Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter

September 16, 2014

BenefitsLink.com logo EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com logo LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
Get Retirement News  |  Advertise  |  Past Issues  |  Search

Employee Benefits Jobs

Benefits Coordinator
Arnold & Porter LLP
in DC

DC Plan Consultant
Independent Actuaries, Inc.
in OR

Documents Coordinator
Verisight, Inc.
in MN

Director of Operations
UNITE HERE HEALTH
in IL

Director, Trust Accounting
ATPA
in CA

Retirement Plan Administrator
Bates & Company, Inc.
in FL

Retirement Account Administrator
GuideStone Financial Resources
in TX

Post Your Job

View All Jobs

RSS feed for jobs RSS Feed: All Jobs


Webcasts and Conferences

Transitional Reinsurance Program: Supporting Documentation Job Aid Review and Updating Reinsurance Contribution Filings
September 19, 2014 WEBCAST
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor)

HATFA Guidance – What You Need to Know Now
September 23, 2014 WEBCAST
(ASPPA College of Pension Actuaries [ACOPA])

2014 Webinar: IRA Basics
October 2, 2014 WEBCAST
(Ascensus)

Intermittent Leave Under FMLA
October 23, 2014 WEBCAST
(Clear Law Institute)

It’s a New World for ESOPs: The Great Banc Settlement and Recent Court Decisions
October 28, 2014 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

Advanced Business Analytics
November 4, 2014 in IL
(Society of Actuaries)

Legislative Update: Year-End Review of Legal Changes Affecting Benefit Plans
November 20, 2014 in GA
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Atlanta Chapter)

View All Webcasts and Conferences



Looking Ahead to the ACA's 'Cadillac Tax' on High-Cost Health Coverage (PDF)
"Given the potentially dramatic financial effect of the Section 4980I excise tax, some employers have determined that radical modifications to benefits may be required to avoid liability. Employers are developing strategies for limiting its negative impact, including plotting out a 'glide path,' whereby the value of employer-sponsored coverage will be reduced gradually between 2014 and 2018 to bring the cost of coverage under the Section 4980I thresholds (and employees will not see their benefits dramatically reduced between 2017 and 2018). Complicating the development of any long-term strategy, however, is the paucity of guidance related to Code Section 4980I." (Groom Law Group)  


[Advert.]

Step-By-Step Guidance for Complying With Health Care Reform

Sponsored by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP]

The newly published Employer's Guide to Health Care Reform, 2015 Edition, provides essential guidance for employers trying to keep pace with the rapid changes affecting health benefit plans. Order Now!



Tips to Help Employees Prepare for the Upcoming Open Enrollment Season
"Take an active role ... Assess your and your dependents' health care needs ... Evaluate your plan's provider network ... Evaluate whether a CDHP is right for you ... Determine the best source of coverage for your dependents ... Take advantage of health and wellness programs ... Understand how your employer coverage works in comparison to ACA Marketplaces ... Take a holistic view of health and financial wellness." (Aon Hewitt)  

Quality of Health Care After Adopting a Full-Replacement, High-Deductible Health Plan with a Health Savings Account: A Five-Year Study (PDF)
"This study reports use of health care services related to health care quality over five years ... [at] a single large employer ... that adopted an HSA-eligible health plan for all employees. It represents one of the longest observation periods reported with a full-replacement CDHP, and it is one of the few studies with a matched control group. The introduction of the HSA-eligible health plan had a negative impact on office visits for annual physicals, well-child visits, and preventive visits in the year that the plan was adopted. In the second year, office visits increased for HSA-eligible health plan enrollees, but were mostly unchanged for the comparison group. By the fourth year in the HSA-eligible health plan, office visits for annual physicals, well-child visits, and preventive visits were down slightly relative to the comparison group." (Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI])  

What Do the Ice Bucket Challenge and FMLA-Related Lawsuits Have in Common?
"Some employers continue to struggle with the FMLA's tricky and sometimes convoluted compliance obligations, including how and when to complete and distribute paperwork and communicate with the requesting employee, and how to otherwise treat someone on leave. They also struggle with how to navigate between the FMLA, the ADA and short term disability laws and related state and local leave and disability laws. The harder it is to comply means a greater risk of a violation. Updated FMLA regulations went into effect about four years ago and we are starting to see claims arise from non-compliance with those newer regulations." (Mintz Levin)  

Race to the Middle? Middle and Skinny Plans Under Healthcare Reform
"A number of innovative strategies for avoiding or minimizing the impact of tax penalties under Code 4980H(a) and Code 4980H(b) exist in the marketplace. However, these strategies are not one size fits all. Even when the strategy seems to fit, the questionable compliance of these strategies with the many requirements for health plans under PPACA make for numerous cracks in the elusive glass slipper that is the cost-effective, compliant, and penalty-eliminating group health plan. [The authors review] compliance concerns with so-called 'Middle Plans' currently emerging, and highlight employer risks in implementing a Skinny Plan." (Hill, Chesson & Woody)  


[Advert.]

NBCH 19th Annual Conference -- November 10-12, 2014 - Washington, DC

Sponsored by National Business Coalition on Health [NBCH]

Employers, health plans, providers and other key stakeholders focus on improving health outcomes, lowering cost by benefit design, care management, payment reform, and reducing waste. Free admission for employers that are members of an NBCH coalition. Join us.



ACA Tempers New State Coverage Mandates
"To discourage states from passing mandates that go beyond essential health benefits requirements, the law requires states, not insurers, to cover the cost of mandates passed after 2011 that apply to individual and small group plans sold on or off the state health insurance marketplaces. If a mandate increases a plan's premium, states will be on the hook for the additional premium cost that's attributable to the mandate." (Kaiser Health News)  

Text of GAO Report: Coverage of Non-excepted Abortion Services by Qualified Health Plans
"GAO was asked to provide a list of QHPs that do and that do not cover abortion services and for additional information on issues related to that coverage. This report describes whether non-excepted abortion services are covered by QHPs within the 28 states with no laws restricting such coverage for the 2014 benefit year and provides additional information -- such as the scope and the cost of non-excepted abortion services coverage -- for selected QHPs that cover such services." (U.S. Government Accountability Office [GAO])  

Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2013
"The percentage of people without health insurance coverage for the entire 2013 calendar year was 13.4 percent; this amounted to 42.0 million people." (U.S. Census Bureau)  

Early Observations Show Safety-Net ACOs Hold Promise to Achieve the Triple Aim and Promote Health Equity
"This post will outline five key observations regarding emerging safety-net ACOs and suggest broad policy implications. We are defining safety-net ACOs as collaborative entities of providers and sometimes payers that are [1] accountable for managing the health of their population, [2] assuming upside and/or downside financial risk, and [3] serving predominantly Medicaid (including dual eligibles) and uninsured patients." (Health Affairs)  

[Opinion]

No Shift to Part-Time Work Seen (Yet) Under ACA
"It is still possible that businesses will initiate a shift to more under-30 hour work weeks as the mandate nears. (And the mandate requirement and penalties include a 'look back' -- what the workforce looks like before the start date of the mandate.) But the mandate has been delayed twice, and it' s being phased in much more slowly. And it's not at all certain it will ever happen at all[.]" (Association of Health Care Journalists)  

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

Signature Authority Triggered ERISA Fiduciary Responsibility
"[T]he court held that Taneja' s signature authority made him a plan fiduciary because, among other things, ERISA provides that a person can become a plan fiduciary by exercising any authority or control over the management or disposition of plan assets, even without discretion. The court declined to decide whether discretion was an ERISA fiduciary requirement at this stage, but noted that at least one Circuit (the 11th) has suggested that discretion is a necessary prerequisite for ERISA fiduciary status." [Perez v. Geopharma, No. 8:14-cv-66-T-33T (M.D. Fla. July 25, 2014)] (Thompson SmartHR Manager)  

Why Any Plan Sponsor Fiduciary Needs to Give HSAs Another Look
"Banks, insurance companies, and investment firms with active IRA programs may be interested in making their programs friendly for employers that want to make the HSAs widely available to employees with education as to the advantages of keeping the HSA accounts invested.... It will be critical for anyone marketing or offering these programs to be very sensitive to the conditions for exemption from ERISA. Some employers may be willing to offer HSAs as a fully ERISA-covered benefit, but most will want to stay ERISA-exempt, and for the latter category it will be necessary to keep the program simple and be very careful with the handling of investment options." (Fiduciary News)  

Executive Compensation Practices in ESOP Companies
"[T]he median total pay for CEOs among responding companies was $307,875, with a breakdown of $240,000 among companies with 100 or fewer employees and $378,863 at larger companies (more than 100 employees).... Stock-based compensation is much more prevalent among larger responding companies[.]" (National Center for Employee Ownership [NCEO])  

Press Releases

Connect   LinkedIn   Twitter   Facebook

Additional useful links:

BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park, Florida 32789
Phone (407) 644-4146
Fax (407) 644-2151

Lois Baker, J.D., President
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Holly Horton, Business Manager

Copyright 2014 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.—but feel free to forward this newsletter without further permission from us, if you do not modify the newsletter in any way (including this lower portion).

All materials contained in this newsletter are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., or in the case of third party materials, the owner of that content. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.

Links to Web sites other than those owned by BenefitsLink.com, Inc. are offered as a service to readers. The editorial staff of BenefitsLink.com, Inc. was not involved in their production and is not responsible for their content.

We are proud of our Privacy Policy.

Thanks for reading this newsletter!