Voya joins ACLI comment letter on tri-agency proposal for Supplemental Fixed Indemnity Health Benefits and Short-Term Limited Duration Insurance
13 September 2023 - 1:01AM
Business Wire
Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), a leading health, wealth and
investment company, announced today that it has joined a comment
letter submitted by the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI)
regarding proposed regulations issued by the U.S. Departments of
Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury. The proposed rules
would redefine how Short-Term Limited Duration Insurance, Hospital
Indemnity Insurance and Other Fixed Indemnity Insurance qualify as
Excepted Benefits under the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act.
Voya supports the departments’ desire to protect consumers from
mistakenly buying limited insurance policies marketed and sold as
comprehensive healthcare coverage. The proposed rules, however, go
beyond that important goal and unnecessarily reduce the scope and
coverage of certain group supplemental health products,
particularly hospital indemnity and other fixed indemnity policies,
which provide valuable financial support to consumers when they
need it most.
“As a company, Voya fully supports ensuring that consumers
understand the products and solutions they purchase to support them
and their family’s health needs,” said Rob Grubka, CEO, Workplace
Solutions for Voya Financial. “However, like many group benefits
providers, we believe that — if enacted — the proposed rules would
reduce the types of supplemental health offerings available to
employers today — or potentially make them much less cost
effective.”
Group supplemental health products, such as those offered by
Voya, are marketed and sold to employers and their employees, who
value the products as an essential part of their employee benefits
in addition to, and not as a substitute for, comprehensive
healthcare insurance. They have become an increasingly important
tool that employers make available to their employees to help
defray healthcare-related expenses not covered by their healthcare
insurance. As a result, these policies have received a growing
interest from both employers and employees alike; according to Voya
research, more than half (56%) of working Americans are more likely
to stay with their current employer if provided with access to
voluntary benefit offerings like critical illness, hospital
indemnity, disability income and accident insurance.1
“As more employees have come to rely on these solutions, adding
barriers to employers offering these solutions could ultimately
deprive those employees of financial-protection products to protect
their households from unexpected financial shocks,” added
Grubka.
The comment period for the proposed rules closed Sept. 11, 2023.
Federal regulators will review comments and consider whether to
adopt the rules in whole or in part, revise them or abandon them
altogether.
As an industry leader focused on the delivery of health, wealth
and investment solutions to and through the workplace, Voya is
committed to delivering on its mission to make a secure financial
future possible for all — one person, one family, one institution
at a time.
1. Voya Financial Consumer Insights & Research survey
conducted June 12-13, 2023, on the Ipsos eNation omnibus online
platform among 1,004 adults aged 18+ in the U.S., featuring 483
Americans working full time or part time.
About Voya Financial®
Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), is a leading health, wealth
and investment company with 7,200 employees who are focused on
achieving Voya’s aspirational vision: Clearing your path to
financial confidence and a more fulfilling life. Through products,
solutions and technologies, Voya helps its 14.7 million individual,
workplace and institutional clients become well planned, well
invested and well protected. Benefitfocus, a Voya company, extends
the reach of Voya’s workplace benefits and savings offerings by
providing benefits administration capabilities to 16.5 million
individual subscription employees across employer and health plan
clients. Certified as a “Great Place to Work” by the Great Place to
Work® Institute, Voya is purpose-driven and committed to conducting
business in a way that is economically, ethically, socially and
environmentally responsible. Voya has earned recognition as: one of
the World’s Most Ethical Companies® by the Ethisphere Institute; a
member of the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index; and a “Best Place to
Work for Disability Inclusion” on the Disability Equality Index.
For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on
Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230912524433/en/
Media: Laura Maulucci Voya Financial (508) 353-6913
Laura.Maulucci@voya.com
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