Sr. Retirement Plan Specialist
Benefit Plans Plus, LLC
in IL

Retirement Plan Services Consultant
OneAmerica
in IN

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Reporting, Fees, and the HPID - A Monthly Employee Benefits Conversation
October 3, 2014 WEBCAST
(Littler Mendelson)

Retirement Plan Insights Two-Day Seminar
October 7, 2014 in IL
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

Private Health Insurance Exchanges Conference
October 7, 2014 in DC
(Conference Board, The)

Benchmarking Service Provider Fees and Services
October 16, 2014 in CA
(Western Pension & Benefits Council - Orange County Chapter)

Health Care Transparency: Seeing Costs and Quality in a New Way
October 22, 2014 in IL
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Chicago Downtown Chapter )

The CSI Approach to Controlling Benefit Rate Increases
October 24, 2014 in NY
(Corporate Synergies)

Put the Lid on Escalating Benefit Costs
October 28, 2014 in NY
(Corporate Synergies)

Developing a Strategy for Health Care Costs and Risks: Why Employers Need to take Matters into Their Own Hands
October 28, 2014 in TX
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Dallas Chapter)

Practicing Before the IRS - Circular 230 A to Z
October 29, 2014 WEBCAST
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

Affordable Care Act's Reporting Requirements For Large Employers
November 4, 2014 WEBCAST
(Liebert Cassidy Whitmore)

Retirement Plan Insights Two-Day Seminar
November 10, 2014 in NV
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

Work, Health, and Well-being: Integrating Wellness and Occupational Health and Safety in the Workplace
January 26, 2015 in MA
(Harvard School of Public Health Executive and Continuing Professional Education)

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International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP]

[Guidance Overview]

Text of CMS FAQs on Health Plan Identifiers (HPIDs)
Includes: "Are fully-insured plans exempt from the HPID requirement? ... Who is responsible for obtaining HPIDs for fully-insured health plans? ... Can I use my Health Plan Identifier (HPID) for other business purposes? ... When must a health plan obtain a Health Plan Identifier (HPID)? ... What is a small health plan and what does my organization do if it does not have annual receipts? ... Are self-insured health plans required to get a Health Plan Identifier (HPID)?" (Generated by a search for "HPID" in the CMS FAQ database.) (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)  

[Advert.]

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

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.

[Guidance Overview]

ACA Changes the Insured vs. Self-Insured Decision Process
"The essential health benefits requirement leaves insurance carriers with limited room for flexibility in design and pricing.... [I]nsured plans will all be community rated.... Self-insured plans can, with the right employee demographics, come out ahead. However, the insurance companies that provide the stop-loss coverage (an essential feature of a self-insured plan) will request health data from all employees and their dependents before pricing their coverage. If it turns out your workforce isn't so healthy and you have had a bad claims history, you probably would come out ahead with an insured plan. And you might be better off than you would otherwise have been prior to community rating since your premiums will be based on average claims." (Lindquist Solutions)  

[Guidance Overview]

Dealing with Changes to an Employee's Measurement Period
"[A] new variable hour, part-time or seasonal employee who transfers to a position where he or she is reasonably expected to average at least 30 hours of service per week will no longer be subject to an initial measurement period. Rather, the full-time status of such an employee will be determined on the basis of hours of service in each month, until that employee has been employed for a full standard measurement period applicable to the second position.... Upon a change in the measurement period applicable to a category of employees, each employee's full-time or non-full-time status for a transition period following the effective date of the change is determined as if the employee had transferred from a position to which the original measurement method applies to a position to which the revised measurement method applies." (Benefits Bryan Cave)  

[Guidance Overview]

Departments Finalize Excepted Benefits Rules for Dental and Vision Benefits, EAPs
"[T]he final regulations do not undermine the inclusion of pediatric vision or dental coverage as essential health benefits. The requirement that issuers in the small group market offer coverage of essential health benefits is not changed, and that rule does not apply to large or self-insured plans.... [T]he final regulations clarify that limited-scope vision or dental benefits do not have to be offered in connection with a separate offer of major medical or 'primary' group health coverage under the plan in order to meet the statutory criterion that such benefits are 'otherwise not an integral part of the plan.'" (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)  

[Guidance Overview]

Excepted Benefits Final Rule Issued by Government Agencies
"The final rules clarify that limited scope vision and dental benefits do not have to be offered in connection with a separate offer of major medical or 'primary' group health benefits to meet the statutory 'not an integral part' requirement.... The final rule permits employee assistance programs to be recognized as excepted benefits if they meet four requirements." (Timothy Jost, in Health Affairs)  

[Advert.]

Join us at IHC FORUM West November 10-12, 2014 in Las Vegas!

Come to the ONLY national event 100% dedicated to health care consumerism progress, collaboration and educational content. We'll provide a real-time look in at this year's open enrollment results and much more. Sign up today for the lowest rates!

'Dumping' Sick Employees -- It's Legal But Is It Right?
"As written, the ACA regulators will allow an employer who can identify their sickest chronic employees to potentially incent those members to drop their group coverage and sign up for the local state exchange. Nothing in the federal regulations today prohibits an employee from waiving their group health care and buying individual coverage on the exchange -- an omission that may prove costly for the government exchanges." (William Gallagher Associates)  

First Circuit Rules for Insurers in Two Retained Asset Account Cases; Insurer Does Not Need 'To Don the Commercial Equivalent of Sackcloth and Ashes'
"Both suits were brought by beneficiaries of group life insurance plans whose sponsors had purchased group life insurance contracts from the insurer-defendants. In both cases, the insurers paid benefit claims under the group contracts through interest-bearing accounts backed by funds that the insurers retained until the account holders wrote checks or drafts against the account. The plaintiffs challenged the practice, which they claimed constituted a breach of fiduciary duty and a prohibited transaction under ERISA." (Goodwin Procter)  

EEOC Sues Employer, Alleging 'So-Called Voluntary' Wellness Plan Violated ADA
"[To date,] the EEOC has not promulgated regulations regarding what level of financial consideration renders an employee's participation in a wellness plan in effect not voluntary ... This case may not provide much guidance to employers on this issue ... especially if the court determines the employee was fired for refusing to participate in the wellness plan.... [It] does serve as a reminder to employers that this issue has not yet been resolved and financial consequences that are tied to participating in health risk assessments and screenings that constitute medical inquiries or examinations could subject the employer to an ADA challenge." [EEOC v. Orion Energy Systems, No. 1:14-cv-1019 (E.D. Wis., filed Aug. 20, 2014)] (Poyner Spruill LLP)  

The Payment Reform Landscape: Value-Oriented Payment Jumps, and Yet ...
"40 percent of commercial sector payments to doctors and hospitals now flow through value-oriented payment methods, defined as payment methods designed to improve quality and reduce waste. This is a dramatic increase since 2013 when the figure was just 11 percent.... The proliferation of value-based payment arrangements only matters if they succeed at reducing costs and improving the quality of care. And for many value-oriented payment models, we still don't have the evidence." (Health Affairs)  

The Consumer Factor: Four Elements to Consider with Private Exchanges
"The advent of private exchanges will accelerate [the] consumer-centric shift in the employee benefits sector. Individuals and their family members can now select the combination of benefits that is right for their circumstances and budget. The days of one-size-fits-all is over.... [1] Haven't We Seen This Before?... [2] Look Beyond the Software.... [3] Beware of Advisors Steering You Away from Exchanges.... [4] Keep an Eye on Carriers." (The Institute for HealthCare Consumerism [IHCC])  

What's Behind Public Marketplace Renewals and Redeterminations
"The goal of this redetermination process is to ensure that as many first-year QHP enrollees as possible remain insured in perpetuity. To this end, the processes established by HHS seek to make the redetermination and re-enrollment process automatic and continuous.... By providing two alternative redetermination processes that are subject to the annual approval of the secretary, HHS is giving itself wide discretion to adjust and hone the process as it sees fit year over year without having to go through the onerous rule-making process." (HighRoads)  

Auto-Renewing Your Health Insurance May Be Bad for You, and for Competition
"Next year, the premiums of the currently cheapest silver-rated plans are going up by an average of 8.4 percent. Because of that, many of those plans will no longer be the cheapest. The customers who switch to the silver plans that are the cheapest in 2015 will see their premiums rise by only 1 percent on average. So in raising their rates by that much, those plans may be assuming that status quo bias will keep many of their enrollees from switching to new, cheaper plans offered by competitors." (The New York Times; subscription may be required)  

60 Percent of Health Plans that Could Meet Obamacare's Essential Health Benefits are Illegal
"[A] bronze plan can cover 58 percent to 62 percent of costs, but not 63 percent. So there is a gap between 62 percent to 68 percent AV (and 72 percent to 78 percent, and 82 percent to 88 percent, and above 92 percent) in which it is illegal for an insurer to offer a plan.... [As] plans roll from 2014 to 2015, their AV's will spill outside the bands and the plans will be cancelled.'" (National Center for Policy Analysis Health Policy Blog)  

Obamacare Mystery: Why Can't You Buy Vision Insurance?
"No one will be shopping for separate eye-care plans, an exclusion that roils companies that sell vision insurance. Even though they aren't getting new customers, vision insurers still have to pay the [ACA's] tax on health insurance providers. Why did vision get left out of Obamacare? ... When [insurer VSP Global] paid the fee last week, the levy amounted to $25 million. In a letter to the Internal Revenue Service along with the payment, VSP's general counsel said the company intends to seek a refund." (Bloomberg Businessweek)  

[Opinion]

Kaiser Permanente Chairman Bernard Tyson on the 'Kaiserfication' of America
"Increasingly, hospitals are looking to offer health insurance ... Kaiser, which reported $53 billion in revenue last year, has been there, done that.... [1] Don't tell physicians how to practice ... [2] If you must tell physicians how to practice, show them the data ... [3] To show them data, you must have technology ... [4] Think hard before launching a health plan." (Forbes)  

[Opinion]

Obamacare Nightmare for Low Income Families: Why Many Kids Lose Their Pediatrician After One Month
"Generally speaking, healthcare reimbursements are best from employer insurance plans, second best from Medicare (insurance for the elderly), third best from the Obamacare Exchange plans and worst from Medicaid/Medi-Cal. Most doctors accept (or are in network with) private plans and Medicare. Covered California's networks often offer as little as half of those providers and Medi-Cal has even fewer doctors accepting new patients." (Benefit Revolution)  

Now Is the Time to Review Compensation Arrangements for Section 409A Compliance
"[E]arlier this year, ... the IRS began a compliance initiative project (CIP) focused on Internal Revenue Code Section 409A.... Even though this initial CIP is limited in scope, practitioners expect that the IRS will implement a much broader Section 409A enforcement initiative in the not so distant future. Before the IRS begins its examination ... in full force, all compensation arrangements, especially customized deferred compensation plans for highly paid executives, should be carefully reviewed for Section 409A compliance." (Fox Rothschild LLP)  

Independent Financial Partners is Certified for Investment Support Services
Centre for Fiduciary Excellence [CEFEX]

TRA Introduces Plan Designs That Drive Retirement Readiness
The Retirement Advantage [TRA]

TIAA-CREF Launches 2060 Target-Date Funds
TIAA-CREF

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