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| January 26, 2009 |
| Here are the Web's best new links about compliance and cost aspects of plan operation, design and policy. |
Today's sponsor is BeneCom Associates, LLC
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| Your company promotes its products to customers. Why not your benefits to employees? |
| Ad campaigns can be expensive, but benefit statements from BeneCom are one of the least expensive promotional products available and show employees the great value benefits provide – value that’s often forgotten in today’s uncertain environment.
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[Guidance Overview]
House Set to Consider COBRA Expansion that Would Cost Employers $39 to $65 Billion
Excerpt: "The COBRA measures would: create a taxpayer-funded subsidy paying for 65% of COBRA costs for people who are involuntarily terminated between September 1, 2008, and December 31, 2009, for 12 months or until the former worker is offered new employer coverage; and mandate that employers extend COBRA coverage for COBRA-eligible former workers who have attained age 55 or have 10 years of service until they are eligible for Medicare or secure alternative employer coverage." (HR Policy Association)
[Guidance Overview]
COBRA Health Care Continuation Provisions Included in Recovery Package
Excerpt: "According to the House Ways and Means Committee, at least two provisions of the economic recovery package that will be introduced in Congress this week will directly affect employers' health care plans. One provision involves COBRA continuation of health care coverage, and the other involves health information technology." (Wolters Kluwer)
Senate Panel to Consider Nine-Month COBRA Subsidy
Excerpt: "Economic stimulus legislation to be considered by the Senate Finance Committee next week would provide temporary federal COBRA health insurance premium subsidies to employees who are laid off. Under the measure, the federal government would pay 65 percent of COBRA premiums for employees who lose their jobs between September 1, 2008, through December 31, 2009. The subsidy would be available for up to nine months." (Workforce Management; free registration required)
Proposed COBRA Expansion Would Increase Employer Health Care Costs an Estimated $39 to $65 Billion (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "Because employers are not required to directly subsidize COBRA premiums, it would be easy to conclude that the expansion of COBRA entails no new costs for employers. The fact is COBRA does impose significant costs on employers and their employees by indirectly subsidizing former employees who elect COBRA coverage. This is because those employees who take advantage of COBRA are invariably those with health care costs that generally are higher than the COBRA premiums they can be charged. In what is commonly termed 'adverse selection,' less healthy people tend to enroll in COBRA coverage because they cannot find viable insurance options in the individual market. Thus, the costs to the insurer or self-funded health plans go up. These increased costs are either absorbed by the employer or passed on to active employees through premium increases, or both." (HR Policy Association)
COBRA Expansion Worries Employers As Stimulus Bill Item Would Greatly Extend Coverage Requirement
Excerpt: "Employers would be required to offer COBRA health care coverage for at least a decade to many former employees and retirees under legislation likely headed for a vote by the full House this week. The COBRA provisions, embedded in the $825 billion economic stimulus package that cleared by the Ways and Means Committee last week, would be a huge expansion of the COBRA law and saddle employers with health care costs few could have imagined when Congress enacted the health care continuation law in 1986." (Business Insurance)
Jobless Can't Afford to Extend Health Coverage
Excerpt: "Fewer than one in 10 jobless workers extends their former employer's medical coverage, a new study has found. An analysis by the Commonwealth Fund finds that while two-thirds of working adults would qualify to extend health-insurance coverage under a federal law after losing a job, only 9% of the unemployed do so." (The Wall Street Journal)
[Guidance Overview]
HHS's Final Regulations Modifying HIPAA Electronic Transactions Standards and Code Sets
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: Now that the updated and modified electronic transaction standards and code sets have been finalized, covered entities (and their business associates) that engage in covered transactions electronically should begin to digest these detailed rules and develop an implementation plan. While the compliance date is a few years away, the preamble to the transaction standards regulation notes that it will be 'crucial for covered entities to meet certain milestones during the compliance period in order to ensure full, successful, and timely compliance.'" (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
Wachovia Acquisition May Put Leave Plan in Peril
Excerpt: "The bank, which was purchased by Wells Fargo for $14.8 billion, launched its innovative leave program in January 2008 to give employees the chance to take up to three years off to care for a sick family member or for other personal reasons." (Workforce Management; free registration required)
Obesity Epidemic Presents Perils to Health Reform
Excerpt: "[A member of New Hampshire's senate] took what he knew about obesity and the cost of treating related chronic illnesses to the state capitol, where he introduced a bill in January 2008 requiring insurers to offer surgery as a treatment option, just as the state's Medicaid program for the poor does. While other states -- some of which don't cover any obesity treatment -- are studying New Hampshire's approach, experts say economics will increasingly drive policy at a time of burgeoning budget deficits." (Reuters)
[Opinion]
Is COBRA Proposal Fair and Reasonable?
Excerpt: "In judging legislation, we like to use the fair and reasonable test. In applying that test to COBRA health care continuation provisions included in a massive economic stimulus bill approved by the House Ways and Means Committee last week, part passes muster, while the other clearly does not. We think, given the dire straits of the economy and the real financial hardships millions of Americans are in, it is not unreasonable, as the committee has approved, for the federal government to provide a COBRA premium subsidy. The subsidy -- in which the government would essentially pay 65% of the premium for up to 12 months -- would be temporary, limited to those who are laid off from Sept. 1, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2009." (Business Insurance)
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| Complete Benefits Law Guidance from Law Journal Press |
| The nation's workforce and health care system are constantly evolving and so are the legal issues. Law Journal Press helps you handle any benefits law question with up-to-date, authoritative books on all aspects of the field. Get legal and practical advice from leading experts on everything from COBRA to ERISA, "contingent" employees to family and medical leave, and more. Browse our product listings for detailed information and special offers. |
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
[Guidance Overview]
IRS Updates Maximum Values for Employee Automobile Use
Excerpt: "The IRS has updated for 2009 the maximum allowable value of an employer-provided vehicle for which the cents-per-mile and fleet-average rules may be used in determining the value of an employee's personal use of the vehicle as a taxable fringe benefit." (Journal of Accountancy)
[Guidance Overview]
IRS's Updated Version of Publication 521 (Moving Expenses) for Use in Preparing 2008 Returns
Excerpt: "The IRS has released the latest version of Publication 521 (Moving Expenses), which is for use in preparing 2008 tax returns. This publication explains what types of work-related moving expenses may be deductible on an individual's federal income tax return and who can deduct moving expenses. In addition, the publication details how and when the deduction is reported. Special rules for members of the Armed Forces are also included. For individuals who receive reimbursement from their employers for certain work-related moving expenses, the publication provides a brief overview of different reimbursement methods an employer might use and explains where on an employee's Form W-2 the reimbursements should be reflected. The publication indicates that an employer should tell an employee what method of reimbursement is being used and what records are required." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
[Guidance Overview]
Section 409A Follow-Up for 2009 - Correction of Errors
Excerpt: "As promised, this blog continues to discuss housekeeping items for ongoing 409A compliance in 2009 -- whether you like it or not. At the very end of 2008, the Internal Revenue Service Notices issued Notice 2008-113, which creates a correction procedure for certain 409A operational failures (and let's face it, there will be failures). Notice 2008-113 expands and clarifies the prior correction program announced in Notice 2007-100." (Michael S. Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)
Chrysler Eliminates Jobs Bank for Now
Excerpt: "Chrysler LLC has eliminated -- at least temporarily -- the controversial 'jobs bank' program that gives union workers most of their pay and benefits while they are laid off, according to a union official. The jobs bank will end on Monday, according to a letter sent to union members by United Auto Workers Vice President General Holiefield." (AP Online via NewsEdge via Human Resource Executive Online)
Newly Posted Events
2009 ECFC Administrators Symposium
in Minnesota on July 29, 2009
presented by Employers Council on Flexible Compensation (ECFC)
28th ECFC Annual Conference
in Virginia on March 4, 2009
presented by Employers Council on Flexible Compensation (ECFC)
401k Hot Topics for Practitioners and Litigators
Nationwide on January 29, 2009
presented by West LegalEdcenter
Compliance Assistance Seminar For Retirement Plan Fiduciaries - Free
in Louisiana on January 28, 2009
presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Newly Posted Press Releases
Worst Decline in 30 Years for the Largest U.S. Retirement Funds
Pensions & Investments
Benefit Informatics Providing CNIC Health Solutions with Data Analysis and Reporting Solutions
Benefit Informatics
Northern Trust Universe Tallies the Impact of 2008 Market Collapse on U.S. Institutional Plan Sponsors
Northern Trust
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
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Development Analyst
for Diversified Investment Advisors, Inc.
in MA
Reconciliation and Trade Group Manager
for Professional Capital Services, LLC
in PA
Retirement Plan Administrator
for Sentinel Financial Group
in RI
Pension Administrator
for Altigro Pension Services, Inc.
in NJ
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
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