by One of the fallouts of the health care reform may be executive healthcare coverage. It is common practice in many firms to offer executives healthcare coverage that is different from that offered to the company workers. A lesser-known provision in Obama’s healthcare reform bill may actually change that situation. The health care reform expanded the nondiscrimination rules to all health plans, where these rules previously only affected self-funded plans.Under the new reform laws, any healthcare coverage or benefits that is offered to current or former executives must also be offered to non-executives. One practical way that this will be seen, for instance, is with healthcare starting dates. If your company, as a recruiting tool, offered the CEO health care coverage starting on day one of employment, but generally offers all other employees coverage starting on day 60, this will now be illegal.Employers certainly need to be aware of this provision, and take pro-active steps for its implementation.
