Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter |
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| October 5, 2009 \ Compliance \ Costs \ Administration \ Design \ Policy | ||
Employee Benefits Institute of America (EBIA) (Advert.)
EBIA's Recorded Web Seminars - Quality and Convenience! We know that employee benefits professionals have many demands on their time. To help ease the time-crunch, EBIA's recorded web seminars are available 24/7--any time and any place you have an internet connection. What's more, when you purchase a recorded web seminar from EBIA, you and your co-workers can view it as many times as you wish for 60 days after purchase! Visit our website and you can search for seminars by topic, experience level, or key word. |
[Official Guidance]
Text of Proposed Individual Prohibited Transaction Exemption for Chrysler Healthcare VEBA (PDF)
Excerpt: "Pursuant to the UAW Retiree Settlement Agreement between New Chrysler and the UAW . . . the UAW Chrysler Retiree Medical Benefits Plan . . . will be established to provide retiree medical benefits to certain Chrysler-UAW represented employees and retirees, and their spouses and dependents. . . . Certain transactions called for or necessitated by the Settlement Agreement between New Chrysler and the New Chrysler VEBA Plan are prohibited by the restrictions of 406 of ERISA. Accordingly, the Applicant requests an administrative exemption from the Department with respect to: (1) The acquisition by the New Chrysler VEBA Plan of the Shares and the Note from New Chrysler; (2) the holding by the New Chrysler VEBA Plan of the Shares and the Note; (3) the management of the Shares and Note by an Independent Fiduciary; and (4) the asset transfers to and from the New Chrysler VEBA Plan necessitated by the transition of benefits payment responsibility from one plan to another, or due to mistaken deposits into the New Chrysler VEBA Plan." (Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Department of Labor)
[Guidance Overview]
No COBRA for Former Spouse Who Did Not Provide Timely Notice of Divorce
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: Other courts have held that a plan with 'inquiry notice' of a qualifying event must send a COBRA election notice. A plan has inquiry notice when the covered employee or the qualified beneficiary has given enough information about the occurrence of the qualifying event to allow the plan administrator, upon due inquiry, to reasonably ascertain that a qualifying event has occurred. But as this court concluded, knowledge of a pending divorce is not knowledge of a qualifying event since the actual entry of a divorce decree is the triggering event for the COBRA qualifying event of divorce. The outcome might have been different if the plan had inquiry notice of a final divorce." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
[Guidance Overview]
Tenth Circuit Notes Circuit Split on Contractual Limitations Periods
Excerpt: "ERISA does not contain a limitations provision for private enforcement actions under 29 U.S.C. § 1132. Thus, we generally 'apply the most closely analogous statute of limitations under state law.' 'Choosing which state statute to borrow is unnecessary, however, where the parties have contractually agreed upon a limitations period.' Salisbury v. Hartford Life & Accident Ins. Co. (1oth Cir.) (9/30/2009) (internal citations omitted) The Tenth Circuit has rendered a decision resoundingly affirming the validity of an ERISA plan's contractual limitations period in an opinion that highlights a circuit split on the issue." (Roy Harmon III via Health Plan Law)
[Guidance Overview]
QDRO Cannot Override ERISA Rules for COBRA and Retirement Benefits
Excerpt: "The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has ruled that the former spouse of an employee cannot get continued health care benefits as dictated by a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) because the plan was not notified of her divorce within the 60-day notice requirement for a qualifying event under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
GINA Rules Covering Group Health and Individual Market to Be Published in Federal Register
Excerpt: "Advance copies of two sets of rules covering the group health and individual market requirements of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) have just been released. Both sets of rules are scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on October 7, 2009." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
San Francisco Health Care Approach Hailed As a Model
Excerpt: "For two years, three-quarters of San Francisco's uninsured adults have enrolled in a public program that guarantees access to medical services, and the effort is being touted as a national model during the rancorous health care insurance debate. More than 46,000 adults have enrolled in Healthy San Francisco since it was launched; this first-in-the-nation, city-run universal health care effort has received high marks in recent independent studies. The program is funded in part by an employer mandate, a controversial component of the plans under discussion in Washington." (The Boston Globe)
EBSA Proposes ERISA Exemption for Chrysler VEBA
Excerpt: "The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) on Friday proposed giving an exemption to allow the New Chrysler Corp. to transfer approximately $4.59 billion in promissory notes and company securities to a Voluntary Employees Benefit Association (VEBA) Plan. The VEBA would provide retiree health benefits for about 120,000 retirees and dependents when it becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2010, EBSA said in a news release." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
[Opinion]
Universal Health Insurance Coverage, Private Competition and Reduced Deficits
Excerpt: "Re-read that headline. I am not making this up. A health care bill exists that would accomplish what the headline says. Moreover, it has been verified by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in a letter signed in May 2008 by the office's then-Director Peter R. Orszag, who now directs President Obama's Office of Management and Budget. It's called the Healthy Americans Act (the HAA). It has been fully vetted for years, written in legislative language, scored by the CBO and has substantial bipartisan support." (The Washington Times)
[Opinion]
Finance Committee Proposal May Keep Federal Costs in Check But Would Significantly Expand 'Hidden Tax' on Employers, Employees
Excerpt: "Many employers may not be aware that Medicare and Medicaid plans already cost shift as much as $90 billion per year to private employers by paying providers at rates that do not adequately cover the cost of caring for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. Providers then make up the difference by hiking costs to their other customers, including self-insured plans. This existing 'hidden tax' averaged $1,788 per year for coverage for a family of four in 2007, or about 10.7% of the total cost of employer sponsored health care coverage, according to a 2006 study by Milliman. The additional proposed cuts in Medicare fees, combined with a significant expansion in Medicaid enrollment due to more liberal eligibility rules that are likely to pass the Committee, would increase the existing cost shift to employers by $38.1 to $43.5 billion per year, bringing the total 'hidden tax' paid by employers to fund government plans to an annual total in excess of $120 billion per year." (HR Policy Association)
[Opinion]
Medical Expenses Should be Deductible by All: Then Tax Issues Won't Cause Reform to Fall
Excerpt: "The medical program in our country needs fixing, if for no other reason than that a large number of unemployed people have lost - or when their 'COBRA' runs out - will lose medical insurance for themselves and their families. There seems to be opposition to almost every aspect of proposals advanced, some of them worthy of further discussion. But one proposal - to tax medical benefits afforded employees to help finance a new program - drew outrage. But let's look at this for a moment. If benefits are taxable, won't they be deductible as medical expenses? Yes, but: (1) only if the taxpayer itemizes deductions; (2) for regular tax purposes, only to the extent that these expenses exceed 7 1/2% of adjusted gross income (AGI); (3) for alternative minimum tax (AMT) purposes, only to the extent they exceed 10% of AGI." (Tax Management Inc.)
[Opinion]
Massachusetts Employers Sense Deja Vu on Health Reform Issue
Excerpt: "The parallels of the debate in Washington on health care reform and what we have experienced in Massachusetts over the past three years are uncanny. Many of the models replicate the Massachusetts experience, and armies of public relations executives have been working around the clock to convince everyone that our reform is either the best public policy initiative ever conceived, or the absolute worse. No matter where you come down on that position, most common sense observers can agree that the haste in which both were pushed or are currently being pushed could be too aggressive, opening doors not only for costly mistakes but also inadequate solutions." (WBUR.org)
Opal Events (Advert.)
The Future of Medicare Advantage under the New Administration Opal Events brings together the best and brightest of the Medicare Advantage community to discuss the problems and solutions facing the managed care industry today. Topics to be covered include: logistics of transitioning members from PFFS to a network; MIPPA interpretations; risk-adjusted reimbursement issues; compliance specific to Part D; and HR6331. |
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Executive Compensation Limits on Health Insurance Providers: Lincoln Amendment to The America's Healthy Future Act (PDF)1 page. Excerpt: "This amendment would create a special rule under Section 162(m) regarding the deductibility of excessive remuneration (including deferred deduction remuneration) by a health insurance provider, if at least 25 percent of the health insurance provider's gross premium income is derived from health insurance plans that meet the minimum creditable coverage requirements in the Chairman's mark ('covered health insurance provider'). Employers with self-insured plans are excluded from the definition of covered health insurance provider." (American Benefits Council)
The High Price of Being a G.ay Couple
Excerpt: "We looked at benefits that routinely go to married heterose.xual couples but not to g.ay couples, like certain Social Security payments. We plotted out the cost of health insurance for couples whose employers don't offer it to domestic partners. Even tax preparation can cost more, since g.ay couples have to file two sets of returns. Still, many couples may come out ahead in one area: they owe less in income taxes because they're not hit with the so-called marriage penalty." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Press Releases
Virginia School District Appoints Great-West As 403(b) ProviderGreat-West Retirement Services
ERIC Letter Identifies Key Transition and Process Issues on Upcoming Hybrid Plan Guidance
ERIC (ERISA Industry Committee)
‘Automatic’ Features in Defined Contribution Plans Gaining Worldwide Acceptance
Mercer
Arnerich Massena Announces New Director of Research and Analytics
Arnerich Massena & Associates
BPAS Hires Sales Relationship Manager in the Midwest
BPAS
The Wiley Group Emerges As Independent RIA
Wiley Group
(Click to post your press release)
Employee Benefits Jobs
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in MA
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