|
Health and OPEB Funding Strategies from the 2012 National Survey of Local Governments (PDF)
[The survey finds that:] "7% fewer local units of government ... provide health coverage to their active employees. Governments who do provide health coverage are paying a slightly smaller share of the premium. Fewer local governments are self-insuring. [There is] a significant drop in the percentage of local governments who provide health insurance for retired employees, especially in the Midwest. The percentage who self-insure this population also has dropped, and the percentage providing retiree health coverage through a coalition/pool increased from 12% to 26%. As in 2011, there was a slight decrease in the percentage of local governments who are fully or partially prefunding their retiree health liabilities."
(National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems [NCPERS])
|
|
S&P Finds Health Care Cost Increases Decelerate in August
"Data released ... by S&P Dow Jones Indices for the S&P Healthcare Economic Composite Index indicates that the average per capita cost of healthcare services covered by commercial insurance and Medicare programs increased by 5.70% over the 12-months ending August 2012. This is a deceleration from the +6.15% annual growth rate recorded in July 2012."
(Healthcare Town Hall)
|
Health Insurance Exchanges: Long on Options, Short on Time (PDF)
One year from now, 12 million Americans are expected to begin purchasing health insurance through newly-created marketplaces known as exchanges. Federal subsidies will entice many would-be participants to the program that will offer coverage starting in 2014. By 2021, the size of the exchange market is projected to more than double, marking the single largest expansion of health coverage in this country since the creation of Medicare in 1965.
(PwC Health Research Institute)
|
Defined Contribution Health Plans: Bring Your Own Coverage
"In 2000, National Underwriter Life & Health began writing about a new cost-management concept: The defined-contribution health plan. Consultants suggested that an employer could give each employee a fixed amount of cash. Employees could use the cash to buy their own coverage and get the employer out of the plan selection business. In the real world, medical underwriting got in the way."
(Treasury & Risk)
|
|
Turning Consumers Into Shoppers: Using High-Deductible Plans Wisely
"[A recent] analysis found that during the first year following enrollment, members of HDHPs had fewer hospitalizations than patients enrolled in traditional plans. They also had fewer episodes of care, fewer visits to specialists, and lower use of brand-name drugs -- all of which reduced overall costs. However, there also was one troubling finding: Those in HDHPs cut back on preventive services along with other services."
(HealthAffairs Blog)
|
Small Business Health Care Mistakes
"Here are seven mistakes to avoid when it comes to buying health insurance for your small business. [1] Not examining all the options.... [2] Not hiring an experienced broker.... [3] Not doing homework.... [4] Not sticking to a budget.... [5] Not shopping around.... [6] Not asking about tax-friendly accounts.... [7] Not offering more than one health insurance option."
(Business Insider)
|
[Opinion]
The Illusion of Healthcare 'Trust Funds'
"If we do not reduce the growth rate of health-care costs, they will consume the federal budget. We risk a debt crisis rivaling the 2008-09 crash. Changes that other countries have made soberly, achieving lower costs and better health outcomes, will be imposed on us by our creditors. Their goal will be the return of their money, not the quality of Americans' health care."
(The Washington Post; free registration required)
|
[Opinion]
Federal Health Reform Is Largely Market-Based, Despite Contrary Assertions (PDF)
"Reform operates mainly by structuring incentives for private actors and states and by giving them new information and coverage options rather than by imposing direct controls on behavior. As a result, the ACA does far more to expand personal choice and autonomy than to reduce them, most obviously for the tens of millions of Americans who are now either uninsured or offered only a single option for insurance coverage."
(Urban Institute)
|
[Opinion]
A Look at the Long-Term Uninsured in Massachusetts
"A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine takes a close look at the remaining uninsured in Massachusetts and wonders what can be done about them.... The real concern is the long-term uninsured. The authors write ... the percentage of Massachusetts adults who were uninsured for longer than 24 months after the reform (26.7%) was nearly identical to the percentage of long-term uninsured in the other states (27.4%) Hmmm, why would this be? Aren't these the people Massachusetts was targeting? Wasn't that the primary purpose of all the hoopla?"
(John Goodman's Health Policy Blog)
|
Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
|
[Guidance Overview]
FICA's Bigger Bite: Wages Subject to Social Security Tax to Increase in 2013
"The maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $113,700 from $110,100 as of January 2013, the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) announced on Oct. 16, 2012.... By January 1, U.S. employers should adjust their payroll systems to account for the higher taxable maximum under the Social Security portion of FICA, and notify affected employees that more of their paychecks will be subject to FICA."
(Society for Human Resource Management)
|
'No Soup for You!' If An Employee Doesn't Turn in Medical Certification, FMLA Leave is Not Protected
"[I]f the employee never returns the certification, according to the regs, 'the leave is not FMLA leave.' ... Here, [the employee] suffered the consequences. Because she did not return the medical certification, her employment was properly terminated, despite clear evidence that she otherwise suffered from a serious health condition. As a result, her FMLA interference and retaliation claims were dismissed." [Miedema v. Facility Concession Services, Inc., No. 11-20580 (5th Cir., Sept. 6, 2012)]
(FMLA Insights)
|
Most Employees Don't Act During Benefits Enrollment
"When given a chance each year to change their employee benefits, including retirement savings options, most American workers don't, [according to] a recent poll ... [A]pproximately one in five workers eligible to participate in a benefits enrollment last year failed to act and defaulted to the previous year's choices or their employer's default choices ... Men are twice as likely as women to fail to act, the poll also disclosed."
(Thompson SmartHR Manager)
|
ERISA Litigation Update, October 18, 2012
"Articles in this issue: Sixth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Challenge to Investment in Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA); District Court Certifies Class in Excessive Fee Case Against Insurer; and Fourth Circuit Follows Cigna v. Amara Dictum Expanding the Scope of Relief Under ERISA's Catch-All Provision."
(Goodwin Procter LLP)
|
How Would the 'Fiscal Cliff' Affect Employee Plan Limits? (PDF)
"If Congress allows the 'Bush-era Tax Cuts', among others, to expire, creating a so-called 'fiscal cliff; -- what will that mean for retirement plans? Aside from changing the relative tax advantage of plan benefits as compared to the taxation of income from investments outside of the plan because of changes in tax rates for capital gains and dividends, the answer is -- nothing. Most other benefit plan limits ... will not be affected by the fiscal cliff with the exception of adoption benefits."
(Buck Consultants)
|
|
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park, Florida 32789
Phone (407) 644-4146
Fax (407) 644-2151
Lois Baker, J.D., President
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Holly Horton, Business Manager
Copyright © 2012 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. but feel free to forward this newsletter if done without modification in any way.
All materials contained in this newsletter are
protected by United States copyright law and may not be
reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed,
published or broadcast without the prior written
permission of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., or in the case of
third party materials, the owner of that content. You
may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or
other notice from copies of the content.
Links to Web sites other than those owned by
BenefitsLink.com, Inc. are offered as a service to
readers. The editorial staff of BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
was not involved in their production and is not
responsible for their content.
Useful links:
|