The COVID-19 State of Emergency in Ohio has ended. As a result, Medical Mutual is ending the extended grace period for premium payments. Customers who are currently taking advantage of the extended grace period must bring their account up to date by October 1, 2021, to avoid an interruption in coverage.
Contact your Cornerstone representative for more information.
As previously announced, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), enacted on March 11, 2021, subsidizes the full continuation coverage premium for “Assistance Eligible Individuals” (AEIs) for periods of coverage from April 1, 2021, through September 30, 2021.
To assist groups with fewer than 20 employees during the state continuation subsidy period, Medical Mutual has received guidance to directly apply for federal tax credits for eligible existing state continuation contracts if the member completes a new AEI 2021 Subsidy Eligibility Attestation Form.
Previously, groups were billed for state continuation premiums after they collected the premium payments from the employee. However, with a completed and signed attestation form, Medical Mutual can apply for the tax credit directly and both the group and member will be exempt from making those payments.
Medical Mutual will send the form (with a letter) to groups to distribute to all identified AEIs, who must complete, sign, and return it to their group official. The group official must then complete the “Group Use Only” section, which includes the subsidized amount of that member’s premium, and return the completed form to Medical Mutual.
Note: Some employers are subsidizing a portion of the member’s state continuation premium. If they are offering a subsidy, they cannot claim a tax credit for that part of the premium and they will need to continue paying it.
While groups will continue to see state continuation premiums for eligible existing state continuation contracts on their invoices, they will also see credits applied.
Contact your Cornerstone representative with any questions.
As a reminder, Senate Bill 9 requires health plan issuers to release certain claims data to fully insured groups and non-federal government plans with 50 or more full-time covered/enrolled employees.
Below is the required Group Data Reporting Form that must be completed and submitted by the group to initiate the request for the report. Also below are the instructions for how to complete the form correctly.
When reporting requests are received, Medical Mutual Account Executives will be required to meet with the appropriate group official to deliver the report. At the group’s request, these meetings will be coordinated with the appointed broker.
How to Complete Your Request for Group Data Reporting
Request for Group Data Reporting Form
Please reach out to your Cornerstone Broker Advisor for additional details and questions.
Medical Mutual recently announced the launch of their state-wide MedMutual Bundled Saving Program. They have designed this program to help you offer savings to your customers while providing them with added benefits and protections. MedMutual Bundled Savings gives 51 to 1,000 fully insured health groups the chance to earn up to a 2 percent discount on their health premium when adding on specialty products.
| Product | Health Discount | Total Annualized Premium Required Per Product Line* |
| Dental
(MedMutual Dental or Superior Dental Care) |
1% | $15,000 total annualized premium needed |
| Vision | 0.5% | $15,000 total annualized premium needed |
| MedMutual Life Products – Combo deal (Life, AD&D, STD, LTD, Accident, Critical Illness)* | 0.5% | $15,000 total annualized premium needed (any combination of MedMutual Life products totaling $15,000) |
| Total Discount | Up to 2% |
A minimum of $15,000 in annualized premium at time of quote is necessary to obtain a discount for each product. Any number of MedMutual Life products can be combined to reach the minimum $15,000 in annualized premium.
Applies to all segments with the exception of Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement.
Click here to review the National Preferred Formulary Full Exclusion List
Click here to review the National Preferred Formulary Exclusion List Changes
Contact your Cornerstone representative with any questions.
As a reminder, the new sales health commission for COSE MEWA accounts with effective dates of April 1, 2021, through June 1, 2021, have been increased as of April 1, 2021.
The sales commissions are as follows:
Account Size |
New Sale Commission Rate |
|
2 to 9 |
$35 per employee per month |
|
10 to 50 |
$60 per employee per month |
Additionally, the standard new sales health commission for groups with 51 to 99 employees with effective dates beginning April 1, 2021, is $35.50 per employee per month.
Lastly, the Midsize Group (51 to 99) New Sales Bonus Program ended March 31, 2021.
To help their current members understand their health insurance benefits, and help Medical Mutual meet NCQA accreditation requirements, Medical Mutual will send a reminder about how to access their Member Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
All Medical Mutual and Medical Health Insuring Corporation of Ohio (MHICO) subscribers, excluding Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement, will receive one of the following communications during the month of May.
Current Member FAQs are available at MedMutual.com/MemberFAQ. They are also available to order on MyBrokerLink on the Order Supplies > Brochures page. Spanish versions are available for download on the Producer’s Guide > Health and Wellness page for small, mid-size or large groups.
Medical Mutual is initiating a COVID-19 vaccine awareness campaign to increase the rate of Medical Mutual members, and Ohioans in general, who are vaccinated against COVID-19. The campaign theme is “Sleeves Up Ohio!” and it will include a series of messages aimed at reducing vaccine hesitancy.
The campaign launches the week of April 26 and will continue through at least June. They will use a variety of channels, including email, posters, digital ads and envelope stuffers, to distribute this campaign to our groups, members, providers, and the general public.
Contact your Cornerstone representative with any questions.
Medical Mutual of Ohio recently announced that they are simplifying their substantiation administration process for flexible spending accounts (FSA) and health reimbursement arrangements (HRA). This applies to small group (2–50), 51+, 100+ groups.
There will be no impact to the group’s FSA and/or HRA administration pricing. Please see below for important information regarding these changes.
These changes are implemented with the intention of reducing the number of member substantiation receipt requests and ultimately reduce employer disruption.
In late April, Medical Mutual will mail groups an updated consumer-driven health product (CDHP) agreement, along with a postage-paid return envelope and instructions. The updated agreement will allow them to apply their new substantiation process. For existing groups with a signed agreement on file, the new substantiation rules will only be applied once the signed agreement is returned to Medical Mutual. Groups with no signed agreement on file will automatically be transitioned to the new substantiation process. It is important that all groups sign and return the updated agreement.
Contact your Cornerstone representative with any questions.
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 was signed into law by President Biden on March 11, 2021. ARPA introduces a COBRA subsidy period from April 1, 2021, to September 30, 2021, which provides full COBRA premium payments for eligible individuals.
For Medical Mutual groups, COBRA Options is allowing groups to flag members that will be eligible for the subsidy. Once groups have flagged their subsidy-eligible members and the Department of Labor model notice has been released, letters will be mailed to those members. For MHS groups, the MHS COBRA vendor TRAVISOFT is updating its system to allow the MHS COBRA team to run reports of individuals who are eligible for the subsidy to supply to groups for confirmation.
COBRA Options and the MHS COBRA team will continue to collect the standard 2 percent administrative fee from groups. Tax credits should be taken for the full premium amount (including the administrative fee). Members should keep paying their COBRA premium as scheduled and will receive a refund or premium credit.
Medical Mutual does not administer State Continuation.
Contact your Cornerstone representative with any questions.
Medical Mutual of Ohio has recently announced an increase to the health commission rates on COSE MEWA accounts with effective dates of April 1, 2021, through June 1, 2021.
The new sale commissions are as follows:
Account Size |
New Sale Commission Rate |
|
2 to 9 |
$35 per employee per month |
|
10 to 50 |
$60 per employee per month |
An Amendment to the Ohio Standard Commission Schedule for Health and Life Accounts (Schedule A) has been emailed or mailed to independent brokers and agency principals.
Note: These rates will revert to the normal broker fee schedule after 12 months.
Contact your Cornerstone representative with any questions.
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Medical Mutual recently released the following updates…
Small Group ACA medical plans now include pediatric dental coverage for dependents and employees up to age 19. On their invoices, groups may see a member’s dental coverage marked twice under COVERAGE TYPE (see sample). This does not indicate any additional charges. Rather, the coverage is marked twice because the members have both traditional dental benefits and the pediatric dental benefit included in their medical section.
There is no additional charge for the pediatric dental.
Because Medical Mutual will soon run out of six-digit group numbers to assign to new groups, they will update their Corporate Membership System (CMS) to include alphabetic characters. They are now able to use any letter (except B, D, I, L, O, S, T and Z) as the first character of a new group number (e.g., A12345).
The Information Technology and Membership departments have worked to make sure internal systems and external vendors can work with their new alpha-numeric group number format. As there are still some numeric-only group number combinations available, the new methodology will be introduced gradually to ensure all aspects work as expected.
No existing group numbers are changing.
