oriecat

Yes. It is $5000 for single or married filing joint or $2500 for married filing separate. This is in the IRC 129 Code for dependent care assistance. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/129.html

I think you have to be a registered user to post anything. You could always register another account using a secondary email address, I suppose. But I am sure the evil powers that be could always track you down by your IP address if they really wanted to...

What you are saying makes perfect sense when dealing with expenses and claims for reimbursements, but the original question is in regards to the deferrals. If claims were submitted for the maternity leave time period, then they should be denied. But where does it say that you can't continue to defer for when your claims will be eligible again? The employee is still eligible for the benefit, even if the claims for that time period wouldn't be. While the election change can be offered, I don't think it can be required. If the employee knows, even with the time off for maternity, that they will hit the $5k maximum, why shouldn't they be allowed to continue deferring so they can receive the maximum reimbursement?

I agree with you. I have an ee who contributes all year, but the kids are only in daycare during the summer. Makes it much easier to pay for when it's nice and spread out... the TPA is claiming something. They need to prove it.

CEBS also has several specialty track designations that are more specialized than the full CEBS designation. They are Group Benefits Associate (GBA), Retirement Plan Associate (RPA), and Compensation Management Specialist (CMS). I keep thinking about studying for the GBA to go with my CPP, since I deal with so many of our welfare benefits, but haven't gotten around to it yet...

Not unless the qualify as a dependent under the tax code.

There are several other states that also consider vacation as accrued wages which cannot be forfeited. Other than a state law that requires such, your company policy would apply.

We have never not offered COBRA for gross misconduct. The DOL (or is it the IRS?) has said they will not define 'gross misconduct' for COBRA purposes, so we think it's just safer not to go there...

I believe that would be concerned leave on an intermittent basis, as the leave wasn't taken all at once for the same reason, and for the birth of a child, you do not have to grant intermittent leave for the birth of a child, unless the employer agrees to it. http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29...9CFR825.203.htm (b)When leave is taken after the birth ..., an employee may take leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule only if the employer agrees. Such a schedule reduction might occur, for example, where an employee, with the employer's agreement, works part-time after the birth of a child, or takes leave in several segments. So if you want to agree to it, then that's fine, but you don't have to.

What does PCA stand for? It kind of sounds like the new HSAs. I think it's hard to know without knowing the specifics of your plans. But I don't see why they couldn't allow you to do that. Perhaps one way to get around it would be to ask your doctor to bill you directly instead of going through the insurance. That way you could pay the entire bill yourself and submit it through your FSA for reimbursement. That's the only thought I have...

I do not believe that amending would be proper, due to the issue of constructive receipt. I would correct the error going forward and inform employees of the error in prior years, in case they could file amended tax returns to claim the deductions.

I agree. I had this situation come up also, where an ee wanted to do that. We did not allow her to come on until open enrollment. I also checked with our carrier on this and they would not allow it. Our contract clearly specifies, regarding special enrollment for people who lose other coverage: "... if the other coverage was: under a COBRA continuation provision and the coverage under such a provision was exhausted. Failure to pay premium or termination of coverage for cause do not satisfy this requirement"

I think it might depend upon how the physicals are currently being paid for. Do you reimburse employees for their copay or coinsurance amounts? Do you have one free physical built into the insurance contract? Do you have someone come on site and all ees can get a free physical then?

I would recommend reading the "Accident & Health Benefits" section of IRS Pub 15-B. It covers the exclusion from wages. I don't believe the method of payment would disqualify the exclusion, as long as all other qualifications are met. Just MHO.

The notice requirement is found in 29 CFR2590.701-6©

Does this help? http://www.ebia.com/weekly/questions/2003/HIPAA031126.jsp

My thought - an employee is required to make his premium payments while on leave. If he does not make the payments, then the employer can cancel his coverage back to the date of full payment. So it isn't that the ee is cancelling his coverage, but that you are cancelling his coverage for lack of payment because you are not required to provide coverage that he isn't paying for. This would not apply to other current employees, because their premiums are paid through the payroll (I will assume). Unless paying after-tax, they cannot make any changes to their payroll deductions for the year without a qualifying status change, therefore their premiums will continue to be paid.

I think it would be safest to contact the NY DOL for their interpretation, because all states are different. I have ee's in OR & WA. In OR, the breaks are required, the employee cannot waive them, so you have to watch and force the ee's to take them. In WA, ee's can waive the required breaks, but you must provide them the opportunity. I didn't see anything on the NY DOL website that indicated which route they take...

However, legally, they couldn't run the same 5k of expenses through both plans. That would be fraudulent. They should have 10k of expenses and run 5k through each of them.

According to my COBRA workbook, the term "qualified beneficiary" includes new born children who are added to the plan after the original effective date of COBRA coverage, but only if added to the covered employee's continuation coverage. Therefore the child added to the spouse's COBRA coverage would not be considered a qualified beneficiary, and therefore not entitled to independent election rights. According to the workbook, this in in Section 421 of HIPAA.

It is my understanding (and experience) that most insurance contracts do not contain all of the required elements to constitute a legal plan document under ERISA, which is why a wrap doc is needed to add the things that are missing. The wraps that I have seen work as both the wrap SPD and wrap doc, depending upon whether they are wrapping the insurance contracts, thus making the plan doc, or wrapping the summaries given to employees, thus making the SPD.

How's this? http://www.ebia.com/weekly/questions/2003/Caf031106.jsp I used to have a great website that went over it all, but I am having trouble finding it now... I will keep looking tho.

In my opinion, FSAs generally call for an *annual* election and as long as the full amount is paid during the plan year, there is no reason to restrict which funds are available to the employee, unless the plan doc specifies that all contributions have to be made in equal payments. I would say that his full annual amount should be available to him and his missing payments should be made up the next time he receives a commission payment.

I didn't see it and don't know anything about it, but it seems rather odd, as the Sec 125 code specificly excludes long term care insurance from the definition of qualified benefits.

To my knowledge, there are no maximums in the regs regarding health FSA's, so an employer can set the limit wherever they choose. Ours is $3k. $10k is very generous considering the risk to the employer!