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Health Plan Regulations Allow Changing Insurers Without Losing Grandfathered Status

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Johanna M. Novak
Foster Swift Employment, Labor & Benefits E-News (Also published in the December 2010 Foster Swift Health Care Law Report)
December 3, 2010

The grandfathered health plan regulations issued this past summer contained rules for determining when changes to a group health plan would cause the plan to lose its grandfathered status.  These regulations, as originally written, stated that changing from one insurance company to another would cause a plan to lose its grandfathered status.

The regulations were recently revised to allow all group health plans to change insurance companies without automatically losing grandfathered status.  A group health plan can change insurance companies and still maintain grandfathered status so long as the structure of the new coverage does not violate one of the other rules for maintaining grandfathered plan status.  The revised regulations became effective with respect to changes made on and after November 15, 2010.

Please contact our office if you have questions regarding whether your plan is a grandfathered plan.