News

On July 20^th, the Early Retiree and Reinsurance Program (ERRP) issued a 6-page document on allowable usage of any reimbursements from the ERRP.  The emphasis is that a group health plan is prohibited from taking any ERRP reimbursements and applying them to the general revenue of the group health plan.  The ERRP reimbursements must be used to offset plan participants’ premiums, copays, deductibles, out-of-pocket costs, etc.  A copy of the document can be found at:

 

 

Also on July 20^th, the ERRP released an updated 111-page document listing all the approved ERRP group health plans and the amount of ERRP reimbursements received by each through June 10, 2011.  The list is categorized alphabetically by group health plan by state and a copy of the document can be found at:

 

 

Through June 10, 2011, the ERRP has paid out over $2.716B in group health plan reimbursements.  Under the Affordable Care Act, the ERRP was funded with $5B which was expected to last until 2014.  Almost immediately, it was predicted the $5B would be exhausted long before 2014.  Most estimates were the funds would be gone in 2012 and some estimates had the funds exhausted by as early as the end of 2011.  A new bill for refunding the ERRP with another $5B has been proposed by four Democratic senators however, as of this date, has not been put to a vote by either the House of the Senate.