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Hand-picked links to the web's best news articles, official guidance, jobs, webcasts and more.
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[Guidance Overview]
Insurers Offering Spousal Coverage Must Offer Coverage for Same-Sex Spouses
"Because the FAQ applies broadly to insurers offering non-grandfathered health insurance coverage in the group or individual markets, it applies to insurers providing coverage to fully insured employer-sponsored group health plans. The guidance states that the requirement will not be enforced until plan or policy years beginning on or after January 1, 2015 (and pointedly remarks that states are expected to begin enforcement by that date), but encourages insurers to begin implementation immediately."
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)
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[Guidance Overview]
Proposed HIPAA Electronic Transaction Certification Rules
"Although operational compliance is already required, large health plans will be required to certify their compliance with the rules for the following HIPAA standard transactions by December 31, 2015 (the 'initial certification'): [1] Eligibility for a health plan; [2] Health care claim status; and [3] Electronic funds transfers and remittance advice transactions."
(Mazursky Constantine, LLC)
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[Guidance Overview]
District of Columbia Expands Paid Sick and Safe Leave (PDF)
"The District of Columbia's Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act requires employers to provide a minimum amount of paid leave to eligible employees to care for their own or a family member's illness or for reasons related to domestic violence or sexual abuse. Recent amendments to the law expand its coverage, availability, enforcement, and penalty provisions. Although the new rules are not expected to apply until October 1, 2014, employers should begin to review and revise existing policies and take other steps necessary for compliance."
(Buck Consultants)
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Requiring Doctor's Note for Every FMLA Absence Is Improper
"The court explained that Oak Harbor's attendance policy was in effect treating each absence as a separate period of FMLA leave and essentially requiring employees to reestablish eligibility for each absence. 'Such a policy or practice directly conflicts with FMLA's explicit recertification procedure specifically intended to ferret out abuse,' wrote Judge King." [Oak Harbor Freight Lines, Inc. v. Antti, No. 3:12-CV-00488-K1 (D. Ore. Feb. 19, 2014)]
(Thompson SmartHR Manager)
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New York City Sick Leave Law Requires Employers to Provide Notice of Rights Available
"Beginning April 1, 2014, all employers in New York City must issue a Notice of Rights to all newly hired covered employees by either the later of commencement of employment or May 1, 2014, and to all current covered employees by May 1, 2014 ... [T]he template Notice of Employee Rights issued by the DCA tracks the minimum accrual and leave requirements provided by the law.... [T]he current form of the City's template notice does not provide flexibility for expressing more generous leave provisions. Employers should confirm whether the City's template notice accurately reflects their sick leave policies."
(Proskauer Rose LLP)
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A Glitch in Obamacare Marketplace No One Noticed
"Nearly six months after the disastrous launch of Healthcare.gov, with the website running smoothly and more than five million people signed up as open enrollment heads to a close, a new glitch has come to light: Incorrect poverty-level guidelines are automatically telling what could be tens of thousands of eligible people they do not qualify for subsidized insurance. The error in the federal marketplace primarily affects households with incomes just above the poverty line in states like Pennsylvania that have not expanded Medicaid. The mistake raises the price of their insurance by thousands of dollars, making insurance so unaffordable many may just give up and go without."
(Philadelphia Inquirer)
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Health Savings Accounts for Wealth Accumulation
"For investors, the benefits are two-fold. Those who need their HSA assets to fund current health expenses receive the advantage of a government subsidy of their health care expenses through tax-free contributions, earnings and withdrawals. And those who have the resources to fund ongoing expenses through another source and allow their HSA accounts to grow intact have the added benefit of a vehicle for significant tax-free asset accumulation."
(Manning & Napier)
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Understanding Health Insurance Options in Retirement (PDF)
"This paper is intended to provide a backdrop of the current health insurance landscape for retirees. Specifically, this paper gives a broad overview of the Medicare system and provides retirees with information which may help them understand their health insurance options in retirement. Furthermore, this paper includes information on the magnitude of potential health care-related costs throughout retirement."
(Manning & Napier)
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Draft Rules Would Help Protect Seniors When Medicare Advantage Plans Drop Doctors
"The proposals follow UnitedHealthcare's decision to drop thousands of doctors from its Medicare Advantage plans in at least 10 states last fall.... Officials say that the terminations only a few weeks before Medicare's Dec. 7 enrollment deadline may not have given seniors enough time to find new doctors, choose a different plan or rejoin traditional Medicare, which does not restrict beneficiaries to a limited network of providers. The proposals would give beneficiaries more than 30 days' advance notice of network changes and providers at least 60 days' advance notice of a contract termination."
(Kaiser Health News)
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Another Sign Obamacare Works: Wellpoint Boosts Profit Forecast
"Wellpoint, one of the nation's largest health insurance companies, raised its full-year earnings forecast, citing more than 1 million new health plan members related in part to new business from the [ACA].... Wellpoint specifically cited its ability to successfully manage new business coming from Americans signing up for coverage via the state and federal marketplaces known as exchanges."
(Forbes)
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Names of Health Plans Sow Customer Confusion
"As Americans race to sign up for health insurance in the final days of open enrollment, many consumers and consumer advocates say the names of plans are unhelpful, confusing and in some cases misleading. A number of insurers sell their plans under names like Select, Preferred, Premier, Exclusive, Enhanced, Essential, Essential Plus, Prime, Ultimate and Deluxe. Multiple offerings from one company may have the same benefits and cover the same share of a consumer's costs, but go by different names."
(The New York Times; subscription may be required)
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Troubled Exchanges Seek More Time
"While the feds have been insistent that they legally can't continue open enrollment at Healthcare.gov or at state exchanges beyond March 31, exchanges in Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington State are giving consumers extra time through a range of options -- all of them except Oregon falling short of seeking an actual open enrollment extension."
(Healthcare Payer News)
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[Opinion]
What Great Corporate Wellness Programs Do
"Thanks to their reach and influence on employees, workplaces have a unique power to reframe the mindset around health itself -- from one of sickness to wellness.... With 150 million Americans going to work every day, corporate America is not only in the best position to change our nation's health, but has a responsibility to do so."
(Cortney Rowan and Karuna Harishanker in Harvard Business Review Blog Network)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Opinion]
Military Retirement System Is Too Costly -- and Inequitable
"The government spent $143 billion on military health and retirement in fiscal year 2013 -- significantly more than the $110 billion spent on weapons procurement that year.... The Defense Department in March released informal recommendations to overhaul the military's pension system. Though the proposals didn't make it into the Obama administration's 2015 budget, the report begins a conversation on how to fix the flawed way the U.S. offers benefits to members of the armed services."
(The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)
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