{"id":253,"date":"2014-06-17T11:39:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T15:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hnetalk.com\/hcr\/?p=253"},"modified":"2014-06-17T11:39:05","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T15:39:05","slug":"maximum-out-of-pocket-for-health-care-may-2014-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/broker\/2014\/06\/17\/maximum-out-of-pocket-for-health-care-may-2014-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Maximum Out-of-Pocket for Health Care – May 2014 Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frequently Asked Questions for Sponsors of Self-Insured Health Plans<\/strong>
\nWhat is Maximum Out-of-Pocket (MOOP)?<\/strong>
\nMOOP is the most that a plan member is required to pay for health care services during a plan year.
\nWhich Member Costs Are Applied To a Member\u2019s MOOP?<\/strong>
\nThe Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has standardized which costs are applied to MOOP. All member cost-sharing payments for essential health benefits (EHBs) must count toward determining the member\u2019s MOOP. These include copays, deductibles, and coinsurance. Premium payments by the member are not applied to the calculation of MOOP.
\nWhat are EHBs?<\/strong>
\nAs defined in the ACA, EHBs are the ten categories of benefits that small group employers must cover as part of their health care plans. The ten categories are
\n\u2022 Ambulatory services, such as doctor\u2019s visits and outpatient services
\n\u2022 Emergency services
\n\u2022 Hospitalization
\n\u2022 Maternity and newborn care
\n\u2022 Mental health and substance use disorder services
\n\u2022 Prescription drugs
\n\u2022 Rehabilitative and habilitative services
\n\u2022 Laboratory services
\n\u2022 Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
\n\u2022 Pediatric services, including oral and vision care
\nAs a large group employer, is my company required to offer coverage for EHBs?<\/strong>
\nNo, the ACA does not require large group employers to offer coverage for all ten categories of EHBs. However, if a plan offered by a large group employer covers any of the EHBs, the member cost-sharing for those EHBs must be applied to the member\u2019s MOOP.
\nAs the sponsor of a self-insured health plan, do I have to establish a MOOP? If so, how much does the MOOP have to be?<\/strong>
\nYes, all health plans, whether fully- or self-insured, must establish a MOOP for their plan years that began on or after January 1, 2014. The ACA provides that the MOOP cannot exceed the deductible limits established by the IRS for high-deductible health plans. In 2015, those limits are $6,600 for an individual and $13,200 for a family. The IRS adjusts these limits annually. You are allowed to set your plan\u2019s MOOP below those limits.
\nIn 2014, there was a safe harbor for plans that use separate third-party administrators for medical\/surgical benefits and pharmacy. Has that safe harbor been changed?<\/strong>
\nYes, there are changes to the 2014 safe harbor for plans that use different companies to administer benefits. Beginning with plan years starting on or after January 1, 2015, all EHBs must be subject to MOOP. However, if your plan uses separate administrators, you can still establish separate MOOPs for the benefits administered by different companies. If the plan decides to establish separate MOOPs for the benefits administered by different companies, the total of all the MOOPs cannot exceed the maximum allowable amount for the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frequently Asked Questions for Sponsors of Self-Insured Health Plans What is Maximum Out-of-Pocket (MOOP)? MOOP is the most that a plan member is required to pay for health care services during a plan year. Which Member Costs Are Applied To a Member\u2019s MOOP? The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has standardized which costs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hcr"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ZZOS-45","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/broker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/broker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/broker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/broker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/broker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/broker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/broker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/broker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/broker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}