ANNAPOLIS, MD — A group tasked with implementing federal health reform in Maryland is recommending that insurance agents and brokers continue to sell small-group health insurance when health exchanges begin operating in the state.

The majority of employers are taking a “wait and see” approach toward their employee benefits programs, delaying any action to respond to the likely reduction in plan design flexibility brought on by federal health reform, a new study finds.

Small businesses would be more likely to offer their employees insurance if they knew more about provisions under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), a survey shows.

A state insurance regulators’ white paper offering suggestions for minimizing adverse selection in health insurance exchanges says the best thing states can do is to level the playing field for insurers.

Insurance brokers, nervously waiting to see how health reform will affect their compensation, have been told by Maryland’s largest health insurer that small-group commissions will drop by 15%, starting next year.

Seven of Pennsylvania’s nine largest health insurers use health profiling tools for their small-groups, while the state’s two largest insurers, Highmark Inc. and Independence Blue Cross, do not.

Fewer than four in 10 Maryland small businesses provided health coverage to their workers in the state at the end of last year.

Employee Benefits Corporation of America (EBCA) has a new general agency agreement with Coventry Health Care of Delaware to market small-group and individual plans.

Pennsylvania’s governor and insurance commissioner are praising a decision by national health insurers to close an unintended loophole in federal health reform to guarantee insurance for children despite pre-existing conditions.

Health care reform signed into law by President Barack Obama could lead to the demise of small-group insurance market in the U.S., according to the chief executive of one of the nation’s Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates.