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BPC, Inc
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PPS, Inc.
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Lincoln Financial Group
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Mergers & Acquisitions Boot Camp
January 16, 2014 in PA
(PEBA (Penjerdel Employee Benefits and Compensation Association))

Retirement Plan Best Practices: What Every Fiduciary Should Know
January 29, 2014 in CA
(Americh Massena)

Executive Summit on On-Site Employee Health Clinics
March 11, 2014 in FL
(World Congress)

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Text of Response Brief of U.S. Solicitor General Objecting to Contraceptive Mandate Injunction Granted to Little Sisters of the Poor (PDF)
"[T]he employer-applicants here are eligible for religious accommodations set out in the regulations that exempt them from any requirement 'to contract, arrange, pay, or refer for contraceptive coverage.' ... They need only self-certify that they are non-profit organizations that hold themselves out as religious and have religious objections to providing coverage for contraceptive services, and then provide a copy of their self-certification to the third-party administrator of their self-insured group health plan.... At that point, the employer-applicants will have satisfied all their obligations under the contraceptive coverage provision. Thus, as this case comes to the Court, it is not about the availability or adequacy of a religious accommodation, but rather about whether a religious objector can invoke RFRA to justify its refusal to sign a self-certification that secures the very religion-based exemption the objector seeks." (Solicitor General of the United States)  

Court Challenges Threaten ACA Premium Tax Credits in State with Federally Facilitated Exchanges
"Two federal district court judges will likely rule in early 2014 on pending challenges to the availability of premium tax credits under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). The plaintiffs in both cases argue that the ACA's plain language does not permit residents of states with a federally facilitated exchange, 33 states plus Washington, D.C., to obtain such credits. The government counters that the legislative history, structure and purpose of the ACA mandates that premium tax credits be available nationwide." (McDermott Will & Emery)  

Another Problem Obamacare Won't Solve: Health Costs
"People who got access to Medicaid used doctors more than people who didn't. But they also used the ER more. And contrary to the theory that Medicaid might divert people from ERs to primary care physicians, the big increases actually came from the somewhat-less urgent problems that we were hoping to divert from ERs[.]" (Bloomberg)  

Obamacare Medicaid Expansion to Worsen Hospital ER Burden
"[A] state Medicaid expansion in Oregon five years ago led newly insured patients to visit ERs 40 percent more often than the uninsured.... About 21 percent of the Medicaid patients' ER visits were for emergency problems that couldn't have been prevented, the study shows. Fifty-three percent of visits were for problems that either could have been treated outside a hospital ER or weren't emergencies." (Bloomberg)  

Bungle of Joy: Healthcare.gov Can't Handle Info on Newborns
"[H]ealth officials are telling new enrollees that the federal insurance marketplace will not be able to update their coverage online to reflect the birth of a baby and other life changes. Instead, parents are being told to contact insurers directly, and then contact the government later on -- when the system is ready to handle it.... 'It's just another example of "We'll fix that later,"' said Bob Laszewski, an industry consultant who said he's gotten complaints from several insurer clients. 'This needed to be done well before January. It's sort of a fly-by-night approach.'" (Fox News)  

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The Public Sector Lags Behind in Short-Term Disability Benefits
"The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports only 23% of state and local government workers have access to short-term disability insurance. Yet 39% of employers in private industry offer this coverage to their employees. Why the discrepancy?" (Colonial Life)  

Six Things That May Move Public Perception of Obamacare
"[1] How many people sign up for coverage in the new insurance marketplaces, and how many of them are healthy? ... [2] Will new enrollees be able to get medical care when they need it? ... [3] Will the cost of health care, in the form of 2015 exchange premiums, be stable? ... [4] What happens to the majority of Americans who get their insurance through their jobs? ... [5] Will people find their coverage valuable? ... [6] Will more states expand Medicaid eligibility?" (Kaiser Health News)  

[Opinion]

DOJ to SCOTUS: Nuns Must Violate Faith or Pay Fines
"The government now asks the Supreme Court to believe that the very thing it is forcing the nuns to do -- signing the permission slip -- is a meaningless act. But why on earth would the government be fighting the Little Sisters all the way to the Supreme Court if it did not think its own form had any effect? The government's brief offers no explanation for its surprising insistence on making the Little Sisters sign a form the government now says is meaningless.... All of this is sad and unnecessary. Our federal government is massive and powerful. It can obviously find ways to distribute contraceptives and abortion pills without forcing nuns to be involved." (The Becket Fund)  

[Opinion]

Text of Comments by 11 State Attorneys General to HHS on Legal and Consumer Privacy Issues in HHS's Proposed Rule to Allow Extension of Canceled Policies (PDF)
"[We] are concerned that [HHS] has proposed a rule that both compounds illegal executive action and fails to protect the privacy of consumers using the health insurance exchanges.... [T]he proposed rule includes changes intended to accommodate the President's recent 'administrative fix' regarding cancelled health insurance plans. But the fix is flatly illegal under federal constitutional and statutory law.... HHS's regulations continue to ignore the widespread public outcry over the security of consumers' private information throughout the enrollment process on the healthcare exchanges[.]" (Attorneys General for the State of West Virginia and Eleven other States)  

[Opinion]

Medicare's Rollout vs. Obamacare's Glitches Brew
"[T]he exchanges won't actually pay any medical bills, just sign people up for coverage. So billions more in overhead costs will show up on the books of the private insurers and state Medicaid programs that will actually process medical claims. Back in 1966, Medicare started paying bills for 18.9 million seniors (99 percent of those eligible for coverage) just 11 months after Pres. Johnson signed it into law. Overhead costs for the first year totaled $120 million (equivalent to $867 million in 2013 ...). But that figure includes the cost of processing medical bills, not just the enrollment costs." (Timothy Jost in Health Affairs Blog)  

2013 Say on Pay Voting Results
"3,363 companies held Say on Pay votes in 2013. 73 companies have failed with an average 60% 'Against' vote. Two additional company received less than 50% 'For' but considered the vote a win because 'For' votes outnumbered 'Against' votes due to abstentions ... 71% of companies have received a greater than 90% 'For' vote." (Steven Hall & Partners)  

Top Hat Plan Litigation: Beyond the Select Group Analysis (PDF)
"[M]any courts have struggled with whether nonqualified deferred compensation plans qualify as 'top hat plans' exempt from the bulk of substantive ERISA requirements. Generally, these cases have focused on whether a plan meets the ERISA definition of a top hat plan, meaning it covers a sufficiently 'select group of management or highly compensated employees.' In recent years, there has also been significant growth in litigation over other issues with respect to these plans, including both procedural and substantive issues." (Groom Law Group, via Bloomberg BNA Pension & Benefits Daily)  

Farewell, Intrinsic Value, We Hardly Knew Ye
"To date, there's no consensus about whether earned pay or realizable pay is the better measure. The definition of earned pay is generally accepted as: earned cash bonus/incentives plus shares vesting plus option exercise gains during the period being assessed.... There are two primary differences between the prevailing definitions of realizable pay. One is whether to include retirement and other benefits. The other is whether to consider the intrinsic or fair value of outstanding options." (Towers Watson)  

Corporate Pension Plan Funding Levels Increased Sharply in 2013, Towers Watson Analysis Finds
Towers Watson

Independent Pharmacies to Help Fill Medication Gaps for New ACA/Obamacare Enrollees
National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA)

Enforcement Co-Director George Canellos to Leave SEC
Securities and Exchange Commission

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