ERISA Attorney
for One of Florida's largest tax practices in FL

Operations Associate
for Charles Schwab in OH

Client Service Manager
for Charles Schwab in OH

Defined Benefit Plan Operations Associate
for Charles Schwab in OH

Health & Welfare Benefits Manager
for Southern California Pipe Trades Administrative Corporation in CA

Corporate Counsel - Employee Benefits
for Marriott International Inc. in MD

Employee Benefits Client Consultant
for HUB International Midwest Limited in IL

Pension Consultant/Administrator
for Third Party Administrators, Inc. in NH

Legal Counsel/Senior Legal Counsel - Payroll, HR, and Employee Benefits
for Fidelity Investments in TX

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Free Webinar: How to Get Media Coverage for Your Third-Party Administration or Consulting Firm
Nationwide on August 23, 2012 presented by Centurion Consulting Group

401(k) Rekon Advisor Symposium - San Diego
in California on September 12, 2012 presented by 401(k) Rekon

Challenges to the Validity of DOMA: Planning for Impacts on Domestic Partner Benefits
Nationwide on September 13, 2012 presented by Thomson Reuters / EBIA

 

[Official Guidance]

Text of Final HHS 'Blueprint' for State-Based Insur.ance Exchanges (PDF)
Includes requirements for the use of web-based health insur.ance brokers by state insur.ance exchanges. See "Exchange Activity" 2.8 and 2.9. Excerpt: "If the State permits activities by agents and brokers pursuant to 45 CFR 155.220(a), the Exchange has clearly defined the role of agents and brokers including evidence of licensure, training, and compliance with 45 CFR 155.220(c)-(e). The Exchange will have agreements with agents/brokers consistent with 45 CFR 155.220(d), which address agent/broker registration with the Exchange, training on QHP options and Insur.ance Affordability Program(s), and adherence to privacy and security standards, as specified in 45 CFR 155.260." (Center for Consumer Information & Insur.ance Oversight)

New Book! Dental Benefits: A Guide to Managed Plans   [Advert.]

A fully updated guide to dental plan design, pricing, choosing a plan administrator, measuring plan performance and much more. Essential, hard-to-find information for dental plan sponsors, consultants and insurance brokers. $95. Order today!

[Guidance Overview]

Implementing Health Reform: A Final Exchange Blueprint
"The Final Blueprint also gives greater attention than did the Draft to regulation of web-based brokers. Although web-based brokers can play an important role in bringing enrollees to the exchange, consumer advocates have expressed concern about the role web-based plan chooser tools can play in shaping consumer decisions. The Blueprint calls for close oversight of web-based brokers." (HealthAffairs Blog)

ML Strategies Health Care Reform Update, August 13, 2012
"Weekly update on developments in federal and state health care reform legislation and regulations. Includes summaries of recent announcements and regulatory activity by HHS, CCIIO, IRS and CMS." (Mintz Levin)

San Bernardino Suspending Payouts for Vacation, Sick Time
"At least 67 employees have quit since the City Council authorized a bankrup.tcy filing July 10, according to Acting Assistant City Manager Gwendolyn Waters. And some of them reportedly had payouts totaling $300,000. For other employees, the totals are smaller—but they've still long been counted on." (The Sun)

Obamacare MLR Rebate May Mean Perks, Day Off From Health Costs
"Lower premiums, a day off from health costs or maybe a wellness visit may be headed to certain workers in the coming months thanks to a part of the federal health law that requires a rebate from plans that don't spend at least 4 of every 5 premium dollars on medical care.... The medical-loss ratio requirements affect state-regulated health plans, which are expected to be the main choice of uninsured Americans when they shop for health benefits on insur.ance exchanges expected to begin operating by 2014. The rules do not impact self-insured health plans that are generally offered by large companies." (Forbes)

Small Businesses Consider Stop-Loss Plans
"There's a reason most small businesses—those with 50 or fewer employees—don't directly pay the health care expenses of their employees—it's too risky. Instead, small companies that offer employee health coverage purchase group policies from health carriers, allowing the insurer to assume the risk. But some insurers and the brokers that sell on their behalf are trying to change that, wooing smaller companies with 50 or fewer employees into the universe of 'self-insured' businesses by offering ancillary stop-loss policies, which critics say is meant to sidestep federal health care reform measures and could result in higher health care premiums." (InsuranceNewsNet)

Supreme Court to Review Plan Reimbursement Provisions
"The Supreme Court recently agreed to rule on a case that could limit the ability of plans to recover money under their reimbursement provisions. Employee benefit plans often cover the medical bills of participants, but require full reimbursement to the plan when those participants recover from third parties. Under ERISA Section 502(a)(3), the plan fiduciaries may seek 'appropriate equitable relief' from the court to enforce the reimbursement provision. The issue before the Court is whether the reference to 'appropriate equitable relief' allows a plan participant to raise traditional equitable doctrines as defenses to the plan's claim for reimbursement, when those equitable defenses would negate the express language of the plan's reimbursement provision." [S Airways, Inc. v. McCutchen, 3rd Cir.] (Faegre Baker Daniels)

Use of Monetary Incentives to Promote Wellness Grows Dramatically
"The use of monetary incentives to promote program participation increased dramatically over the past year. In 2012: 59 percent of employers used monetary incentives to promote participation in wellness and health improvement programs, up from 37 percent in 2011. 54 percent of employers used monetary incentives to promote participation in disease/condition management programs, almost triple the 17 percent that did so in 2011." (Society for Human Resource Management)

Availability of Appropriations for Reimbursements for Health Insur.ance Expenses
"Where the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) does not permit the enrollment of an employee's spouse under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), appropriated funds are not available to reimburse the employee for the costs of health insur.ance for his spouse. The Federal Employees Health Benefits Act of 1959 charges OPM with the administration of the FEHBP, and OPM has advised that ... spouses [of the same gender] are not eligible for enrollment. Accordingly, a federal court may not use its appropriation to reimburse its employee for the cost of purchasing health insur.ance outside of the FEHBP." (U.S. Government Accountability Office)

Did the Section 162(m) Cap on Deductibility Affect Executive Compensation Levels?
"[This study examines] the impact of a prior limitation on deductibility of compensation, [Code Section] 162(m). In contrast to much of the debate today on the need of the federal government to raise tax revenue, the primary goal of Section 162(m), which limited tax deductions for executive compensation, was not to raise revenue but to reduce excessive, non-performance-based compensation—in other words, to do something about excessive compensation[.]" (Economic Policy Institute)

Survey Reveals More Standard Pay Rate for Large U.S. Company Directors
"Director pay levels were relatively consistent among top U.S. companies in 2011, regardless of annual revenue, according to results from Hay Group's 2012 Director Compensation & Benefits Survey.... [A]mong top U.S. companies both large and small, median total direct compensation varied by only 21 percent in 2011, despite dramatic differences in companies' annual revenue. According to the survey, in companies with revenues of more than $40 bil.lion, median director pay was $252,500 in 2011, compared to $209,000 for directors of companies with revenues under $10 bil.lion." (Hay Group)

What If Baby Boomers Don't Live Forever?
"[B]eset by factors like elevated rates of obesity, cancer and suicide, could reverse or at least slow the increase in human life spans. A change in trend could have a bearing on everything from Social Security trust fund balances to the number of nursing homes and golf courses supported in the future." (Reuters)

Employee Job Satisfaction Linked to Benefits Education
"More than one-quarter of employed adults say that morale has declined in last year. And a majority of employees would bolt their current employer if offered comparable pay and benefits elsewhere, according to a new report." (Treasury & Risk)

What's the Benefit Status of 'Life Partnerships'?
"Life partnerships is the all-inclusive term chosen by Mercer LLC to cover [same-gender] marriage partners, couples in civil unions, opposite-[gender] unmarried couples cohabiting, and other domestic partnerships. Mercer recently published an extensive study of how employers cover—or don't cover—such relationships in their benefit programs." (Business & Legal Reports, Inc.)

Voices of 50+ Florida: Dreams and Challenges (PDF)
"Over 40% of adults 50+ say that health care issues are the top problem or challenge facing mid-life and older adults in their state ... Paying monthly medical expenses is extremely/very difficult for about one in three and somewhat difficult for another 22 percent." (AARP)

Facebook Stock Comp: A Status Update
"The surprising plunge in the [Facebook] stock price has created unexpected difficulties for the company's equity compensation.... While the expiration date of the lockup on most employee shares (almost 50% of total shares outstanding) is still fairly far off (Nov. 14),... some employees are already adjusting their expectations because of the poor post-IPO performance." (myStockOptions.com)

[Opinion]

Do the Rich Pay Their Fair Share in Taxes? Yes!
"According to the CBO, the top 1 percent of income earners paid 39 percent of federal individual income taxes in 2009, while earning 13 percent of the income.... [T]he bottom 60 percent of income earners, which includes the middle class, paid zero percent of total federal individual income taxes as a group. Instead, as a group, they received net cash payments from the IRS." (National Center for Policy Analysis)

ExpertPlan Completes the Acquisition of US Retirement Plan Recordkeeping, LLC's Recordkeeping Plan Business
(ExpertPlan)

Web based Pension Proposals: Introducing BLAZE SSI’s PenEasy!
(BLAZE SSI Corp.)

NBCH Announces Officers and At-Large Representatives for Board of Governors
(National Business Coalition on Health)