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Employee Benefits Jobs
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Webcasts and Conferences
"Real Estate and Other Unusual Investments" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on September 11, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
"Fundamentals 1: Eligibility" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on October 1, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
"Fundamentals 2: Vesting" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on October 9, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
"Fundamentals 3: Identifying HCEs and Key Employees" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on October 16, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
"Fundamentals 4: Coverage Testing" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on October 22, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
"Fundamentals 5: 401(k) Testing - ADP, ACP and Catch-ups" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on October 29, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
"Fundamentals 6: Introduction to Nondiscrimination Testing" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on November 5, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
"Fundamentals 7: Top-heavy Testing" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on November 13, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
"Fundamentals 8: Compensation" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on November 27, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
"Fundamentals 9: 415 Limit and Deductible Contributions" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on December 3, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
"Fundamentals 10: Taxation and Distribution" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on December 5, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
"Fundamentals 11: Controlled Groups" Web Seminar
Nationwide
on December 10, 2012
presented by SunGard Relius
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[Guidance Overview]
Deadlines Looming for 2012 W-2 Reporting of Employer-Sponsored Group Health Plan Coverage
"If your company provides employees with group health plan coverage and you issued 250 or more Internal Revenue Service Form W-2s in 2011, your company will need to begin reporting the aggregate cost of each employee's coverage starting with W-2s that you issue in January 2013 for the 2012 calendar year. Most public employers, such as federal, state and local governmental entities, churches and other religious organizations, are also required to comply with this requirement."
(Warner Norcross & Judd LLP)
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[Guidance Overview]
Agencies Issue Long-Awaited Guidance under ACA's Employer Shared Responsibility, 90-Day Rules
"Together these notices offer rules that are for the most part favorable to employers, particularly those in industries with large cohorts of contingent workers, e.g., retail, franchise, construction, hospitality, and temporary staffing. But while regulators have furnished standards that are generally workable in light of the underlying statutory provisions, the resulting costs and administrative burdens are not insubstantial."
(Mintz Levin)
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[Guidance Overview]
More Guidance on 'Full-Time' Employees and 90-Day Waiting Period
"In response to numerous comments, the IRS has now extended to 12 months the maximum measurement period for newly hired employees. As a result, this 'initial measurement period' could now be as long as the 'standard measurement period' applicable to ongoing employees. Moreover, Notice 2012-58 would allow plan sponsors to apply this 12-month initial measurement period not only to variable hour employees, but also to seasonal employees. And through at least the end of 2014, sponsors would be allowed to use any reasonable, good-faith definition of a 'seasonal employee.'"
(Spencer Fane)
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[Guidance Overview]
New Guidance Confirms 9.5%-of-Wages Safe Harbor for 'Affordability' Test Under ACA's Pay or Play Penalty
"Previously, the IRS indicated that it intended to provide a safe harbor under which employers will be deemed to satisfy the affordability test for a year if the premium for single employee coverage under the employer's lowest cost health option does not exceed 9.5% of the employee's wages for that year (as defined for purposes of Box 1 on Form W-2). Notice 2012-58 confirms that the IRS will maintain this safe harbor approach, at least through the end of 2014, for purposes of satisfying the affordability test to avoid the pay or play penalty."
(Miller Johnson)
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More Young Adults Have Health Insurance
"The share of young adults without health insurance fell by one-sixth in 2011 from the previous year, the largest annual decline for any age group since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began collecting the data in 1997 ... The estimates are drawn from a federal survey of about 35,000 households. It did not ask how the newly insured obtained coverage, but the study's author ... said the increased coverage for young people was almost certainly due to a provision in the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act that allows children to stay on their parents' insurance policies until their 26th birthday."
(The New York Times; free registration required)
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Employees and Retirees Paying Increasing Share of Cost for Life Insurance and Other Benefits
"Employers are increasingly asking workers and retirees to pay for some or all of the cost of many benefits—including life, disability, and accidental death insurance—they once took for granted as part of their compensation, according to industry studies.... In some cases, employees may not yet be aware they are paying 100 percent for some benefits, such as vision and dental insurance. Companies do not usually tell workers what percentage of benefits they are subsidizing, but simply send them a roster of benefits each year with the amount they must contribute to enroll."
(The Boston Globe)
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Rhode Island State Employees Feeling Pinch of Health Care Cost Increases for First Time
"[Rhode Island state] workers will see their health insurance premiums increase in 2013, only the second year that members of SEIU Local 503 and AFSCME Council 75 are contributing to the monthly cost of their insurance. Rates aren't skyrocketing, but they are going up. Most employees are on the Providence plan provided through the Public Employees' Benefits Board, and for that plan, premiums are increasing about 7.5 percent."
(StatesmanJournal.com)
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Recessions, Older Workers, and Longevity: How Long Are Recessions Good For Your Health?
"[The authors'] results indicate that experiencing a recession in one's late 50s leads to a reduction in longevity. We also find that this exposure leads to several years of reduced employment, health insurance coverage, and health care utilization which may contribute to the lower long-term likelihood of survival."
(National Bureau of Economic Research; purchase required)
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Steps to Take Now to Comply With Health Care Reform
"Here's a to-do list of what you should be working on now and in 2013. Include a Summary of Benefits and Coverage with open enrollment materials.... Limit employee health FSA contributions to $2,500... Get ready for W-2 reporting... Decide what to do with medical loss ratio rebates... Cover women's preventive care at no cost... Prepare to pay fees to fund clinical effectiveness research... Determine who should be eligible for health plan coverage in 2014 [and several more]."
(Warner Norcross & Judd LLP)
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Employers Will Continue to Offer Health Insurance, But Shift More Cost to Employees
"The percentage of employers offering consumer-directed health plans—a high-deductible plan eligible to be paired with a health savings account or health reimbursement arrangement—will increase to 61% in 2013 from 59% in 2012. But the big jump comes after the ACA is in place, with 80% of employers expecting to offer it by 2015."
(American Medical Association)
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Patient Choice an Increasingly Important Factor in the Age of the 'Health Care Consumer'
"Among the 84% of Americans who visited a doctor's office within the past year, nearly half (47%) reported being very satisfied with their last medical visit; an additional 36% described themselves as somewhat satisfied. Medical visit satisfaction appears to rise with both age and education: very satisfied ratings range from 35% among Echo Boomers (ages 18-35) to 56% among Matures (ages 67+), and from 44% among those with a high school education or less to 52% among those with post graduate education."
(Harris Interactive)
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The March of Affordable Care Act Litigation Goes On
"In the wake of the June 28, 2012 [U.S. Supreme Court] decision, the courts continue to decide ACA cases and new cases continue to be filed. [Recent developments include:] A challenge to the ACA's expanded self-referral prohibitions.... Challenging the Independent Payment Advisory Board.... A privacy-based assault on the individual mandate.... More in the battle over contraceptive coverage under the ACA.... Maine seeks to extend the coercion doctrine to the ACA's Medicaid maintenance-of-effort requirement."
(HealthAffairs Blog)
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Employers Save Big With Wellness Programs
"Employers betting on wellness programs seem to be making the right call. They're seeing $1 to $3 decreases in their overall health care costs for every dollar spent, finds a [recent study] ... The report also finds that wellness program incentives—such as insurance premium reductions and communications tools like web links and social networks—are used more by organizations that are achieving positive returns on their wellness investment. Still, only 19 percent of organizations are measuring ROI on wellness programs[.]"
(Treasury & Risk)
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Average Stop Loss Premium—An Elusive But Measurable Figure (PDF)
"Of surveyed plans, 88% report such [stop loss] coverage [with unlimited lifetime maximums]—a steep increase from 13% in 2010. About half pair an unlimited lifetime with an interim annual maximum of $5 million or less. Premiums continue to rise (to no surprise) and are 60% to 70% higher than levels reported in [the] initial Survey in 2007."
(Aegis Risk LLC)
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$750B a Year in Health Care Wasted
"Thirty percent of U.S. health spending in 2009—about $750 billion—was wasted on unnecessary services, excessive overhead and fraud, researchers say.... By one estimate, roughly 75,000 deaths might have been averted in 2005 if every state had delivered care at the quality level of the best performing state[.]"
(United Press International)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Guidance Overview]
December 31 Deadline to Update Severance, Employment and Change in Control Agreements
"Transition relief ends on December 31, 2012, and the penalties for noncompliance can be harsh.... Any arrangement providing payments that are conditioned upon an employment-related action of the employee (such as the execution of a release or restrictive covenants) must be revised to remove the ability of the employee to delay or accelerate the timing of the payment."
(McDermott Will & Emery)
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Severance Pay in Connection with Layoff Does Not Trigger FICA Taxes, Sixth Circuit Rules (PDF)
"Whether [supplemental unemployment compensation benefits, or 'SUB'] payments are 'wages' under FICA is a complex question because the FICA statute does not expressly include or exclude SUB payments, nor do the Treasury regulations promulgated under FICA address the subject.... [We conclude that, because] Congress has provided that SUB payments are not 'wages' and are treated only as if they were 'wages' for purposes of federal income tax withholding, such payments are not 'wages' for purposes of FICA taxation.... [W]e do not adopt the government's other arguments or follow the IRS revenue rulings the government cites." [U.S. v. Quality Stores, Inc., No. 10-563 (6th Cir. Sept. 7, 2012)]
(U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit)
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Benefits Litigation Update, September 2012 (PDF)
Quarterly Newsletter; articles in this issue include: Practical Guidance for Employer Plan Sponsors from the Tussey v. ABB, Inc., Decision; Why It May Be Important to Your Administration of Pension Plans for the Supreme Court to Decide If Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act Is Enforceable; and Important Issues in Pending Cases—Subrogation: U.S. Airways, Inc. v. James E. McCutchen (3rd Cir. November 16, 2011)—Forum Selection Clauses: Mozingo v. Trend Personnel Serv., Dkt. No. 11-3282 (10th Cir.)—Judicial Deference: Frommert v. Conkright, Dkt. No. 12-67 (2d Cir.).
(Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. and The ERISA Industry Committee)
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First Circuit Includes Overtime in Back-Pay Award Under FMLA
"At the district court level, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Pagan on his FMLA retaliation claim. As part of his back-pay award, the district court included $20,637 in lost overtime wages. In affirming the overtime award, the First Circuit reasoned that, under the FMLA, a prevailing plaintiff may recover 'any wages, salary, employment benefits or other compensation denied or lost' due to violation of the statute and that overtime pay certainly falls into the category of 'other compensation.'"
(Franczek Radelet PC)
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Press Releases
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David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
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