[Guidance Overview]
IRS Final Rule on ACA Play or Pay Mandate Allows Employers to Finalize Compliance Preparations
"[E]mployers are not eligible for any partial credit in determining the amount of the penalty assessed. In other words, an employer that offers coverage to 69% of its full-time employees in 2015 or 94% in 2016 will pay the same penalty that it would pay if it did not offer any coverage at all. This means no employer can afford to inadvertently fail the coverage threshold, so careful attention must be paid to the final regulation's definition of full-time employee and the detailed rules imposed for measuring hours of service[.]"
(Vedder Price)
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[Guidance Overview]
New ACA Information Reporting Starts for Employers in 2015
"All employers that offer self-insured health plans must report on every individual covered under the plan. Large employers that are subject to the play or pay requirement must report to the IRS each year on every individual who was a full-time employee for one month or more during the year.... Employers need to work quickly because it will be challenging to build systems that can capture all the data required starting January 1, 2015."
(Jones Day)
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Congress Repeals ACA Cap on Deductibles for Small Group Health Plans
"The impact of this legislation should be pretty significant for small employers. Many [small employers] had long used high deductible plans paired with HRAs and HSAs to keep premiums at a minimum while taking on a small amount of claims risk or employer contributions. This legislation should allow significantly more flexibility in design and contributions once again."
(Kushner & Company)
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New Law Eliminates Deductible Limits for Small Employer Market Health Plans (PDF)
"The [Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014], which prevents double digit cuts in Medicare reimbursement to doctors from taking effect this year ... eliminates deductible limits imposed under the ACA for the small employer market health plans. Section 1302(c)(2) of the ACA currently limits deductible amounts offered by small employer plans to $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families.... The new law goes into effect April 1, 2014."
(Employers Council on Flexible Compensation)
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Why It's Not Too Late for Your Employees to Get on the Exchange: Special Enrollment Periods
"[S]pecial enrollment rights in the Exchanges look a lot like the special enrollment rights provided in HIPAA for employer sponsored plans.... [F]or employers, determining whether or not to continue a plan in its current form, to terminate coverage or to change eligibility for coverage should not assume that employees who lose coverage would be barred from the exchanges for the remainder of 2014."
(Fox Rothschild LLP)
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Success Stories of the Self-Insured
"As the Obama administration mulls whether to place restrictions on stop-loss insurance, a move that critics say will discourage self-insurance, three examples of how companies saved money through self-insurance point to alternatives to increasing health costs.... Proponents of self-insurance acknowledge the strategy isn't for everybody. When it works, however, employers and employees come out ahead[.]"
(InsuranceNewsNet.com)
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Companies That Reduce Employee Hours to Avoid ACA Fines Might Face ERISA Litigation
"As much as possible, the monitoring of external communications and avoidance of comments on employment policy is extremely important to combat public misperception ... [B]usiness reasons for any changes in employment policy that could be misconstrued as an attempt to avoid ACA penalties should be explained via consistent company messages."
(Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
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Large Employers Are Getting Their Premiums Under Control, But You're Probably Paying More
"The average monthly premium cost for large employers rose just 1.7 percent this year, according to the ADP Research Institute. The average cost has risen 15 percent over the past five years, but this year's increase was the smallest in that time.... The group's researchers said it could be a combination of employers moving to more high-deductible plans, consumer-driven health plans and having employees take on more of the costs.... But it also means that you're probably paying more. This chart shows that the employer contribution has been gradually declining for all age groups in the past five years[.]"
(The Washington Post; subscription may be required)
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Seventeen States, Washington, D.C. Will Run SHOP Marketplaces
"States have sought to improve the availability of small-group coverage by implementing standard participation requirements and offering competitive choices of insurers and plans. They also have aimed to improve the shopping experience by providing online access to personalized assistance."
(Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
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Why Some Don't Pay Their Obamacare Premium: It's Not What You Think
"Researchers at the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center released estimates Wednesday showing that about 20 percent of Covered California enrollees are expected to leave the program because they found a job that offers health insurance. Another 20 percent will see their incomes fall and become eligible for Medi-Cal, the state's insurance program for people who are low income. In addition to the 40 percent of enrollees who move to Medi-Cal or job-based insurance, between 2 and 8 percent of those who sign up for Covered California are estimated to become uninsured, the analysis noted."
(Kaiser Health News)
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[Opinion]
Obamacare's Hidden Hit on Businesses
"The National Federation of Independent Businesses projects the health-insurance tax will add an additional $475 per year for the average individually purchased family policy -- nearly $5,000 over the course of a decade. Small businesses will take an even bigger hit, with the cost of an employer-provided family policy rising a projected $6,800 in the next decade."
(The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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Exit Packages for Executives Shrink Amid Shareholder Pressure
"Of the companies polled, 85 percent said their equity arrangements vest upon a 'single trigger.' However, many more companies are moving to a 'double trigger,' with 63 percent having at least one equity plan that provides for a 'double trigger' vesting, up dramatically from 28 percent of companies studied in 2009.... There has also been a shift to smaller cash severance multiples for CEOs. The most common ones are between two and three times compensation (among 43 percent of respondents), while use of a three times multiple fell to 42 percent in 2013 from 51 percent in 2011.... [E]ntitlements to gross-ups declined significantly to 30 percent in 2013 from 61 percent in 2009."
(Corporate Secretary)
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Press Releases
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