If your company will be adversely affected by health reform’s restrictions on annual coverage limits, you’ll want to apply for an exemption right away.
Reason: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has approved 94% of companies’ requests to be exempted from the annual limits restrictions — mostly from sponsors of “mini-med” and other limited benefit plans.
So far the HHS has received 975 waiver requests. The agency has approved 919 of those and denied just 56.
For companies with calendar year plan (plans starting on Jan. 1), the annual limits are $750,000 in 2011.
Those limits will then be raised to $1.25 million in 2012, $2 million in 2013 and, starting in 2014, health plans can’t set annual limits on coverage.
To see the complete federal guidance on how your health plan can obtain a waiver to be exempt from the annual coverage limits, click.