Actuarial Specialist
Kravitz, Inc.
in CA

Defined Contribution Plan Administrator
Tyler, Simms & St. Sauveur, CPAs P.C.
in NH

Defined Benefit/Cash Balance Plan Administrator
Bates & Company, Inc.
in FL

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Hardship, In-service and Elective Deferral Distributions
March 20, 2014 WEBCAST
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

Controlled Groups
March 25, 2014 WEBCAST
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

Bitcoins: Retirement Plan and IRA Investment in Digital Currencies
March 27, 2014 WEBCAST
(Seyfarth Shaw LLP)

401(k) Investment Lineup Summit - San Francisco
April 1, 2014 in CA
(Pensions & Investments)

Cafeteria Plans
May 20, 2014 in MN
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

HSAs, HRAs, and Consumer-Driven Health Care
May 21, 2014 in MN
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Official Guidance]

Text of CMS Bulletin to Marketplaces on Availability of Retroactive Advance Payments of the Premium Tax Credit and CSRs in 2014 Due to Exceptional Circumstances (PDF)
"[If] an individual in the exceptional circumstance described above is enrolled in QHP coverage offered outside of the Marketplace, when he or she receives a determination of eligibility for coverage through the Marketplace, the Marketplace may deem the individual to have been enrolled in the QHP through the Marketplace retroactive to the date on which the individual first enrolled in the QHP outside of the Marketplace.... [If] an individual is determined eligible for retroactive CSRs or advance payments of the PTC, the issuer of the QHP will be required to adjudicate or re-adjudicate, as applicable, the enrollee's claims incurred during the retroactive period, and refund or credit to the enrollee any excess cost sharing or premiums paid if applicable , and ensure the provision of refunds or credits of any excess payments made by or for the enrollee for covered benefits and services incurred during the retroactive coverage period." (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)  

[Advert.]

11th Annual Employer Summit on Cracking Health Care Costs - April 7-9 - National Harbor, MD

Top thought leaders and forward-thinking employers discuss how to integrate current work in the employee wellness space with new initiatives, like narrow networks and direct contracting, to produce a true and measurable decrease in health costs. BLINK3 for discount.

Health Policies Purchased Off-Exchange Because of Troubled State-Run Websites Are Eligible for Federal Tax Credits
"HHS said state residents who were unable to sign up because of technical problems may still get federal tax credits if they bought private insurance outside of the new online insurance exchanges. The federal policy change is significant because until now the administration has stressed that the only place to get taxpayer-subsidized insurance under President Barack Obama's health law is through the new online markets, called exchanges." (The Washington Post; subscription may be required)  

Text of CMS Notice to Employers about 2014 SHOP Marketplace Enrollment (PDF)
"Starting in fall 2014, you and your employees may be able to apply and enroll in SHOP online for coverage that starts January 2015. That's also when you'll have the option to offer your employees a choice of qualified health plans and be able to make a single monthly payment to insurance companies, no matter how many plans your employees have selected. Since you can't apply for SHOP coverage on HealthCare.gov at this time, you don't have to create an online account. But if you've already created an online account, you can use it as soon as SHOP online enrollment is available for coverage starting in 2015. Until then, you should enroll directly with an agent, broker, or insurance company that offers a SHOP qualified health plan." [CMS Product No. 11765, Feb. 2014] (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)  

Providers Ask Supreme Court To Set ERISA Pleading Standard In Benefits Recovery Claims
"In dismissing the providers' complaint for failure to state a claim ... the Eleventh Circuit stated that the providers must 'at least identify the specific plan provisions under which coverage is conferred with respect to each of the 996 derivative ERISA claims identified in their complaint, and [must] allege sufficient facts to plausibly show the services rendered to each patient were indeed covered by that particular plan.' In contrast, the Eighth Circuit in Braden determined that in order to state a claim under ERISA, a plaintiff need not allege facts that are solely in the defendant's possession." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)  

Big Changes Coming to Workplace Benefits
"The days of two or three traditional health plans -- along with insurance products such as life, long- and short-term disability and supplemental insurance from one or two carriers -- are rapidly ceding to a benefits mall where employees have choices among five or six plans offering health and insurance benefits catering to individual coverage. The plethora of choices come courtesy of private health care exchanges, which are popping up around the country." (InsuranceNewsNet.com)  

Employer-Sponsored Medical Clinics: Much More Than Convenience Care (PDF)
"As employer-sponsored clinics evolve, some are taking on a larger role of not only screening for chronic diseases but also actively managing those conditions in order to help employers better control their health care costs. In this article, a physician and an actuary explore what goes into making an employer-sponsored medical clinic an integral part of a large organization's health care cost-control strategy and how the clinic can fit into the organization's overall employee benefit plans." (International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists [ISCEBS])  

Despite Penalty, 'Skinny' Health Plans Are Still an Option
"[If] an employer offers a plan that is not minimum value, an employee may apply for a federal subsidy or tax credit for coverage purchased through a public health care exchange, and this could trigger a $3,000 penalty ($3,000 for any full-time employee that receives a subsidy/credit). But this penalty would be lower than the penalty associated with not offering any health plan at all (the $2,000 penalty times every full-time employee). [Non-minimum] value plans are starting to make their way into the market for just this reason -- as a viable alternative to staffing firms and other low-wage, high-turnover companies." (Society for Human Resource Management)  

Top 10 Healthcare Services Excluded Under Obamacare
"With the release of the new Affordable Care Act health plans, HealthPocket examined what medical services were most frequently excluded from health insurance coverage in 2014 and compared the results to the most common exclusions in the pre-reform health insurance market." (HealthPocket)  

ACOs Will Replace Insurers, Former Obama Adviser Says
"Health insurers as we know them will likely cease to exist as accountable care organizations replace them, according to Ezekiel Emanuel, former White House healthcare adviser.... Ezekiel, now a department chair at the University of Pennsylvania, expects insurers to be obsolete by 2025. By then, ACOs will have assumed both clinical and financial risks for their members, thereby eliminating the need for insurers, which exclude some consumers and impose administrative barriers, he said." (FierceHealthPayer)  

More Than 200 Groups Urge CMS to Withdraw Proposal on Part D Benefit
"Proposed changes to Medicare's prescription drug program would negatively affect beneficiaries and the companies that serve them and should be withdrawn, more than 200 groups told [CMS] in a Feb. 18 letter.... The 236 organizations included health plans and various consumer and medical groups, such as Easter Seals, America's Health Insurance Plans, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, American Osteopathic Association and the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association." (Bloomberg BNA)  

Healthcare Reform Continues to Roil U.S. Managed Markets as the Number of ACOs Nearly Doubles and State Exchanges Create Clear Winners and Losers
"Even though large businesses cannot put their employees into the state exchanges until 2017, millions of small-business employees could go into the exchanges between 2015 and 2017. Meanwhile, several million more individuals who had been uninsured will gain benefits. ACOs fundamentally shift the risk of patient health and costs to providers. They also represent a potential consolidation of power among a more select group of decision-makers -- something that is likely to have a tremendous impact on prescribing habits and medication therapy management." (HealthLeaders InterStudy)  

[Opinion]

Text of Comments by Employers Council on Flexible Compensation, on Proposed Amendments to Excepted Benefits Regs (PDF)
Topics include: Clarification of Application of Excepted Benefits Rule to Stand-Alone Self-Funded Dental or Vision Only Plans; Availability of Health FSAs to Employees without Access to Employer-Provided Health Coverage; Technical Clarification for Proposed Limited Scope Wraparound Excepted Benefit; and Application of Excepted Benefits Rule to Wellness Programs. (Employers Council on Flexible Compensation [ECFC])  

Dramatic Changes to Code Sections 409A and 162(m) Proposed by Republican Ways and Means Chairman (PDF)
"The bill provides that nonqualified deferred compensation attributable to services after 2014 will be subject to taxation when there is no longer a 'substantial risk of forfeiture,' i.e., when amounts vest. This would largely eliminate the opportunity for executives to defer income taxation on compensation earned.... [and] would appear to make it very difficult to provide employees with excess retirement benefits." (Groom Law Group)  

Compensation Best Practices as Proxy Season Nears
"Continuous modeling of a company's financial data is the most reliable way to arrive at metrics for pay for performance ... [T]otal shareholder return continues to be the primary measure of a company's financial performance. But there's an ongoing debate about whether to include metrics that more accurately reflect senior executives' actual contribution to the company's value as opposed to rewarding them for merely 'riding the wave of a commodity price' boom[.]" (Corporate Secretary)  

Mercer Consultants James Bernstein, Robert Ditty, And Jan Wigen Recognized As 2014 Power Broker Winners By Risk & Insurance Magazine
Mercer

Life Insurance Industry Reacts To Chairman Camp’s Draft Tax Reform Proposal
American Council of Life Insurers

Target Retirement Funds Bring Home The Gold Again
Vanguard

American Academy of Actuaries Announces Health Care Cost Initiative
American Academy of Actuaries

On the Heels of Significant Growth, Ascensus Rebrands with Eye Toward Future
Ascensus

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