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March 23, 2009 |
| Here are the Web's best new links about compliance and cost aspects of plan operation, design and policy. |
International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (Advert.)
Celebrate National Employee Benefits Day on April 2, 2009 This year the day has a special focus on retirement security. Use the day to educate yourself and your plan participants about the importance of planning now for a secure retirement! Visit www.ifebp.org/benefitsday for free retirement planning tip sheets and links to online resources. Free videocasts featuring two of the nation’s top experts on retirement and the economy will be available on April 2. |
[Guidance Overview]
DOL's Model COBRA Notices and Election Forms (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "On March 19, the Department of Labor released model notices and election forms that can be used to satisfy the notification requirements for the COBRA subsidy available under the recently enacted stimulus legislation." (Buck Consultants)
[Guidance Overview]
COBRA Questions and Answers: Administration and Eligibility
21 questions and answers on the new COBRA subsidy. (Internal Revenue Service)
[Guidance Overview]
DOL's COBRA Premium Reduction Model Notices and FAQs
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: We are grateful to the DOL for the quick turn around of the new notices. We are troubled, however, by an apparent inconsistency in the description of who should receive the General Notice (Full version)." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
[Guidance Overview]
DOL's Model COBRA Premium Subsidy Notices
Excerpt: "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ('ARRA') gave the Department of Labor ('DOL') 30 days to draft and issue model notices for use by employers and insurers in complying with the COBRA-related provisions of that economic stimulus package. This 30-day period ended on March 19, 2009, with the DOL just barely meeting that deadline - by posting on its website four different model notices, along with an additional set of FAQs." (Spencer Fane Britt & Browne LLP)
[Guidance Overview]
Cafeteria Plan Regulations and Partnerships and Stockholders
Excerpt: "The cafeteria plan regulations that were released in 2007 make it clear that more than 2% shareholders in an S corporation cannot be covered under their corporation's cafeteria plan. Those regulations define a more than 2% shareholder by using the strict attribution rules that consider stock owned by spouses, children, etc. as being owned by the 'employee.'" (Tax Management Inc.)
[Guidance Overview]
IRS Discussion of Deductibility of Nursing Home Care for Individual With Alzheimer's Disease
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: The most important thing for employers and administrators to remember about this guidance is what it does not say. Specifically, although qualified long-term care services can be deductible on a tax return, health FSAs cannot reimburse them on a tax-free basis. Similarly, most HRAs may not reimburse expenses for qualified long-term care services. (This is because most HRAs are health FSAs -- meaning that the maximum amount of reimbursement they offer is not more than 500% of the employer's contributions.) In contrast, HSAs can reimburse long-term care services tax-free." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
Going Abroad to Find Affordable Health Care
Excerpt: "At least 85,000 Americans choose to travel abroad for medical procedures each year, according to a recent report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Treatment includes dental implants, hip and knee replacements, heart valve replacements and bypass surgery. The cost of surgery performed overseas can be as little as 20 percent of the price of the same procedure in the United States, according to a recent report by the American Medical Association." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Recession Pushes Some Workers to Eschew Flexible Job Policies
Excerpt: "In good times, workers frequently seized the opportunity to use 'flex time' and family leave, to telecommute and to take paid sick days. But, according to workplace consultants, human resources specialists and employees themselves, those days are slipping away. More workers are giving up those arrangements, or resisting asking about them in the first place, out of fears that doing so will make them appear less committed to their work and therefore more expendable." (The Washington Post; free registration required)
Out-of-Network Fee Schedules Will Soon Need to Change (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "A recent investigation by the New York Attorney General of Ingenix, a subsidiary of United Health, as a source for establishing the 'usual and customary' (U&C) charges for provider reimbursement resulted in settlements with major insurers and preferred provider organization networks that could have widespread implications for all private health care payers that provide access to non-network provider coverage. . . . This Bulletin discusses the direct and indirect implications of the settlement for sponsors of group health plans. It includes a list of action items for plan sponsors. An online supplement to the Bulletin [at http://www.segalco.com/publications/presentations/U&C.pdf] provides background on U&C charges." (The Segal Group, Inc.)
The Continuing Challenge to the San Francisco Mandatory Health Care Ordinance
Excerpt: "[W]hile the ordinance immediately impacts only employers in the City and County of San Francisco, the effect of letting the decision stand may adversely impact employers nationwide. As the dissent stated, '[i]f upheld, [the decision] will undoubtedly serve as a roadmap in jurisdictions across the country on how to design and enact a labyrinth of laws requiring employer compliance on health care expenditures, thereby creating the very kind of health care expenditure balkanization ERISA was intended to avoid.'" (Nixon Peabody)
No Substantial Gains in Quality Yet in Pay-for-Performance Program
Excerpt: "Physician organizations involved in the California Integrated Healthcare Association's (IHA) pay-for-performance program have begun to embrace an array of changes important to advancing quality, according to a RAND Corporation study issued on March 11. However, after three years of investment, these changes had not translated into breakthrough quality improvements." (Wolters Kluwer)
Requiring Generics for Rx's May Be Leading to Higher Health Care Costs
Excerpt: "A new study indicates that a common cost-containment tool that substitutes less expensive generic medications for costlier brand name drugs, referred to as step therapy, may actually lead to higher overall health care costs. The study focused on anti-hypertensive drugs, but found that benefit plan members subject to step therapy incurred $99 more in quarterly health care expenditures than a comparable group, Business Insurance reports. Additionally, the study found plan members in step therapy programs also had more inpatient admissions and emergency room visits." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
[Opinion]
Taxing Employment-Based Health Benefits
Excerpt: "The worst-kept secret on Capitol Hill is that Democrats have always planned to tax health benefits to pay for their 'universal' health-care plans. Now White House aides are whispering that they're also open to the idea. Maybe they will all now apologize to John McCain for trashing his proposal to do the same thing in the Presidential campaign. Democrats are desperately searching for the $1.2 trillion and more they'll need to subsidize middle-class health coverage. With deficits already at epic levels, more spending is politically a harder sell. So they're now circling the tax deduction that employers receive to offer insurance to their workers for the same reason that Willie Sutton robbed banks, because that's where the money is." (The Wall Street Journal)
[Opinion]
The Growing Trend Toward Mandating Autism Coverage (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "While health insurance does and should cover health-related aspects of autism, policymakers who want to ensure that families facing the real financial and other challenges posed by autism should develop safety net programs that meet their needs, rather than trying to impose autism-related costs on health insurance." (The Council for Affordable Health Insurance)
[Opinion]
Medicare Part D Is an Example of Bad Policy
Excerpt: "Generating efficiency in the health-care market will be one of President Obama's greatest challenges. To do this, he will have to create meaningful competition between drug companies, and between public and private plans. Congress's attempt at market-driven health care offers good instruction in what not to do. Medicare Part D, the prescription benefit that went into effect three years ago, was supposed to let the elderly get their medicines more cheaply by creating competition between private insurers. Yes, the program has undeniably improved access to prescriptions. But the cost to taxpayers has been 3.5 times the market value of those prescriptions, according to a study in the journal Health Affairs." (The New York Times; free registration required)
University Conference Services (Advert.)
Taking a Closer Look at Your Health Care Dollars With an uncertain economy, premium increases that continue to outpace inflation, and a new administration in the White House pushing for change, offering a strong health care plan isn’t easy—or cheap. But making the most of your health care dollars has never been more critical. The Boston Health and Welfare Plan Management for Mid-Sized Employers Conference, April 26–29, is your source for solutions to the formidable challenges you face. |
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
[Guidance Overview]Office of Labor-Management Standards' Intended Rulemaking to Revise Form LM-30 (Labor Organization Officer and Employee Report)
Excerpt: "The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) has announced that it will publish in the spring 2009 Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda notice of an intended rulemaking to revise the Form LM-30 (Labor Organization Officer and Employee Report). The rulemaking is intended to review questions of policy and law surrounding these reporting requirements. The rulemaking will focus on the changes resulting from a 2007 regulatory revision of the Form and instructions." (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans)
[Guidance Overview]
Section 409A: Severe Penalties If Rules for Deferred Compensation Plans Not Followed
Excerpt: "These penalties include an excise tax of 20% of the compensation that was required to be included in income. That section sets forth when payments can be made to comply with its provisions. Of course, one such payment event would be separation from service. However, in the case of a key employee of a publicly traded corporation, the payment cannot be made before the date which is six months after the date of separation from service." (Tax Management Inc.)
Before AIG Bonuses Debacle, a Shift Toward Lower Executive Pay
Excerpt: "As a result of the recession, some CEOs are already working for $1 a year, and entire floors of executives are taking 10 percent pay cuts. A few are selling their luxury items - sports cars for example - to plow the profits back into the business. Boards of directors, which used to rubber-stamp CEO rewards, are beginning to take a closer look as they try to avoid antagonizing the public." (The Christian Science Monitor)
Intel Seeks to Reprice Worthless Stock Options
Excerpt: "Intel Corp . . . is seeking permission from its shareholders to exchange worthless employee stock options, a controversial move that the world's biggest chip maker says is needed to retain critical staff. Under the plan, which is open to all employees excluding senior executives, Intel would exchange underwater stock options -- whose exercise prices are above the current stock price -- for ones carrying carry a lower exercise price." (Reuters via The New York Times; free registration required)
Administration Seeks Increase in Oversight of Executive Pay
Excerpt: "The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said. The outlines of the plan are expected to be unveiled this week in preparation for President Obama's first foreign summit meeting in early April. Officials said the proposal would seek a broad new role for the Federal Reserve to oversee large companies, including major hedge funds, whose problems could pose risks to the entire financial system." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Federal Workers Sue To Break Defense of Marriage Act's Bar on Domestic Partner Benefits
Excerpt: "G.ay and les.bian federal employees and their spouses are suing the government for full retirement and health care benefits currently denied them under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). According to FederalTimes.com, the organization G.ay & Les.bian Advocates & Defenders filed the suit challenging section 3 of DOMA earlier this month in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts. DOMA was passed by Congress in 1996 and signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton. It defines marriage as between a man and a woman, and it blocks federal spousal benefits, such as health and pension benefits, from going to same-sex spouses of federal employees and retirees." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Principal Drops Many Worker Benefits, Cuts Pay
Excerpt: "The Principal Financial Group Principal Financial Group Inc. said Friday it was suspending several employee benefits including tuition reimbursement, anniversary gifts and employee recognition programs, as part of a cost-cutting program. Spokeswoman Susan Houser said the Des Moines, Iowa-based financial services company was also cutting pay for workers, management and its board of directors from 2% to 10% depending on pay level, according to the Associated Press. The actions are effective immediately and will result in savings throughout 2009, Houser said. Benefits will be restored when conditions improve." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Webcasts and Conferences
(Click to post your webcast or conference)Fee Disclosure Round 2: Updates and Special Considerations for Trust Organizations
Nationwide on April 8, 2009
presented by Goldleaf Partners
Health Care Laws: Compliance Assistance Seminar
in New Jersey on April 22, 2009
presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Update on COBRA Premium Assistance: DOL Notices and IRS Guidance Webcast
Nationwide on March 26, 2009
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Press Releases
(Click to post your press release)Hewitt Survey Finds U.S. Employers Still Offering Generous Employee Severance Packages Despite Economic Conditions
Hewitt Associates LLC
Newkirk Produces Automatic Enrollment Book for QACA/EACA Plans
Newkirk
Employee Benefits Jobs
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Retirement Services Consultant
for CUNA Mutual Group
in WI
Benefits Manager
for CUNA Mutual Group
in WI
Plan Administrator
for The Newport Group
in FL
Pension Administration Manager
for Catholic Healthcare Partners
in OH
Corporate Director, Pension Administration
for Catholic Healthcare Partners
in OH
Business Installation & Retention Specialist
for New York Life Retirement Plan Services
in NJ
401k Account Manager
for Progressive Benefits Agency Central NJ
in NJ
Group Benefits Producer- Health &/or 401k
for Benefit Sources & Solutions
in NJ
Benefits Group Manager
for RubinBrown LLP
in MO
EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com (Sponsor)
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