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BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Notice Requests Comments on Minimum Value and Reporting Requirements for Group Health Plans
"The [IRS is requesting comments on] three potential approaches to determining minimum value under consideration: 1. Use of an actuarial value calculator (for insured small group plans) or minimum value calculator (for self-insured and insured large group plans) created by [HHS] and the Treasury ... 2. Creation of various design-based safe harbor checklists describing deductibles, co-pays, coinsurance, out-of-pocket maximums and other cost-sharing attributes for the four core categories of benefits and services [and] 3. For non-standard plan designs, determination by a certified actuary that the plan provides minimum value."
(McDermott Will & Emery)
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Guidance Addresses Upcoming Research Fees on Many Health Plans and Insurers
"These research fees are scheduled to start with the first plan or policy year ending on or after October 1, 2012, and will affect the health plans of many employers. Although the regulations currently are in proposed form, health insur.ance issuers and plan sponsors may rely on the proposed regulations for guidance pending the issuance of final regulations."
(Bond, Schoeneck & King)
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Administration Might Consider Additional Federal Regulation of Use of Stop-Loss Insur.ance
"[T]he Obama administration issued a request for information on whether new rules are needed to make it harder for small employers to choose to self-insure employee health care, citing concerns that this practice could lead to higher costs for small group plans in PPACA's exchanges. While any new rule would not likely be directed at large employers, it would open up discussions to regulate other features of self-insured plans, which could directly impact large employers."
(HR Policy Association)
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Nearly Half of Soon-to-Be-Retired, High-Net-Worth Americans 'Terrified' of Health Care Costs in Retirement
"While 45 percent expect health care to be their biggest expense throughout retirement, when asked to estimate how much they anticipate spending each year on health care, they said, on average, $5,621. This represents a drastic underestimation based on a 2010 study that estimates out-of-pocket health care expenses for a 65-year-old couple retiring today and living for 20 years to range from $250,000 to $430,000. That could mean as much as $10,750 a year per person in out-of-pocket health care expenses."
(Nationwide Financial)
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Combining Life Insur.ance with Long-Term Care Insur.ance as an Employee Benefit
"One of the more interesting plan designs presents the worker with an affordable product, which is a combination of term and universal life insur.ance. The life-insur.ance benefit drops to one-third of the original face value when the retired employee reaches age 70, but the LTC rider remains at the original amount. Employees can tap into the LTC payment—if they've lost the ability to perform two or more activities of daily living—at the rate of 4 percent a month, for up to 25 months."
(Human Resource Executive Online)
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Smart Employers Accommodate Needs of Parents in the Workplace
"Smart businesses will recognize that all employees, regardless of their family status, require work/life balance, and that 'families' can be defined in many different ways. Efforts need to be made to accommodate all reasonable requests, and across-the-board fairness has to be our goal. Benefit packages today can be designed with flexibility and choice, ensuring that family situations don't result in inequality."
(Kitsay Peninsula Business Journal)
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Massachusetts Lawmakers Unveil Ambitious Plan to Cut Health Care Costs
"[State lawmakers announced a new proposal to control rising medical costs], including new ways to pay doctors and hospitals, a specific cap on health-care spending tethered to economic growth and a tax on the state's most expensive hospitals if they can't justify their prices."
(Kaiser Health News)
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15 Features to Expect from Your HRA Administration Software Provider
"The Employer should be automatically protected and the HRA administration made HIPAA Compliant through technology rather than the training of [your] employees. For example, employers should not be able to view HIPAA-protected employee information, and HRAs reimbursing for personal health policy premiums should automatically follow Department of Labor HIPAA and ERISA guidelines for employers allowing insurers access to their employees."
(Zane Benefits)
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[Opinion]
The Health Care Mandate Is Clearly a Tax and Therefore Constitutional
"The mandate is an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code, and it is calculated based on a percentage of adjusted gross income or a fixed amount, whichever is larger. Starting in 2014, it will be collected on your form 1040 just like your other taxes.... [Justice] Roberts and [Justice] Kennedy are no doubt aware of the political meaning of a 5-4 vote along party lines that gives Republicans what they could not get through the democratic political process. That concern, and the long history of deference to Congress on economic legislation, give the justices strong reasons to uphold the act. The tax argument offers them a way out. "
(The Atlantic)
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Press Releases
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