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April 15, 2014          Get Retirement News  |  Advertise
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Employee Benefits Jobs

Part Time On Call Retirement Planning Consultant
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in AR, CA, HI, IL, MO, NJ, NY, TN, UT

Trust Officer I - Business Trust & Investments
City National Bank
in CA

Specialist I, Plan Information
National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA)
in VA

Associate Policy Administrator
The Newport Group
in FL

Benefit and Planning Counselor
The Principal Financial Group
in NC

Benefits Specialist
Ice Miller LLP
in IN

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Webcasts and Conferences

PPA Pre-Approved Plans Workshop - Corbel and PPD Documents - Chicago
May 13, 2014 in IL
(SunGard Relius)

401(k) Plan Workshop 2014 - Chicago
May 14, 2014 in IL
(SunGard Relius)

Tax Forms Workshop: 5500 and More - Chicago
May 15, 2014 in IL
(SunGard Relius)

Due Diligence: A Guide to Evaluating Retirement Investment Advisors
May 21, 2014 WEBCAST
(University Conference Services)

View All Webcasts and Conferences


  LinkedIn   Twitter   Facebook Hand-picked links to the web's best news articles,
official guidance, jobs, webcasts and more.

Growing Shift in the Health Plan Cost Burden from Employers to Employees
"Two-thirds of 2014 medical plans have individual, in-network out-of-pocket maximums of $2,500 or more. This is up from 58 percent of plans in 2013, and 49 percent in 2012. 42 percent of plans charge coinsurance for office visits, up from 35 percent in 2013. Emergency room (ER) visit co-pays have increased by roughly $3 per year since 2009, with a 2014 average of $113 per visit. The percentage of plans with high deductibles grew by 2 percent in 2014 from 23 percent to 25 percent." (HighRoads)  


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Census Survey Revisions Mask Health Law's Effects
"An internal Census Bureau document said that the new questionnaire included a 'total revision to health insurance questions' and, in a test last year, produced lower estimates of the uninsured. Thus, officials said, it will be difficult to say how much of any change is attributable to the Affordable Care Act and how much to the use of a new survey instrument.... In the test last year, the percentage of people without health insurance was 10.6 percent when interviewers used the new questionnaire, compared with 12.5 percent using the old version." (The New York Times; subscription may be required)  

Odd-Hour Workers Face Loss of Employer Health Plans
"Thousands of these so-called variable-hour employees -- many of whom work on college campuses that don't operate during summer months -- could lose their benefits as employers use new formulas to classify workers as full time or part time. The distinction determines which employees are entitled to company-sponsored health coverage.... About 68% of U.S. employers have variable-hour workers ... with most of them in the hospitality, retail and education industries." (The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)  

Structuring Incentives Within Organizations: The Case of Accountable Care Organizations
"[The] key finding is that free-riding is a severe problem and causes optimal incentive payments to exceed cost savings unless ACOs simultaneously achieve extremely large efficiency gains. This implies that successful ACOs will likely rely on motivational strategies that amplify the effects of under-powered incentives. These motivational strategies raise important questions about the limits of ACOs as a policy for promoting more efficient, integrated care." (National Bureau of Economic Research [NBER])  

Tax Preparers' New Role: Health Coverage Advisers
"Tax preparers like Jackson Hewitt and H&R Block say they have helped tens of thousands of people apply for tax credits to help defray the cost of private insurance bought through the exchanges. In addition, the big tax service companies and makers of tax preparation software like Intuit's TurboTax are calculating potential penalties for those who do not have insurance." (The New York Times; subscription may be required)  

Patients Often Win If They Appeal a Denied Health Claim
"A 2011 GAO report sampling data from a handful of states before the health law took effect found that patients were successful 39 to 59 percent of the time when they appealed directly to the insurer. When appealing to a third party (such as the state insurance commissioner), patients also were often successful in getting the service in question -- winning as many as 54 percent of such decisions in Maryland[.]" (Kaiser Health News)  

Many Obamacare Exchange Plans Come with Higher Deductibles
"Average individual deductibles in the 36 states with a federally run exchange are much higher than the average individual deductible for employer-sponsored plans in 2013." [Chart compares average deductibles for various "metal" tiers, and for employer-sponsored coverage.] (The Heritage Foundation)  

First Look at Health Exchange Medication Utilization
"[In] January and February, use of specialty medications was greater among Exchange enrollees versus patients enrolled in a commercial health plan. Approximately 1.1% of total prescriptions in Exchange plans were for specialty medications, compared to 0.75% in commercial health plans, a 47% difference.... In total spend, six of the top 10 costliest medications used by Exchange enrollees have been specialty drugs." (Express Scripts)  


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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

Ninth Circuit: 'Reopening' a Claim, After the Statute of Limitations Has Run, Does Not Waive That Defense
"If the statute of limitations has already run, does the claim administrator 'waive' the statute of limitations defense by agreeing to reopen a claim? NO.... Even when MetLife 'reopened' the claim in 2009, five years after claim denial, the 2004 statute of limitations defense applied, barring the 2011 lawsuit. This also is a good case to review because it discusses how an appeal denial letter should be written, when considering the statute of limitations defense." [Gordon v. Deloitte & Touche, LLP Long Term Disability Plan, No. 12-55114 (9th Cir. Apr. 11, 2014)] (Lane Powell PC)  

IRS Issues Guidance on Benefit Plans, Same-Sex Marriage, and Windsor Case
"IRS Notice 2014-19 only applies to qualified retirement plans. However, non-qualified plans, employment, change in control, severance agreements, and stock incentive plans and award agreements often include the term 'spouse' or a similar reference. Therefore, companies may need to amend some of these." (Winston & Strawn LLP)  

Employee Incentives in a Family Owned Business
"You may believe that your family-owned business has no use for stock options. You are not going to issue equity outside of the family, so stock options are of no value with respect to non-family member employees. And your employees that are family member are going to inherit the business, so that is their incentive to perform and grow the business. But what if there are other tools you could be using?" (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP)  

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