By ELIZABETH CAREY
ecarey@bizjournals.com | 716-840-7765

At area health insurance companies, the push is on to educate customers on changes coming via the new health-care reform law.

Most, including Univera Healthcare, are taking a proactive approach.

"There has been a good level of trying to pre-educate," said Arthur Wingerter, president of Univera. "On our website, we have a whole section on health-care reform, with questions and answers to get information. We promote it more with employer groups than individuals. It really hasn't hit the individuals."

But changes have already hit insurers.

In September, phase one of reform kicked in with new mandates where children are now covered up to age 26, pre-existing conditions for children are waived and there are no lifetime limits.

By 2014, estimates show 32 million more Americans will be insured, whether they choose to or not, and that's when larger issues will come into play, according to Wingerter.

"Whether it's a business or an individual, if you're a young, healthy person, you're mandated to have coverage," he said. "The fine is $95 a year for a young, healthy person vs. the lowest cost of premiums."

He said many employers will face similar challenges over whether they should offer employee-based coverage or take the fine.

Many employer groups have questions about financial ramifications, he added.

Don Ingalls, vice president of state and federal relations for BlueCross BlueShield of WNY, said the provision getting the most attention is the one that allows children to remain on their parents' policies, up to age 26, regardless of their marital status or address.

He said BCBS has been trying to educate employer groups and individuals about that provision and others with seminars that began last spring.

"In July, August and September, we probably talked with almost 3,000 seniors, in general, about the health-care reform law and some of the provisions," Ingalls said. "We reached out to them because they do enroll individually."

BlueCross BlueShield is taking things a step further by gathering feedback and relaying it back to the government.

Ingalls said the insurer is "advocating, as the regulations are being developed, to try to provide information to the federal government about some of the implications of the regulations and how we can make it best work for employers."

According to Independent Health, one way to make things work is to help customers take advantage of incentives under the new law, such as the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit or the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program.

Independent Health targeted eligible employer groups with a mail campaign to inform them of opportunities.

"There are some challenges that employers have faced, like independent coverage and different and new benefits that are in the law," said Roberta Rifkin, vice president of government affairs at Independent Health.

"But there are these opportunities that we felt were really important for our members and businesses to understand," she said.

According to her estimates, nearly 3,000 Independent Health members qualify for the small-business tax credit, but final numbers are not yet available on how many are taking advantage of it.

Overall, informing businesses about the daunting health-care reform law has been left up to insurers.

"There aren't a lot of sources for small-group employers to get access or updated information on the plethora of health-care reform measures that are being implemented," said David Donovan, vice president of sales at Independent Health.

"So we, as a health plan, thought that it was really important to communicate that out to our employers," he said.