Model Notices from Anthem - Part of Health Care Reform

If you are an Anthem customer, you will soon be receiving information regarding Anthem's involvement with model notices required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Depending on your funding arrangement, you will receive different letters:

• If you are fully insured, Anthem will send notices on your behalf to your employees enrolled in your medical plan. This is the letter you will be receiving. Anthem will not, however, distribute the notice to employees that are benefit eligible but not enrolled on your medical plan. Therefore, it is your responsibility to notify employees not enrolled in the medical plan.   
• If you are self funded (ASO), Anthem will send you a model notice, but it is upon you as the employer to distribute this information to your employees, both those on and off themedical plan. This is the letter you will be receiving.

You can find the Department of Labor’s model notices here, but frankly, they're confusing! To create some clarity, we simplified the language and rewrote the notices to be shorter and simpler. Please feel free to use them! As far as the timing of the distribution, there are a few options:

• Make these notices part of your annual notice distribution in December along with items like the Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act.
• Include these items along with your next Open Enrollment.
• Coordinate with Anthem's distribution of the notices in September. Remember - even if you are fully insured, you still have to distribute notices to employees who are not on your health plan.

Remember - you can be green and distribute electronically, provided that your employees have computer access as part of their normal job functions. If you have questions about these notices or health care reform in general, please let us know! Contact your Account Executive, who is happy to explain these items in greater detail.