Cost-Containment

Enrollment in "noncompliant nongroup" plans could climb by 119,000, or 5.2%, to 2.3 million.

The regulator put group health as an option on a list that also included short-term health insurance and direct primary care arrangements.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration can still draft broker comp disclosure rules and enforce group health mental parity rules.

Benefits professionals must not only react to high-cost claims, but recognize red flags early and implement cost containment strategies before those claims escalate.

Primary care group practices look especially shaky, and reviving them after they file for bankruptcy is difficult.

About half of exchange users are self-employed or associated with small businesses.