Health Insurance Rates have been released

Oregon’s health insurance exchange is moving forward and appears to be on track to keep their original timeline.  Individual and small group plans should go on sale in October 2013.  In July 2013 the exchange started approving health insurance rates that had been submitted in April by participating health insurance carriers.  A number of rates filings have been approved during the first two weeks of July.  You can see a sample of the approved rates at: http://www.oregonhealthrates.org/?pg=approved_rates.html 

Protecting Your Unemployment Account

Employers are often surprised at how easily a former employee can establish a successful unemployment claim.  With respect to unemployment claims, the largest misconception among employers is that terminating an employee for substandard performance will disqualify the individual from receiving unemployment benefits.  In most states, unless the employee’s behavior rises to a level of “misconduct,” the claimant will be deemed eligible for unemployment benefits.  Thus, terminating an employee for “poor performance,” “incompetence” or “inability to perform the job” will almost always qualify the former employee for unemployment benefits.

ACA Employer Mandate Delayed

A delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act was announced yesterday.  The mandate for businesses who employ 50 or more workers to provide health insurance has been delayed until 2015.  The delay is to provide more time to comply with the new rules and reporting requirements.

The individual and small business exchanges are still on track to open for enrollment on October 1.