The clock is ticking. There’s only a few weeks left to prepare for some key provisions of the healthcare reform law.
All health plans with new plan years beginning on or after September 23 must begin complying with several reform changes in a month’s time.
Here’s are some of the major changes you’ll want to make sure your Benefits department is in compliance with:
Employers must extend dependent coverage to all dependent children (even married ones) up to age 26.
Lifetime limits on the dollar value of healthcare coverage (how much an individual’s healthcare coverage pays out to cover claim) is prohibited.
Health plans can’t deny children coverage because of a pre-existing condition. (But your plan can require workers to sign up their children only during open enrollment to ensure they don’t wait until their child is sick to purchase healthcare coverage.)
One exception: Grandfathered health plans. If your plan has a grandfathered status (a health plan that existed as of March 23, 2010 — the day the reform law went into effect), you don’t have to comply with these changes.
Here is a more detailed list of the Sept. 23 changes.