“HR professionals say they are swamped by the details and explanations of the new health care law and are focusing their attention on the provisions that take effect this year and next.  A key challenge is how to comply with the law’s mandates without shifting costs in such a way that the plan could lose its grandfathered status.  Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) in the U.S. continued to grow in 2010, albeit at a slower rate than in 2009.  One reason:  Employers are uncertain whether health care reform would restrict consumer-directed plans.  IRS issued rules to reflect the prohibition on the use of flexible spending accounts to pay for over-the-counter medicines and drugs beginning in 2011, as required under the health care reform overhaul.  U.S. employees on average paid nearly $4,000 toward the cost of family health coverage — an increase of 14 percent, or $482, above what they paid in 2009.  Employers have passed on many medical cost increases to their workers.”  SHRM Sept 2010

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