Plan Administrator/ Analyst
for PlanTech, LLP in AL

DB/DC Pension Administrator
for Feldman Benefit Services, Inc. in NJ

Vice President, Business Development
for Prudential in CT

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IRA Amendments: Ready, Set, Whoa!
Nationwide on August 8, 2012 presented by Convergent Retirement Plan Solutions, LLC

CFDD

 

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Issues Proposed Regs on Required Fees for Self-Insured Health Plans and Health Insurers
"Fees [which are used to fund the new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund] are owed by sponsors of 'applicable self-insured plans' as defined under the proposed regulations. Generally, a self-insured health plan subject to the fee is defined broadly as any plan established or maintained by one or more employers for the benefit of their employees or former employees except if the plan provides only 'HIPAA-excepted benefits' ((i.e., limited scope dental and vision benefits). Stand alone retiree-only plans are not excluded from this definition. However, the proposed regulations do specifically exclude employee assistance programs (EAPs), Archer MSAs, Health Savings Accounts, disease management programs and wellness programs (if they do not provide significant benefits in the nature of medical care or treatment) from the definition of applicable self-insured plan." (Troutman Sanders)

Understanding the Impact of Health Care Reform on Employers   [Advert.]

This seminar will give you the information you need to move forward in addressing the issues, and insight into upcoming changes. Learn about the latest developments including what is currently being enforced. Discounted pricing for BenefitsLink readers.

[Guidance Overview]

Tri-Ad NewsLink July, 2012
This monthly newsletter includes articles about W-2 Reporting of Health Care Coverage Costs (with extensive discussion of transition relief); 2013 Limits for Health Savings Accounts; IRS Proposed Guidance on the Comparative Effectiveness Research Fee; and Legislative Issues. (TRI-AD)

Stories of Demise of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans Are Exaggerated
"About one in 11 employers plans to drop employee health-care coverage within three years as the health-care exchanges described in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) become operational, [according to a recent Deloitte survey]. But that result, which made headlines nationwide, tells only a small part of the story.... [A]s with so many things corporate, the truth depends heavily on company size. Among 269 responding companies with 1,000 or more employees, just three said they will drop coverage. Meanwhile, among 108 participants with 50-100 workers, 13% are aiming to wield the ax. The figure was 5% for those with 101-999 staffers." (CFO)

Taiwan's Progress on Controlling Health Care Costs
"Since 1995, Taiwan's 23 mil.lion people have enjoyed universal, comprehensive health insur.ance coverage under its single-payer national health insur.ance system, which is financed by a mixture of payroll contributions from employers and employees and government subsidies. The system is administered by the Bureau of National Health Insur.ance, whose administrative budget absorbs less than 2 percent of the system's total spending for health care benefits. Over all, Taiwan spends about 6.9 percent of its gross domestic product on health care, compared with close to 18 percent spent in the United States." (Uwe E. Reinhardt: via The New York Times; free registration required)

Children of Federal Workers Who Are Domestic Partners Would Receive Health Coverage Under Proposed Regulation
"A proposed rule would extend health insur.ance to the children of g.ay people who are partnered with federal employees. But the domestic partners themselves would still be blocked from coverage because of the federal law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.... The proposal is significant because same-s.ex couples often have trouble establishing legal ties to their children ... Many states only allow one parent to form legal links to a child, which often leaves both the parent and child vulnerable. The child, for instance, may be unable to receive insur.ance through the employer of a nonbiological parent, which can be a particularly big burden if that parent is the sole breadwinner." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Obama Administration Announces Public-Private Partnership of Information Sharing to Prevent Health Care Fraud
"Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder ... announced the launch of a ground-breaking partnership among the federal government, State officials, several leading private health insur.ance organizations, and other health care anti-fraud groups to prevent health care fraud. This voluntary, collaborative arrangement uniting public and private organizations is the next step in the Obama administration's efforts to combat health care fraud and safeguard health care dollars to better protect taxpayers and consumers. The new partnership is designed to share information and best practices in order to improve detection and prevent payment of fraudulent health care billings. Its goal is to reveal and halt scams that cut across a number of public and private payers." (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)

Massachusetts Under the Affordable Care Act: Employer-Related Issues and Policy Options
"Using the Health Insur.ance Policy Simulation Model, this report analyzes four policy options for assessing employers who do not provide affordable health insur.ance to their workers as Massachusetts brings its health reform law into compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Overall coverage and costs are similar across all options, but replacing the state's Fair Share Contribution (FSC) requirement with the ACA assessment would eliminate a source of state revenue. Similarly, maintaining the FSC for small employers only would raise one-fifth as much revenue as leaving the current assessment in place." (Urban Institute)

HHS Details Plans to Define Essential Health Benefits
"Larger and self-funded employer plans are watching closely because (while observers say such plans already cover most EHB benefits) they'll be under market pressure to meet whatever is required to be offered on exchanges that they are not offering now. The HHS rule (1) addresses the collection of data from potential benchmark plans to define EHBs and (2) establishes a process for recognizing accrediting entities to certify qualified health plans for health insur.ance exchanges under health reform." (Thompson SmartHR Manager)

Perceptions of Health Benefits in a Recovering Economy (PDF)
20 presentation slides covering survey designed to determine: "How important are health benefits to employees compared to other elements of total compensation? What do employees value most about their benefits and specifically their health coverage—low cost sharing, low premiums, choice of plans or other options? How knowledgeable are employees about the investment that their employer makes? How satisfied are employees with their health benefits? and How do employees view the additional investment that employers are making through a variety of wellness programs?" (National Business Group on Health and the National Comprehensive Cancer Care Network)

[Opinion]

ObamaCare's Regulatory Madness: North Dakota Denied Say in Determining 'Essential Health Benefits'
"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently notified the [North Dakota] Department of Insur.ance (DOI) that it has rejected the state's request for additional time to select an essential health benefits benchmark. The DOI requested the extension in March, noting that the state cannot meet the federal deadline because the legislature is not in session this year. In a June 20 letter, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stated, among other reasons, that the deadline is necessary to provide carriers with sufficient time to design benefit packages that will be sold through an exchange." (John Goodman's Health Policy Blog)

[Official Guidance]

Listing Standards for Compensation Committees and Disclosure Regarding Compensation Consultant Conflicts of Interest: A Small Entity Compliance Guide
"This guide was prepared by the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a 'small entity compliance guide' under section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, as amended (SBREFA).... Small entities that have equity securities listed on an exchange and that are not smaller reporting companies would generally need to comply with any new standards adopted by the exchange pursuant to Rule 10C-1 if they wish to maintain their listing on the exchange." (Securities and Exchange Commission)

Employee Stock Plans 2012: Mid-Year International Reporting Requirements
"This Commentary highlights some of the principal mid-year reporting requirements for employee stock plans that U.S. companies most commonly encounter when offering these programs to their employees in selected jurisdictions worldwide. A chart summarizing these items appears at the end of this Commentary." (Jones Day)

Amicus Brief of American Benefits Council and Four Others Supporting Deference to Plan Administrators on Interpretation of Plan Provisions (PDF)
"This case—which has now been to this Court three times and to the U.S. Supreme Court once—raises issues of grave concern to amici and their members.... Contrary to the principle of deference that has long prevailed in this area, plaintiffs and their amicus seek to replace the construction of the Plan given by the Plan Administrator with the views of individual ERISA Plan participants; they claim insubstantial 'conflicts' that could be asserted with respect to virtually any ERISA plan; they attempt to ignore the Plan's content based on disclosure documents; and they claim entitlement to a remedy with no basis in the governing statutory and equitable standards.... If a plan administrator's construction can be denied deference based on the considerations plaintiffs and their amicus raise, it is hard to imagine a case where deference would apply." [Conklin v. Frommert, 2nd Cir.] (ERISA Industry Committee, the American Benefits Council, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, and the Business Roundtable)

EBSA Announces 162nd Meeting of the Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans (PDF)
"The three-day meeting ... will run from 9:00 a.m. to approximately 5:30 p.m. on August 28 and 29 and from 8:30 a.m. to approximately 4:30 p.m. on August 30, with a one hour break for lunch each day. The purpose of the open meeting is for Advisory Council members to hear testimony from invited witnesses and to receive an update from [EBSA]. The Advisory Council is studying the following issues: (1) Managing Disability Risks in an Environment of Individual Responsibility; (2) Current Challenges and Best Practices Concerning Beneficiary Designations in Retirement and Life Insur.ance Plans; and (3) Examining Income Replacement During Retirement Years in a Defined Contribution Plan System." (U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA)

Employer Rules for Withholding the New 0.9% Medicare Tax
"The statue requires employers to withhold the additional Medicare tax on wages it pays to an employee in excess of $200,000 beginning in 2013. The employer's withholding obligation arises even though an employee may not actually be liable for the additional Medicare tax because, for example, the employee's wages or other compensation together with that of her spouse (when filing a joint return) does not exceed $250,000." (PriceWaterhouseCoopers)

Employer 'Mistake' Leads to FMLA Retaliation Claim
"[The employee] was led to believe that she had coverage under FMLA when county officials mistakenly told her that she qualified for 'family care' leave after three months of continuous employment. The district court denied the county's motion to dismiss Medley's FMLA retaliation claim, quoting a [5th Circuit decision] which held that 'an employer who ... makes a definite but erroneous representation to his employee that she is an "eligible employee" and entitled to leave under the FMLA, and has reason to believe that the employee will rely upon it, may be estopped to assert a defense of non-coverage' if the employee reasonably relied on the misrepresentation to her detriment." [Medley v. County of Montgomery, No. 12-1995 (E.D. Pa, July 16, 2012.)] (Thompson SmartHR Manager)

DOL Obtains Judgment to Restore Funds to Employee Benefit Plans of Indiana Construction Company
The DOL had alleged that employee contributions and loan repayments were withheld from the salaries of employees of Trotter Construction Company, Inc. and Trotter Development Group, NC, LLC, and were not remitted and not timely remitted to the 401(k) Plan. Further, the DOL had alleged that the companies withheld and failed to remit employee premium contributions to the Trotter Group Health Plans. During the course of the investigation, the defendants restored $16,705.99 to Trotter Construction Company, Inc. 401(K) Plan participants and $3,161.28 to participants of the Trotter Group Health Plans. The court ordered the defendants to restore an additional $269.28 in lost opportunity costs to participants of the Trotter Construction Company, Inc. 401(k) Plan; and an additional $19,236.33 to the Trotter Health Plans for the welfare benefit plan premiums that had been withheld from participants' payroll but had not been remitted to the plan providers, and lost opportunity costs on those premiums. [Solis v. Trotter, S.D. Indiana (No. 11-cv-00881)] (Employee Benefits Security Administration)

Employee Benefits in Private Industry and State and Local Government, March 2012
"In March 2012, among workers in private industry, medical care benefits were offered to 41 percent of workers in service occupations and 87 percent of workers in management, professional, and related occupations. In private industry, medical care benefits were offered to 24 percent of part-time workers and 86 percent of full-time workers. Twenty-three percent of part-time workers had access to paid sick leave, compared with 75 percent of full-time workers." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Benefit Cost Concepts and the Limitations of Employer Costs for Employee Compensation Measurement
"Although [Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC)] has many uses, of which comparing relative compensation costs among benefit categories is not the least among them, those hourly costs can be, on average, much lower than what an employer pays when providing access to the benefit -- access costs -- or when workers with access actually participate in a benefit plan -- participation costs. This article demonstrates how the ECEC benefit cost statistics and the [National Compensation Survey] benefit incidence statistics can be used together to obtain measures of benefit costs that reflect differences in the incidence of benefits. Specifically, benefit access rates can be applied to ECEC benefit cost statistics to obtain a measure that shows how offering access to a benefit might affect the employer's hourly labor costs. Similarly, participation rates can be applied to the ECEC benefits data to obtain a measure of the average benefit cost per participant." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

New GASB Analyst Guide to Governmental Financial Statements
(Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB))

Guardian Launches Two New Voluntary Benefit Offerings
(Guardian)