Two Republican chairmen in the House of Representatives are urging U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regulators to speed up the release of health care reform law regulations.
In particular, governors and state lawmakers "have been left to navigate alone the regulatory maze created by the absence of guidance," Rep. Fred Upton, R-Michigan, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pennsylvania, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee, wrote in a letter sent last week to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
A lack of regulatory certainty "has crippled the ability of states and health providers to plan for the future," Reps. Upton and Pitts wrote, adding that they believe the "best solution" is to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
For employers, final regulatory guidance has yet to come in a number of areas, including whether employers will be assessed a penalty of $2,000 per full-time employee if they do not offer coverage to all full-time employees, and how much they will have to pay to fund a three-year health care reform law program that will partially reimburse health insurers writing policies for individuals with high health care costs.
Jerry Geisel writes for Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
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