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[Guidance Overview]
Philadelphia Ordinance to Require Some Employers to Provide Paid Sick Leave
"Certain Philadelphia employers will be required to provide full-time employees with paid sick leave beginning July 1, 2012 . . . [including] for-profit service contractors and subcontractors with annual gross receipts above $1 mil.lion on contracts with the City in excess of $10,000 over a 12-month period . . . ."
(Jackson Lewis LLP)
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[Guidance Overview]
Wisconsin to Begin Tax-Free Treatment of Health Care Coverage of Adult Children
"Wisconsin is the last state in the country to conform its state tax treatment of such coverage with federal tax treatment, which means that once this law takes effect, employers will no longer need to worry about imputing income for the value of such coverage to employees in any state."
(Faegre & Benson LLP)
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[Guidance Overview]
No Stop-Loss Coverage for Employer Who Extended COBRA Pursuant to Undisclosed Separation Agreement
"Since an insurer's obligation is frequently limited to the coverage required by COBRA, plan sponsors must be cautious in agreeing to provide continuation coverage beyond the maximum COBRA coverage period. . . . [T]his is especially important to remember when negotiating severance agreements that contain health coverage provisions that are not incorporated into the terms of the plan through an amendment or that may otherwise fall outside the limits of the insurer's obligation under its contract."
(Thomson Reuters/EBIA)
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[Guidance Overview]
EEOC Letter Addresses Coordination of Current Employees' Health Benefits With Medicare
"[T]he letter explains that eliminating coverage for current employees when they become eligible for Medicare will violate the ADEA unless the 'equal benefit or equal cost' defense is satisfied. For this purpose, 'equal benefits' are not provided if, taking the employer-provided and Medicare-provided benefits together, older employees are entitled to a lesser benefit of any type (including dependent coverage) than similarly situated younger employees."
(Thomson Reuters/EBIA)
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Workplace Flexibility in the United States; A Status Report (PDF)
31 pages; extensive charts. Workplace flexibility programs benefit employers of all sizes and industries, resulting in increased employee job satisfaction, lower turnover and lower insurance costs, according to the new report, 'Workplace Flexibility in the United States: A Status Report."
(Families and Work Institute; Society for Human Resource Management)
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What Happened to The CLASS Act?
"Program on Retirement Policy Director Richard Johnson walks us through CLASS's aims and design, why greater access to long-term care is needed, and where the program ran into problems."
(Urban Institute)
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Health Care Reform Update, November 7, 2011 (PDF)
Items include Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); Other HHS and Federal Regulatory Initiatives; Other Congressional and State Initiatives; Other Health Care News; Hearings & Mark-ups Scheduled.
(ML Strategies)
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Report: Fewer Than Expected Claiming Small Business Health Insurance Tax Credit
"The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration found that, by May, roughly 228,000 taxpayers had claimed the small-business credit to the tune of more than $278 mil.lion. The IRS had previously tried to reach out to some 4.4 mil.lion taxpayers that it thought could have been eligible for the credit, and the Congressional Budget Office had estimated that up to $2 bil.lion could be claimed for 2010."
(The Hill)
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Survey Finds Very Few Employers Plan to Drop Health Care Coverage
"Of nearly 900 employers participating in the [Mercer survey,] just 2% said they are 'very likely' to terminate medical plans after insurance exchanges are operational, while 6% said they were 'likely' to do so — figures essentially unchanged from a year ago."
(Mercer Select)
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Poor Economy May Be Coloring Views of Nation's Health
"45 percent of people thought the health of Americans had become worse during the past five years, and 40 percent thought it had stayed about the same. Only 13 percent thought it was better."
(National Public Radio)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Guidance Overview]
Proskauer ERISA Litigation Newsletter, November 2011
"[W]e review the Department of Labor's decision to re-propose a controversial regulation expanding the definition of an ERISA fiduciary. . . . [Additional commentary addresses] high deductible health plan/health savings account re-design and planning for open enrollment; the constitutionality of the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act . . . the Supreme Court's Decision in CIGNA Corp. v. Amara . . . and reconciling obligations relating to the production of documents under ERISA § 104(b)(4) versus the claims regulation . . . ."
(Proskauer)
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[Guidance Overview]
DOL Amends Prohibited Transaction Exemption Procedure
"In addition to consolidating existing policies and guidance on the exemption process into a single source, the regulations clarify the types of information and documentation that must be submitted and expand the method for transmitting filings to include electronic submissions."
(Thomson Reuters/EBIA)
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As States Shift to Contract Workers, Savings Are Not Clear-Cut
"What governments save in salaries and benefits often 'ends up on the government books through all sorts of programs,' said Paul C. Light, a professor at the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, referring to unemployment insurance, Medicaid and other public assistance for workers earning low incomes."
(New York Times; free registration required)
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2011 Best Places to Work in Insurance
"Business Insurance this year honored 50 companies . . . But what makes these companies attractive employers? Is it their benefits and compensation programs? Their attention to work/life balance? Or is it other, more unusual perks? . . . [This article contains] profiles of the honorees, which are organized by type of company and size . . . . [F]ind out what it is that sets the leading insurance industry workplaces apart."
(Business Insurance)
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[Opinion]
More Necessary Pension Pain Ahead for Governmental Employees
"Sooner or later, state and local governments must further rein in benefits for current employees — so that the cost of providing for public servants tomorrow does not make it impossible to provide actual public services today."
(Washington Post; free registration required)
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Press Releases
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