John Hickman Quoted in Health Plan Week

John Hickman was quoted in a Health Plan Week article discussing new interim final rules released by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury that describe regulations that employer health insurance programs must abide by to maintain grandfather status against sweeping health care reforms mandated by the PPACA passed last spring.  Hickman noted that, in the wake of likely rate hikes in 2011, employers are put in a difficult position.  “While we had some indication that the agencies would adopt a more restrictive view—the breadth of the restrictions on changes came as a major surprise,” he said.  “Really, the only good news was solid confirmation that retiree-only plans and excepted benefits (e.g., dental, vision, cancer) are completely exempt from the new PPACA mandates.”