Compliance Manager - COBRA
for Ceridian in FL

Financial Services Representative
for PAi in ANY STATE

Customer Care Specialist - Installations & Conversions
for PAi in ANY STATE

Customer Care Specialist - Service
for PAi in ANY STATE

Pension Administrator II
for Beneco in AZ

Consultant, Health & Welfare Plans
for Dynamic, Privately Held, Entrepreneurial Health & Welfare Consulting Firm in GA

Senior Actuarial Audit Manager, Actuarial
for Prudential in CT, NJ, PA

Conversion Analyst
for Sentinel Benefits and Financial Group in MA

Employee Education Consultant
for PNC Bank in OH

Director, Retirement Plans Technical Services
for Nationwide in OH

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Court Bars Arbitrators for Pennsylvania Municipalities from Reducing Post-Retirement Benefits
"The court found that the reduction of post-retirement health coverage for current employees violated Section 2692(c)(3) of the Home Rule Charter Law, which provides that a municipality shall not '[b]e authorized to diminish the rights or privileges of any former municipal employee entitled to benefits or any present municipal employee in his pension or retirement system.'" (Ballard Sphar LLP)

Turning a C-Suite Vision of Health Into Workplace Action   [Advert.]

Senior management commitment is needed to improve workforce health. This webinar provides examples of leaders who established a vision of health for their companies, and successfully engaged their employees in realizing that vision. Register Now!

Final MLR Regs Raise ERISA and Payroll Questions
"The regs allow insurers to pay rebates to employers on employees' behalf. According to the DOL, rebates of employees' contributions become plan assets in proportion to the percentages or amounts they pay." (Business Management Daily)

How to Handle Health Savings Account on Your Tax Forms
"Q: My husband and I file a joint return and itemize deductions. He has a health savings account and I have a flexible spending account (for medical expenses, not child care). How are these reported on the U.S. and N.J. income tax returns?" (NorthJersey.com)

Financial Burden of Medical Care: Early Release of Estimates from National Health Interview Survey, January-June 2011 (PDF)
"In 2011, three new questions addressing financial burden of medical care were added to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) Family component. These questions addressed problems paying medical bills, paying medical bills over time, and having medical bills that cannot be paid at all. This report provides preliminary estimates of the financial burden of medical care among the U.S. population[.]" (National Center for Health Statistics)

Pondering Declining Health Care Coverage
"'If employers do drop coverage and their employees go to the exchanges, employees may come back and ask for higher salaries because now they've lost the tax benefits from employer-sponsored coverage and they've lost the underlying benefit,' [says a benefits consultant]. Obviously, at some point, employers are going to need to 'run the numbers' and consider potential what-if scenarios[.]" (Human Resource Executive Online)

Botched Rescission of Ineligible Dependent Highlighted in State-Law Case
"[I]f an ERISA plan starts out portraying a patient is eligible, then reverses itself, the provider that's not getting paid may have a strong case that based on an initial representation that the plan would pay. And ERISA's protections may not help one iota." (Thompson / SmartHR Manager)

IRS Will Defer Guidance on ACA Individual Mandate Until After Supreme Court's Decision, Chief Counsel Says
"[The IRS Chief Counsel said that the IRS will hold off issuing] guidance on the individual shared responsibility payment pending the Supreme Court's decision. However, the Service is moving forward with ACA guidance for employers and also on the ACA health insurance premium assistance tax credit[.]" (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business / CCH)

Building a Consumer-Oriented Health Insurance Exchange: Key Issues
"Many exchange development and implementation issues will have profound effects on consumers ... This report examines key consumer-related issues and challenges that states must tackle as they plan and implement their exchanges. [Included are] the interests of small businesses as consumers, because their employees represent a sizable portion of those who will gain insurance or access to new affordable choices." (National Academy for State Health Policy)

The Role of the Basic Health Program in the Coverage Continuum: Opportunities, Risks, and Considerations for States
"As states weigh whether to implement a BHP [Basic Health Program], they face significant questions and challenges. Critical among these are how to design the BHP to enhance continuity of coverage as people move among Medicaid, the BHP, and coverage through qualified health plans (QHPs) in the Exchange; how to assess the BHP's impact on the viability and effectiveness of state Exchanges; and how to estimate revenues and costs to evaluate the financial feasibility of the BHP." (Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP)

Update on the Group Long-Term Disability Table to the NAIC Health Actuarial Task Force (PDF)
The Academy's Group Long-Term Disability Work Group provided an update to the NAIC's Health Actuarial Task Force on the progress of the valuation table. and sought the task force's input on how to move forward to finish the table. (American Academy of Actuaries)

Chart: Employer-Provided Sick Leave Benefits, March 2009
"Among full-time workers who participated in employer-provided paid sick leave plans in March 2009, more than two-thirds (68 percent) were in plans in which they received a fixed number of sick leave days per year. Of the remaining third, 22 percent received paid sick leave through a consolidated leave plan, and 10 percent were in plans that operate on an 'as-needed basis.'" (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Survey: Total Rewards and Employee Well-Being
"Employers more and more are depending on health and wellness initiatives to build and foster a successful and productive workforce. This survey was conducted to identify traditional wellness plans and new trends in employee well-being. The objective was to gauge how many programs and initiatives organizations offered and how those offerings are expanding to include a more integrated well-being approach beyond one that is just health-related." (WorldatWork)

Rethinking Health Care Coverage: The Corporate Health Care Exchange Survey
"The average cost of health coverage per employee crossed the $10,000 mark for the first time in 2012. The cost of health care is projected to increase at an average rate of 7% to 10% in 2012. Meanwhile, salaries are expected to increase about 3% on average. This tenuous dynamic, coupled with the fact that many employees are becoming more educated and better stewards of their own health care choices, makes now the ideal time to explore other health care coverage options, including Exchanges." (Aon)

Affordable Care Act Has Expanded Insurance Coverage among Young Adults of All Races and Ethnicities
"The Affordable Care Act requires insurance plans to allow young adults up to age 26 to remain on their parents' plans. This policy ... was designed to address the fact that young adults have traditionally been the age group least likely to have health insurance. [A]pproximately 2.5 mil.lion young adults who would otherwise be uninsured gained coverage due to this provision ... New research ... shows that these gains in coverage were broad-based and benefited young Americans of all races and ethnicities." (Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation)

Pros and Cons of Health Savings and Medical Reimbursement Accounts
"HSAs offer a significant annual tax deduction (up to $7,250 in 2012 for an individual over 55 who opts for family coverage), making them particularly appealing to individuals in higher tax brackets. Withdrawals for qualifying health care costs (including ling-term care insurance) are tax free. Investment income in HSAs also is tax free." (Business Journal)

How Much Should Health Insurance Cost?
"Basically, there are two ways to insure for medical expenses: third-party insurance and self-insurance. When we pay health insurance premiums, we are purchasing third-party insurance. The alternative is to buy less coverage from an insurance company and put money into an account which you own and control and from which you can pay for medical expenses directly. How much of your health care dollars should you devote to third-party insurance and how much to self-insurance? That depends on market prices." (National Center for Policy Analysis)

Health Care in France Looks Like Ours, Including Role of Employers, so Why Is Theirs Better?
"[T]he similarities are glaring: First of all, the French healthcare system is built on a large, highly-regulated private sector. Unlike Britain's NHS, the government doesn't own everything. Some hospitals are public, but many are private and for-profit. Indeed, there are publicly-traded hospital chains, just like in the US. Most doctors and nurses work in private practice. Even most of the ambulances are private. The sector is highly regulated and subsidized to be sure, but that's also true in the US. Secondly, there's a crucial feature at the heart of the French healthcare system that is also at the heart of the US healthcare system--and that all US wonks hate: employer-provided insurance." (The Atlantic)

New FATCA Reporting Obligation May Affect Global U.S. Employees' 2011 Tax Returns
"Multinational corporations often have mobile employees as part of their global workforce participating in non-US retirement, deferred compensation and equity compensation plans. US taxpayers participating in such non-US retirement plans should be aware of potential new obligations to report those interests on IRS Form 8938, beginning with their individual tax returns for 2011." (Groom Law Group)

Avoid Tax Return Mistakes with Stock Options and ESPPs: What You Need to Know in 2012
"This tax return season has the potential to be more confusing than most if you sold stock last year. You must now file the new IRS Form 8949 along with the revised Schedule D. This change stems from the expansion of the information that brokers must report on IRS Form 1099-B. This article from myStockOptions.com has tips on these and other crucial tax return topics." (myStockOptions)

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's Recent Proposal on Executive Compensation
"The early leader for this year's 'Shocking Development of the Year Award' has to be last week's Public Company Accounting Oversight Board proposed amendments to auditing standards for identifying and assessing excessive risk in executive compensation programs.... If this proposal becomes a reality then it might be possible that an auditor could tell a company that its compensation programs are 'too risky' and that they cannot sign off on the financials, placing outside auditors in the role of pre-approving executive compensation programs. [T]his is not their role, and [the author doubts] that they want this role any more than we want to give it to them." (Winston & Strawn LLP)

ING Records Successful Year for Large Corporate Retirement Plan Business in 2011
(ING Retirement)