HHS Accepts Applicants for Early Retiree Health Insurance Subsidies

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it has accepted nearly 2,000 applicants, including 73 from New Jersey, into the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program and will begin reimbursing those employers for workers’ medical claims in October.

Created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the program will dispense $5 billion to help employers and unions provide coverage to early retirees until insurance exchanges are operational in 2014. Early retirees are individuals 55 and older who do not yet qualify for Medicare.

Applicants who are approved to participate in the program receive reinsurance for the claims of high-cost retirees and their families. Approved applicants can use these funds to provide premium relief and other healthcare cost relief to their retirees and workers and their families, to offset increases in their own healthcare premiums or costs, or for a combination of these purposes.

Click here to view the list of accepted applicants from New Jersey. HHS also has created a Web site and established a hotline at 877-574-3777 for employers interested in the program.