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February 14, 2012 Get Retirement News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

Employee Benefits Jobs

Assistant Administrative Manager
for San Diego Electrical Administrative Corporation in CA

Financial Consultant
for TIAA-CREF in CA

Senior Pension Administrator
for Retirement Plan Consultants in CA

High Net Worth Client Service Manager
for Vanguard in AZ, NC, PA

Associate Actuary
for GuideStone Financial Resources in TX

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[Official Guidance]
IRS Extends Comment Period for Guidance on Indian Tribal Government Programs
"The IRS is extending the time limit for commenting on guidance the agency issued regarding the application of the general welfare exclusion to Indian tribal government programs. Comments may now be submitted through March 14, 2012." (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)


Trustee Handbook: A Guide to Labor-Management Employee Benefit Plans   [Advert.]

Sponsored by IFEBP (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans)

Trustee Handbook is an indispensable tool for anyone involved with multiemployer benefit plans including trustees, administrators and professional advisors. More than 40 industry experts contributed to the newly revised handbook. Order Now!


[Guidance Overview]
HHS Guidance On Contraceptives Establishes Temporary Safe Harbor for Religious Organizations
"Employers wanting to take advantage of the transitional relief for religiously-affiliated employers should carefully review the HHS one-year enforcement safe harbor, which includes numerous requirements (including the notice and self-certification rules)." (Practical Law Company)

[Guidance Overview]
FAQs on Automatic Enrollment, Waiting Periods and Employer Shared Responsibility under Health Care Reform
"The delay in the DOL's automatic enrollment guidance is good news for employers, who will have additional time to prepare for this requirement. As the technical release notes, the definition of FTE is a key issue to be addressed under the automatic enrollment guidance (other issues include the notice and opt-out requirements, and the decision of which plan benefit package and coverage employees should be automatically enrolled in if an employer maintains more than one package or coverage)." (Practical Law Company)

[Guidance Overview]
FAQs Offer Peek Behind the Play-or-Pay Curtain, 90-Day Waiting Period Rule (PDF)
"The 90-day waiting period rule, the play or pay mandate and (when implemented) the automatic enrollment rule will operate together like three pieces of a puzzle. The potential scenarios are legion: full-time employees hired into an eligible class; full-time employees hired into an ineligible class; employees deemed part-time by the employer, but full-time for play or pay purposes, who are hired into an ineligible class; seasonal employees hired into an ineligible class; employees hired into an ineligible class who later transfer to an eligible class, etc." (Lockton)


9th Annual World Health Care Congress: Strategy, Innovation and Execution   [Advert.]

Sponsored by World Congress

The 9th Annual World Health Care Congress, April 16-18 in Washington, DC. Register now, save $300 with code RDR697. To register, call 800-767-9499 or learn more at www.worldhealthcarecongress.com.


[Guidance Overview]
New Michigan Law Imposes a Tax on Claims Paid by Employer-Sponsored Health Plans (PDF)
"This advisory addresses some of the basic questions regarding the Act's application to employers who sponsor medical plans covering employees in Michigan and suggests strategies for addressing this new law with your third-party administrators." (Alston & Bird LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
Final Regulations Ease SBC Compliance Duties
"This post focuses on the changes made in the final regulation that apply to group, rather than individual health coverage, as follows: As mentioned, the compliance deadline was pushed out six months . . . . The SBC may be distributed electronically to plan applicants . . . . The SBC does not need to disclose health premium costs. . . . The SBC does not need to be a self-standing document but may be incorporated into a Summary Plan Description . . . ." (E Is for ERISA)

Health Plan Auto-Enrollment Will Be Delayed Past 2014
"Health care reform's automatic-enrollment provisions won't take effect in 2014 since finalizing rules will take longer than expected, IRS, DOL and HHS say in new guidance. Issued as frequently asked questions (FAQs), the guidance also hints at how regulators plan to implement the 90-day limit on waiting periods for health coverage and the shared-responsibility penalties for employers failing to offer full-time employees affordable coverage." (Mercer)

[Guidance Overview]
Health Reform's SBC Rules Include 12 Required Content Elements
"There would've been 13 required items but a provision requiring the SBC to include premium or cost of coverage information was dropped from the final version of the guidance." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business / CCH)

Unconstitutional Individual Mandate Would Obviate Need for Employer Mandate, American Benefits Council Says
"If the individual mandate under health care reform is struck down, it will render the employer mandate meaningless, the American Benefits Council (ABC) argues in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court." (SmartHR Manager)

Audio: Health Care in Massachusetts Turns to Cost Control
"When Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he made universal health care law. But the 2006 law didn't do anything about controlling costs, which were already among the nation's highest. So now the conversation has turned to cost control, and some very interesting things are beginning to happen." (NPR)

The Future of High-Tech Health Care and the Challenge
"[At a recent meeting where technologies were on display, it was said:] Watson . . . is not going to make diagnoses, not give a physician a single answer, but make suggestions, recommendations and determine probabilities. The more information Watson is fed, . . . the more it learns and understands, in its way." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Poor Drug Adherence Can Play Havoc with Pharmacy Benefit Plans
"A key element in any pharmacy benefit plan involves providing up-front guidance to plan members through a clinical management program, built into the plan terms. Sound clinical programs are critical in managing pharmacy benefit costs by minimizing unnecessary drug use and waste. The overriding objective of clinical programs is to ensure that members receive the right drug for the right condition at the right dose at the right time." (Buck Blog)

Health Insurance Providers Seek Direct-to-Consumer Connections
"To stand out in what will likely be a crowded environment, companies are building private exchanges and retail outlets. And insurers such as Aetna, which recently rebranded itself as a 'health-solutions company,' are aggressively working to differentiate their corporate brands." (Advertising Age)

Pentagon Wants to Raise Some Retirees' Health Fees
"Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has warned that runaway personnel costs at the Pentagon are 'unsustainable,' and on Monday he tried to put a big brake on the spending: Over the next five years the Defense Department plans to nearly quadruple the health insurance fees paid by many working-age military retirees." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Employers Encourage Workers to Travel for Care, but Leave Their Passports Behind
"[A]llowing employees to travel to an out-of-state hospital, where outcomes are higher for certain procedures, is gaining traction among employers . . . ." (AISHealth)

Medical Loss Regulations Create Challenges for Future of Affordable Coverage (PDF)
"The final medical loss ratio (MLR) regulations will likely create a vacuum for affordable coverage that cannot be filled by Bronze plans under the state insurance exchanges. If the 'essential benefits' and'actuarial value' requirements are equally as discriminatory, there will be no affordable options available and the cost of subsidies will skyrocket. As a result, millions of Americans that have policies today that could have qualified as Bronze plans will be forced to change their coverage or drop coverage because they can no longer afford it." (HSA Consulting Services, LLC)

Impact of Medical Loss Ratio Requirements under PPACA on High Deductible Plans / HSAs in Individual and Small Group Markets (PDF)
"The impact of the medical loss ratio (MLR) requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is likely to be greater on high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), including those with health savings accounts (HSAs), than other types of comprehensive medical plans." (Milliman)

Questions and Answers Related to Annual Limit Waivers
"A health insurance issuer has received from HHS a waiver of the annual dollar limit requirements pursuant to section 2711 of the PHS Act for a group health insurance product. Can this issuer sell that product to a self-insured grandfathered group health plan that has itself been granted a waiver and wishes to switch from being a self-insured plan to a fully insured plan?" (U.S. Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight)

Americans Weigh in on Contraception Rule
The target page provides links to [1] The Public Religion Research Institute's survey of public opinion on whether certain categories of religiously affiliated employers, such as Catholic hospitals or universities, should be required to include birth control in their health insurance coverage; and [2] Gallup's polls asking Americans their views on how President Barack Obama is handling health care policy. (Kaiser Health Reform)

Bishops Reject White House's New Plan on Contraception Coverage
"The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — which has led the opposition to the [Obama administration's contraception coverage mandate] — said in a statement late Friday that the solution offered by the White House to quell a political furor was 'unacceptable and must be corrected' because it still infringed on the religious liberty and conscience of Catholics." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Many Catholic Institutions In New York State Already Covering Birth Control
"Many Catholic institutions in New York [State] — and in more than two dozen other states — already are complying with . . . state mandates [similar to the federal contraceptive mandate]. New York began requiring prescription contraception coverage in 2002 [for insurance-funded health plans], over the objections of Catholic groups, which sued and lost in the state's highest court." (BuffaloNews.com)

[Opinion]
Book Review: A Cartoon That Cuts Through the Health Care Brambles
"Through drawings . . ., the book tracks the journeys of four fictional Americans: Anthony, who is, like most of us, an employee of a company with health benefits; Betty, who is covered by Medicare; Carlos, whose employer does not offer health benefits, leaving him to the mercy of the 'nongroup market'; and Dinah, who has no coverage at all. As we follow them through job loss, auto wrecks and other health care woes, we absorb vivid lessons in what Dr. Gruber [The author] calls 'the two-headed beast' of American health finance: rising costs, and the rising numbers of Americans without adequate health insurance." (The New York Times; free registration required)

[Opinion]
Amicus Brief on the Minimum Coverage Provision Issue in Support of Respondents
"Galen Institute, Angel Raich, Docs 4 Patient Care, the Benjamin Rush Society, and the Pacific Research Institute have filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the 11th Circuit's decision that the individual mandate contained in the health overhaul law is unconstitutional." (Galen Institute)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

[Official Guidance]
IRS Notice 2012-19: Determination of Foreign Housing Cost Amounts Eligible for Exclusion or Deduction for 2012 (PDF)
"This notice provides adjustments to the limitation on housing expenses for purposes of section 911 of the Internal Revenue Code ... for specific locations for 2012. These adjustments are made on the basis of geographic differences in housing costs relative to housing costs in the United States." (U.S. Internal Revenue Service)

Senate to Consider Reinstatement of Pre-Tax Transit Benefit Parity in Highway Bill
"A proposal to extend parity in qualified transportation fringe benefits is headed for a Senate vote as part of major highway legislation. The proposal . . . would continue to permit tax-free mass transit benefits at the same level as parking benefits ($240 per month) for all of 2012." (Mercer)

From Unlimited Burritos to On-Site Yoga, Boulder Firms Pile on Perks
"Natural Habitat Adventures in Boulder was voted the No. 1 place to work by Outside magazine two years in a row. The benefits -- which are some that 'Boulderites love,' . . . -- include four weeks of vacation plus two weeks of company-funded site inspections, which means a trip anywhere in the world." (Daily Camera)

Press Releases



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