As round two of the ACA opens up tomorrow, agents are bracing:
“It’s probably going to be even more confusing. I did about 50 individuals on the marketplace and we had them all have IRS re-verify their income. The problem with that is if they just do that automatically they are going to get the same subsidy as last year,” explained Patton. “All 50 of them will get a large subsidy due to inflation and some other things, but all of them are going to have to go back to the marketplace to verify their income and then reapply. CMS and HHS didn’t make it easier.”
Some positives have emerged from the new provisions, however, despite the extra workload.
“There have definitely been a lot of extra opportunities for us to promote some of the extra projects for our clients,” said Susan Rider, a spokesperson with the National Association of Health Underwriters. “We’re actually very unique in our model and we do a lot of HR consulting with small to mid-sized employers – anywhere between 2 and 150 – so several of them are using us for a variety of HR projects to help compensate for the extra workload,”
She continued, “For me that’s a great opportunity, there is a lot more consistency and opportunity for us to work together as a team.”
