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Employee Benefits Jobs
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Webcasts and Conferences
Principles of Defined Contribution Plans Series
July 17, 2014 WEBCAST
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)
403(b) Plans Update and Latest Developments Phone Forum
July 28, 2014 WEBCAST
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])
Evaluating the Benefits and Risks of Real Asset Funds
July 30, 2014 WEBCAST
(Multnomah Group)
ERISA: The Evolving World 2014
August 4, 2014 in NY
(Practising Law Institute)
ERISA: The Evolving World 2014
August 4, 2014 WEBCAST
(Practising Law Institute)
Value of a Well Executed Pension Risk Transfer: Priceless
August 7, 2014 WEBCAST
(Dietrich & Associates, Inc.)
Retirement Plan Insights Seminar
September 9, 2014 in OH
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)
Health Care Reform for Employers: Now What?
September 17, 2014 in MO
(Lorman Education Services)
View All Webcasts and Conferences
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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]
CMS Presentation: Registering to Participate in the FFM for the 2015 Plan Year (PDF)
44 Presentation slides. These are listed as the webinar's objectives: "[1] Describe the registration requirements for Agents and Brokers who wish to participate in the FFM for the 2015 plan year; [2] Distinguish between registration requirements for new and renewing Agents and Brokers; [3] Describe 'What's New' with FFM Agent and Broker registration for the 2015 plan year; [4] Provide tips on registering as an Agent or Broker in the FFM; [5] Provide an overview of Agent/Broker assisted enrollment in the FFM; and [6] Identify relevant CMS resources and guidance."
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS])
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Minnesota's Tax Court Rules Qualified Parking Benefit Is Subject to Sales Tax
"[W]hen a qualified transportation plan is established, the employer must consider the state-law implications as well as the federal tax rules.... [S]tate income and employment tax laws may not mirror the federal rules, so state withholding and reporting requirements may be different.... Sales taxes, in particular, can be easily overlooked, as the systems and personnel responsible for processing pre-tax compensation reductions under an employer's qualified transportation plan are likely to be quite separate from those involved in handling other parking revenue. Of course, when the parking or transit is provided by a third party, remission of any sales tax will be the responsibility of the provider and not the employer. Either way, sales taxes will typically be considered part of the cost and reimbursable by the plan." [Allina Health System v. Comm'r of Revenue, No. 8564-R (Minn. T.C. May 8, 2014)]
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)
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How Do Leaders Prepare Their Companies to Succeed Amid Changes Brought on by the ACA?
"[T]he move to exchanges is inevitable. The size of the health care problem is so large and so daunting that you need to bring size and economies of scale to bear on the problem to have any hope of a real solution.... [E]mployers will make the move more rapidly with the retirees. For active employees, ... the move will come slowly.... A solution like a single-payer system -- which would obviously get to huge economies of scale -- is politically untenable."
(HighRoads)
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Preview of 2015 Obamacare Out-of-Pocket Costs
"When compared to out-of-pocket costs for 2014, deductibles in the early public rate filings [for 2015] decreased with the exception of platinum plans. For bronze plans, the decrease was less than one percent as compared to 9% and 12% decreases for silver and gold plans respectively. Platinum plans had a major increase (43%) in in its average deductible. The annual limits on out-of-pocket costs for covered medical services was more uneven when comparing 2015 early filings to 2014 averages."
(HealthPocket)
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Potential Trouble When Providers Waive Copays or Deductibles
"Providers sometimes waive patients' cost-sharing amounts (e.g., copays or deductibles) as an accommodation to the patient ... [or] employee benefit ... [D]oing so may violate fraud and abuse laws and/or payor contracts.... [P]ayors often contract with providers to pay based in part on the provider's usual charges. The Office of Inspector General has argued that a provider who routinely waives copays is misrepresenting its actual charges. Second, and more importantly, payors require copays to discourage overutilization and reduce costs. Waiving copays and deductibles removes the disincentive for utilization, thereby potentially increasing payor costs."
(Holland & Hart LLP)
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Most Account Holders Fail Basic HSA Quiz
"Survey findings also revealed that: [1] 65 percent of employers communicate about health benefit enrollment only during open the enrollment period. [2] Nearly 60 percent rely only on plan summary documents and enrollment forms to communicate benefit plan/account options. [3] Only a third offer interactive tools such as plan comparison calculators."
(Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM])
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Health Spending Has Grown Slower in the U.S. Than in Other Developed Countries, 2007-2011 (But It Won't Last)
"Government-health spending as a share of all U.S. health spending increased by 4.8 percentage points, from 44.0 percent (2000) to 48.8 percent (2011), whereas it shrank somewhat in Canada, France, and Germany. Despite the growth in consumer-driven health care, in the U.S., the share of spending paid directly out-of-pocked dropped by 2.1 percentage points, from 14.2 percent (2003) to 12.1 percent (2011), whereas it increased somewhat in Canada and France. Health administration and health-insurance share of government-health spending increased by 1.2 percentage points, from 5.1 percent (2000) to 6.3 percent (2011), whereas it shrank in Canada, France, Netherlands, and Switzerland."
(National Center for Policy Analysis Health Policy Blog)
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New 'Hobby Lobby' Bill Raises Questions About What Else Employers May Be Required to Cover
"Although large employer plans are not specifically required to cover 'essential health benefits' under the ACA, it is an open question what set of benefits an employer must offer to meet the [HHS] minimum value standard and calculator in order to avoid the ACA's employer penalty. Moreover, this political debate could easily shift to other health care benefits proponents believe employers should be required to cover."
(HR Policy Association)
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U.S. Uninsured Rate Sinks to 13.4% in Second Quarter
"The previous low point was 14.4% in the third quarter of 2008.... While 18- to 64-year-olds are most likely to have health insurance through a current or former employer (43.5%), more reported having self-funded insurance coverage in the second quarter than did before the healthcare exchanges opened in October 2013. For Americans younger than 65, 20.7% say they have a health insurance plan they or a family member pay for, compared with 16.7% in August-September 2013."
(Gallup)
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[Opinion]
Speaker Boehner's Lawsuit and the ACA
"[T]he real question is this: what if Speaker Boehner wins? Set aside the merits, for a minute, and consider that possibility. Take, for example, the 'play or pay' employer mandate. The Speaker wins and now what? Is the delay no longer effective? Does that mean that penalties could be assessed against employers in 2014 (and small employers in 2015) even though they thought they had a pass? And what of the nondiscrimination rules under the ACA that apply to insured plans? Those have been on hiatus since 2010. Will there be penalties assessed for those failures now?"
(Benefits Bryan Cave)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Guidance Overview]
2014 Q&As: IRS Meeting with ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits, May 9, 2014 (PDF)
22 pages. Includes questions on plan loans, hardship withdrawals, Roth contributions and rollovers, 403(b) and 409A plans, correction of errors for 457 plans, and several questions about hours of service and measurement periods for employer shared responsibility provisions (Section 4980H).
(Joint Committee on Employee Benefits [JCEB], American Bar Association)
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Incentive Compensation: Impact of New Revenue Accounting Rules (PDF)
"The US and international accounting rule-makers, FASB and IASB, recently released new standards on revenue recognition. Under the new rules, which apply to all companies in all industries around the globe, the period or pattern in which revenue is recognized could be vastly different from today's regime. As employee compensation arrangements tied to revenue generation, especially for salespeople, have become increasingly common and complex, it is likely that the changes in revenue recognition will impact many of these arrangements. This Insight focuses on the potential impact on performance -- based compensation programs, and what companies can begin doing to prepare."
(PricewaterhouseCoopers)
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Employee Stock Plans: Mid-Year 2014 International Reporting Requirements
"This Commentary highlights some of the principal mid-year reporting requirements for employee stock plans that U.S. companies most commonly encounter when offering these programs to their employees in selected jurisdictions worldwide. A chart summarizing these items appears at the end of the Commentary.... [T]his Commentary does not address routine, year-end tax reporting obligations, nor does it cover equity-specific reporting requirements with deadlines that fall between January and May."
(Jones Day)
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Press Releases
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