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April 7, 2011 Get Retirement News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

[Guidance Overview]
Health Insurance Cost Information Reporting Further Delayed
"Under the new Notice, 'small employers' for a year are those filing fewer than 250 Forms W-2 for the preceding year; those employers won't have to report the cost of health care coverage on Forms W-2 . . . ." (Ford & Harrison LLP)


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Filing Deadline Looms for 2010 San Francisco Health Care Expenditure Report
"Employers subject to San Francisco's health care spending mandate must file annual reports detailing 2010 expenditures by April 30. Regulators have released revised forms and urge employers to file electronically." (Mercer LLC)

Who Purchases Long-Term Care Insurance?
"Most Americans will eventually need long-term care, which is often expensive and not usually covered by public programs until care recipients have nearly exhausted their savings. Yet, relatively few Americans purchase private long-term care insurance, exposing many families to potentially high out-of-pocket costs." (Urban Institute)

Repeal of Expanded 1099-MISC Reporting Is Almost Official (PDF)
"To pay for this relief, H.R. 4 changed the health care tax credit provisions provided under PPACA. Effective in 2014, PPACA will provide a subsidy to certain low income individuals who purchase health insurance on an exchange, and the amount of the subsidy is based on the individual's household income." (Groom Law Group)

EBSA Invitation to Public Forum on Automatic Enrollment in Large Employer Health Plans (PDF)
"The purpose of the forum is to afford interested individuals and organizations an opportunity to share information and views to aid the Department in the development of proposed regulatory guidance pertaining to compliance with the automatic enrollment provisions of the FLSA. [The agenda is outlined at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/AutoEnrollPublicForumAgenda.pdf.]" (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)

Workplace Design Changes Help Employees Keep Weight Off, Study Says
"The researchers report on the impact of environmental interventions at several Dow Chemical Company worksites. They found that simple, low-cost interventions -- for example, encouraging workers to take the stairs and making healthy options available in vending machines -- helped to avoid employee weight gain." (1105 Media Inc.)

New Book: 'The Healthcare Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes'
"The Institute of Medicine [published the book which is available for free download at http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2011/The-Healthcare-Imperative-Lowering-Costs-and-Improving-Outcomes.aspx and] includes an essay called 'Excess Health Insurance Administrative Expense,' . . . ." (Milliman, Inc.)

Work-Related Psychosocial Events As Triggers of Sick Leave: Results from a Swedish Case-Crossover Study (PDF)
"The aim was to investigate whether recent exposure to work-related psychosocial events can trigger the decision to report sick when ill." (BioMed Central)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

[Official Guidance]
EBSA Request for Information Regarding Electronic Disclosure by Employee Benefit Plans (PDF)
"This request for information (RFI) solicits views, suggestions, and comments from plan participants and beneficiaries, employers and other plan sponsors, plan administrators, plan service providers, health insurance issuers, and members of the financial community, as well as the general public . . . ." (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)

[Guidance Overview]
SEC's Proposed Rules for Compensation Committee and Adviser Independence (PDF)
"Despite the length of the proposed rules and their accompanying commentary, there are very few differences from the statutory language. In part, this stems from the SEC's decision to leave the primary responsibility for detailed rule making to the individual securities exchanges; accordingly, rules by the NYSE may be the key document in determining how the new Committee independence rules apply to companies listed on the NYSE." (Frederic W. Cook & Co., Inc.)

SEC's Proposed Compensation Committee and Adviser Independence Rules
"New SEC proposed rules address the independence of compensation committees and their advisers, as required by the Dodd-Frank Act." (Mercer LLC)

Update on Shareholder Say on Pay and Frequency Voting
"[A]s reported in Mark Borges' Blog, as of Friday evening, April 1st, the breakdown of company recommendations for the 'Say on Pay' frequency vote in definitive and preliminary proxy statements that had been filed for the 2011 proxy season was . . . ." (Michael S. Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)

CBO Reports that Ryan Plan Specifies Spending Path to Nearly End Most of Government Other Than Social Security, Health Care, and Defense by 2050
"CBO's report, prepared at Chairman Ryan's request, also reveals that, as explained [in this article], his plan envisions additional Medicare cuts that were not disclosed in the documents that the chairman released . . . ." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

As U.S. Boomers Age, a Soul-Searching Budget Battle
"Keeping those boomers healthy and out of poverty poses the biggest threat to long-term U.S. finances, and figuring out how to pay for it will be an epic political fight. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke calls the fiscal problems a 'near and present danger' to the U.S. economy." (Reuters via The New York Times; free registration required)

Continuing Education and Performance Standards for Enrolled Actuaries Updated
"The Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries has updated enrollment rules beginning with the 2011-2013 renewal cycle. The most significant changes deal with continuing professional education (CPE), including clearer distinctions between core and non-core subjects . . . ." (Mercer LLC)

DOL Seeks Comments on Electronic Disclosure of Employee Benefit Plan Information.
"The request for information sets forth 30 specific questions on a broad range of topics related to electronic distribution of benefit plan information." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

GAO Report: State and Local Governments' Fiscal Outlook: April 2011 Update (PDF)
"As we have reported in previous model updates, and as shown in figure 1, the sector faces long-term fiscal challenges that grow over time. The model's simulations show that the fiscal position of the sector will steadily decline through 2060 absent any policy changes. [The report includes health care and pension fund expenditures.] (U.S. Government Accountability Office)

Press Releases


Employee Benefits Jobs

Defined Contribution Analyst in CT for Hooker & Holcombe, Inc.

Daily Retirement Plan Administrator in NY for CMC Interactive, LLC

Regional Manager - Participant Counseling in GA, NC, TX for Diversified Investment Advisors, Inc.

Client Help Desk Representative in CA for Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

Enrolled Actuary in NY for Creative Plan Designs, Ltd,

Part Time On Call Participant Counselor in DC, NJ, OH for Diversified Investment Advisors, Inc

401(k) Administrator/Account Manager in WI for Alliance Benefit Group WI

401(k) Account Manager in CA for D/A Financial Group

Business Process Analyst in IL for Benefit Broker Firm (Chicago)

Project Manager, Benefits Administration in FL for Publix Super Markets, Inc.

Post Your Job on EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com

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Webcasts and Conferences

401(k)Rekon Advisor Symposium- Atlanta
in Georgia on May 5, 2011 presented by 401(k) Rekon

9th Annual Employee Benefits Symposium - The Changing Landscape of Executive Compensation Regulation and Reporting
in Illinois on April 29, 2011 presented by The Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago

Quality 2.0: The Impact of the CMS Star Ratings System
in California on May 10, 2011 presented by MCOL

Single and Multiemployers Plans Free Phone Forum
Nationwide on April 28, 2011 presented by Internal Revenue Service (IRS)


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Jeanette Hull, News Editor
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
dbaker@benefitslink.com

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