Benefits professionals are watching and waiting as Congress continues to debate the future of health care in the country.
But many are confident that they have the resources, and the technology, to manage whatever changes are made.
Rich Wolfe, co-founder and CEO of Empyrean Benefit Solutions, said his company is focused on making sure its customers are ready for those changes.
"We remain highly focused on supporting technology and services that enable our customers current and future health care strategies and supporting any compliance and regulatory requirements," Wolfe told HR Daily Wire. "Health care benefits are an important part of the employer/employee value proposition and we don’t believe this is going to materially change in the near term."
But, he added, "That said, we see a continued 'shift to consumerism' in benefits and are focused on continuing to advance our platform capabilities to support enabling employees to be effective health care and benefits consumers."
Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) postponed a vote on a revised bill Republicans published Thursday. The vote was put off as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) recovers from surgery.
"While John is recovering, the Senate will continue our work on legislative items and nominations, and will defer consideration of the Better Care Act," McConnell said Saturday.
It is not clear that the Republicans' revised plan will make it through the Senate.Two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, for different reasons have said they will not vote in favor of moving it forward.
Some Senators believe the Better Care Reconciliation Act does not go far enough to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, others are concerned at the deep cuts to Medicaid funding which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will leave millions without coverage.
The Congressional Budget Office is due to publish its score on the revised bill this week.