New Massachusetts law?

[Mary C]

Someone in our office recently attented a benefits conference where they believe they heard that Massachusetts adopted a new law whereby employers are required to communicate to employees the total medical rate in addition to the employee contribution rate. I've searched the Massachusetts code on-line and can find no reference to this. Does anyone have any idea of any new requirements in Massachusetts? Can you provide me the cite?

Thanks.

Mary C

[mroberts]

This doesn't sound likely. Remember, employees already have the right to look at the policy and see what the rates are under ERISA.

[MGB]

I do not know anything about Mass. law.

This is a new auditing requirement for self-funded plans that have a trust fund (primarily only found in multiemployer plans). In Statement of Procedure (SOP) 01-02 (modifying SOP 92-4), auditors are required to state the relative magnitude of the employee contributions versus total contributions. This is included in the footnotes to the audit report attached to the 5500. Although it need not be communicated to the participants, they have the right to ask for a copy.

[MGB]

Also note that this requirement usually only comes into play with retiree medical, not actives.