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The Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2010 signed by the President on July 22, 2010, did not extend the COBRA premium reduction.  Read more at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.html

Tagged with: ARRA • COBRA • Unemployment

Another week and another set of regulations has been released by the Administration to aid the implementation of health care reform.  This set addresses the law’s requirement that health plans and health insurers provide coverage for certain preventive services without imposing any cost-sharing requirements (e.g., copayment, coinsurance, deductibles).  The new regulations are effective are effective [...]

Tagged with: Healthcare reform • HHS • preventive care • regulations

When policymakers were crafting the comprehensive health care reform legislation enacted as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, H.R. 3590) and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4872), an oft‐repeated promise was “If you like your current coverage, you can keep it.” To fulfill that promise, the reform [...]

Tagged with: grandfather plan • grandfathering • Healthcare reform • PPACA

Summary and impact of PPACA Insurance Market Provisions – as compiled by AHIP. Health Care Reform Bill Insurance Market Provisions Timeline

Tagged with: Healthcare reform • PPACA • timeline

On April 15, 2010, the President signed H.R. 4851 which extends the subsidy eligibility date from the current March 31, 2010 (per the Temporary Extension Act of 2010) to May 31, 2010. Employees who are involuntarily terminated between September 1, 2008 and May 31, 2010 may be eligible for reduced rates (that are 65% subsidized [...]

Healthcare Reform…what does it mean for you? On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) which revised by the House Reconciliation Bill that was signed into effect on March 30, 2010. With this new law, the employer based system of providing healthcare to employees is maintained. [...]

Tagged with: Healthcare reform • lunch and learn • medicare

Olympic Crest Insurance offices will be closed from noon, Thursday March 25 through Friday March 26 with no access to phone or email in order to move to our new location. The office will reopen Monday, March 29, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. in our new location: 11505 Burnham Drive NW, Suite 101 Gig Harbor, WA [...]

Tagged with: Blog • moving

National Healthcare . . . What Would This Mean for You? National Healthcare is the big topic these days. Regardless of what end of the political spectrum you are on, there are disagreements on what should be done regarding healthcare. Everyone agrees that the system is not perfect and there are a large number of [...]

Tagged with: National Healthcare • newsletter • stress

This recent article appearing on MSN tells us that a growing chorus of medical professionals, researchers and ordinary citizens contend that the touchy topic of individual responsibility has been ignored in the health reform debate. Click here to read this thought-provoking article.

Tagged with: Healthcare reform

We are interested in your opinion.  With the current economy employers are taking a hard look at their employee benefit programs to ensure they are providing a quality program at competitive rates.  Help us understand how you currently rate certain features in your program.  This survey will take less than 5 minutes of your time [...]

Tagged with: Survey