02/23/2011
Reform reference to nondiscrimination has been omitted from renewal documents
The Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) has directed us to remove a paragraph in our renewal letters referring to the new reform law's nondiscrimination rules. This is due to the suspended enforcement of this part of the law we wrote about earlier this year. This change was implemented on Feb. 18, 2011. Any Initial Renewal Proposal (IRP) or renewal letters sent after Feb. 18, 2011, won't have this paragraph in the letter. As a reminder, the language is as follows:
Effective September 23, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act prohibits employers from discriminating in favor of highly compensated individuals as set forth in Internal Revenue Code section 105(h) and implementing regulations. Regence BlueShield is unable to determine whether a plan discriminates in a way that violates the new law because it does not have access to information such as corporate structure, employee salaries, stock ownership, length of service, percentage of premiums paid by the employer, etc. Because the new law imposes fines on employers with discriminatory plans, Regence BlueShield recommends that employers obtain tax and/or legal advice to ensure they comply with nondiscrimination requirements.
If you have any questions, please talk to your Regence sales contact.
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