ITASCA, Ill., July 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) today announced that its employee benefits consulting and brokerage operation, Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc. (GBS), has enhanced its proprietary suite of decision support tools to enable organizations to evaluate and execute a "Pay or Play" strategy. This responds to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is constitutional.

"The complexity of PPACA presents significant short-term and long-term challenges to an organization, its human resources department, and its employees," said James W. Durkin, Jr., GBS President. "Our suite of proprietary planning and modeling tools helps clients develop a customized roadmap to address the strategic, financial, and operational impact of PPACA."

The three core tools are:

1. HCR Financial Outlook produces a customized range of the potential costs of PPACA based on real-world scenarios to support an organization's decisions about the future direction and management of its benefits and total rewards programs. By running a statistically valid number of simulations, the HCR Financial Outlook projects the cost of an organization's current plan(s) to remain in compliance with PPACA's complex regulatory requirements and includes a comparison of the cost of changing plan design(s) versus the cost of potential penalties.
2. HCR Planner is an interactive tool that helps employers create a concrete action plan to keep abreast of the rapidly evolving Healthcare Reform rules. This tool provides the framework to identify provisions of Healthcare Reform that will apply specifically to an organization, document any gaps between an organization's current benefits offering and the legal requirements, and determine next steps in plotting an organization's response to the most up-to-date aspects of the law.
3. HRM is a predictive modeling tool that helps organizations understand the financial impact of federally mandated health plan changes to their existing plans, such as elimination of lifetime and annual dollar maximums, and elimination of cost-sharing for preventive services (for non-grandfathered plans).

"GBS will continue to bring new ideas, innovative tools, and world-class compliance capabilities to our clients so they can focus on achieving the business and personal results that matter to them. Our comprehensive PPACA tools and resources are an important example of our client commitment," said Durkin.

To learn more about the GBS Healthcare Reform consulting methodology and tools, please visit: www.gbshealthcarereform.com.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, has operations in 17 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 110 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants. 

SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.