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From an email I got from IHC Group:
Today, the final rules for short term medical, hospital indemnity, group limited medical, group gap, critical illness and other supplemental products were released by the Department of the Treasury, Department of Labor and Department of Health and Human Services (the “Departments”). The final rules make some, but not all of the changes that were expected.
Short Term Medical
The Departments express concern that insureds are purchasing short term medical insurance in place of an Obamacare plan and therefore have issued the following rules effective January 1, 2017: 1) the policy must be limited to 90 days or less in duration and 2) the policy and application must state that short term medical is not minimum essential coverage and that a penalty may be owed.
There are several pieces of good news in this new rule! Although the effective date for the rule is January 1, 2017, the Departments will not enforce this new rule until April 1, 2017. The delayed enforcement has one catch - any policies sold must terminate on or before December 31, 2017, they cannot continue into 2018. This means that we will continue selling our short term medical policies for durations of longer than 90 days until March 31, 2017. Our system is already set up to accept monthly and single pay policies that terminate on December 31, so we are in compliance with this portion of the rules with only limited changes to our systems.
Today, the final rules for short term medical, hospital indemnity, group limited medical, group gap, critical illness and other supplemental products were released by the Department of the Treasury, Department of Labor and Department of Health and Human Services (the “Departments”). The final rules make some, but not all of the changes that were expected.
Short Term Medical
The Departments express concern that insureds are purchasing short term medical insurance in place of an Obamacare plan and therefore have issued the following rules effective January 1, 2017: 1) the policy must be limited to 90 days or less in duration and 2) the policy and application must state that short term medical is not minimum essential coverage and that a penalty may be owed.
There are several pieces of good news in this new rule! Although the effective date for the rule is January 1, 2017, the Departments will not enforce this new rule until April 1, 2017. The delayed enforcement has one catch - any policies sold must terminate on or before December 31, 2017, they cannot continue into 2018. This means that we will continue selling our short term medical policies for durations of longer than 90 days until March 31, 2017. Our system is already set up to accept monthly and single pay policies that terminate on December 31, so we are in compliance with this portion of the rules with only limited changes to our systems.