Retirement Plan Education Specialist
for The Newport Group, Inc. in NC

Account Manager - Employee Benefits
for Corporate Synergies Group in MD

Account Manager
for Northwestern Benefit Corporation of Georgia in GA

Benefits Consultant, Large Group
for Northwestern Benefit Corporation of Georgia in

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Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program Seminar
in Texas on September 20, 2012 presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)

 

HHS Rules No Healthcare Reform Coverage for Undocumented Immigrants
"After President Barack Obama's administration declared in June that 800,000 young undocumented immigrants could remain and work in the United States, it quietly issued a rule this week that blocks these immigrants from taking advantage of the health-care reform law.... The [rule] means that the undocumented immigrants will not be able to join the Pre-Existing Condition Plan for high-risk patients and the health-care exchanges being established to help people and small businesses obtain cheaper rates." (centredaily.com)

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Executive Forum on Creating A Culture of Health - October 8-9, Chicago

Shifting organizational norms and behaviors to embody a true Culture of Health results in an exponential rise in employee health, engagement and performance. Gain perspectives to restructure resources and chart next steps in transforming your workforce.

Saving Small Employer Health Insur.ance
"Health care reform devotes substantial attention to resuscitating the small group health insur.ance markets that serve employers with fewer than fifty full time employees. Unfortunately, a number of interweaving provisions embedded within the Affordable Care Act create strong incentives that, starting in 2014, will tend to undermine this market and, in the process, increase the fiscal cost of reform.... [T]his Article offers a number of recommendations for saving the small group market." (University of Minnesota Law School)

Can an Employee Sue If an Employer Doesn't Provide a Place to Express Milk?
"If an employer fails to [provide an employee a place to express milk], can the employee sue to force the employer to comply? ... [According to a U.S. District Court, the] answer is no, she does not. The court granted the defendant's Rule 12(b)(6) motion for failure to state a claim as to injunctive relief, noting that the law does not explicitly provide for a private right of action and that the Department of Labor has issued a notice that it has the power to seek injunctive relief." [Salz v. Casey's Marketing Co. (N.D. Iowa, July 19, 2012)] (WorkMatters)

San Francisco Increases Employers' Health Care Expenditure Rates for 2013 (PDF)
"The minimum expenditure rates for covered employers will increase by approximately 6% next year. Beginning January 1, 2013, large employers have to spend $2.33 per hour for each covered employee, and medium-size employers have to spend $1.55 per hour.... Large and medium-size employers, whether located in or outside San Francisco, are subject to the HCSO's expenditure requirement if they have at least one covered employee working in San Francisco." (Buck Consultants)

Risk Adjustment in Health Insur.ance
"Insur.ance market reforms under the Affordable Care Act are designed to increase the number of Americans with insur.ance—and to shed the current system in which health plans have an incentive to enroll healthier people while avoiding the sick. One of the arrangements that will make the new system workable is risk adjustment—a process by which health insur.ance plans will be compensated based on the underlying health status of the people they enroll, and therefore protected against losing money by covering people with high-cost conditions." (HealthAffairs Blog)

Massachusetts Relaxes Rules for Employer Health Care Reform Contributions
"New legislation in Massachusetts relaxes these rules in two important ways. First, effective July 1, 2013, the threshold for being subject to the Fair Share Contribution has been raised from 11 to 21 or more full-time equivalent employees. Second, also effective July 1, 2013, for purposes of determining the percentages of Massachusetts employees that need to be covered, an employer may exclude from consideration employees who have qualifying health insur.ance coverage from a spouse, parent, veteran's plan, Medicare, or a plan due to disability or retirement." (Nixon Peabody LLP)

District Court Staves Off Challenge to Reform's Contraception Mandate
"[The D.C. District Court judge] noted that in depositions, Wheaton College representatives indicated their intent to apply for an expanded exception that would allow the college to continue its health plan design, which does not cover [emergency contraceptives]. Therefore, the judge concluded that the college failed to establish it suffered an actual injury that is: (1) not theoretical; (2) impending; (3) caused by the mandate or the agencies that enforce it; and (4) not speculative." (Thompson SmartHR Manager)

HHS/CCIIO Revises Temporary Enforcement Safe Harbor on Contraceptive Coverage Offered by Religiously Affiliated Tax-Exempt Entities
"One would be hard pressed to conjure up a more indeterminate standard. To avail itself of the temporary enforcement safe harbor, an organization that meets the other three criteria but has contraceptive coverage in place on February 10, 2012 (and whose plan is not otherwise grandfathered) need only establish that it took 'some action' to 'try' to exclude or limit contraceptive coverage." (Mintz Levin)

HHS Issues Updated Blueprint for Health Insur.ance Exchanges under the Affordable Care Act
"The Blueprint explains and facilitates the application process. It also directs HHS to determine whether the State will operate reinsurance and/or risk adjustment programs or will use Federal government services for these activities. The Blueprint describes the various options available to the states[.]" (Mintz Levin)

Seventh Circuit Finds Failure to Exhaust Defense Trumps Missing Administrative Record
"You know you are having a bad day when you have LOST the administrative file for a claim seeking ERISA disability benefits. But is it fatal to the Plan's defense of a decision terminating benefits? Maybe not." [Schorsch v. Reliance Standard Life Insur.ance Co. (7th Cir. August 28, 2012)] (Lane Powell PC)

Sixth Circuit Rules Retiree Medical Benefits Were Vested for Employees and Spouses
"In determining that both the employee and spousal coverage had vested, the Sixth Circuit cited the terms of the applicable collective bargaining agreement and extrinsic evidence such as the SPD and HR representative comments to the plaintiffs." [Moore v. Menasha Corp., Nos. 10-2171/2173 (6th Cir. Aug. 22, 2012)] (Haynes and Boone, LLP)

Health Care Peer Group Assessment: The New 'Best Practice' in Performance and Pay Alignment
"[S]ome health care organizations are finding value in defining a targeted group of comparable organizations, typically 15 to 25, that form a performance group into which a 'deep dive' can be taken to understand pay, performance, and their relationship. These peer groups are a product of the results-driven environment the health care industry finds itself in, and take the process of performance assessment and compensation design to the next level." (Aon Hewitt)

Hospital Employee Benefits Insights from the 2012 Benefits Benchmarking Study
"A dynamic employee benefit landscape is prompting organizations in all industries to review their employee and retiree benefit strategies. Hospitals in particular have a unique opportunity to manage benefit costs effectively while meeting their critical employee attraction and retention objectives. However, [Towers Watson] research shows many are not yet taking full advantage of these opportunities." (Towers Watson)

Tegrit Group Hires Regional Sales Director
Tegrit Group

Tegrit Group Announced Today the Launch of its new Advisor Resource Center (ARC)
Tegrit Group

Pentegra Retirement Services Announces Preferred Partnership with Independent Bankers Association of New York State
Pentegra Retirement Services

Abigail Johnson Named Fidelity President
Fidelity Investments

Aetna, Aurora Health ACO Offer Employers a Price Guarantee
Aetna