From Becker's: Learn how the move to ICHRA has produced a 45% reduction in healthcare spend, or just under $2 million in annual premium savings, with the savings compounding each year rather than representing a one-time budget win. Perhaps most importantly, the hospital is directing that money back into patient care rather than treating it as a windfall.

Link: https://www.beckerspayer.com/payer/ichra/indiana-hospital-credits-expanded-services-to-employee-health-insurance-switch

Updates on three federal lawsuits regarding recent CMS regulations tightening eligibility, altering enrollment periods, and narrowing subsidy access, to name a few provisions. Court cases from as early as 2025 have the potential to shake up these ACA rules.

In a conversation with Becker’s, Katie Keith, director of the Center for Health Law and Policy at Georgetown Law, broke down what healthcare leaders and health plans need to know.

Here’s where each case stands and what they mean.

Link: https://www.beckerspayer.com/payer/aca/3-lawsuits-standing-in-the-way-of-an-aca-marketplace-overhaul/?origin=PayerE&utm_source=PayerE&utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter&oly_enc_id=5977F1087134B7Z

Notable: stories about happy ICHRA employees and employers are increasingly reaching decision makers directly, including this recent story in “HR Brew” – according to their published audience statistics, more than 170,000 Human Resource leaders with more than 75% identified as managers or higher. 

HR Brew published a story featuring employers and employees who moved to ICHRA with two of our members – TakeCommand and Zorro – plus our Executive Director Robin Paoli. Many thanks to Maya Perl, co-founder and chief customer officer of Zorro, and Jack Hooper, founder and CEO of TakeCommand. 

These well-reported examples of how employees benefit from ICHRA emphasize the need for education. Every part of the ICHRA ecosystem needs robust education ––> and certainly the employees and their families really buy into the process and achieve higher satisfaction when they are able to choose the coverage that's best for them, while also needing reliable, accurate insights about that coverage – essential health benefits, provider network, MOOP, all the variables.

Story Link: https://www.hr-brew.com/stories/some-employers-are-putting-health-insurance-in-workers-hands-heres-how-its-going

Case stories and ICHRA insights from employers

Link: https://www.hr-brew.com/stories/some-employers-are-putting-health-insurance-in-workers-hands-heres-how-its-going

Featuring HRA Council Member SureCo

Link: https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/study-brokers-increasingly-recommending-ichra-employers

NCOIL Adopts Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement Model Act

Link: https://ncoil.org/news/ncoil-adopts-individual-coverage-health-reimbursement-arrangement-model-act/

This week, the National Council of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) passed the NCOIL Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement Model Act. This is a landmark development for ICHRA policy at the state level.

The passage of this model act provides ICHRA advocates with bipartisan model legislation that can be introduced in all states. This gives advocates and legislators a ready-made, tested framework to advance ICHRA-enabling laws in every state capitol.

Read the full model act: NCOIL ICHRA Model Act

The Governor of Mississippi has signed into law a bipartisan bill establishing ICHRA tax credits for residents of the state. Mississippi becomes one of the leading states to enact state-level tax incentives designed to expand access to and adoption of ICHRA arrangements.

The bipartisan nature of this legislation in Mississippi demonstrates the broad, cross-aisle support that ICHRA continues to attract at the state level.

View the signed legislation: Mississippi HB 343 — ICHRA Tax Credits

"California Healthline" ran the recent KFF News + NPR Health Shots story about ICHRA. Great to see multiple outlines sharing this combination case study + ICHRA insights. 

https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/ichra-benefit-trend-employers-health-plan-allowance-individual-insurance/

As with the NPR "Shots" and KFF News original stories, this article quotes and mentions several HRA Council members and leaders.

KFF News in partnership with NPR published a well-reported ICHRA case story featuring quotes and news from several HRA Council members and leaders. 

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/ichra-benefit-trend-employers-health-plan-allowance-individual-insurance/

This article is trending as the top news story of the day on KFF News and is free to read and share.