2013 begins the Affordable Care Act’s adjustments to government run insurance programs including access to preventive care under Medicare, higher payments to primary care physicians, bundling of expenses which will allow government payments per event rather than per service for Medicare patients, and extension of funding for CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
In private insurance, look for easier-to-read summaries of benefits (also called SBCs, Summary of Benefits Coverage) which remember do not qualify as your insurance contract but should make it easier to find out how your insurance covers you, the establishment of health benefits exchanges in October, and the expansion of Medicaid in states that choose to provide for expanded Medicaid services to their populations.
If you’ve used Flexible Savings Accounts, FSAs, you’re going to see a change to the amount you can put into these accounts which provides for a maximum of $2,500.00. FSAs, which frequently provided much higher limits to amounts employees could put into their flexible savings have always presented the risk of employees losing money set aside if they didn’t spend it for medical expenses.
Plan year versus New Year are often different dates. The contractual provisions of your insurance plan, such as the above provision regarding the option of FSAs will still run a year beginning with the start of your plan year and ending with the end of your insurance plan year rather than the calendar year. Provisions that kick in with the Affordable Care Act do not affect plans already in place for the coming year such as those members chose last October or November.
