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Hand-picked links to the web's best news articles, official guidance, jobs, webcasts and more.
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Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Hobby Lobby, Opens Door to Religious Objections to Statutes Covering Employers
"[To] the extent employers want to raise religious objections to federal statutes, they should consider whether their corporate documents and other business practices demonstrate their religiosity.... [E]ach of the three family-owned entities in Hobby Lobby expressed its religion in a variety of tangible ways.... [E]mployers should be mindful that the Court rejected any analogy between the objections to the ACA's birth control mandate raised in Hobby Lobby and religious objections to anti-discrimination laws that cover employers."
(Littler)
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Self-Funded Plans, TPAs and the Hobby Lobby Ruling
"The Self-Insurance Institute of America ... objected to this accommodation ... because it requires TPAs to make payments for contraceptive coverage on behalf of their self-insured employer clients, and imposes additional fiduciary liability on them.... Responding to the Court ruling, SIIA on July 1 again requested that HHS directly reimburse TPAs that reimbursed contraceptives on behalf of all companies taking the accommodation, including the newly eligible for-profit employers that fit the Hobby Lobby business model."
(Thompson SmartHR Manager)
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Four Things Employers Need to Know About the Hobby Lobby Decision
"[1] The decision is limited to coverage of contraception without cost-sharing under PPACA's preventive care mandate.... [2] The Supreme Court did not address the application of the decision to publicly-traded companies.... [3] Employees may still be able to access all FDA-approved forms of contraception without cost-sharing, but not without additional regulatory action.... [4] Plan funding may limit an employer with sincere religious objections from 'carving out' certain types of contraception."
(Hill, Chesson & Woody)
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Conflicting Views of Supreme Court's Contraception Decision Cloud Other Cases
"[W]hat is less clear is whether people covered by the health plans of those nonprofit organizations that are still in litigation will have access to no-copay contraceptive coverage. The Supreme Court majority appears to think they can be covered. 'Nothing in this interim order affects the ability of the applicant's employees and students to obtain, without cost, the full range of FDA approved contraceptives,' the [Wheaton College] order said. 'The government contends the applicant's health issuer and third-party administrator are required by federal law to provide full contraceptive coverage regardless whether the applicant completes EBSA Form 700.' The Obama administration, however, seems not so sure that will happen."
(Kaiser Health News)
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2014 Benefits Trends: From Employer Paternalism to Employee Ownership
"This year, three employer strategies stand out as 'trends in progress,' each with employee ownership as the central tenet: [1] reliance on employee self-service and automation; [2] the ramping up of wellness programs and related incentives; and [3] the consideration -- but not yet adoption -- of a defined contribution approach incorporating more health plan options for employees.... All three are likely to continue to gain momentum in the years ahead."
(bswift)
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Most Employees Fear Shift to Exchange Coverage
"A Morning Consult survey found 63 percent of 1,250 likely voters said they're either somewhat or very concerned that their employers will transfer their coverage to the exchanges. It also found 51 percent of respondents think such a shift would have a negative impact on the quality of their health coverage. Meanwhile, only 16 percent of consumers said buying an exchange plan would have a positive impact, and 34 percent said it would have no effect."
(FierceHealthPayer)
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Seventy Percent of HSA Account Holders Cannot Pass a Basic HSA Proficiency Quiz
"Only 30% of current HSA account holders passed a basic HSA proficiency quiz; and, at a 50% pass rate on the FSA proficiency quiz, FSA account holders did not score much better. Particularly for HSAs, a lack of understanding of the full account value proposition may be hindering adoption -- as more than 40% still view HSAs as spending accounts, exhibiting a lack of understanding of the ability to save beyond the plan year or invest HSA funds."
(Alegeus Technologies)
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In Unhealthy Eastern Tennessee, Limited Patient Options Bring Some of the Country's Cheapest Premiums
"Nationwide, about 70 percent of the lowest-priced plans included narrow networks ... But few places have put them into place as successfully as here in Eastern Tennessee, where BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, the area's dominant insurer, cut a low price deal with one of the three big hospital systems to be the sole provider in their cheapest network. If all areas of the country had such low premiums, the federal government's tab for subsidizing part of the cost of policies -- totaling an estimated $29 billion for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 -- would be dramatically lower."
(Kaiser Health News)
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Employee and Other Whistleblower Complaints Common Source of HIPAA Privacy and Other Complaints
"Beyond illustrating the potential HIPAA-associated penalties that can result from failing to comply with HIPAA, the [Parkview Health System, Inc.] resolution agreement also illustrates the risks that current or former workforce members and others acting as whistleblowers play in helping OCR to identify HIPAA violations.... With retaliation and other whistleblower complaints becoming increasingly common and judgments from these claims rising, covered entities and their business associates need to include appropriate employment liability risk management processes and procedures in their HIPAA compliance processes and coordinate carefully with their human resources team and qualified employment counsel to manage the employment liability related risks associated with investigations and discipline activities under HIPAA."
(Solutions Law Press)
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ACLI Asks District Court to Block D.C. Health Exchange Assessments
"A plan by the District of Columbia to cover operating costs for its health exchange would assess fees on supplemental insurance products that are prohibited from being sold on the exchange.... Gary Hughes, ACLI executive vice president and general counsel [said,] 'The funding limitations of the [ACA] are clear. The D.C. Health Exchange Authority can only assess qualified health plans under its jurisdiction to fund the exchange. Supplemental benefits do not fall under this definition.'"
(American Council of Life Insurers [ACLI])
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[Opinion]
Obama's Trojan Horse: The 3.8% 'Unearned Income Medicare Contribution' Provision in the ACA
"One has to believe it was no accident that the Tax Code amendment [adding section 1411 to the Internal Revenue Code] is buried deep within and close to the end of the nearly 3,000- page two-part legislative package. Doubtless only a relatively few who read the ACA before (or even after) its enactment got as far as section 1402 of HCRA; and, of those few, even fewer were searching for new tax legislation in that section or recognized the enormous impact of Section 1411 as an income tax rather than the payroll tax that its 'Medicare' title connoted.... But it is not clear how that strategy will play out in the Supreme Court when, as seems likely, a case testing the tax standing of Section 1411 appears on the Court's docket."
(Alvin D. Lurie Esq. via BenefitsLink)
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[Opinion]
Text of Comments by ERIC to DOL on Posting Future COBRA Model Notice Updates Online (PDF)
"ERIC makes the following recommendations with respect to the proposed regulations: The DOL should modify the notices only when necessary, provide that the revisions apply only prospectively, and notify the public when the notices are revised. The DOL should clarify that general notices are not required to be provided to dependent children."
(The ERISA Industry Committee [ERIC])
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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2013 Q&As: SEC Meeting with ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits, May 8, 2013 (PDF)
Published online July 7, 2014. Topics pertaining to proxy rules and executive compensation disclosure include: [1] Grant Date Reporting vs. Service Inception Date Reporting; [2] Reporting of Stock Award Premium; [3] Option Exercises and Stock Vested Table; [4] Reporting of Retention Bonus; [5] Reporting of Long-Term Incentive Award Payable in Both Cash and Equity; and [6] Outstanding Equity Awards at Fiscal Year-End Table. Pertaining to Form S-8 is a Q&A on Transfer of Filing Fees. Pertaining to Exchange Act Rule 10C-1 is a Q&A on Assessing the Independence of Compensation Consultants and Other Advisors to the Compensation Committee. Pertaining to multiemployer pension plans is a question about the applicability of Securities Act Rule 180, but the SEC did not provide an answer.
(Joint Committee on Employee Benefits [JCEB], American Bar Association)
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Developments Newsletter, June 2014 (PDF)
Article titles include: [1] Plan Sponsors' Views on Fiduciary Responsibility; [2] ESOP 101: The Repurchase Obligation; [3] The Future of Mini Meds; and [4] The BPS&M Pension Liability Index.
(Bryan, Pendleton, Swats & McAllister)
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Press Releases
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