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September 20, 2011 Get Retirement News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

Employee Benefits Jobs

Payroll Tax Accountant
for National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) in VA

Associate
for Baker & McKenzie LLP in CA

Inside Sales Consultant
for Dedicated Defined Benefit Services in CA

Marketing Manager
for Cammack LaRhette Consulting in MA, NY

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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Request for Comments on Proposed Affordability Safe Harbor Under Shared Employer Responsibility Provisions
"The proposed safe harbor is based on the premise that in most instances, coverage that is affordable based on an employee's W-2 wages will also be affordable based on the employee's household income, since an employee's household income is likely to be greater than his or her W-2 wages." (Thomson Reuters/EBIA)


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Employees Underutilizing FSAs
"An upcoming $2,500 limit on the contribution amount for medical Flexible Spending Accounts likely won't impact many Americans, according to recent results from the 'Getting Paid In America' survey." (PLANSPONSOR.COM)

How Many Intermittent FMLA Leave Hours is an FLSA-Exempt Employee Entitled To?
"One of the (many) headaches of managing intermittent FMLA leave is keeping track of leave in increments smaller than one work week. For non-exempt employees, employers often calculate leave entitlement as 480 hours per FMLA year (i.e., 12 weeks x 40 hrs/wk). However, the FMLA regulations urge caution when making these calculations." (Franczek Radelet P.C.)

More Often Than Not, Human Error and Process Mistakes, Not Technology, Have Caused Biggest HIPAA Violations
"Unfortunately, securing doctor-patient communication isn't the only HIPAA issue keeping IT managers up at night. Any data exchanged among clinicians also has to be secure." (UBM TechWeb)

Four Insurers Will Supply Health Data to Academic Researchers
"Aetna, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and the UnitedHealth Group plan to supply information on more than five bil.lion medical claims, representing more than $1 tril.lion in spending, to a newly created nonprofit group, the Health Care Cost Institute." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Employers Increasingly Trimming or Cutting Disability Benefits
"Of employers that do offer disability coverage, just 37 percent paid the entire premium last year, down from 49 percent in 2002, according to Limra. At the same time, voluntary programs for which the employee pays the entire premium now make up half of all long-term-disability offerings, up from 41 percent in 2002." (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

[Guidance Overview]
IRS Resolves Tax Impact of Employer-Provided Cell Phones (PDF)
"[T]he IRS put the debate to bed recently by releasing two documents—on employer-provided cell phones and employer reimbursements for the business use of employees' personal cell phones—that provide favorable relief to employers and employees alike." (Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
IRS Hangs Up on Efforts to Tax Employee Cell Phone Use
"The Notice has a retroactive effective date, as it applies to employer-provided cell phone use occurring after December 31, 2009." (McguireWoods LLP)

[Guidance Overview]
IRS Revokes Letter Ruling That Treated Clothing/ Accessories Given to Employees as De Minimis Fringe Benefits
"Private letter rulings on the de minimis fringe benefit exclusion are not common, and this one may help explain why. Whether or not the exclusion applies is a function of the facts and circumstances, which often (as in this case) involve too much variation to permit a ruling. Nevertheless, the facts-and-circumstances determination is not entirely without standards." (Thomson Reuters/EBIA)

[Guidance Overview]
Substantiation Waived for Cell Phones Provided Primarily for Noncompensatory Business Purposes
"As the IRS announced in its news release, tax-free treatment of cell phones is now available without any burdensome recordkeeping requirements (although some employers may still be challenged to demonstrate that a cell phone or cell phone reimbursement was provided 'primarily for noncompensatory business purposes')." (Thomson Reuters/EBIA)

Singing the Praises of QSERPs
"What does [the QSERP] do for the executive? Here are some of the benefits." (Michael S. Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)

Administration's Postal Service Plan Included in Deficit-Reduction Package
"The plan . . . would restructure a massive annual payment to prefund retiree health benefits and refund $6.9 bil.lion the mail carrier says it overpaid into a federal retirement fund." (Reuters via The New York Times; free registration required)

Press Releases

MassMutual Retirement Services Promotes 401(k) Day and National Save for Retirement Week
(MassMutual Retirement Services)

Target-Date Fund Use Grows in 401(k) Plans
(Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI))

ACLI Applauds Department of Labor for Re-Proposing Rule on the Definition of a Fiduciary
(American Council of Life Insurers)

ABA Statement On Labor Department Decision To Re-Propose Rule Defining Fiduciary
(American Bankers Association)

ASBO, NEA & NTSAA Form Joint 403(b) Taskforce to Offer Fee Disclosure Solution
(American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA))

National Association of Business Economics Honors Gad Levanon and Ben Cheng for Paper on Retirement
(The Conference Board)

Benefits Administrators, LLC Is Certified To Industry Best Practices
(Centre for Fiduciary Excellence (CEFEX))

Long-Term Care Insurance Can Be Cheaper Than Do-It-Yourself Caregiving, Leading Agency Advises
(LTC Financial Partners)

Kansas City Employers Saved $11 Million in Health Care Costs by Focusing on Prevention and Improving Health
(Mid-America Coalition on Health Care)

Robert W. Baird & Co. Implements PlanXtra; from UpTick Data Technologies
(UpTick Data Technologies)



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