CEB

Have any of you seen any articles or recent studies showing the number of older working employees who will most likely leave their job (retire early) if the reform is passed? I have heard a lot of employees over the years saying that they are only working because they need insurance benefits and would leave their employer when they qualify for Medicare. Thanks, I think it would be an interesting read....

Any suggestions on where I might be able to locate some sample compensation statement formats? Most of the sites I have seen say they are free, but at the end require a payment to view the results. I just was looking at formating ideas and maybe wording ideas. Thanks!

Is the max for the entire family? Or could an employee and their spouse (different employer) both elect $5,000 with their own employer. I am thinking it is $5,000 for the entire family (not $10,000).

With major changes, moving everyone's cheese, what are some ways to present the benefits in a positive way rather than focusing on the obvious uncomfortable changes to the employees plans. Is there a way to spin the negatives into positives? We may be shifting additional 10% to 15% of the cost to employees through premiums and deductible/OOP and some minor copayment increases.

Why not just subsidize the cobra premiums, rather than delaying COBRA? I would imagine you would have to do this for all employees in the same situation regardless of level in the company. Also, don't forget this might fall under the COBRA Stimulus subsidy rules as well

J simmons, If the corporate office is in a state that does not recognize community property but the employees lives in a state with community property (like Louisiana) does that mean the life insurance is also subject to the community property laws at the time of distribution? The life insurance policy we work with does not require the spouse to be the primary beneficiary. The employee can leave all their money to their boyfriend/girlfriend and neighbors kid

Our plan year is coming up and we are adopting the changes into the plan to reflect what we believe to treat the mental health and substance abuse equally as other benefits under the plan. My stomach turned with removing the current mental and substance abuse limits and wonder if there is anyway to provide this benefit with less risk to the plan? The idea of having inpatient mental health with no limits leaves a self funded plan with a lot of exposure to future long term claims. We thought about removing both completely from the plan (assuming that you have to have mental health/substance abuse together and not one or the other?). What are you doing for your clients or your employer to protect the plan from a dependent who going through substance abuse rehab over and over (In patient treatment) and over again.

With the recession really taking hold of my current employer plans and requiring us to cut back on benefits offered to the employees, we are thinking about adding a buy (no selling) vacation policy for the employees. Where in the world do I start with developing one of these type of programs? What are the risks to the employer and employee? I think it will look something like all employees can buy up to one week of vacation. The vacation bought time would than be pretax(?) and the entire week would be available (not accrued like our normal vacation time) the first day of January. When the employee takes it, I would imagine that it becomes a taxable benefit and that pay check the employee would be taxed? At the end of the year, could this be some kind of "use it or loose it benefit" If they loose it, than does the employee pay taxes on it if it was never distributed to the employee? I would assume this week would be used first before any normal vacation time. Is it still ok for them to have a rollover in place for days that are company paid. It sound very complicated. Does it become a section 125 plan or subject to 5500 & SPD? As complicated as it may sound on the record keeping side, at least we could provide a benefit, that hopefully would not be a lot of additional cost to the employer and still add some work/life balance for employees. I guess this does leave some exposure that if an employee leaves in Feb, would we have to pay out that vacation time? One last question, is this subject to discrimination testing? Could we excluded section 16 officers or maybe a group of employees at a different location that work shifts (like one week on and one week off). Is this worth the administrative work? Thanks!

I wanted to find out if any of you have adopted a cutting or splitting RX tablet program for employees? A little background: The idea behind this program is that an employee gets a 15 day supply of 40mg and they split it in half to have a 20mg tablet for 30 days (the member doctor is basically prescribing the 20mg strengh for 30 days). This I believe saves the employer money and in some cases if this program is adopted by the PBM, than the member has a set list of drugs they can split (example a time release drug would not be listed because it may not be safe) and the employee pays only 1/2 of their normal copayment. We are looking at some brochures and are thinking about adding it to our current RX benefits. Please let me know how you think this should be marketed to the employees and how to enourage them to participate (for drugs that can safely be split). Thanks!

Do your self a favor, increase the individuals pay and they can decide if they would like to use the extra compensation towards purchasing individual insurance. Than you do not get involved in providing insurance for one employee.

Easy quick question, is there a list some where of all special enrollment events to allow individuals to be added to the plan. I looked on the DOL website, but didn't find a list. I am looking for the effective date when a student can enroll in the plan (Beginning of the semester when they become full time again or wait to open enrollment?)

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204708,00.html

Here is a great resource for legal separation by state: http://www.womansdivorce.com/state-divorce-resources.html (Also: All states except Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Texas recognize legal documentation of separation. That is why we request "documentation" to support the separation. I haven't found any legal separation definitions where the word "court" has been left out of the definition. (wiki has a great definition of legal separation). I don't think living apart & trial separation equal "legal" separation. I am not a lawyer, so take this suggestion with a grain of salt. Even in California the individual has to file with the courts and you know how california laws can be tricky. What is even more confusing is in the event the couple decides to stay married under a legal separation order, some states do not require them to do anything further to remain married. So what is the event to add the dropped dependents back on to the plan, open enrollment? I tend to think domestic abuse rules deal more with IRS tax filings than legal separation. Restraining orders are usually limited to a certain amount of weeks (I guess that depends on the state). Here are some resources I use over and over again to determine eligibility to remain on the plan: http://www.taxalmanac.org/index.php/Sec._152 http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/newsroom/fscobra.html p.s. 401k Chaos (our plans do not define it, maybe that is a good thing??) And another question, what about annulments? This is a very good discussion....

I should clarify that the reason you may want to provide "notice" is because involuntary termination is not defined by the act. If an employee terminated thier employment because they knew they were going to be laid off, is that voluntary or involuntary termination? The act is not very clear on the definition of involuntary termination. Better to be on the safe side for the general notice, and than on the back end have a list of employees that you believe fall into the involuntary termination or those that could possibly (example above) be considered a involuntary termination. You may want to check this out as well: http://benefitslink.com/framed/healthplanadmincobra.html

We have very specific language in our plan that in the event of a divorce or legal separation, the plan administrator has the right to request supporting documentation for the event. We always require, when applicable, a copy of the court approved legal seperation papers or the divorce decree. The key word is "legal" which usually means there will be some type of paper trail in the court system.

The seminar above costs $$-very expensive! Maybe benefit links will host a free seminar on this now (hint hint) I have read several articles and most state persons leaving employment for any reason between Sept. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009, must receive notices explaining the new COBRA rights & subsidy eligibility information (such as income caps, etc) . The DOL is suppose to come out with some sample notice in March...

Is there a minimum age to be in a DB plan in the 1970 & 1980s? Any legislation? Or was is just based on the plan rules?