Healthcare reform is on everyone’s minds these days. The HR Policy Association recently sent a letter to President Obama offering there recommendations on healthcare reform. The HR Policy Association is a representation of large U.S. employers.
“Our members very much want health care reform, but they are concerned that the proposals as presently written could create a strong disincentive for expanding employment opportunities in the United States," said Jeffrey C. McGuiness, CEO of the HR Policy Association, in a statement.
Here are the recommendations they put forth to the President:
• Preserve ERISA pre-emption. Congress should preserve full Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) pre-emption, which the group says has been an effective policy allowing multistate employers to develop and administer benefit plans under uniform rules. This includes continuing to prohibit legal action against ERISA plans in state courts.
• Avoid new federal benefit mandates. The federal government should not impose specific benefit mandates on employers that would undermine their ability to manage their health plans, pursue innovative approaches to control costs, improve quality and offer benefits that meet the needs of their employee populations and companies. Congress should avoid imposing expensive minimum benefit requirements on employers that force them to offer generous benefit plans with costs that neither employers nor beneficiaries can afford.
• Preserve incentives for healthy behaviors, prevention and wellness. Continue to permit benefit designs that drive healthy behavior and create strong personal and financial incentives for adopting healthy behaviors, such as allowing meaningful premium discounts for beneficiaries who enroll in health risk assessments and other programs to improve their health.
• Preserve the ability of employers to promote wise consumer decision-making. Employers should be allowed to continue to design affordable, consumer-directed health care plans for their employees that encourage them to be smart consumers about the relative cost and effectiveness of varying treatments and providers. This includes preserving tax-advantaged health financing vehicles such as flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, and health reimbursement arrangements.
• Preserve flexibility and innovation in benefit design. Provisions restricting the use of sustainable plan design (such as co-insurance, co-payments, updates to fixed-dollar features) could drive cost escalation in existing or “grandfathered” employer-sponsored health care plans.
• Avoid "maintenance of effort" provisions. So-called "maintenance of effort" provisions that inhibit a company’s ability to adjust to changing financial and market conditions should be avoided. An example is the prohibition against post-retirement reductions in retiree health benefits.
• Ensure that large employers can maintain sustainable risk pools. Policies to expand coverage through new health insurance exchanges should be done in a way that does not lead to significant adverse selection for large employer plans, which would drive up the cost of employer coverage significantly. Permitting people with access to comprehensive employer-based insurance to opt out of that coverage and enter an exchange should be avoided or restricted.
Included among a list of general health care reform recommendations are:
• Promote malpractice reform. Reform tort laws to create a reasonable safe harbor that limits malpractice claims against providers who follow approved medical protocol in delivering care. This will help to reduce costs linked to the practice of defensive medicine and create incentives for providers to report errors, disclose quality data and follow best-practice guidelines in the delivery of care.
• Create a pathway for approval of generic biologic drugs. Establish a regulatory pathway to allow the Food and Drug Administration to approve generic forms of brand name biologic drugs.
“Our members very much want health care reform, but they are concerned that the proposals as presently written could create a strong disincentive for expanding employment opportunities in the United States," said Jeffrey C. McGuiness, CEO of the HR Policy Association, in a statement.
Here are the recommendations they put forth to the President:
• Preserve ERISA pre-emption. Congress should preserve full Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) pre-emption, which the group says has been an effective policy allowing multistate employers to develop and administer benefit plans under uniform rules. This includes continuing to prohibit legal action against ERISA plans in state courts.
• Avoid new federal benefit mandates. The federal government should not impose specific benefit mandates on employers that would undermine their ability to manage their health plans, pursue innovative approaches to control costs, improve quality and offer benefits that meet the needs of their employee populations and companies. Congress should avoid imposing expensive minimum benefit requirements on employers that force them to offer generous benefit plans with costs that neither employers nor beneficiaries can afford.
• Preserve incentives for healthy behaviors, prevention and wellness. Continue to permit benefit designs that drive healthy behavior and create strong personal and financial incentives for adopting healthy behaviors, such as allowing meaningful premium discounts for beneficiaries who enroll in health risk assessments and other programs to improve their health.
• Preserve the ability of employers to promote wise consumer decision-making. Employers should be allowed to continue to design affordable, consumer-directed health care plans for their employees that encourage them to be smart consumers about the relative cost and effectiveness of varying treatments and providers. This includes preserving tax-advantaged health financing vehicles such as flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, and health reimbursement arrangements.
• Preserve flexibility and innovation in benefit design. Provisions restricting the use of sustainable plan design (such as co-insurance, co-payments, updates to fixed-dollar features) could drive cost escalation in existing or “grandfathered” employer-sponsored health care plans.
• Avoid "maintenance of effort" provisions. So-called "maintenance of effort" provisions that inhibit a company’s ability to adjust to changing financial and market conditions should be avoided. An example is the prohibition against post-retirement reductions in retiree health benefits.
• Ensure that large employers can maintain sustainable risk pools. Policies to expand coverage through new health insurance exchanges should be done in a way that does not lead to significant adverse selection for large employer plans, which would drive up the cost of employer coverage significantly. Permitting people with access to comprehensive employer-based insurance to opt out of that coverage and enter an exchange should be avoided or restricted.
Included among a list of general health care reform recommendations are:
• Promote malpractice reform. Reform tort laws to create a reasonable safe harbor that limits malpractice claims against providers who follow approved medical protocol in delivering care. This will help to reduce costs linked to the practice of defensive medicine and create incentives for providers to report errors, disclose quality data and follow best-practice guidelines in the delivery of care.
• Create a pathway for approval of generic biologic drugs. Establish a regulatory pathway to allow the Food and Drug Administration to approve generic forms of brand name biologic drugs.
