"TLDR: Why is Price Transparency data not in wider use compared to UDS data? I'm researching the relatively new Price Transparency data required by the federal government as part of the Hospital Price Transparency (Hospital Prices) and the Transparency in Coverage (Health Plan Prices) rules. It seems to me that these new data would be a boon for self-insured employers to reprice their current year's health care claims with pricing data at the level of individual services (i.e. HCPCS, DRGs, etc) and to choose a health plan that would provide them with better savings for all of their employees (especially those with high deductibles). However, from what I can tell, the current industry standard is to use the UDS (Uniform Discount and Data Specification) data for this purpose, even though the UDS data is prone to major inaccuracies and is at a much more aggregate level (aggregated across 3-digit zip codes). And further, many brokers and consultants I have spoken to are dismissive of the Price Transparency data as not very useful. What am I missing here that makes the UDS data so much better than the Price Transparency Data?"

"The plan has 3 employees. The owner and his spouse max their 402g and then an additional employee NHCE who doesn't contribute. The plan is a safe harbor 6% match. Since the NHCE employee didn't contribute for 2024. Can we declare a 4% discretionary match for the 2024 year and will the match have to be run through the ACP test?"

"I recently received a request to assist with a VFCP application. I was provided the total of missed deferrals, payroll date, recovery date, distribution of lost earnings and 5330s. The failures occurred one in 2022 and twice in 2023. The 5330 for 2022 is very vague and doesn't include the correct dates, but the amount used to calculate the excise tax doesn't match the VFCP calculator with the actual recovery and final payment dates OR even if I used the recovery date as the final payment date. The 5330 for 2023 only includes one item which I can only assume adds the 2022 number to the lost earnings for 2023 instead of breaking them up by transaction and compounding the total, but this total is still off from what the calculator shows. The lost earnings summary for 2022 matches the 5330 for participant allocations, but so does the 2023. I mean that the entire amount of what I believe was the combined lost earnings was allocated to participants in 2023. I'm trying to get in touch with the TPA to see who taught them to fill out 5330s and how they came to their calculations. Regardless, it seems like the sponsor overpaid lost earnings by a around $100. I can't use their documentation and evidence because it won't match the calculator so it looks like I have to redo everything including the 5330's. DOL hasn't started an investigation yet but has sent a few 'poke the body' notices. Does anybody have any other suggestions? And if I'm right and they did overpay lost earnings, is that a prohibited transaction in itself that needs correcting? We're talking a few pennies for the majority of participants and most aren't employed there anymore."

"When installing a new plan, I have always obtained a new tax ID for The Plan Trust. I'm taking over an existing plan and it appears the employer tax ID and the plan tax ID are the same number. Has anyone one else seen this?"