Recent changes to two federal health care mandates affect employers who offer health care benefits to their employees through a group plan.
The first mandate describes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) mandatory reporting requirements for all group health plans. The second is known as “Michelle’s Law.” Michelle’s Law ensures up to one year of health care coverage under a parent’s medical policy for seriously ill or injured full-time students enrolled in a post-secondary educational institution.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has made changes that require group health plans, insurers, and third party administrators (responsible reporting entities) to report certain information to CMS to support Medicare Secondary Payer processes.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and that of your employees. We are providing Social Security numbers only to CMS to comply with this new regulation. Furthermore, we will continue to utilize unique subscriber identification on all member identification cards and communications, as we have since 2006.
Independence Blue Cross (IBC) takes numerous steps to keep the personal information of our members confidential and to prevent the unauthorized release of or access to this information. All IBC employees sign annual confidentiality statements regarding member information. All contracted providers are required to maintain confidentiality of member information and records in accordance with applicable laws.
President Bush signed into law H.R. 2851, “Michelle’s Law,” in October 2009. This legislation allows full-time college students insured under their parents’ policies to remain covered for up to one year if they are required to take a medically necessary leave of absence from a post-secondary educational institution. This law does not allow the dependent’s coverage to extend beyond the group customer’s maximum age limits. There is no need to take any action regarding Michelle’s Law. This notice is for informational purposes only.