Products November 13, 2015

Rally Health Launches Care Comparison Platform

Rally Health’s newly launched Rally Connect platform enables consumers to locate doctors and hospitals and better understand the quality and cost of the care they receive. 
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A new “online experience” launched by Rally Health enables health care consumers “to shop for the right health care based on their personal needs.”

Rally Connect offers consumers a better understanding of both the quality and cost of the care they receive. This, according to the firm, increases the likelihood that they will choose higher quality and less expensive preventive-health measures, and when appropriate, make more visits to clinics instead of emergency rooms. The result is cost savings both for the consumer and for the health plan, Rally Health suggests.

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Rally Connect is being rolled out to more than 20 million people enrolled in employer-sponsored health plans, with UnitedHealthcare as one of the first health insurers to offer Rally Connect to its plan participants. 

“With an interactive and simplified user experience, Rally Health gives people the ability to comparison shop for health care services based on quality and cost, just as they would with any other product or service,“ notes Jeff Alter, CEO of UnitedHealthcare employer and individual business. He says Rally Connect helps health plan members make the right choices for more than 300 different health procedures and services through the use of a single, integrated solution that combines information about medical, dental, behavioral and vision health care providers.

“As the prevalence of high-deductible health plans increases, consumers are assuming more responsibility for their health care costs, and they need accurate and easy-to-navigate tools to help them make the right decisions for their care,” adds Grant Verstandig, Rally Health founder and CEO. “Unfortunately, the health care consumer has been forced to use one-off tools that are often inaccurate and hard to navigate. The key to helping consumers manage these rising costs is to create an integrated experience that empowers them with the right quality and cost information at the right time. The health care experience should be no different from shopping for a car or planning a trip.”

Under the simple-to-use surface, Rally Connect links individual health plan data with pricing information based on the contracted rate between the insurer and the care provider to instantly calculate what will be covered and what the consumer will pay, and includes what services are eligible to be covered through their Health Savings Account (HSA).

More information is at www.rallyhealth.com. 

Compliance November 13, 2015

Final Market Rate of Return Rules Adopted for Hybrid Plans

The Internal Revenue Service is implementing new market rate of return rules for hybrid pension plans.
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Final guidance published by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will impact the way certain hybrid defined benefit plans assess and report the value of pension portfolios and unfunded liabilities.

Defined benefit plans impacted by the regulation include those that use a lump sum-based benefit formula, including cash balance plans and pension equity plans, as well as other plans that have formulas with an effect similar to a lump sum-based benefit formula.

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According to the IRS, these final regulations “relate to previously issued final regulations that specify permitted interest crediting rates for purposes of the requirement that an applicable defined benefit plan not provide for interest credits (or equivalent amounts) at an effective rate that is greater than a market rate of return.”

The final regulations permit a plan sponsor of an applicable defined benefit plan that does not comply with the market rate of return requirement to amend the plan in order to change to an interest crediting rate that is permitted under the previously issued final hybrid plan regulations, without violating the anti-cutback rules of section 411(d)(6). IRS says the regulations will directly impact sponsors, administrators, participants and beneficiaries of hybrid pension plans.

These regulations generally apply to plan amendments made on or after September 18, 2014 (or an earlier date as elected by the plan), and they cease to apply for amendments made on or after the first day of the first plan year that begins on or after January 1, 2017 (or, for collectively bargained plans, on or after a later date specified in the regulations).

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