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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Issues Revised Guidance on Form W-2 Health Coverage Reporting
"The revisions should help employers and advisors as they navigate the new reporting requirement, especially with respect to application of the requirement to EAPs, wellness programs, and on-site medical clinics. However, calculating the cost of coverage will continue to be a challenge, particularly for self-insured plans."
(Thomson Reuters/EBIA)
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Highlights of Recent Health Care Reform Developments
"The U.S. Supreme Court has announced that it will rule on several questions concerning the legality of the Affordable Care Act. Specifically, it will address the following [four] issues . . . ."
(The Segal Group, Inc.)
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AHIP and BCBSA File Amicus Brief in U.S. Supreme Court
"AHIP and BCBSA today filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court stating that certain insurance market reforms in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are inextricably linked to the law's personal coverage requirement and have to be severed from the ACA if the Court finds the coverage requirement unconstitutional. The brief supports reversal of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' severability judgment which struck down the personal coverage requirement but maintained all of the insurance market reforms that were enacted as companions to the coverage requirement."
(AHIP)
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Guidance Provided on Electronic Health Record Incentives
"[M]edical providers must comply with standards for use of the technology and properly account for the incentive payments in an area where accounting principles are in an infant stage. [Last] week, the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) published an issue analysis to provide clarity on accounting for incentive payments received under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health . . . Act."
(American Institute of Certified Public Accountants)
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Michigan Governor Denies Domestic Partnership Benefits in Signing Bill
"Although the bill is said to save money, researchers have found that usage of the insurance of domestic partners was a mere one percent of the national health care budget. Unlike married couples, domestic couples also pay taxes on their insurance and by denying them, the state is actually losing money."
(The Eastern Echo)
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New Year Means New Health Insurance Laws for Connecticut
"The beginning of 2012 ushered in seven new requirements for health insurance coverage provided by employers to Connecticut residents that proponents say will save lives and money in the long run."
(The Day Publishing Company)
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Cheaper Policies Bought in the Workplace Can Have Drawbacks
"[W]hereas traditional insurance is subject to state laws and disputes can be tried before juries, with the potential for punitive damage awards, policies sold through employers typically fall under [ERISA] — with a federal judge ruling on disputes and no damages allowed."
(The Wall Street Journal)
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CMS Issues Final Round of Health Plan Waivers
"The waivers, announced Friday on a CMS website, apply to health insurance policies — mostly for mini-med plans — offered to the workers of 1,231 employers."
(modernhealthcare.com; free registration required)
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Health Reform Reporting Rule Clarified
"The latest guidance also reiterates numerous provisions in last year's guidance, including that the cost of coverage that is taxable to employees, such as for a child older than 26, must be reported on the W-2. It also reiterates that contributions employees make to flexible spending accounts are to be excluded from the health care cost figure."
(Business Insurance)
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ACLU Challenges Michigan Domestic Partner Law
"The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Michigan filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to strike down a new state law that bans many public entities from providing healthcare insurance to the domestic partners of their employees."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
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[Opinion]
City of Springfield, Illinois, Must Offer Benefits to Partners
"[Two professors] write to offer our interpretation of the legal status of civil union partners of city employees. . . . According to a State Journal-Register article from Dec. 20, the Joint Labor/Management Health Care Committee voted unanimously to not offer insurance benefits to civil union partners of city employees. According to the article, some city officials maintain that state law does not apply to the city's insurance scheme, given that the program is self-insured."
(The State Journal-Register)
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[Opinion]
What Price Pluralism in Health Insurance?
"Choice in the United States is expensive, because it requires prospective enrollees to do near-Talmudic studies of the fine print of each insurer's offerings — many times multiple distinct offerings per insurer."
(The New York Times; free registration required)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Official Guidance]
List of Expiring Federal Tax Provisions, 2011-2022
"For purposes of compiling this list, the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation considers a provision to be expiring if, at a statutorily specified date, the provision expires completely or reverts to the law in effect before the present-law version of the provision."
(The Joint Committee on Taxation)
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Generous Benefits, Recognition Energize and Retain Workers
"Employee retention is one of the best ways to keep your business running smoothly. The Society for Human Resource Management refers to retention as a key economic driver. 'It costs an organization a significant dollar amount whenever an existing employee must be replaced.'"
(San Angelo Standard Times)
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Press Releases
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