Health Care: 8 tips to implement new laws
There are only two main amendments required related to Health Care Reform in 2010-11 (depending on your plan year).Age 26 Dependents – Your group health plan must provide coverage for all adult children. “Adult” is defined as age 18-26. You may not use any other status to qualify dependents, such as student status or marital status. You may continue to cover other individuals such as domestic partners or financial dependents, but you are mandated to cover adult children. Your plan documents should be amended to clarify the “Dependent” definition. You will likely need to carefully examine and coordinate provisions such as Michelle’s Law with the Health Care Reform’s dependent coverage mandate.
A frequent question is what to do with individuals who may be impacted by the dependent provision now. Most health insurers are allowing for enrollment in the current plan year for individuals who would otherwise lose coverage by aging out of the plan’s current definition of dependent. For example, a plan which provides coverage through age 24 and the individual turns age 25 in June of the current plan year would be allowed to remain on the plan. However, insurers are generally reluctant to allow a nonenrolled individual onto the plan during this plan year without additional underwriting.
