Rate Review & the 80/20 Rule (2024)

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Rate Review & the 80/20 Rule

The health care law provides 2 ways to hold insurance companies accountable and help keep your costs down: Rate Review and the 80/20 rule.

Rate Review

Rate Review helps protect you from unreasonable rate increases. Insurance companies must now publicly explain any rate increase of 15% or more before raising your premium. This does not apply to grandfathered plans.

80/20 Rule

The 80/20 Rule generally requires insurance companies to spend at least 80% of the money they take in from premiums on health care costs and quality improvement activities. The other 20% can go to administrative, overhead, and marketing costs.

The 80/20 rule is sometimes known as Medical Loss Ratio, or MLR. If an insurance company uses 80 cents out of every premium dollar to pay for your medical claims and activities that improve the quality of care, the company has a Medical Loss Ratio of 80%.

Insurance companies selling to large groups (usually more than 50 employees) must spend at least 85% of premiums on care and quality improvement.

If your insurance company doesn’t meet these requirements, you’ll get a rebate on part of the premium that you paid.

Will I get a rebate check from my insurance company?

If your insurance company doesn’t meet its 80/20 targets for the year, you’ll get back some of the premium that you paid.

You may see the rebate in a number of ways:

  • A rebate check in the mail
  • A lump-sum deposit into the same account that was used to pay the premium, if you paid by credit card or debit card
  • A direct reduction in your future premium
  • Your employer may also use one of the above rebate methods, or apply the rebate in a way that benefits employees

If you or your employer will get a rebate, your insurance company must notify you by August 1.

If you have an individual insurance policy, you’ll get the rebate directly from your insurance company.

For small group and large group plans, the rebate is usually paid to the employer. It may use one of the above rebate methods, or apply the rebate in a way that benefits employees.

FYI: The 80/20 rebate rules don’t apply when an insurance company has fewer than 1000 enrollees in a particular state or market.

Does this apply to my plan?

It depends.

For Rate Review: These requirements don’t apply to grandfathered plans. Check your plan’s materials or ask your employer or your benefits administrator to find out if your health plan is grandfathered.

For the 80/20 Rule: These rights apply to all individual, small group, and large group health plans, whether your plan is grandfathered or not.

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Rate Review & the 80/20 Rule (2024)

FAQs

What is the 80/20 rule for ACA? ›

The 80/20 Rule generally requires insurance companies to spend at least 80% of the money they take in from premiums on health care costs and quality improvement activities. The other 20% can go to administrative, overhead, and marketing costs.

What is the 80 20 rule for Medicare? ›

When a physician accepts “assignment,” he or she agrees to accept the Medicare approved charge as full payment for the services provided. Medicare pays 80% of the approved charge. Either the patient or supplemental insurance pays the remaining 20% co-payment.

What does having 80/20 coverage mean in Ramsey? ›

It's a way to split the costs of health care with your insurance carrier. On most policies, coinsurance is usually a fraction—like 80/20 or 70/30. So if your plan says 80/20, your insurer will handle 80% of the costs, and you'll take care of the other 20%—but only after you've hit your deductible for the year.

How does 80/20 health insurance work? ›

What does 80/20 coinsurance mean? Simply put, 80/20 coinsurance means your insurance company pays 80% of the total bill, and you pay the other 20%. Remember, this applies after you've paid your deductible.

What does the 80/20 rule mean as it relates to denials? ›

Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of your results. Identify and focus on those things. Don't just "work smart," work smart on the right things. It applies to denials management as follows: The insurance companies you bill most, the top 20 percent of your payers, are likely to contribute 80% of all insurance revenue.

What is the 3 month rule for ACA? ›

The ACA employer mandate rules permit a “limited non-assessment period” as a sort of grace period before which employers will be penalized for failure to offer coverage to a new hire. For new full-time hires, the duration of this period is relatively short (the first three full calendar months of employment).

How do you take advantage of the 80 20 rule? ›

How to use the 80/20 rule
  1. Examine all of your daily or weekly tasks.
  2. Prioritize your most important tasks.
  3. Identify the tasks that offer the greatest return.
  4. Brainstorm how to delegate or remove tasks that give less return.
  5. Make a plan that outlines time and resources versus prioritized tasks.
Feb 3, 2023

Does Medicare pay 80 20? ›

Medicare pays 80 percent of approved charges and you pay about 20 percent. Part B is optional because you have to pay a monthly premium and meet a deductible before Medicare will pay benefits.

What is the 80/20 rule in hospice? ›

The 1st step in the assessment is checking where most of your referrals come from. The 80/20 rule, also known as the “Pareto Principle” named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, tells us that 80% of results, in this case referrals, comes from 20% of a cause, referral sources.

Which is better, 70/30 or 80/20 insurance? ›

So you'll find that most health plans with 70/30 coinsurance have lower premiums than an 80/20 plan. So, if you're mostly healthy and have a good emergency fund in place, it might be a good idea to look for a health plan with higher coinsurance.

What is a 100 deductible with 80 20 coinsurance? ›

If your doctor visit costs $100 and you've met your deductible, your coinsurance payment of 20% would be $20 out of pocket. Your insurance would then pay the rest of the allowed amount ($80).

What is the 80 20 rule in homeowners insurance? ›

The 80% rule dictates that homeowners must have replacement cost coverage worth at least 80% of their home's total replacement cost to receive full coverage from their insurance company.

Which is better, 70/30 or 80/20? ›

The main difference between the 70/30 and 80/20 asset allocation models is how much risk you're taking. With an 80/20 allocation, you're devoting a larger share of your money to stocks, which can mean greater exposure to stock market volatility.

What is the 80 20 rule in healthcare? ›

Fundamentally, the 80/20 rule says that 80 percent of health care dollars are spent on 20 percent of the population. Conversely, the remaining 20 percent of the dollars are spent on 80 percent of the population.

What is the 80 20 Medicare rule? ›

Chief among these proposals was a new rule that would require HCBS agencies to spend at least 80% of their Medicaid payments for homemaker, home health aide, and personal care services on direct care worker compensation (the “80/20 Rule”).

What is the 90 day rule for the ACA? ›

90-day Waiting Period Limitation. PHS Act section 2708 provides that a group health plan or health insurance issuer offering group health insurance coverage shall not apply any waiting period that exceeds 90 days.

What is the formula for ACA affordability? ›

To calculate this, multiply the employee's household income by 8.39%. For example, if the employee's household income is $50,000, the affordability threshold would be $4,195 ($50,000 x 8.39%).

What is the 9.5% rule for ACA? ›

Under this rule, employers must ensure that the cost of coverage for their employees does not exceed 9.5% of their household income. This means that if an employee's share of the premium exceeds this threshold, the plan is considered unaffordable and they may be eligible for subsidies through the Affordable Care Act.

What is the 80% rule in insurance? ›

When it comes to insuring your home, the 80% rule is an important guideline to keep in mind. This rule suggests you should insure your home for at least 80% of its total replacement cost to avoid penalties for being underinsured.

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