BOSTON (February 10, 2012) —HighRoads, the industry leader in employer health care compliance and benefits management, released comments in response to yesterday’s announcement of final regulations on the summary of benefits & coverage (SBC) and the uniform glossary for group health plans by the Labor, Health and Human Services and Treasury Departments.
“We are delighted to see that both the SBC itself and the timeframes for producing them have been simplified,” said Kim Buckey, SPD Practice Lead, HighRoads. “Postponing distribution until the open enrollment period (on or after September 23, 2012) makes more sense for employees—they will have the information they need to make informed decisions at enrollment—and employers, who will only need to provide benefit comparisons once. We also appreciate the flexibility of incorporating the SBCs into SPDs and of using electronic distribution for newly eligible employees/beneficiaries.”
“HighRoads was founded on the idea of repurposing benefits data across documents and processes. Our data management and employee communications expertise and our technology will enable us to easily populate the SBC templates for our clients for the upcoming open enrollment season,” said Buckey.
The original announcement on the new health reform requirements is available on the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services at: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/02/20120209a.html
About HighRoads
The world’s leading employers choose HighRoads to gain complete control over their health care costs and compliance. With HighRoads’ service, employers have online access to benefits plan information and pricing, competitive benefits benchmarks, and complete benefits management. The privately-held company is headquartered in Woburn, MA. For more information, visit www.HighRoads.com.