It’s officially 2017, and the question on everyone’s mind is, “What is going to happen with healthcare?” The impending change in presidency has brought much uncertainty to the industry, specifically regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA). While experts continue to speculate what will shift and how to plan and prepare, we wanted to take this time to focus on something that won’t change—a piece of certainty in the chaos.

ACA or no ACA, Ultimate Health is here to stay.

Excepted Benefit

More than just a gap-filler for primary plans, Ultimate Health gives companies a way to once again provide 100% coverage to mission-critical employees.

How is a plan like this possible? Simple: it’s an excepted benefit. But what’s that?

HIPAA identifies 4 categories of healthcare as “excepted benefits.” Many federal healthcare reforms don’t apply to these benefits. In other words, excepted benefits are excepted from ACA.

Ultimate Health bundles several excepted benefit categories into a single contract of insurance: supplemental benefits, non-health insurance (travel services), and limited benefit plans (dental & vision coverage). Because of this excepted benefit status, Ultimate Health is exempt from the new nondiscrimination rules impacting primary health plans. That means it can be offered to select employee classes.

So what will this mean going forward? That’s the beauty of it: Ultimate Health is excepted from ACA so whatever happens in the shaky landscape in the coming year, Ultimate Health is solid!

The Need

ACA caused serious ripple effects that dramatically changed the healthcare industry for everyone. Though more changes are sure to come, it’s unrealistic to think that the current state will simply be undone.

While the future of the ACA is uncertain, there is little chance that we will be turning back the clock on growing coverage gaps and cost shifting strategies that expose employees to higher deductibles and more financial risk. Primary plans will still be homogenized and large coverage gaps will still be present. That means companies will still need a plan to solve for those issues, one that will be stable now and in the future.

Learn more about Ultimate Health here.