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March 31, 2009 |
| Here are the Web's best new links about compliance and cost aspects of plan operation, design and policy. |
SunGard (Advert.)
SunGard’s Relius 125 With SunGard’s Relius 125, you can administer FSA (Dependent Care and Health), HSA (Health Savings Accounts), HRA (Health Reimbursement Arrangements), §132 Plans (Transit and Parking), and Premium Conversion Benefits. Relius 125 is a flexible benefit administration system that streamlines daily processing and supports several comprehensive reimbursement options. For more information about SunGard's Relius 125 or to schedule a demonstration, call 800-326-7235, ext. 1100 or click here. |
[Guidance Overview]
Compliance Deadline Looms for New Special Enrollment Rights Created by CHIPRA
Excerpt: "[The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009] created new special enrollment rights, provisions regarding state payment of employee group health plan premiums, and new notice requirements and compliance penalties. The new special enrollment rights will take effect on April 1, 2009. Employers who have not already acted to comply must do so quickly." (Nixon Peabody LLP)
[Guidance Overview]
New Children's Health Insurance Program Requirements Effective April 1 (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "Because group health plans are required under federal law to notify newly eligible employees of their special enrollment rights, plan sponsors should modify their special enrollment notices for use on or after April 1, 2009. Summary plan descriptions should also be revised (either directly, through a summary of material modifications, or through the next open enrollment cycle) to reflect the new special enrollment period. Such revisions should be completed within 210 days after the end of the plan year in which the new rules become effective (i.e., by July 29, 2010 for calendar-year plans). It will also be necessary to amend group health plan and cafeteria plan documents to reflect the new special enrollment rules. While there is no required date for plan amendments in the Act, plan sponsors should amend plan documents no later than the last day of the plan year in which the changes become effective (i.e., by December 31, 2009 for calendar-year plans) with an April 1, 2009 effective date, so that there is a basis in the document for allowing pretax contributions and related midyear election changes." (Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP)
[Guidance Overview]
IRS's Revenue Procedure 2009-21 Addresses Transit Parity Under ARRA
Excerpt: "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides a temporary increase in the amount excludable from gross income for certain employer-provided transportation fringe benefits. Effective for months beginning March 1, 2009 through December 31, 2010, the monthly tax-free limit for commuter vehicle transportation and transit passes is the same as the amount in effect for qualified parking benefits, which is $230 per month for 2009." (Hewitt Consulting)
[Guidance Overview]
New Guidance Issued Regarding COBRA Subsidy
Excerpt: "The new law provides that employers may allow eligible individuals to change their health plan coverage option under the plan to a less expensive option in conjunction with electing COBRA. Prior to this change, COBRA eligible individuals could only elect to continue coverage under the same health plan option they had been covered under as an active employee. [The target page ends with a list of 'Action Steps for Employers.']" (Faegre & Benson)
[Guidance Overview]
New Penalties of up to $50,000 per Violation for Noncompliance with Health Data Privacy and Security Rules
Excerpt: "A portion of the new economic stimulus bill, called the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the 'HITECH Act'), will have a significant impact on employers that sponsor group health plans. The HITECH Act effectively mandates that group health plans secure protected health information ('PHI') of plan participants by using a technology or methodology to be specified by guidance in April 2009. Plan sponsors that fail to bring their group health plans into compliance are at risk for enforcement actions, large penalties, class action lawsuits, and injuries to reputation. By any measure, it is the toughest federal law ever enacted to regulate employee benefit plans." (Dorsey & Whitney LLP)
[Guidance Overview]
Bankrupt TPA Is a Fiduciary, and ERISA Plan Assets Held in Its Bank Accounts Can't Be Reached by Non-ERISA Creditor
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: This case illustrates what can happen when employers deposit ERISA plan assets in TPA-controlled accounts, especially when TPAs go bankrupt (an increasingly real possibility in a down economy). While the issue in this case was whether the TPA's creditor could access the funds in the TPA's accounts, the accumulation of ERISA plan assets in a TPA account also raises issues for employers under ERISA's trust and Form 5500 reporting requirements. For this reason, employers may prefer to set up an arrangement under which the TPA has checkwriting authority on an account in the employer's name, rather than paying benefits from an account in the TPA's name." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
Supreme Court Denies Restaurant Association's Stay Request on Mandatory Employer Health Fee
Excerpt: "The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to stop San Francisco from requiring employers to help pay for health coverage of the uninsured, rejecting restaurant owners' bid for an emergency stay while the court weighs a legal challenge to the groundbreaking program. The 800-member Golden Gate Restaurant Association argues that the mandatory employer fee conflicts with nationwide regulation of health benefits and will hurt businesses already battered by the economy." (San Francisco Chronicle)
Supreme Court Refuses to Stay San Francisco Health Spending Law
Excerpt: "U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy on Monday denied a request from a San Francisco-area restaurant trade association for an emergency order to halt enforcement of San Francisco's health care spending law. The Golden Gate Restaurant Assn. sought the order in the wake of a ruling earlier this month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not to review a unanimous 2008 decision by a three-judge appeals court panel upholding the legality of San Francisco law. In denying the request, Justice Kennedy did not comment." (Business Insurance)
Senator Investigates Health Insurers' Out-of-Network Rate Practices
Excerpt: "Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the committee on commerce, is holding hearings on whether health insurers have systematically short-changed patients when they use doctors outside of their health plan's network. As a result of understating the fees charged by out-of-network doctors, the companies are accused of underpaying consumers by hundreds of millions of dollars over the last decade." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Strategies to Maximize Your Health Care Vendor Relationships
Excerpt: "As part of their constant quest to purchase high-quality health care coverage at the most economical price, employers should keep in mind that all vendor relationships are business arrangements, every aspect of which is open to negotiation. This article discusses strategies for the negotiation of better and mutually beneficial health care vendor relationships." (The Segal Group, Inc.)
The Costs of Inaction: The Urgent Need for Health Reform (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt: "The Costs of Inaction highlights the flaws in the health care system and demonstrates the cost of maintaining the status quo. Organized into three sections - Escalating Health Care Costs, Diminishing Access to Care and Persistent Gaps in Quality - the report shows how the current system has failed millions of Americans and why we must enact comprehensive health reform this year." (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)
Health Care Reform Vital, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Says
Excerpt: "Reform of the U.S. health care system is vital this year because of growing costs and worsening care, the Health and Human Services Department said in a report Monday. The HHS report, published at www.healthreform.gov, compiles findings of dozens of studies that have been used to justify calls for a complete overhaul of the health care system. While the need for change is not controversial, conservatives and liberals differ on how that should be approached." (Reuters Limited via Business Insurance)
Medical Costs for Retirees Continue to Rise, Study Says
Excerpt: "The $240,000 estimate is a 6.7% increase from last year's, and the cost is expected to keep rising. The Fidelity Investments study is based on projections for a 65-year-old couple retiring this year with Medicare insurance coverage. It assumes no employer-provided insurance and a life expectancy of 17 years for the man and 20 years for the woman." (Los Angeles Times)
Government Finance Officers Association Publishes 'OPEB Toolkit'
Excerpt: "Governments need to take deliberate steps to ensure that any [Postemployment Benefits Other than Pensions] that they offer are sustainable over the long term (i.e., benefits are, and reasonably may be expected to remain, affordable to the government, as well as being competitive and sufficient to meet employee needs). Recognizing that this challenge includes many decision points, the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) designed the OPEB toolkit to be an online resource for decision making. The tools - a collection of templates, sample documents, video presentations, case studies and informational resources - are rooted in the experiences of GFOA members and based on GFOA recommended practices. While the toolkit is not designed to provide users with an immediate solution to their OPEB challenges, it is meant to provide directed guidance to help government officials understand the questions to ask and the decisions that need to be made. [A 7 Minute Video Presentation on the toolkit is available.]" (Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Can.ada)
[Opinion]
Ten Health Care Financing Principles to Ensure Universality, Equity, and Accountability (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "The goal of a healthy society is at the core of human rights principles, which place a duty on government to protect everyone's health. In the United States, this requires urgent health care reform to end the needless loss of life, health, and well-being of millions of people. Although current reform plans are primarily driven by a sense of economic necessity, based on cost concerns, they do implicitly share a common understanding of health as a social goal. Where those proposals fall short is in assuming that these shared social and financial goals can be realized as by-products of fragmented, market-based services." (National Economic and Social Rights Initiative)
University Conference Services (Advert.)
Solving the Puzzle of Managing Health Care Benefits Today Managing your organization’s health and welfare plans can be compared to assembling a giant jigsaw puzzle —and never more so than in the current economic environment. Do you have all the pieces? How do they fit together? The Chicago Health and Welfare Plan Management for Mid-Sized Employers Conference, June 7–10, is the ideal place to turn the jigsaw pieces of your plan into a complete picture. |
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
[Guidance Overview]Don't Forget Your Compensation Committee Certification
Excerpt: "This is the time of year when we like to remind public company clients that the compensation committee of the board of directors must take one last formal step to take advantage of the performance-based compensation exception to the $1 million deductibility limit of Code Section 162(m) (actually, last month would have been better, but we were all caught up in EESA, TARP, AIG, etc.)." (Michael S. Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)
[Guidance Overview]
Use of the Company Aircraft: Time for a Broader Perspective (PDF)
6 pages. Excerpt: "Away from the glaring lights of the media and the well-publicized outcry over executive use of private airplanes lurks a story that is less appealing to mainstream news outlets -- the regulatory framework of the private aircraft fringe benefit. Yet, a set of rules the IRS is now crafting will matter long after any public sensation and the debates that smack of culture wars fade into the annals of bad political theater." (Thompson Publishing Group via McDermott, Will & Emery LLP)
Long-Term Care Costs and the National Retirement Risk Index
Excerpt: "This brief is structured as follows. The first section recaps the original NRRI and the NRRI with health care costs explicitly included. The second section describes the nature of long-term care, the likelihood of a household member needing such care, and the financing alternatives available. The third section explores how the challenge posed by long-term care is different for households of different types and wealth levels. The fourth section models the impact of long-term care on the NRRI. The final section concludes." (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)
IRS Revises Certain Inflation Adjustment Amounts Including Qualified Transportation Fringe Benefit
Excerpt: "On Friday, the IRS issued Rev. Proc. 2009-21, which modifies the inflation-adjusted amounts to be used for certain tax credits in 2008 and 2009. The modified numbers reflect recent statutory changes by the Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008, PL 110-343 (Tax Extenders Act), and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, PL 111-5 (ARRA)." (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants)
Webcasts and Conferences
(Click to post your webcast or conference)2009 NCCMP Annual Conference
in Nevada on October 3, 2009
presented by National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans
2009 Web/Telephone Seminar: Handling IRA Legal Issues
Nationwide on May 14, 2009
presented by Ascensus
2009 Web/Telephone Seminar: Introduction to QRPs
Nationwide on May 19, 2009
presented by Ascensus
2009 Web/Telephone Seminar: IRA Reporting
Nationwide on May 7, 2009
presented by Ascensus
2009 Web/Telephone Seminar: Roth IRA Distributions
Nationwide on May 12, 2009
presented by Ascensus
2009 Web/Telephone Seminar: Traditional IRA Distributions
Nationwide on May 5, 2009
presented by Ascensus
2009 Web/Telephone Seminars: Introduction to 401(k)s
Nationwide on May 21, 2009
presented by Ascensus
A Washington Insider Looks at the New Administration's First 100 Days (60-Minute Power Series)
Nationwide on April 14, 2009
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Contracts 101
in Illinois on April 23, 2009
presented by WEB - Chicago West
Fee Disclosure Round 2: Updates and Special Considerations for Trust Organizations
Nationwide on April 8, 2009
presented by Goldleaf Partners
Press Releases
(Click to post your press release)Former Massachusetts Employer Agrees to Restore Employee Contributions to Company SIMPLE IRA Plan to Resolve U.S. Labor Department Lawsuit
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Great-West Retirement Services® Appoints Two To Sales Positions Within Its Bank Services Group
Great-West Retirement Services
Putnam Investments Names New Managing Director of DC Sales
Putnam Investments
PBI Launches a New Service for DB Plans - Meet the Deadline for Funding Notification
Pension Benefit Information
Executive Coaching Helps De-Stress Leaders, Builds Employee Stability
Envision Excellence, LLC
Employee Benefits Jobs
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Development Analyst
for Diversified Investment Advisors, Inc.
in MA
Defined Contribution Administrator
for Pension Resources, Inc.
in PA
Vice President, Sales, Non-Qualified Plans
for New York Life Retirement Plan Services
in MA
Benefits Administrator
for Construction Industry Taft-Hartley Fringe Benefit Fund Office
in CT
EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com (Sponsor)
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