar on find Success Beyond the PPO Network. Jason Smith and Robert Bernath provided a wealth of information in this presentation that looks towards innovation to tackle the cost problem for group employee benefit plans.

Financial advisors often tell people that it is important that they not spend more than they earn. No matter what kind of discounts or price cuts a person gets on the items they buy, what is most important is the big picture: not sending out more money than they have in their coffers. After all, what good does it do to point to the discount you were offered if you have spent more than you really needed to spend?

Flushing unused prescription drugs down the sink or toilet is one of the three medical disposal methods recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (see our previous post). While safe when used as prescribed, many prescription drugs can be harmful and even fatal – especially to children and pets -- when ingested by someone for whom the medicine was not prescribed. Certain potentially dangerous medications are even accompanied by instructions to flush unused portions to immediately remove possible risk of unintentional poisoning.

Unintentional poisoning is the second leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Every day nearly 100 Americans die from unintentional poisoning and another 2,000 are treated in hospital emergency rooms. While child-proof packaging has reduced the number of children who are killed or injured by unintentional poisoning, more than 45,000 children die from unintentional poisoning every year; the majority from ingesting prescription drugs intended for another family member.

While the failure of the congressional “super committee” to reach an agreement triggers a 2% across-the-board cut to Medicare, this is thought to be far less than the $500 to $700 billion lawmakers on the panel were discussing prior to their deadline. Physicians and hospitals will feel the impact but the $123 billion that will need to be cut over the next 10 years is minimal compared to cuts imposed by deficit reduction legislation enacted in recent years.