The Shifting Regulatory Landscape for Level-Funded Plans: An Alternative for Group Health Insurance
Lexology February 22, 2024
In the constantly changing health insurance landscape, level-funded health plans are steadily gaining ground as a viable middle approach between fully insured health plan and self-funded health plans—arguably offering businesses a more flexible and cost-effective solution when it comes to employee health insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the percentage of small employers have level-funded health plans increased from 13% in 2020[1] to ~40% in 2023[2]. Their growing popularity, however, is now catching the attention of both lawmakers and regulators who are concerned about the lack of regulation that exists between fully insured and self-insured plans, particularly regarding the use of stop-loss insurance. In this article, we briefly explain what a level-funded plan is and highlight recent regulatory developments...