[Guidance Overview]
Top Reasons to Change Your GASB 45 Valuation Schedule
"GASB 45 requires a complete actuarial valuation of public retiree health plans to be completed every 2 to 3 years (depending on number of plan members), and sponsors usually don't look forward to the administrative hassles of their next study. However, there are several situations where a new valuation could be advantageous and, likely, mandatory."
(Van Iwaarden Associates)
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[Guidance Overview]
Transcript Now Available from DOL: Automatic Enrollment in Large Employer Health Plans
"[T]he Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act . . . require[s] an employer, to which the FLSA applies and who has more than 200 full-time employees, to automatically enroll new full-time employees in one of the employer's health benefits plan, subject to any waiting period authorized by law, and to continue the enrollment of current employees on the health benefits plan offered through the employer. . . . This public forum is meant to provide a guided conversation that we hope will generate a productive and informative exchange of ideas about these new health plan automatic enrollment provisions."
(U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)
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[Guidance Overview]
State Privacy Breach Laws May Trump HIPAA/HITECH
"[T]he HITECH Act limits the money damages that attorneys general can collect to $100 per individual affected, however not to exceed $25,000 for all violations of an identical requirement or prohibition during a calendar year. Some state health privacy laws impose higher money penalties on breaching parties, and recently the Indiana Attorney General invoked state law, over HIPAA/HITECH . . . ."
(E is for ERISA)
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[Guidance Overview]
Accountable Plan Reimbursements May Not Substitute for Wages
"[A]n employer may not structure its compensation arrangement so as to avoid the payment of employment taxes by substituting reimbursements and expense allowances for amounts that would otherwise be paid as wages, as illustrated by a temporary reduction in an hourly wage amount only for as long as the tool rate amount is paid."
(Deloitte via BenefitsLink.com)
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Obama Administration Rolls Out Standards for Health Insurance Marketplaces
"[The health exchanges] may not satisfy liberals who argue that the exchanges should tightly regulate insurance and contract with selected health plans that offer the best deals. And they may not satisfy conservatives who want the exchanges to be wide open to any insurers that want to participate and meet minimum federal standards."
(New York Times; free registration required)
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New Proposed HIPAA Privacy Rule Impacts Accounting of Disclosure Requirements
"On May 31, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to implement the statutory requirement under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), whereby covered entities and business associates must account for disclosures of protected health information (PHI) made through an electronic health record (EHR) to carry out treatment, payment, and health care operations (TPO)."
(Polsinelli Shughart)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Issues Proposed Rules on Performance-Based Pay
"[S]ince the IRS views these rules as a clarification of requirements already in effect, there would seem to be little reason to wait until the issuance of final regulations before making changes to a plan."
(Dinsmore & Shohl LLP)
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A $108,000 Pension for Lifeguards?
"Lionized—and trivialized—by movies and TV shows, especially the long-running 'Baywatch,' they too have been hit by the tsunami against public employees with six-figure paychecks and pensions."
(MSN Money)
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Press Releases
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