The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Large Employers: A Retrospective

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has created a new environment for employer health benefit plan management that is influencing costs, benefit design, delivery, administration, financing and compliance as well as the positioning of health care within the benefits portfolio and the broader total rewards strategy. This article will examine the key pragmatic effects of health reform for larger employers to date, quantifying its direct costs and discussing the new dimensions of management that reform has introduced. The discussion will focus on nongrandfathered self-funded plans and will address only major influences. It is not intended to be all-encompassing and is, of necessity, general in nature. Each employer will have somewhat differing experiences and results but should find the discussion to be helpful both in understanding what has evolved as well as what is to come.