Part Time On Call Participant Counselor
for Diversified in AR, CA, DC, GA, HI, MI, NC, NJ, OH, UT

Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit Director and Manager
for The Angell Pension Group, Inc. in RI

Compliance Manager
for Retirement Alliance in NH

Retirement Plan Administrator II
for Katz, Sapper & Miller in IN

Group Benefit Sales Regional Director
for MetLife in LA, TX

Claims Manager
for Wabash Memorial Hospital Association in IL

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Federal Health Care Reform: A Strategic Update Seminar
in Massachusetts on July 19, 2012 presented by New England Employee Benefits Council

Retirement Plan Insights Seminar
in Massachusetts on August 7, 2012 presented by McKay Hochman Co., Inc.

Live Discussion of Supreme Court Health Care Decision
Nationwide on June 28, 2012 presented by Bloomberg / Kaiser Health News

Statistics on Employer-Provided Health Insur.ance in State and Local Governments
"Although state and local governments still provide comprehensive health insur.ance coverage to most employees, the total percentage of employees who are covered by insur.ance has declined. In 2011, 82 percent of full-time employees in state and local government participated in a medical plan, compared with 86 percent of such employees in 1998." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Health Care Reform Decision: The Impact on Health Care Plans   [Advert.]

Hear from an objective, authoritative source on how the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will impact your health plan. Plan now to attend this informative Webcast on July 12, 2012. Register now!

It's Been Done Before: George Washington's Mandate of Individual Health Care Insur.ance
"In 1790, the very first Congress—which incidentally included 20 framers—passed a law that included a mandate: namely, a requirement that ship owners buy medical insur.ance for their seamen. This law was then signed by another framer: President George Washington. That's right, the father of our country had no difficulty imposing a health insur.ance mandate." (The Washington Post; free registration required)

New York Levies $2.7 Mil.lion Fine on Health Insur.ance Companies
"Fifteen health insurers that do business in New York have collectively been fined $2.7 mil.lion for failing to adequately notify small employers that they were eligible to purchase supplemental mental health coverage along with medical benefits, according to the New York Dept. of Financial Services (DFS)... the fines were related to noncompliance with provisions requiring insurers to notify small employers about the law, rather than noncompliance with the law's requirement to make the benefit available, says Leslie Moran, a spokesperson for the New York Health Plan Association. The health plans, she tells HPW, were relying on their brokers and agents to explain the availability of optional mental health coverage. 'And, in fact, it was [explained],' she says, 'not in written format,' but via websites and emails. 'Once plans were made aware of the problem, they made system changes so that all notifications are provided in written form.'" (AISHealth.com)

Four Ways to Patch Up a Post-Supreme Court 'Obamacare'
"President Barack Obama's administration says it has no contingency plan if the Supreme Court strikes down the health law's individual mandate. The best fixes would be legislative—but that's not likely when half of Congress wants to repeal whatever's left of the law.... Here are four options the president could invoke to try to cover more Americans—and why they wouldn't resurrect the full strength of the law's individual mandate." (Politico)

Workplace Wellness Programs Have Multiple Benefits for Employers and Employees
"[E]mployers all over the country are taking their own steps to improve their employees health—and they're finding out it's working. Findings from more than 50 studies published in the American Journal of Health Promotion have shown that workplace wellness programs show a significant decrease in worker absenteeism and health care costs. But workplace wellness programs aren't just beneficial to an employee's health—it turns out, there are also great cost benefits to the employer for implementing those programs." (KLTV.com)

The Business of On-Site Employee Health Clinics - July 24-26 - Chicago   [Advert.]

The Next Phase of Worksite Clinic Innovation: Maximizing the clinic’s potential means not just offering acute medical care, but integrating the worksite clinic into the foundation of a strategic health and wellness roadmap.

Health Insur.ance Dependent Audits Help Employers to Control Costs
"[A]s many as one in 10 health insur.ance dependents, by some industry estimates, may be ineligible for the company health benefits they are receiving. ... That's why more employers and health care buyers, looking to trim health costs where they can, are turning to dependent eligibility verification audits. And while the audits used to be the province of large and institutional employers, today, smaller businesses are able to use them, too. Employers like the audits because they are often able to help save on health care costs overnight without reducing benefit levels for employees. One in-depth study by the University of Colorado showed the return on investment for its own audit was 13 to 1, in the first year. But employees targeted by the audits aren't always fans." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Could Kaiser Permanente's Low-Cost Health Care Be Even Cheaper?
"It's difficult to discern just how Kaiser fares against other companies since negotiations between health plans and employers are largely confidential. Kaiser says its costs increase by about 5 percent each year. But some of Kaiser's biggest customers say their premiums have jumped much higher, in some cases 20 percent." (NPR)

Insur.ance Exchanges In Other Countries Have Lessons for U.S. Health Insur.ance Markets
"Insur.ance exchanges are not new. In the U.S., Massachusetts and Utah each operate an exchange, as does the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Internationally, the Netherlands and Switzerland achieve near-universal coverage for their populations through insur.ance exchanges. Their systems share a number of elements with the Affordable Care Act, such as an individual mandate, national standards for basic coverage, and guaran.teed issue and community rating. As the U.S. exchanges are established and begin operation, the experiences of the Netherlands and Switzerland could offer lessons on how best to use exchanges to improve insur.ance markets and health system performance." (The Commonwealth Fund)

Retirees Might Be Overly Confident About Health Care Costs
"Ninety-three percent of retired Americans say they are at least somewhat confident they can pay for their future health care costs, yet 46% of Baby Boomers nearing retirement with the same amount of assets say they are 'terrified' of health care costs." (PLANSPONSOR.com)

Health Care Summation: Possible Paths for the Supreme Court Decision
"With a little more than twenty-four hours to go before the Supreme Court is scheduled to release its last rulings of this Term, it is very likely that the Justices and their staffs are still doing some final editing on the opinion—or opinions—that will tell the constitutional fate of President Obama's most important domestic policy: the massive overhaul of the way Americans get and pay for health insur.ance. The media and other pundits, and the academics, have all done their speculating on outcomes, and the blame games have started in anticipation that the ruling may turn out wrong for this or that constituency. Leaving aside the ill-informed guessing and the petty blaming, there is still an actual decision to be made, and it may not be very easy—at first glance on Thursday—to tell just what the Court has decided." (SCOTUSBlog)

[Opinion]

Why the Obamacare Ruling Matters: The Power of the Federal Government to Bear Down on State Governments and Individuals
"Americans respond positively to parts of the law that appear to give them more benefits or that help the disadvantaged, especially when those provisions are presented to them as nearly cost-free. But Americans are also aware of the bill's many failings: It increases federal spending, taxes, and debt. It adds new burdens to struggling businesses, making it harder for them to grow and hire new workers. It drives up the cost of health insur.ance, especially for the young and healthy, while putting in place structures that will almost inevitably lead to the rationing of care. The average American adds up the costs and benefits and decides that, on the whole, they don't want the law. It's not bad marketing; it's bad law." (Cato Institute)

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Finalizes Rules on Listing Standards for Compensation Committees and Consultants
"Similar to the proposed rules, the final rules do not define independence. Instead, they give the national securities exchanges flexibility to establish minimum independence criteria for compensation committee members, subject to the approval of the SEC. Notably, unlike the independence criteria applicable to members of a listed company's audit committee (see Section 10A of the Exchange Act), the rule does not require the national securities exchanges to adopt listing standards prohibiting a director who receives compensatory fees from the issuer or who is an affiliate from being independent." (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati)

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Issues New Rules on Independence for Compensation Committees
"[T]he SEC approved a new final rule requiring securities exchanges to adopt standards for ensuring the independence of board members serving on compensation committees of publicly-traded companies (or in the absence of such a committee, the board members that oversee executive compensation matters on behalf of the board) and their engagement of compensation advisers and legal counsel. SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro states that the new rule will 'enhance the board's decision-making process on executive compensation matters, particularly the selection, engagement and oversight of compensation advisers, and will provide more transparency with respect to conflicts of interest of consultants engaged by boards.'" (McDonald Hopkins LLC)

New York State Agencies Issue Proposed Regs Limiting Administration Expenses and Executive Compensation of Firms Getting State Funds
"[T]hirteen New York State agencies released very similar proposed regulations on May 16, 2012, placing a limit on the funds that can be used for administrative expenses and executive compensation by entities, both for-profit and not-for-profit, that receive state funds or state-authorized payments to provide services. These regulations are generally available for public comment from May 30, 2012 to July 14, 2012, and are scheduled to become effective on January 1, 2013." (Proskauer Rose LLP)

SEC Adopts Rules for Listing Standards Related to Compensation Committees and Consultants
"Because the exchanges' existing independence standards provide that a director is per se non-independent if, for example, (1) the director received more than $120,000 from the issuer in compensation for any 12-month period during the last three years or (2) the director was an employee of the issuer at any time during the last three years, it is unclear whether the exchanges will make minimal modifications to their existing independence standards or will instead use the SEC's implementation of Section 952 of the Dodd-Frank Act as a basis for imposing more rigid and exacting independence requirements for members of a compensation committee." (McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP)

Conducting a Vendor Search: Benefits and Best Practices for Use by Plan Sponsors
"Conducting a vendor search can be a detail-laden, time intensive process that takes up to six months to complete. If the vendor search results in the selection of a new vendor, the conversion can disrupt the norm and create anxiety.... The benefits of conducting a vendor search substantially outweigh the potential short-term inconveniences. Applying some battle-tested best practices along the way will not only help mitigate those inconveniences, but also ultimately result in the selection of the most suitable vendor to the plan." (Multnomah Group)

Retired Stockton, California Employees Might Get Kicked in the Teeth
"Stockton's bankrup.tcy will probably resemble the 2008 case of another California city, Vallejo, which exited court protection last year, bankrup.tcy attorney Dale Ginter said. Both cities have been hurt by high labor costs, particularly health insur.ance for retirees, he said. 'Retirees are not going to be happy,' said Ginter, who represented retired Vallejo workers in that city's bankrup.tcy. 'My prediction is that retiree health care is cut. I wouldn't be surprised to see it cut to zero.'" (Investment News; free registration required)

Stay-At-Work Boomers Expected to Drive Competition in U.S. Labor Market
"An aging population, longer and healthier lifespans and changes to retirement-benefit plans will mean rising competition for jobs and limited wage gains even after the economy strengthens. About 74 percent of Americans say they plan to work past age 65, according to a May study ... Thirty-nine percent said they need to earn to make ends meet or maintain their lifestyle, and 35 percent wanted to stay employed." (Bloomberg)

Stockton, California Decides to File for Bankrup.tcy
"On Tuesday night, in preparation for the bankrup.tcy filing, the City Council voted 6-1 to enact a plan to slash retiree health coverage starting this year and possibly eliminate it next year. Stockton also will use bankrup.tcy protection to suspend contracts with its public employee unions to cut city employee pay and benefits." (Sacramento Bee)

Survey Shows Widening Work-Life Services, Greater Employee Yearning for More Palatable Programs
"Email, instant messaging, laptops, digital teleconferencing and flexible schedules have dramatically changed the way people live and work, as well as how their personal and professional lives intersect. But a recent national poll of 570 working Americans concludes that, despite breathtaking advances in technology and greater workplace flexibility, work-life balance is still very much a work in progress." (Employee Benefit News)

EBSA's Apprenticeship and Training Plans Web Page
Includes a well-organized set of links to official guidance, news releases, and other EBSA publications. Excerpt: "For apprenticeship and training programs that cover private sector workers and are financed out of trust funds, the Employee Benefits Security Administration has a role in overseeing the plans under [ERISA]. ERISA includes within its definition of 'employee welfare benefit plan' any plan fund or program that was established or maintained to provide 'apprenticeship or other training programs.' Most private sector collectively bargained apprenticeship and training programs are covered by ERISA because the Labor-Management Relations Act requires that the expenses of any joint labor/management apprenticeship committee be defrayed out of monies placed in a separate fund." (Employee Benefits Security Administration)

Designed by McGraw Wentworth, Award-Winning Employee Benefit Guide Features Artwork of College for Creative Studies Students
(McGraw Wentworth)