The Affordable Care Act requires covered health plans to offer certain features. However, under the Act, certain “excepted benefits” are exempt from those requirements. Under new proposed rules, the government seeks to expand the scope of excepted benefits.
The proposed rules make it easier for employers to offer limited dental or vision benefits. Previously, for these benefits to be excepted, an employer had to require employees to pay an additional premium. The proposed rules remove that requirement. They also make it easier for employers to offer “wrap around” coverage. This coverage gives employees who cannot afford their employer’s plan some additional coverage if they get insurance elsewhere. Finally, they would treat employee assistance programs as an excepted benefit, starting in 2015. This may make it easier for employers to offer additional health benefits to their employees.
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