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BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter
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Employee Benefits Jobs
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Webcasts and Conferences
Form 5500 for Health and Welfare Plans: Preparation and Filing Basics
Nationwide
on April 12, 2012
presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA
Health Care Reform
in Minnesota
on May 11, 2012
presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA
COBRA Compliance for Group Health Plans
in Minnesota
on May 10, 2012
presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA
HIPAA Privacy & Security
in Minnesota
on May 10, 2012
presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA
HSAs, HRAs, and Consumer-Driven Health Care
in Minnesota
on May 9, 2012
presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA
ERISA Compliance for Health & Welfare Plans
in Minnesota
on May 9, 2012
presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA
Cafeteria Plans
in Minnesota
on May 8, 2012
presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA
Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program Workshop
in Washington
on March 27, 2012
presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Encourages Small Employers to Check Out Small Business Health Care Tax Credit
"The recently-revamped Small Business Health Care Tax Credit page on IRS.gov is packed with information and resources designed to help small employers see if they qualify for the credit and then figure it correctly. These include a step-by-step guide for determining eligibility, examples of typical tax savings under various scenarios, answers to frequently-asked questions, a YouTube video and a webinar."
(Internal Revenue Service)
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[Guidance Overview]
Summaries of Health Benefits and Coverage Due This Fall
"Plan sponsors should quickly determine who will create the required SBC(s) for their plans and when and how they will be delivered. Plans that have carved out certain benefits, such as prescription drug coverage, may face additional challenges in drafting an SBC that incorporates information from different vendors."
(Morgan Lewis)
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Commuting by Public Transit on the Rise
"Employees who take public transportation to work may benefit from a tax break, but only if their employer sponsors a qualified transportation fringe benefit ... plan under Code Section 132."
(Thompson)
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Results from a Scorecard on Local Health Performance, 2012
"The first-ever Scorecard on Local Health System Performance provides U.S. communities with comparative data to assess the performance of their health care systems, establish priorities for improvement, and set achievement targets. It tracks 43 indicators spanning four dimensions of health system performance: access, prevention and treatment, costs and potentially avoidable hospital use, and health outcomes."
(The Commonwealth Fund)
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Resources from the Massachusetts Implementation Experience
"Because Massachusetts' 2006 health reform law established an insurance exchange in that state, many states around the nation are turning to Massachusetts officials for lessons about establishing an exchange.... The [Health Reform Toolkits] are designed to share experiences, materials, templates and lessons learned from the state's planning and creation of its exchange with other states as they begin ACA implementation."
(Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
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State Considerations on Adopting Health Reform's "Basic Health" Option (PDF)
"Basic Health allows states to offer coverage that could be more affordable and comprehensive than the coverage available through the exchange. That, in turn, could help boost enrollment, retention, and access to care among those eligible for Basic Health. On the other hand, if a state's Basic Health program is not well-designed or not appropriate for the state given its specific circumstances, it could lead to a fragmented system with gaps in coverage and disruptions in care for people who move from one program to another as their incomes rise or fall."
(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
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Updated Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act
""[The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation] now estimate that the insurance coverage provisions of the [Affordable Care Act] will have a net cost of just under $1.1 tril.lion over the 2012–2021 period — about $50 bil.lion less than the agencies' March 2011 estimate for that 10-year period[.]"
(Congressional Budget Office)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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Controlled and Affiliated Service Group Rules for Retirement and Cafeteria Plans
"Compliance with the various rules for qualified plans is difficult even for companies that are not part of a controlled group. It becomes even more difficult when operating multiple operations domestically. Adding foreign operations into the equation adds substantial additional complexity which companies need to recognize and address. The risk of noncompliance is too costly to ignore!"
(EisnerAmper)
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Privacy and Security Issues Affecting Employee Benefit Plans
"The Council recommended that [DOL]: (1) provide guidance on the obligation of plan fiduciaries to secure and keep private the personal identifiable information ... of participants and beneficiaries; (2) develop educational materials and outreach efforts for plan sponsors, participants, and beneficiaries to address the issues of privacy and security of PII; and (3) include in their outreach and educational materials information regarding elder abuse related to benefit plans."
(ERISA Advisory Council)
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Press Releases
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Jeanette Hull, News Editor
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Lois Baker, J.D., President
Holly Horton, Business Manager
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