Obamacare upheld: employers urged to explore options.

• Author: Melani, Debra
• Position: HEALTH-CARE REFORM

In June, as health-reform advocates were dancing in the streets and opponents were vowing a re-energized fight, following the U.S. Supreme Court's monumental upholding of the Affordable Care Act, Bill Lindsay was fielding an onslaught of calls from employers: What does this mean? What. do I do? His answer: It's time for everyone, political opinions aside, to stop the foot-dragging and get prepared if they want .to survive the health-reform ride that lies ahead.

"A lot of them have been sort of hoping and wishing that this would go away," said Lindsay, president of Lockton Employee Benefits Group. People are now finding that playing the waiting game in hopes that the law would be thrown out did not make good business sense, said Lindsay, who specializes in health reform.

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Even with a renewed oath of repeal from Republicans and an intense November election likely, history shows dismantling major legislation doesn't happen quickly. "If businesses are waiting to see what happens, they could be waiting forever," said Dede de Percin, executive director of the Colorado Consumes Health Initiative. "As long as it's the law of the land, this is what we need to be doing."

For employers, that means bracing for increased costs and new regulations at the insurance-renewal table again this fall, planning for industry transformations such as the health insurance exchange, and finding the educational resources, needed to keep them apprised and afloat.

BRACING FOR COSTS

Some business owners might be blind-sided 1w a number 01 new rules them when renewing policies this year many of which increase costs (see changes sidebar). "Some of them are soft costs, because they are purely administrative. But some of them are actually going to result in hard costs," Lindsay said. Just one example: Beginning this renewal period, all employers will face a lee of $1 per covered life (including spouses and dependents) which increases to $2 per covered life the following year. Neither Bob Deibel, president of a 350-employee group of companies drat includes OfficeScapes, nor Tony Gagliardi, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, was aware of the fee.

"The complexity of the law is so great and so deep, its hard to find anyone, quite frankly, who really fully and completely understands top to bottom, A to Z," said Deibel whose company recently went to a partially sell-funded plan to help mitigate the changing pressures of the health industry. Gagliardi said his ignorance on the $1 fire exemplifies what employers will be facing: a number of surprise costs from the ACA. "There's like 26 hidden taxes in there. and I've only gotten through the first two. That's what happens when you have a plan written behind closed doors."

Most business owners won't be surprised to hear that they should gird for a premium increase. although, for the first time in years, the Colorado Division of Insurance has...