Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter |
|
|
| October 28, 2009 \ Compliance \ Costs \ Administration \ Design \ Policy | ||
International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (Advert.)
Benefits and Compensation Glossary, 12th Edition A must-have tool for every benefits professional! Completely revised, this easy-to-use, plain-language Glossary includes definitions and explanations of more than 2,500 terms used by employee benefits professionals. Over 200 new terms reflecting changes to the field have been added. Highlights of key legislation provide an historical perspective. And if you struggle with the alphabet soup of benefits and compensations terms, there is an extensive list of abbreviations and acronyms. Order your Glossary today! |
[Guidance Overview]
Federal Court Finds ERISA-Covered Plan May Be Comprised of Individual Rather than Group Insurance Policies
Excerpt: "This decision demonstrates that an employee welfare benefit plan may be comprised of individual, rather than group insurance policies. If the plan satisfies the statutory definition of an employee welfare benefit plan, then ERISA applies regardless of the employer's intent. In light of this, employers should evaluate the benefits they provide to employees to determine whether they are subject to ERISA." (Ford & Harrison LLP)
[Guidance Overview]
Employer Planning for a Pandemic: The EEOC's Guidance
Excerpt: "Employers must pay careful attention to the legal implications of their actions in implementing flu prevention and containment measures. Recently, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published guidance for employers on how to handle pandemic influenza without implicating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits disability-based discrimination ('EEOC Guidance'). The EEOC also issued a notice reminding employers to avoid national origin discrimination in dealing with H1N1. In addition to the discrimination laws, employers' actions, or inactions, may implicate other laws such as the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA); the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA); privacy laws; workers' compensation, and disability benefits laws." (Littler Mendelson P.C.)
[Guidance Overview]
GINA Interim Final Regulations: Impact on Health Risk Assessments
Excerpt: "New rules under the Genetic Information and Non-discrimination Act (GINA) restrict group health plans from offering premium reductions or other economic awards for participating in a health risk assessment (HRA) that asks for genetic information. Employers will need to update their plans to ensure that their HRAs and any associated policies and procedures comply with GINA's prohibition on using genetic information prior to or in connection with enrollment or for underwriting purposes for plan years beginning on or after December 7, 2009." (Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP)
[Guidance Overview]
EEOC Guidance on Pandemic Preparedness and ADA Compliance (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued an updated Technical Assistance Document (TAD) to provide employers guidance in balancing their pandemic preparedness plans with their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The TAD, entitled Pandemic Preparedness in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act, provides useful information regarding ADA-compliant employer actions prior to, during and following an influenza pandemic." (Drinker Biddle Reath LLP)
[Guidance Overview]
Plan Language Sufficient to Authorize Settlement of ERISA Benefit Claims with TCA's
Excerpt: "The recent decision in Faber & Young v. Metro. Life Ins. Co. highlights the boundary between conduct authorized under the plan on the one hand, and conduct forbidden by the fiduciary prohibitions of ERISA. The district court, influenced by the Second Circuit's opinion in Kendall v. Employees Retirement Plan of Avon Prods., 561 F.3d 112, 118 (2d Cir. 2009), held that the fiduciary's conduct did not cross the line drawn by ERISA's fiduciary constraints." (Roy Harmon III via Health Plan Law)
What Drives Health Care Spending? Can We Know Whether Population Aging Is a 'Red Herring'?
Excerpt: "Several empirical studies have presented evidence that per-person health care spending does not rise with calendar age but with proximity to death. Hence, it is alleged that increases in longevity will not, by themselves, boost health care spending. Unfortunately, available data provide no basis for assuming that the curve relating average health care spending to age will, or will not, flatten with increases in longevity. For this reason, budget projections based on the assumption that increases in longevity will not boost health care spending may understate projected growth of health care spending." (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)
The 'Big Three' VEBAs and other Stand-Alone Welfare Benefit Trusts: What Is and Is Not Novel About Them
Excerpt: "The 'Big Three' automakers, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, as well as other companies, have agreed to establish and fund voluntary employees' beneficiary associations, or 'VEBAs,' to meet their post-retirement health insurance obligations. . . . The VEBAs established most recently by the automakers, however, are different. They do not serve merely as an advance-funding vehicle by which the employer can pre-pay part of its liability under the plan. Rather, they actually assume the employer's liability for benefits under the plan, and the employer is relieved of that liability. /6/ Thus these trusts serve as a mechanism not merely of pre-funding, but of permanently settling, the employer's obligations under the plan. The assumption of the employer's liability is the critical distinguishing feature that makes the Big Three trusts, and other recent trusts like them, different from what had gone before." (Tax Management Inc.)
CMS Issues 2010 Medicare Premium, Deductible and Coinsurance Amounts
Excerpt: "The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has released 2010 premiums, deductibles and other cost-sharing amounts for Medicare Parts A and B. The standard Part B monthly premium increases to $110.50, and the annual Part B deductible increases to $155. The Part A deductible will increase to $1,100 in 2010, while daily hospital cost-sharing amounts will increase by $8 or $16, depending on length of stay. However, a rarely applied rule will keep premiums the same for nearly three-quarters of recipients." (Mercer LLC)
Creating the Impression of Lifetime Retiree Health Benefits Is Breach of ERISA's Fiduciary Duties
Excerpt: "An employer breached ERISA's fiduciary duties by giving employees the impression that retiree health benefits would continue for life when, in fact, the company had the power to eliminate them at any time, ruled the Third Circuit Court of Appeals (In re: Unisys Corp. Retiree Med. Benefits ERISA Litig.). The court said the message to employees during retirement counseling was 'at best a half truth' without mention of the company's right to amend the plan. The latest decision in this protracted litigation reminds employers not to overpromise in retiree health or any benefit communications." (Mercer LLC)
[Opinion]
HHS Breach Notification Rules Again Under Fire
Excerpt: "The Center for Democracy and Technology is the latest to find fault with the Department of Health and Human Services' data breach rules for personal health records. Under the current interim rules health care organizations that use encryption or destruction, no breach notification is necessary, but for those who don't, the health organization makes the call on whether the breach is harmful enough to trigger a breach notification. The Department of Health and Human Services should replace its controversial harm standard for triggering a personal health record data breach notification with a risk assessment approach that requires organizations to determine whether the data was actually viewed or acquired by an unauthorized person, according to the Center for Democracy and Technology." (eWEEK.com)
[Opinion]
A New Approach to Controlling Health Care Costs
Excerpt: "The Systems Reformers believe that the best way to bend the cost curve is not through external market incentives or regulatory controls, but from the inside out, by creating a smarter health care system with the information base, new delivery models and payment incentives that will improve quality and lower costs. In truth, the Systems Reformers have lived among us all along, but until recently their research and ideas were more focused on improving quality than controlling costs and were featured mainly in respected journals and conferences. They seldom made it into the lexicon or armamentarium of policymakers or the spotlight of journalists. The Systems Reformers' paradigm is reflected in the 'bending the curve' elements of the health reform legislation currently in Congress, which mostly come in the form of pilot projects and experiments. These include tests of ideas like Accountable Care Organizations, 'pay for performance' and 'bundled payments,' as well as efforts to create a smarter, evidence-based health delivery system through comparative effectiveness research. But not all Systems Reformers' ideas are embodied in the health reform bills in Congress. Numerous experiments are underway across the health care delivery system and in both the private and public sectors and touted by a broad range of health care leaders." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
BenefitsLink Newsletter (Advert.)
We Have Your Target Audience Advertise your company's products and services right here in the BenefitsLink newsletter. Our subscribers care about employee benefit plan compliance, administration, costs and design. Roles include in-house benefits directors and administrators, TPAs, consultants, attorneys, trust officers, auditors and investment managers. Your ad will show both your banner and a paragraph of text -- more exposure than you'll find anywhere else. And, of course, a clickable link to any page on your web site. Contact Mary Hall for details. |
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
[Guidance Overview]IRS Will Be Auditing Company Employment-Tax Practices Beginning in February
Excerpt: "The Internal Revenue Service will be conducting detailed employment-tax examinations of some 6,000 companies beginning in February, the agency has announced. These auditing initiatives are being carried out, the IRS maintains, to gather statistical data for its first National Research Program study of employment tax compliance in about 25 years. The likely reason for resurrecting this particular focus is that a study of the tax gap -- the difference between the amount of taxes collected and the amount owed -- done in 2005 showed that employment taxes, after underreporting of income by individuals, was the second-largest contributor to the tax gap . . . ." (Human Resource Executive Online)
TARP Special Master Cuts Executive Pay
Excerpt: "Steep pay cuts will have to take place at the seven companies receiving exceptional TARP assistance -- AIG, Citigroup, Bank of America, Chrysler, General Motors, GMAC and Chrysler Financial -- Kenneth Feinberg, special master for TARP executive compensation, has ruled. While the pay curbs affect a limited number of employees and employers, the underlying compensation principles may draw wider attention from other regulators and stakeholders." (Mercer LLC)
IRS Personnel Share Unofficial Comments on Compliance Issues with ABA Employee Benefits Committee
Excerpt: "IRS representatives shared their unofficial views on certain benefits issues that were presented earlier this year by the Employee Benefits Committee of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association. Although the views cited by the IRS representatives are not binding and do not represent the policy of the agency, they provide useful insight into areas of concern. Some of the notable unofficial and non-binding views shared by the IRS representatives were the following . . . ." (Deloitte via BenefitsLink.com)
Webcasts and Conferences
"EFAST2: The Future of Form 5500" in Dallasin Texas on December 3, 2009
presented by SunGard Relius
"EFAST2: The Future of Form 5500" in Houston
in Texas on December 8, 2009
presented by SunGard Relius
"EFAST2: The Future of Form 5500" in New York
in New York on December 3, 2009
presented by SunGard Relius
"ERISA Workshop" in Dallas
in Texas on December 4, 2009
presented by SunGard Relius
"ERISA Workshop" in New York
in New York on December 4, 2009
presented by SunGard Relius
"Impact of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) on Group Health Plans" - Complimentary
Nationwide on October 27, 2009
presented by Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc.
"Plan Forms, Notices, and Amendments: Streamlined, Effective, Timely" in Dallas
in Texas on December 3, 2009
presented by SunGard Relius
"Plan Forms, Notices, and Amendments: Streamlined, Effective, Timely" in Houston
in Texas on December 8, 2009
presented by SunGard Relius
"Plan Forms, Notices, and Amendments: Streamlined, Effective, Timely" in New York
in New York on December 3, 2009
presented by SunGard Relius
Getting Ready for 2009 Form 5500 and Electronic Filing, Part III Webcast
Nationwide on November 5, 2009
presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
(Click to post your webcast or conference)
Press Releases
Prudential Launches 'Redefining Retirement' DC Plan ModelPrudential Financial, Inc.
Teamsters Commend Bipartisan Bill on Pension Reform to Protect Workers
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
IBI Research Suggests the Health of U.S. Workforce is in Dire Straits
Integrated Benefits Institute
Sentinel Financial Adds vWise SmartPlan Enterprise to its Participant Platform
vWise Inc.
Congress Encouraged to Protect Working Families and Flexible Spending Accounts in New Advertising Campaign
Save Flexible Spending Plans
Sunwest Pensions Achieves SAS-70 Certification for Daily Advantage Recordkeeping Platform
Sunwest Pensions
(Click to post your press release)
Employee Benefits Jobs
Retirement Plan Marketing Consultantfor Loren D. Stark Company, Inc.
in TX
Education & Enrollment Specialist
for Prudential
in WA
Vice President & Actuary
for Prudential
in CT
Pension Administrators
for Randstad
in FL
Investment Specialist
for Fiduciary First
in FL
(Click to post your job opening | View all jobs |
RSS feed of all jobs )
EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com (Sponsor)
(Click on banner to learn more.)
| Where the best employers find the best candidates! |
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
Subscribe to the BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter, Too!
Sign-up form is at https://benefitslink.com/newsletter (free).
This email has been published by:
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park FL 32789
(407) 644-4146
Fax: (407) 644-2151
Jeanette Hull, News Editor
jeanette.hull@benefitslink.com
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
david.baker@benefitslink.com
Copyright 2009 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you can forward this email in full (including this boilerplate part) or otherwise reprint this email in full (including this boilerplate part) without obtaining our permission.
Anyone can receive these emails; just have them sign up at this web page: https://benefitslink.com/newsletter/
Other useful links: