Health Reform: The Devil is in the Details
When I was in graduate school I had a professor who would always say "always remember, the big print giveth and the small print taketh away." He was referring to reviewing financial reports and how important it was to review the small print (footnotes) at the end of the spreadsheets (always in small print). The long, hard-fought battle over-health care legislation is quickly turning into a battle over health-care regulations.
Three key things to remember:
- The longer key parts of the bill remain unclear; renewal rates for plans will assume the worst-case scenario.
- Since most employer plans renew in January, brokers and consultants will need to develop their renewal story as meetings start occurring in July and August to discuss January renewals.
- What will be their "story"?
Most employer plans received double-digit increases for 2010. With the health reform act providing more access with no cost controls in place, you can expect double digit increases in 2011. Raising deductibles and coinsurance and adjusting network access is no longer an acceptable renewal story. Brokers and consultants will need to share a completely different way to manage the escalating costs of healthcare. What's in place today is not working and will not work in the future.
We at NCN believe you must address healthcare like any other business and that is to manage from what it "cost" to deliver care not from what is "charged" to deliver care.
The ultimate impact of the law President Obama signed depends on fine print that has yet to be written. As my professor said, "the big print giveth and the small print taketh away." Let's watch carefully over the next few months the small print that is being written in Washington.