Broader health insurance coverage did not initially lead to significant overuse of the system or increases in hospital costs in Massachusetts.

That's according to research from Wharton School of Business and Yale University professors, findings that, of course, have significance for the Obama administration's healthcare reform. The research was written up in a recent issue of Knowledge@Wharton.

If recent court decisions lead to the repeal of the Obama health care plan, don't expect chief financial officers to cry.

This is because most of them think it is a bad law.

Most CFOs of large companies believe health care reform will raise costs and reduce quality.

According to a new survey, more than 90 percent expect benefits cost per employee to rise. What's more, half of the respondents expect the quality and/or breadth of offered benefits to decline.

The IRS announced this week that it would waive W-2 reporting requirements on the cost of coverage for employer-sponsored health plans next year.

This is a welcome relief for companies that were struggling to update systems and understand changed reporting guidelines under Section 9002 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

California last week became the first state to pass legislation creating a health insurance exchange as mandated under the new federal health reform law. Some states, like New York, have only begun to pay lip service toward implementing health reform, while others, like Missouri, are still fighting the federal law's legality.

But the legislation is nonetheless expected to serve as a model if it is signed into law as expected.

Last year, Medicare was predicted to run out of money by 2017. Now, Medicare is predicted to have enough money to last another 12 years. What changed? The answer is health reform.

At least that's the answer given in the Medicare Trustee's report issued August 5. The trustees oversee both Social Security and Medicare. The report states that health reform will save $575 billion over the next decade. That's because health reform raises taxes on high-income earners and eventually raises taxes on high-cost health benefits. The report also notes that savings are expected to come by reducing the number of uninsured hospital patients.

The University of Michigan Health System recently asked itself this question: what happens when a hospital admits it caused a medical mistake, takes responsibility and offers compensation to patients who have been harmed? Do patients sue or do they settle?

For employers, this is not just a matter of legal theory or even a question of whether you think tort reform and capping damages on lawsuits is the best way to bring malpractice insurance down.

Earlier this week, I wrote about how more employers looking toward consumer-driven plans with health savings accounts to save money should make sure they are also helping employees get the health care they need.

Employers that want to offer these plans during their upcoming open-enrollment period should also consider the impact health reform will have.

Employers may not like the uncertainty that the new health reform law has injected into their health care benefits plans, but they are not giving up on providing health care, as I wrote earlier this week. After years of wrangling, a bill passed. The law is on the books and employers are adjusting to a new reality.

Still, the effort to knock down health reform continues. This would seem to add more uncertainty into the plans of employers, who love nothing more than a fixed cost.

If you're thinking of dropping health coverage for your employees, think again.

Sure, many employer groused when Democrats passed health reform. They feared new mandates, rules telling them what kind--and how much--health care they needed to provide to employees.