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May 8, 2012 Get Retirement News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

Employee Benefits Jobs

Retirement Plan Administrator
for Third Party Administration Firm in OK

Benefits Supervisor
for CyQuest Business Solutions, Inc. in FL

VP, Retirement Key Account Management
for Prudential in CA

Compliance Analyst
for The Newport Group in FL

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Webcasts and Conferences

Fiduciary Education Seminar
in Massachusetts on June 6, 2012 presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)

Corporate Governance, Plan Design and Investment Fraud Webinar
Nationwide on May 15, 2012 presented by FTI Consulting

Retirement Plan Compliance Assistance Seminar
in New York on June 13, 2012 presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)


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[Guidance Overview]
Considerations for Employers Having Both an HSA Program and Health Flexible Spending Accounts
"Special considerations apply if you currently offer health flexible spending accounts ('health FSAs') that allow up to an extra 2-1/2 months after the end of the plan year in which participants can spend their money (known as a 'grace period'). If you are considering offering an HSA in 2013, you may want to take steps now to inform your employees who currently participate in your health FSA (or the health FSA of their spouse, if the employee is eligible to be reimbursed under that FSA), that if the health FSA contains a grace period, they need to have spent all of the money in their health FSA (even if they have not yet submitted the claim or been reimbursed) on or before December 31, 2012 if they want to qualify for an HSA for the entire 2013 taxable year." (McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP)


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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Announcement of 2013 HSA Contribution Limits and HDHP Minimum Deductibles and Out-of-Pocket Maximums
"Although all of the inflation-adjusted amounts will increase for 2013, the increases within each category (i.e., self-only or family) are not identical. This has some practical consequences. For example, some individuals may have to pay more out-of-pocket expenses in 2013 without the benefit of the HSA tax break, because the increase in the HSA contribution limit is not keeping pace with the increase in the out-of-pocket maximum. In addition, the greater difference in 2013 between the minimum required deductibles and the out-of-pocket maximums ($5,000 for self-only coverage and $10,000 for family coverage) will allow plan sponsors a wider range of potential deductibles because, at least before 2014, HDHP deductibles can be set as high as the out-of-pocket maximum for that coverage." (Thomson Reuters/EBIA)

Why Your Drug Co-Pay Could Change
"What if how much you paid for a drug was based on how much it might help you, instead of the sticker price? Some big employers are already taking this tack, known as value-based insur.ance design, by lowering copayments for medicines to manage chronic conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure." (NPR)

Long-Term Care Insur.ance: Who Needs It?
"Out of more than 313 mil.lion Americans, only about 8 mil.lion have any such protection, according to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insur.ance. The low participation rate largely reflects the high cost of long-term-care insur.ance.... Experts say the insur.ance can be a huge help, especially for people without children and relatively small retirement savings. But it's far from a perfect solution to all problems. For example, a policy typically covers three years of care, but many people live long beyond that cap. And the new policies are being written with more restrictions to limit insurers' risks." (NPR)

$57 Bil.lion in Annual Health Care Savings Possible If Consumer-Directed Health Plans Were 50% of All Employer-Sponsored Insur.ance
"Enrollment is increasing in consumer-directed health insur.ance plans, which feature high deductibles and a personal health care savings account. [The authors] project that an increase in market share of these plans—from the current level of 13 percent of employer-sponsored insur.ance to 50 percent—could reduce annual health care spending.... That decrease would be the equivalent of a 4 percent decline in total health care spending for the nonelderly." (Health Affairs)

Co-Pays Rising for Expensive Specialty Drugs
"Health plans' spending for each patient using these drugs often exceeds $1,200 per month[.] Although they account for just 1 percent of prescriptions, specialty drugs make up 17 percent of drug spending[.]" (Kaiser Health News)

Essential Health Benefit Packages Under Health Care Reform Have Employers Wary
"Employers and consumer groups are tracking state efforts to craft insur.ance benefit packages for individuals and small businesses as required under the federal health care reform law.... Large and small employers have banded together to form the Essential Health Benefits Coalition to voice concerns in Washington and statehouses across the country on the issue.... 'Employers want to make sure the benefits aren't so expensive that they can't cover the cost,' [said a spokesman] for the Essential Health Benefits Coalition. " (Workforce)

How Supreme Court Vote Could Affect Health Industry's Cash Flow
"[T]he net effect of a thumbs-up decision is likely to be a brighter free-cash profile (FCP) for the industry and many of its individual companies, according to [the] professor of accounting at Georgia Tech who invented the metric. The FCP is designed to forecast the ability of a company or an industry to produce cash as it grows.... 'If national health care goes through, I view it as a positive for the health-care industry, because we'll have more people covered by insur.ance ... If they were to get more care, better care, I would think that somebody's got to provide that care—and it's the health care industry.'" (CFO)

Critics Say Health Insur.ance Industry Should Be Replaced by Single-Payer System
Dr. Arnold Relman, a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, spoke at an event sponsored by two advocacy groups: Mad As Hell Doctors, and Physicians for a National Health Programs. "We run our healthcare system as if it's a business in the free market... and not like the social service it ought to be.... [and we] believe in the myth that the private market—private capitalism—can work as well in healthcare as it is reputed to work in other areas [of the economy]." (The Lund Report)

House Ways and Means Panel Mulls FSA Coverage for OTC Medicines
"The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee ... considered a $5-bil.lion provision ... in the [ACA] that prohibits using certain tax-favored spending plans to reimburse taxpayers for the cost of over-the-counter ... medicines. GOP lawmakers said requiring taxpayers to visit a doctor is tantamount to a tax increase that would clog physicians' offices, thereby reducing health care access for millions of American families." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business / CCH)

Health Care Access Already in Steady Decline for Past Decade, Could Get Worse If Health Care Reform Repealed
"This paper's analysis of national survey estimates found that access to health care and use of health services for adults ages 19-64—the primary targets of the ACA—deteriorated between 2000 and 2010, particularly among those who were uninsured. More than half of uninsured US adults did not see a doctor in 2010, and only slightly more than a quarter of these adults were seen by a dentist." (Health Affairs)

Health Care Reform Timeline for Employers
Timeline of employer action items having effective dates during 2010-2018. (Mercer)

Health Care Reform: What If They Throw the Whole Thing Out?
"[If the Supreme Court finds the individual mandate is not constitutional and that it is not severable from the rest of PPACA, it] would mean that the entire law would be voided and employers would no longer have to continue to comply.... [The situation would then be that] employers will no longer have to comply with any of the PPACA mandates, and various PPACA provisions that affect employers will no longer apply. This includes portions of PPACA that are already effective, as well as those that are becoming effective over the next several years." (Jones Day)

Deloitte Health Care Reform Memo, May 7, 2012
Describes recent developments in various health plan and health insur.ance matters at the federal and state levels. This issue includes a discussion of the Senate Committee on Finance announcement of a bipartisan effort to combat waste and fraud. (Deloitte)

Using an Incentive Strategy (Rewards or Penalties) to Drive Wellness Program Participation (PDF)
"A large percentage of organizations are turning to incentive-driven plan designs because these approaches are no longer a leap of faith. The evidence show that incentives work to motivate employees to get screenings, comply with drug regimens, participate in disease or case management programs, and pursue other activities and outcome-based goals." (Buck Consultants)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

Reinhart Employee Benefits Update, April 2012 (PDF)
Articles include: Clarification on Reasonable Interest Rate for Participant Loans; Final Interim Rule on Health Insur.ance Exchanges; Adoption of Preapproved Defined Benefit Plans; and Departments Issue New FAQs on SBC Requirements. (Reinhart)

Press Releases

ERIC President Announces Retirement; Interim Named
(ERIC (ERISA Industry Committee))

International Foundation Honors Dallas Salisbury With 2012 Public Service Award
(International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans)

Lankford Releases Voluntary Benefits White Paper
(McConkey Insurance & Benefits)



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