"Compliance uneven on health care law; Audits raise concern; business leaders call state’s rules confusing" by Kay Lazar, Globe Staff | October 1, 2009
As Congress debates a national overhaul that mirrors many of the key points of the Massachusetts law, the audit results and the complaints from employers show that writing and passing sweeping insurance legislation is only a first step. How it is interpreted by regulators and how it is enforced will have much to do with its success....
Audits of select Massachusetts businesses suggest that a substantial number may not be providing workers the health coverage required by the state’s landmark 2006 insurance law....
Regulators cautioned that the audit findings are not representative of the business community as a whole. The lack of compliance among the audited companies contrasts with data businesses have reported, which the state previously said indicated that 97 percent of Massachusetts businesses were meeting the insurance law’s requirements.
So the 97% figure was basically a self-serving number pulled out of their ass, huh?
Business leaders say the audit results do not paint an accurate picture of compliance or of companies’ good-faith attempts to play by the rules. The problem, they said, is that the rules are so confusing that many employers are having a hard time understanding what is required of them. And some say they have been assessed penalties unfairly; 38 companies have appealed the audit findings....
Yeah, let's make this a NATIONAL MODEL!
Many of the audited firms were restaurants, temporary help firms, and providers of home health care or janitorial services.
Yeah, that is how they get around it: Hawaiian Healthcare
Among those found to be noncompliant is Nancy Carlson, owner of a Westborough staffing company who is trying to sort out why she was assessed $75,000, including the amount the state said she had underpaid since 2006, and a fine. “Its been an all-consuming process,’’ she said, “trying to run a business and deal with this.’’
Carlson believes she has complied with the law and appealed in July, seeking a hearing. She said she has heard nothing from the state. Meanwhile, penalties are mounting. State law requires most employers to contribute at least 33 percent toward their full-time workers’ health insurance coverage and to have at least 25 percent of their full-time employees on the plan or face fines. Smaller employers have to meet only one of those two requirements, and businesses with fewer than the equivalent of 11 full-time workers are exempt from the law.
The state had projected that it would collect $30 million in penalties from businesses in the current fiscal year, but data released to the Globe by the Division of Unemployment Assistance, the state agency in charge of the audits and fine collections, indicates that revenue is coming in at an annualized rate of about $20 million.
They are never right about anything: State Slashers Loose in Massachusetts
It is unclear whether this shortfall is related to the lack of compliance identified by the audits. Sarah Iselin - commissioner of the state Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, the agency that made the revenue projection - said it is too soon to say whether collections will meet her agency’s estimate. The penalty payments are deposited into the state’s Commonwealth Care Trust Fund, which helps fund subsidized health insurance for low-income residents and health care for the remaining uninsured.
You are better off not working at all then.
The state data show that roughly 33,000 companies are required to offer health insurance to their workers or face fines. But with just four auditors, the Division of Unemployment Assistance is stretched thin. Auditors did not start knocking on doors until last December, two years after the law went into effect, and they are, director Edward Malmborg said, still on a learning curve.
Also see: On-the-Job Training
WE CAN'T AFFORD anymore LEARNING CURVES in this state!
“We are always working to improve the process, because it’s such a new process,’’ Malmborg said. “We are trying to be as fair and precise as possible.’’
--more--"
But EVERYBODY LIKE IT, says the agenda-pushing Glob!
"State’s health system popular; But backing dips in course of a year; Poll suggests costs worry the public" by Kay Lazar, Globe Staff | September 28, 2009
Public support for Massachusetts’ closely watched health insurance overhaul has slipped over the past year, a new poll indicates, but residents still support the path-breaking 2006 law by a 2-to-1 ratio.
Amid a severe recession that has led to cuts in state programs and unrelenting job losses, 59 percent of those surveyed said they favored the state’s multimillion-dollar insurance initiative, down from 69 percent a year ago. The poll, by the Harvard School of Public Health and The Boston Globe, found that opposition to the law stands at 28 percent, up slightly from 22 percent in a June 2008 survey.
That's because PEOPLE are BEGINNING to find out INFLATED the COSTS are!
Related: Why the Nation Doesn't Need Massachusetts Health Care
Massachusetts Health Care Takes a Seat on the S***ter
Gee, sure sounds like a RIP-OFF to me!
Percolating throughout the poll findings is a gnawing concern over rising health care costs, suggesting that support could erode further if the state fails to slow the growth of medical spending. With key features of the state law at the heart of the blistering national health care debate in Congress, architects and observers of the Massachusetts plan say the poll findings indicate that a national overhaul is not only possible, but politically viable....
Yeah, before the public knows what hit them.
Related: Why Obama Wants A Health Care Bill This Year
So it is not about YOUR HEALTH after all, is it?
Double-digit increases in premiums have become almost routine in Massachusetts, with the state’s major insurers saying they will raise rates about 10 percent next year.
Related: The Massachusetts Model: Comes At a Premium
This trend began well before the overhaul passed, however....
And IT KEEPS on going, huh? I thought the "reform" was supposed to fix that?
But the national model will, huh? Pfffffftttt!!!!
In the Harvard/Globe poll, poll, 43 percent of respondents favored fully restoring the funding for legal immigrants, while 28 percent said funding should be left at current levels and 19 percent said it should be eliminated entirely....
Now I know the numbers are rigged.
“I’m very encouraged to see there is still overwhelming support in Massachusetts for health care reform, despite all the confusion that seems to be going on about this in the national debate,’’ said Jon Kingsdale, executive director of the Connector Authority, the quasi-state agency that oversees much of the Massachusetts law.
This is a self-serving poll -- like all Globe polls.
How come they didn't front-page this one?
Most of those surveyed said they didn’t think the law has had much of a direct impact on their lives. Roughly a quarter thought it had improved the quality of their health care and their ability to pay medical bills if they get sick....
That's because THEY HAVEN'T ACCESSED their insurance!!!
Public hearings are slated to begin next month on a state commission’s recommendations to rein in costs by dramatically revamping the way doctors and hospitals are paid.
Related: The Massachusetts Model: Doctors' Diet
Yup, LESS CARE will COST YOU MORE!
That's "reform?"
Blendon said the survey’s findings on cost control suggest that perhaps leaders in Washington should consider following the Massachusetts formula: Aim for universal coverage first, and then tackle costs.
Yeah, that's worked out real good!
“The fact that Massachusetts is still going along with a still relatively popular law, by doing it in pieces, may be the best piece of advice Massachusetts can give the nation,’’ he said. “This was politically doable here because all of the difficult choices of slowing costs weren’t on the table.’’
--more--"Related:
- The Massachusetts Model: Working Or Not?
- The Massachusetts Model: Comes At a Premium
- The Massachusetts Model: Screwing Small Business
- The Massachusetts Model: Going Out of Business
- The Massachusetts Model: Crazy Coverage
- The Massachusetts Model: Immigrant Insult
- The Massachusetts Model: Profit and the Paycheck
- The Massachusetts Model: Doctors' Diet
- The Massachusetts Model: By the Numbers
- The Massachusetts Model: Treasurer's Assessment
- The Massachusetts Model: Care-Keeping Costs
- The Massachusetts Model: Mass. Hospitality
- The Massachusetts Model: Lessons Learned
