Experts forecast Oct. 1 activity and 2014 health care spending, and federal Rep. wants rules on wellness ‘sticks’: 3 things you need to know in employee benefits

Don’t expect Oct. 1 to look like a health care Black Friday

As the clock ticks down to Oct. 1, health care and benefits watchers are offering their thoughts on whether Americans will swamp the Internet in droves on Day One to shop for health insurance through the public exchange marketplace.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Peter Lee, director of the state exchange Covered California, says Oct. 1 will look more like a tepid Tuesday than a Black Friday onslaught.

Although Lee ultimately expects between 800,000 and 1.3 million Californians to purchase coverage through the exchange by the time open enrollment ends next March, he says “we really anticipate very few people going through the full enrollment process in the month of October. What we're pushing for is we want to have as many people sign up who will have their coverage become effective in January."

Why no door-busting surge? As WaPo points out, any plan purchased between Oct. 1 and Dec. 15 takes effect on Jan. 1. So, consumers don’t really get anything from being first in line next Tuesday. As Rhode Island's exchange head Christine Ferguson tells the paper, “The idea that people are going to do layaway purchasing three months out goes against the American way.”

Feds predict jump in health care spending next year

Although several factors have converged to cause a slowdown in health care spending in recent years—2013 included—federal forecasters are predicting a good sized jump next year, as some freshly insured 11 million Americans are likely to be spending more on health care than before.

While previous government reports have shown health care spending growth around 4%, spending growth will increase to 6%, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

A report from NBC News reveals that the increase will be driven by a new crop of Medicare-eligible baby boomers, along with 2.9 million non-retirees with new insurance coverage from either public or private exchanges.

The report also estimates that by 2022, Americans will be spending more than $5 trillion on health care.

This week’s hidden gem: Lawmaker presses EEOC for investigations, rules on workplace wellness

On the heels of a national firestorm over wellness penalties at Penn State University, a federal lawmaker is urging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to more closely investigate workplace wellness programs and write rules that would prohibit employers from using wellness information as a means to discriminate.

Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.), author of the federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, tells the New York Times that “what happened at Penn State was appalling to me.”

GINA protects U.S. workers from workplace and/or health insurance discrimination due to genetic information. Penn State made headlines this summer because it required workers to pay a $100 monthly fee for not completing health questionnaires, annual physical exams and biometric screenings. However, last week the university announced it was dropping the penalties.

That decision isn’t enough for Slaughter, though. In a letter to the EEOC, she writes that the PSU program “still raises concerns about the type of information that can be collected through wellness programs and the definition of ‘voluntary’ participation.”