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April 27, 2012 Get Retirement News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

Employee Benefits Jobs

Cafeteria Plan/Office Administrator
for Expanding Benefits Brokerage in VA

401k-Defined Contribution Plan Administrator
for Lebenson Actuarial Services in NV

Savings Plan Manager
for Chrysler in MI

Benefits Consultant, Large Groups
for Northwestern Benefit Corporation of Georgia in GA

Sr Market Risk Analyst, Quantitative Methods - Capital Markets Hedging
for Prudential in NJ

VP, Sales Execution (East)
for Prudential in CT

ERISA Attorney
for Mid-size New York City Law Firm in NY

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Webcasts and Conferences

Ethics for Benefits Lawyers
Nationwide on May 31, 2012 presented by ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits


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[Official Guidance]
2012 Inflation-Adjusted Amounts for Health Savings Accounts (PDF)
For calendar year 2013, the annual limitation on deductions for an individual with self-only coverage under a high deductible health plan is $3,250; for an individual with family coverage, it is $6,450. A "high deductible health plan" for calendar year 2013 is a health plan with an annual deductible that is not less than $1,250 for self-only coverage or $2,500 for family coverage, and the annual out-of-pocket expenses (deductibles, co-payments, and other amounts, but not premiums) do not exceed $6,250 for self-only coverage or $12,500 for family coverage. (Internal Revenue Service)


Prevention & Wellness Conference: Sustainable Improvements in Population Health   [Advert.]

Sponsored by World Congress

Develop a plan for engaging, efficient and measurable wellness and prevention. Improve population health outcomes through prevention initiatives based on data and best practices from leading corporations, health plans and wellness thought leaders.


[Official Guidance]
Text of CCIIO Bulletin: Verification of Access to Employer-Sponsored Coverage (PDF)
"Verification of access to employer-sponsored coverage is a necessary part of the process for determining eligibility for advance payments of the premium tax credit available to support the purchase of qualified health plans through Affordable Insur.ance Exchanges. The purpose of this bulletin is to request comment from the public on a proposed interim strategy and potential regulatory approach for verification of an applicant's access to qualifying coverage in an employer-sponsored plan under section 1411 of the Affordable Care Act. The [HHS] also solicits comments on the development of a long-term verification strategy." (U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Center for Consumer Information and Insur.ance Oversight)

[Guidance Overview]
Calculating and Paying the Fee on Health Insurers and Self-Insured Health Plans to the Medical and Outcomes Research Fund
"Plan sponsors will have to pay the fee for seven years, as the fee applies to plan years ending after October 1, 2012, and before October 1, 2019. For the first year, the fee is $1 multiplied by the number of covered lives under the plan. For the second through seventh years, the amount increases to $2 times the number of covered lives. Plan sponsors must remit the fee to IRS annually along with an IRS Form 720. The payment and Form will be due July 31 for all plan years ending in the preceding calendar year." (HighRoads)

8 Tips to Gain the CFO's Buy-In for Wellness Programs
"CFOs who understand the link between employee health and productivity are more likely to embrace a wellness initiative as a financial priority for the company, a new study reveals. In fact, in a survey of CFOs by the Integrated Benefits Institute ..., three-quarters said they believe providing health benefits is important for the company's financial strategy. Even so, most CFOs still regard employee health as less of a driver of productivity than other benefits like training, the survey shows." (Business Management Daily)

What's It Take to Be a 'Bronze' Health Plan Under the Affordable Care Act?
"The study projects what deductibles and coinsurance would meet the requirements of a Bronze plan, presenting two alternatives: One with a deductible per individual of $4,375, with consumers paying 20% of their health care expenses once meeting the deductible. The other with a deductible of $3,475 and patient coinsurance of 40%. Under both plans, total patient out-of-pocket costs would be capped at $6,350, as required by the health reform law. Deductibles for families would be double these amounts." (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)

Text of EBSA's Annual Report on Self-Insured Group Health Plans, April 2012 Issue (PDF)
"Along with this second annual Report, [DOL] is submitting two detailed appendices produced under contract. Appendix A, Group Health Plans Report: Abstract of 2009 Form 5500 Annual Reports Reflecting Statistical Year Filings, provides detailed statistics describing group health plans that file a Form 5500. Appendix B, Self-Insured Health Benefit Plans 2012, presents a study that explores statistical issues associated with Form 5500 health plan data and analyzes available data on the financial status of employers that sponsor group health plans filing the Form 5500." (Employee Benefits Security Administration)

Bill Would Impose Federal Cap on Malpractice Awards in Federal and State Courts in Order to Lower Health Costs
"CBO expects that [changes proposed under the 'Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare Act of 2011' recently reported out of the House Committee on the Judiciary] would, on balance, lower costs for health care both directly and indirectly: directly, by lowering premiums for medical liability insur.ance; and indirectly, by reducing the use of health care services prescribed by providers when faced with less pressure from potential malpractice suits. Those reductions in costs would, in turn, lead to lower spending in federal health programs and to lower private health insur.ance premiums." (U.S. Congressional Budget Office)

State Legislation and Actions Challenging Certain Health Reforms 2011-2012, Updated April 25, 2012
Updates include a detailed index of Supreme Court Actions, with hypertext links; a summary of new 2012 pending state lawsuits opposing various federal health care reforms; and updated information about legislation in Kentucky, Utah, and Wyoming. (National Conference of State Legislatures)

Estimating the 2012 Health Insur.ance Rebates Under the Medical Loss Ratio Rules
"This analysis looks at the latest estimates provided by insurers to state insur.ance commissioners. The analysis finds that consumers and businesses are expected to receive an estimated $1.3 bil.lion by this August in rebates from health insurers who spent more on administrative expenses and profits than allowed by the ACA. The rebates include $541 mil.lion in the large employer market, $377 mil.lion in the small business market, and $426 mil.lion for those buying insur.ance on their own." (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)

Employers Making Distinctions Among Employees in Offering Flexible Work Schedules
"Some organizations have created flexible work arrangements [for select populations: disabled workers, veterans, low-wage hourly workers, and parents with dependent care responsibilities] such as telecommuting/working from home, traditional flextime, and reduced work hours, to accommodate these populations. Examples of obstacles to implement these flexible work arrangements include concerns about providing equal treatment for employees, ensuring that the work is done, and the impracticality of such arrangements given the nature of jobs in the organization's industry." (Society for Human Resource Management)

Text of Petition for Certiorari: Jurisdiction for Enforcement of State Law Health Insur.ance Requirements
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana, Inc. v. Fossen (9th Cir. 2011). Issue: "Whether a substantive state-law insur.ance standard saved from preemption under the insur.ance saving clause of [ERISA], 29 U.S.C. Section 1144(b)(2)(A), can be enforced through state-law remedies or instead is enforceable exclusively through ERISA's enforcement scheme, 29 U.S.C. Section 1132." (SCOTUSblog)

DOL Issues Second Annual Health Care Reform Report on Self-Insured Plans
"The [report] contains aggregate information on self-insured employee health plans and financial information on the employers sponsoring the plans.... The report also includes a table comparing aggregate statistics for self-insured and combination self-insured/insured plans for 2008 and 2009 plan years. According to the report, more than 50,000 health plans filed Form 5500s for the 2009 plan year, an increase of almost 7% over the 47,000 filings in the 2008 plan year." (Practical Law Company)

Text of GAO Report Estimating Number of Americans with Pre-Existing Health Conditions at 36 Mil.lion to 122 Mil.lion
"Depending on the list of conditions used to define pre-existing conditions ..., GAO found that between 36 mil.lion and 122 mil.lion adults reported medical conditions that could result in a health insurer restricting coverage. This represents between 20 and 66 percent of the adult population, with a midpoint estimate of about 32 percent. The differences among the estimates can be attributed to the number and type of conditions included in the different lists of pre-existing conditions." (Government Accountability Office)

Think Tank Proposes Plan to Improve Care for the Chronically Ill, Reduce Health Spending
"Noting the 'unprecedented opportunity' provided under the Affordable Care Act, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health ... Act, and other recently enacted federal laws, the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System today unveiled a community-based plan to enhance health and reduce spending by improving care for chronically ill patients and targeting quality improvement efforts to conditions that can yield the greatest benefit in a relatively short time. The 'Health Improvement Community' initiative proposed by the Commission has the potential to help those who most need more coordinated care and save $184 bil.lion in health spending over the next 10 years." (The Commonwealth Fund)

[Opinion]
Testimony of Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Applauding Cutbacks Under Health Care Reform on FSA, HSAs
"The Affordable Care Act ... includes a number of spending reductions and tax increases designed to assure that expanding health coverage does not drive up the deficit. Some provisions limit the use of tax-advantaged accounts to pay for health-related expenses. These limitations make sense both as tax policy and as health policy, and repealing any of them would be unwise." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

[Guidance Overview]
SEC Issues FAQs on JOBS Act: Relaxed Disclosure Requirements for Emerging Growth Companies
"A company that qualifies as an EGC will be able to maintain that status until the earliest of: five years when annual gross revenues exceed $1 bil.lion when the issuer has issued more than $1 bil.lion of non-convertible debt in a three-year period, or the date on which the issuer is deemed to be a 'large accelerated filer' as defined in the rules promulgated under the Exchange Act[.]" (Ballard Sphar LLP)

Tennis, Anyone? Country Club Remains a Perk for Many CEOs
"While many companies are stripping away some of the costly perks bestowed on CEOs, one remains a staple of many executive compensation packages: the country club membership.... Of more than 130 companies paying for clubs, nearly 50% are local or regional financial firms. The cost can be eye-popping." (USA TODAY)

Clickable Cross-Reference Table for ERISA and United States Code Title 29
When ERISA became law in 1974, it was codified as part of Title 29 of the United States Code. By that time Title 29 already contained the codified version of many other labor laws. (Title 29 section 1 was already "taken,' for example.) So the Title 29 section numbers assigned to the provisions of ERISA do not line up with the section numbering in the original Act. For example, the fiduciary duty provisions of ERISA section 404 are found in Title 29 section 1104. The table on the linked page shows the ERISA sections and their corresponding Title 29 section numbers, with clickable links to the text of each section. (BenefitsLink.com)

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