Retirement Plan Administrator
for Bates & Company, P.A. in FL

Actuarial Consultant
for ExpertPlan, Inc. in NJ

MetLife Resources Account Executive/ Retirement Products
for MetLife in NJ

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Health Care Reform
in Ohio on May 18, 2012 presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA

COBRA Compliance for Group Health Plans
in Ohio on May 17, 2012 presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA

HIPAA Privacy & Security
in Ohio on May 17, 2012 presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA

HSAs, HRAs, and Consumer-Driven Health Care
in Ohio on May 16, 2012 presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA

ERISA Compliance for Health & Welfare Plans
in Ohio on May 16, 2012 presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA

Cafeteria Plans
in Ohio on May 15, 2012 presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA

Health Plan Readmission Strategies: Contracting & Care Management Approaches
Nationwide on May 9, 2012 presented by MCOL

Contracting Web Summit
Nationwide on May 10, 2012 presented by MCOL

Retirement Plan Insights Seminar
in Illinois on May 8, 2012 presented by McKay Hochman Co., Inc.

Retirement Plan Insights Seminar
in Pennsylvania on June 12, 2012 presented by McKay Hochman Co., Inc.

ACI’s 2nd Advanced Forum on Managed Care Disputes and Litigation
in Pennsylvania on May 22, 2012 presented by American Conference Institute

Flexible Spending Accounts
Nationwide on April 12, 2012 presented by Lorman Education Services

Understanding the Impact of Health Care Reform on Employers
in Minnesota on April 19, 2012 presented by Lorman Education Services

Wellness Programs: Rewards, Penalties, Legal Risks, and Legal Developments
Nationwide on April 19, 2012 presented by Lorman Education Services

CFDD

Unintended Errors in Benefits Communications Can Result in Liability under ERISA
"[A]n email from an employer's Administrator of Payroll and Benefits, erroneously advising a participant that the company would continue to pay his life insurance premiums post-retirement, provided the basis to find the employer and the life insurance plan liable for the benefit[.]" (Littler)

401(k) Investment Lineup Summit   [Advert.]

Ensure your 401(k) plan can adapt to changing economic & financial currents and participants can reach their goals. Practical 1 day seminars - SF 4/17, Dallas 4/19, Chicago 4/24, NY 4/26. FREE registration for qualified plan sponsors. More info.

Ready Reference Chart: W-2 Reporting of Employer Health Coverage
"[L]arge employers (generally, those that issued 250 or more W-2s for 2011) will be required to report the value of any employer-provided health coverage on their employees' 2012 W-2s.... The chart itemizes those types of employer-provided coverage that either are or not subject to this reporting requirement for 2012. It also shows the types of coverage that are currently subject to optional reporting." (Spencer Fane)

Finding the Messages to Employers in $1.5M HIPAA Settlement
"[T]o date, HHS's monetary settlements with covered entities have focused on health care providers, such as hospitals and pharmacies. This is the first monetary settlement ... involving a covered health plan.... [and the first] triggered by a covered entity's report of a security breach to HHS in compliance with the HITECH Act.... [Also] the underlying incident involved the theft of unencrypted hard drives.... HHS seems to have set a fairly high standard for adequate physical safeguards." (Littler)

Covering Dependents Can Raise Questions
"Dependent care flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and coverage of dependents through health FSAs are among the most common kinds of coverage employers provide employees' dependents.... Questions often concern whether a particular expense is covered, whether a situation is among those for which the IRS allows a participant to make a change of election during the plan year before open enrollment, who exactly can be covered and more." (Thompson / SmartHR Manager)

Text of Congressional Budget Office Report on the Effects of Health Care Form on the Number of People Obtaining Employment-Based Health Insurance
"Despite the care and effort that CBO and JCT have devoted to modeling the health insurance system and the provisions of the ACA, there is clearly a tremendous amount of uncertainty about how employers and employees will respond to the set of opportunities and incentives under that legislation. In response to questions from Members of Congress, CBO and JCT have prepared an analysis showing how the effects of the ACA on health insurance coverage would differ under alternative assumptions about the behavior of employers." (Congressional Budget Office)

Health Care Challengers Offer Hypothetical Mandates
"If President Obama's health care law — his landmark legislative achievement — is to withstand legal challenge, government lawyers must convince a majority of justices that the health care marketplace is unique. By not buying insurance, their argument goes, millions of Americans transfer $43 bil.lion in health care costs to others in the form of higher premiums." (USA TODAY)

20 Million People Might Lose Employer Health Insurance Due to Health Care Reform
"A non-partisan report said Thursday, in a worst-case scenario, President Obama's healthcare law could cost 20 mil.lion their employer-provided health insurance. Or the law could increase the number of people with employer-based coverage by 3 mil.lion by 2019, the Congressional Budget Office said." (InsuranceNewsNet)

If Mandate Is Overturned, Obama Could Need Help To Salvage Health Law
"Experts consider the requirement to hold insurance, known as the individual mandate, to be the most legally vulnerable part of the law. The administration argues that the law's main goal of providing health coverage to 30 mil.lion additional Americans could not be achieved without the mandate because too many healthy people would refuse to obtain insurance[.]" (Kaiser Health News)

What Effects the Health Care Law Has Had, and What's to Come
""In a recent poll by the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, two in three Americans said they have not been affected by the law yet. Only 14% said they have benefited; 21% said they have been affected negatively. Here's a look at some provisions with the broadest potential impact[.]" (USA TODAY)

Will Health Care Reform Turn "No Employer Health Care" Into an Employment Perk?
"Come 2014, help-wanted ads may begin touting a new perk: no employer health coverage. President Obama's signature health law could upend incentives for modest-wage workers, a Congressional Budget Office analysis confirmed Thursday." (Investor's Business Daily)

Senate Gives Public Transportation a Boost
"Advocates for commuter transportation systems have argued that there is no justification for treating employees who drive to work better than those who use public transportation. This argument seems especially compelling in these days of increasing gas prices." (Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP)

Health Care Reform Bringing CFOs and HR Directors Together
"There are uncertainties around reform, like whether the Supreme Court will uphold the individual mandate and how this fall's elections will turn out, but they are not unlike many other uncertainties that businesses face ... [requiring] HR, finance, and senior leadership ... to be thinking about it from a scenario- planning perspective[.]" (CFO)

Health Tracking Poll: Exploring the Public's Views on the Affordable Care Act
"The public has remained deeply divided on the health reform law since it was passed in March 2010. [These poll results] examine how specific groups feel about the law and how those opinions have changed or not changed over time." (Kaiser Health News)

Understanding Finances and Changes in State and Local Government Retiree Health Care (PDF)
"Governments need to understand what has been done so far to address OPEB liabilities, and assess whether these efforts are enough to put the provision of retiree health care on a more sustainable path." (Center for State and Local Government Excellence)

Large Employers Weigh Future Use of Private Health Exchanges
"72 percent [of large employers recently surveyed] were very or somewhat interested in exploring whether a private exchange model could be an effective long-term solution for managing the cost of an employee health plan. 44 percent believed that they will provide employees health benefits through a private exchange in the next three to five years." (Society for Human Resource Management)

Minnesota Legislators Lose Interest for Statewide Wellness Campaign
"An ambitious program intended to help Minnesotans slim down, eat nutritious food and ditch unhealthy habits is losing momentum and financial support, and officials caution that a goal of saving nearly $1.9 bil.lion in future health care costs is slipping out of reach." (Star Tribune)

Great Recession Accelerated Long-Term Decline of Employer Health Coverage
"Even when employment rebounds to pre-recession levels, a return to previous levels of employer-sponsored health insurance is unlikely. Well before the start of the recession, a steady decline of employer health coverage was underway with fewer firms offering coverage and fewer workers taking up coverage — likely because of rising health care costs." (National Institute for Health Care Reform)

Work-Sponsored Insurance Down 10 Points
"Between 2007 and 2010, the number of children and working-age adults with employer-sponsored health insurance fell 10 percentage points, from 63.6 percent to 53.5 points, according to a new study[.]" (Pittsburgh Business Times)

Increased IRS Scrutiny of Executive Compensation and Common Errors Under Code Sections 409A and 162(M)
"In [the current] climate of increased transparency and disclosure, the IRS has stepped up its audit activity with respect to taxpayers' compliance with the requirements for nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements under Code Section 409A, as well as the $1 mil.lion annual deduction limitation on certain compensation paid to 'covered employees' of publicly-held corporations under Section 162(m)." (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.)

For States, Tax Revenues Are Up, but Deferred Costs Are Waiting to Be Paid
"A huge fiscal headache for state and local government leaders is the pension and retiree medical (OPEB) debt that has accumulated in the past decade and is now coming due in many states. Over $700 bil.lion of pension underfunding and twice that much in OPEB liabilities are hanging out there waiting to be addressed. That's a $2 tril.lion liability that will hit their books as the accounting standards put these debts on the balance sheet for the first time." (Governing)

Eight Steps to Reduce Risk through Good Governance of Benefit Plans
"[A] sound governance process not only protects participants -- it effectively shields the employer, board of directors and other fiduciaries from liability. If the process is not followed, however, protection evaporates and the action or decision may be found not to have been made at all or may be judged by the Monday-morning quarterback standard." (Warner Norcross & Judd LLP)

Administration's Budget Proposals Would Limit Retirement Deductions for Upper-Income Taxpayers
"The income exclusions and deductions limited by this provision would include employer-sponsored health insurance paid for by employers or with before-tax employee dollars, health insurance costs of self-employed individuals, employee contributions to defined contribution retirement plans and individual retirement arrangements, and contributions to health savings accounts and Archer MSAs." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business / CCH)

ANSI Approves SHRM's Cost-per-Hire Standard as First American HR Standard
"The cost-per-hire standard provides a tool for organizations to reliably determine employee recruitment costs through an accepted algorithm that includes elements such as addressing organizations' specific hiring cultures and requirements." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business / CCH)

Employee Ownership Update for March 15, 2012
NCEO Executive Director Loren Rodgers discusses a report showing dismal employee engagement in the U.S., a Sixth Circuit decision breaking with other courts on the "Moench presumption," SEC challenges to pre-IPO trading in secondary markets, and IRS objections to floor price protection. (National Center for Employee Ownership)

Form 5500 Filing Rejections
"With the advent of EFAST2, the window for resolving filing issues, including failures to include the audits, has narrowed considerably. It now appears that the DOL is generating the 45-day letter for a missing audit within 2-3 months." (SunGard Relius)

The ERISA Litigation Newsletter
"[This issue's lead article] discusses the Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Pfeil v. State Street Bank & Trust, a potentially significant opinion in the field of employer-stock litigation.... [The] second article discusses whether release agreements negotiated between employers and employees are enforceable to bar ERISA claims." (Proskauer Rose LLP)

Rekon Intelligence Webinars To Help Advisors Compete More Effectively In The Qualified Plan Market
(401(k) Rekon)

Society of Actuaries Releases Retirement Decision Series Designed to Assist Individuals Nearing Retirement
(Society of Actuaries)

The Standard Enhances Flexibility of Retirement Plan Services
(The Standard)