Deadline Is Here: Are You Enrolled?
Here’s a friendly reminder that the deadline for Open Enrollment for coverage in 2014 is here. Today is the last day to enroll, which means you may miss your window of opportunity for health insurance coverage this year if you haven’t signed up on the exchange by the end of the day. The next Open Enrollment period is November 15, 2014 for coverage to begin January 1, 2015.
If you have chosen not to have health coverage in 2014, you may face a penalty, but not if you enroll by today, March 31. For other important dates and details about 2015 Open Enrollment, see here.
Taxes & the Affordable Care Act
Tax season is underway; which means you should start thinking about the tax implications on health reform when it comes to the Affordable Care Act.
If you’ve purchased insurance through the health insurance marketplace, you may be eligible for a refundable tax credit. Fox 23 reports that when taxpayers were signing up, the option was available to estimate their 2014 income to see if it was possible to qualify for credit and have it applied in advanced to the cost of premiums. If this is the case for you and your family, it’s important to actively inform the particular exchange you purchased your insurance through of any changes in your situation throughout the year such as having a child or a salary increase.
Make sure you understand what this means for your taxes, especially if you haven’t enrolled in health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and are planning on it. Don’t forget that the deadline is March 31, 2014. Many people think the deadline has already passed, but there’s still plenty of time! Taxes are due just shortly after the 31st and it will be helpful to know exactly what to expect. To learn more about the Affordable Care Act visit our microsite at www.anylabtestnow.com/health-care-reform-and-you/.
Be Crystal Clear When It Comes to Your Policy
Imagine heading to take your semi-yearly cholesterol check and as you go to pay, you are quickly told that your plan only covers a test once every two years. When you are used to your tests being covered twice a year, that’s not a fun situation to be in, which is why it’s so important to make sure you are crystal clear on what the Affordable Care Act covers in your plan when it comes to lab testing.
Preventative Care Services are available at no additional cost to you through the ACA, but some details about that can become a little fuzzy and confusing. Based on your particular insurance policy, some lab testing services may no longer be covered or covered the way they may have been in the past. It’s necessary to double check with your provider so that there aren’t any surprises!
When the time comes and you need a lab test, keep in mind that we are your affordable solution to Take Control of Your Health® and keep your premium costs as low as possible. We WILL help you in the long run when it comes to your health and your wallet.
Flexible Spending Accounts: Don’t Let It Go To Waste
If your funds aren’t used by the end of the year; some of it may not roll over and will be lost.
A Flexible Spending Account (FSA) is a tax-free account set up through an employer to use specifically for out-of-pocket health care costs. If any available funds are left over by the end of the year, $500 of any unused money can be rolled over into the next calendar year. However, that is based on the employer’s decision as to how the plan is set up and will not exceed $500 if there is more in the account at the end of the year. This is a change, as past year’s FSA accounts did not offer any money to roll over to the next year. It’s important to plan carefully on health related costs such as copayments, coinsurance, drugs, other costs and lab testing… which is where we come in!
You can use your FSA to pay for tests at ANY LAB TEST NOW®. We are committed to helping people with affordable, convenient lab testing. With thousands of options and strong alliances with leaders in the field of laboratory testing, we’re here to help you Take Control of Your Health®.
Talk to your employer about your FSA options. If you already have one set up find your closest ANY LAB TEST NOW to get in touch with an assistant who can help with your next lab test.
Health Insurance Marketplace / Obamacare from a Married 20’Something’s Point of View in GA
By Damire Winn
All of this started when I received a letter in the mail from my current health insurance company in regards to ACA and the changes to come. In this letter they offered me the opportunity to keep my current insurance plan and pay $40 more than what I currently pay. Another option was to keep my current plan with the same premium until the end of the contract and then switch over to an ACA-Compliant plan.
After reading this, my first thought was “let’s see what my options are with the Marketplace.” The way it played in my head was based on what little knowledge I have about the Affordable Care Act, the price for the new insurance plans should be affordable. So the first step to discovering my options was to go on to www.healthcare.gov and create an account.
The process to create an account was beyond frustrating. Why? Because it took me a total of 2 hours to simply enter my basic information and create the account. After 2 hours I decided to give it a rest and try the next day after I cooled off to continue my application, in order to see what my options were. The next day I decide to give one more try. After all, the letter my health insurance company sent me had a deadline for me to provide my answer. So I logged in ready to continue my application and really looking forward to my “affordable” health insurance options. Once logged in, you need to enter all of your taxpayer information. Now I have a considerably fast broadband Internet connection and for some reason each step took a minimum of 20 minutes to be processed. Again frustration started to build at an extremely fast pace.
After two and a half hours frustration won yet again. New plan! Call my health insurance company and have them find out for me. During this phone call, the representative explained to me that if I kept my current plan, all the current benefits would stay the same and they would add in maternity to the benefits. My current plan covers free preventive care, $35 copay for doctor visits, $50 copay for visits to a specialist, prescription coverage and vision. Keeping this plan means that my family (myself and my husband) gets the same coverage plus maternity for $314. But I wanted to know more, so of course I asked about the new ACA-Compliant plans and their costs. He started to explain to me that there were four different tiers of health insurance bronze, silver, gold and platinum (the Cadillac of health insurance plans).
My husband and I are both in our late 20’s and we’re non-smokers, I figured with pre-existing conditions no longer an issue (I have lived with a thyroid condition since childhood), the premiums will be relatively low and maybe we will be able to afford a higher tier than bronze. First the representative explained to me that prices vary by state and that with the new ACA-Compliant plans benefits were still being worked out. The items plans covered in the past might not be covered under the new plans. He gave an example of the bronze tier insurance plan; he said that this plan covers preventive care only if your physician bills the visit as preventive care. In order to get prescription coverage he said that it has to be purchased separately.
So I asked him to tailor a quote to my situation, my state being GA, again both my husband and myself in our late 20’s and non-smokers. I wanted to know what my options were. The quote he gave me almost knocked me out of my seat. He said that for us a bronze tier plan will cost $662/month. After listening to him, I struggled to find the affordable part in the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare.
At the end of our conversation he suggested I take the offer to keep my current plan for $40 more than what I currently pay. With my current plan I already know what my benefits are and he said my current plan is an equivalent of what the Gold or Platinum tier will be in terms of coverage. Then he said something that I could not agree more with, he said, “Hopefully by next year the ACA-Compliant plans will actually be affordable.”
The reality of what ACA has created has sunk in and it’s not pretty. Now Americans will pay more for fewer benefits. How that made sense when they were drafting these laws is beyond me. As for the Health Insurance marketplace it has been two and a half weeks and the portal still has not been able to provide me with options. Needless to say my husband and I kept our current plan and will deal with ACA-Compliant plans next year, though we’re secretly praying that my health insurance provider decides to extend this opportunity another year just in case the prices have not gone down by the end of 2014.
