Part-time Retirement Planning Consultant
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in MI

Defined Contribution Plan Administrator
Carroll Consultants, Ltd.
in PA

Plan Administrator II
Verisight, Inc.
in IL

Administrator, Experienced Defined Contribution 401(k)
Niles Lankford Group
in IN, OH

Retirement Planning Consultant
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in AL

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Top Tips for ASC's Defined Benefit System
August 19, 2014 WEBCAST
(ASC [Actuarial Systems Corporation])

Communication:How to Look and Sound Like a Leader
August 21, 2014 in GA
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Atlanta Chapter)

Road to a Lawsuit is Paved with Good Intentions: Avoiding Legal Trouble with Wellness Programs
August 26, 2014 in TX
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Dallas Chapter)

Solving the Benefits Time/Cost Crunch of Managing Employee Benefits
August 27, 2014 in NJ
(Corporate Synergies)

Get Prepared to Make Timely Decisions for Your Retirement
September 9, 2014 WEBCAST
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor)

ERISA Turns 40: The Past, Current and Future State of Pension Plans
September 9, 2014 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

Employee Benefit Plans of Tax-Exempt and Governmental Employers
September 11, 2014 in DC
(ALI-ABA [American Law Institute-American Bar Association])

Characteristics of an Emerging Leader
September 11, 2014 in MA
(Women in Pensions Network)

DOL Corrections and Investigations
September 18, 2014 in TX
(ASPPA Benefits Council [ABC] of Dallas/Fort Worth)

How Will 2015 HIX Open Enrollment Play Out?
September 24, 2014 WEBCAST
(Deloitte)

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[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Notice 2014-47: Determining the Health Insurance Providers Fee for 2014 (PDF)
"This notice provides guidance for the 2014 fee year on how the [IRS] ... will administer the definition of a covered entity for purposes of the fee imposed by Section 9010 of the [ACA] ... This notice applies only to the 2014 fee year.... Specifically, this notice resolves confusion as to the scope of the exclusions in Section 9010(c)(2) from the general definition of the term covered entity. Additionally, this notice clarifies that a controlled group does not have to report for a controlled group member who would not qualify as a covered entity in the 2014 fee year if it were a single-person covered entity." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Advert.]

Set Yourself Apart From Your Peers With the CEBS Designation

Co-sponsored by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the CEBS designation gives you the knowledge and confidence to succeed in today's business environment. Learn More!

[Guidance Overview]

Only Five More Days: Some Health Plans Face August 18 Deadline to Correct Form 8963 Under Risk Adjustment Fee Guidance
"The clarifying guidance of Notice 2014-47 comes as [HHS] is warning ... covered entities to get moving on their preparations to register and conduct required interactions with the EDGE Server that HHS plans to use to collect and administer the data necessary to administer the temporary reinsurance fee and risk adjustment provisions of ACA by mid-September, 2014. Group health plans and their administrators are urged to evaluate and confirm their status and if necessary, file a corrected Form 8963 no later than August 18, 2014." (Solutions Law Press)  

[Guidance Overview]

Insurance Premium Rebates: Can the Employer Keep the Money?
"[If] employees contributed to the cost of the group medical insurance plan, they are entitled a percentage of the rebate equal to the cost paid by the employees.... [In] deciding on an allocation method, companies can weigh the costs to the plan and the ultimate plan benefit as well as the competing interests of participants or classes of participants provided such method is reasonable, fair and objective.... Generally, ERISA plan assets must be held in a trust. However, if the premium rebate is allocated within 3 months of receipt, companies are permitted to rely on an exemption to the trust requirement." (Masuda Funai via Lexology)  

More Employers Limit Health Plan Networks But Seek to Preserve Quality
"Those employers who are going to stay in the game -- which is the majority of them -- in many cases have to [improve] what they're covering. They have to offer the essential health benefits, they must meet affordability for the premiums and they have a looming Cadillac tax [on very generous health plans] in 2018. They now have to use the managed care tools that they all abandoned 15 years ago. So the answer is narrow networks[.]" (Kaiser Health News)  

Employers Modify Health Plans to Control Rising Costs, Comply with ACA
"[E]mployers project their health care benefits costs will increase by an average of 6.5% in 2015. That is slightly lower than the 7.0% increase employers would have experienced this year had they made no changes to their plan design. However, employers expect to keep increases to 5% next year after making changes to their plans, such as increasing cost-sharing provisions, implementing and expanding CDHPs, and broadening their use of wellness programs and Centers of Excellence." (National Business Group on Health [NBGH])  

[Advert.]

24th Annual National Health Benefits Conference & Expo (HBCE)

Plan now to attend the National Health Benefits Conference & Expo, January 27-28 in Clearwater Beach, Florida. The conference provides cutting-edge case studies and advanced cost control strategies presented by national thought leaders. Register Now!

Employers Act to Control Health Care Costs [Infographic]
"Insights from the 2014 Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health (NBGH) employer survey on purchasing value in health care [include the following:] ... Nearly all employers are changing their health care strategy.... Employers use [account-based health plans] to avoid excise tax.... Employers rethink support for spouses.... Best performers spend significantly less and deliver high-performance benefits." (Towers Watson)  

EBRI Survey: Employee Satisfaction with Health Coverage and Care (PDF)
"The overall satisfaction rate among consumer-driven health plan (CDHP) enrollees increased in most years ... while it decreased in most years among traditional enrollees.... In 2013, 44 percent of traditional-plan participants were extremely or very satisfied with out-of-pocket costs (for health care services other than for prescription drugs), while 20 percent of high-deductible health plan (HDHP) enrollees and 31 percent of CDHP participants were extremely or very satisfied.... CDHP and HDHP enrollees were less likely than those in a traditional plan both to recommend their health plan to friends or co-workers and to stay with their current health plan if they had the opportunity to switch plans." (Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI])  

Entrepreneurs Set Sights on Self-Insured Market
"As more companies migrate to self-funding, insurers are trying to meet demand with better outsourced management and new stop loss products. But a few startups with radical ideas are trying to beat them, offering new services to capitalize on frustration with the status quo.... Collective Health officially launched this month with venture capital backing, hoping to use software-guided self-funding services to bring employers and their workers a better, less expensive health plan experience." (Healthcare Payer News)  

Top Insurers Say Exchange Enrollment Is Shrinking
"The nation's third-largest health insurer had 720,000 people sign up for exchange coverage as of May 20 ... At the end of June, it had fewer than 600,000 paying customers. Aetna expects that to fall to 'just over 500,000' by the end of the year.... Cigna said that it expects its individual market customers, including more than 100,000 in the exchanges, to 'move from 300,000 down to 280,000 in that range,' ... Other major insurers danced around questions about attrition ... but none denied that it was occurring." (Investor's Business Daily)  

Health Care Price Growth Is Slowing (PDF)
"In June 2014, the health care price index (HCPI) rose 1.7% above June 2013. The 12-month moving average of 1.3% is near the all-time low for our data (1.2%), but it has now risen for four straight months, the first increasing trend since January 2012. The HCPI shows a steady decline from October 2009[.]" (Altarum Institute)  

HSA Contributions Can Create Surprisingly Large Nest Eggs for Retiree Health Expenses
"A person contributing the maximum allowable amounts for 40 years to a health savings account (HSA) without making withdrawals could accumulate up to $360,000 for health care expenses if the rate of return was 2.5 percent, $600,000 if the rate of return was 5 percent, and nearly $1.1 million if the rate of return was 7.5 percent ... HSAs provide account owners a triple tax preference: [1] contributions to an HSA reduce taxable income; [2] earnings on the assets in the HSA build up tax-free; [3] and distributions from the HSA for qualified expenses are not subject to taxation." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)  

Providing HIPAA Certificates of Creditable Coverage: One Less Thing to Do, Starting in 2015
"Health plans should continue providing these certificates to individuals whose coverage terminates before December 31, 2014, in case anyone needs to offset a preexisting condition exclusion when joining a noncalendar health plan during a plan year that began before January 1, 2014." (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP])  

Marketplace Competition and Insurance Premiums in the First Year of the ACA
"[The authors] consider the variation in premiums within markets and the effects of competition, or lack thereof, on premiums.... The carriers that chose to be aggressive acknowledge the importance of being one of the two second lowest cost silver plans to attract large numbers of enrollees ... While it was not clear when 2014 rates were set, based on interviews and state it seems clear that large numbers of individuals have chosen plans primarily based on price." (Urban Institute via Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)  

Chart of Pending Federal Legislation Related to Account-Based Benefit Plans (PDF)
15 pages. For 26 House and Senate bills, a chart provides the bill number, date of introduction, title/summary, sponsors, cosponsors, and the bill's current status. Updated August 11, 2014. (Employers Council on Flexible Compensation [ECFC])  

[Opinion]

Downward Spiral Begins? 'If You Hate Your Health Insurance, You Can Drop It'
"The returns are admittedly early but Obamacare needs to grow in headcount to remain actuarially sound. And that is not happening. Initial reports from the State of Washington as well as insurer, Cigna, also indicate that the tide of discouraged outweighs any new sign ups. Unfortunately, we have no official statement from the federal government, since it stopped reporting the numbers after issuing the high-water mark of 8 million in the spring." (Benefit Revolution)  

[Official Guidance]

Text of National Stock Exchange (NSX) Proposed Rule Change for Issuers' Compensation Committees (PDF)
"The Exchange adopted rules to align with the requirements of Section 10C of the Exchange Act, as added by Section 952 of the Dodd-Frank Act and Rule 10C-1 thereunder in October 2012. The proposed amendments ... operate to provide further clarity and precision and correct certain citations, and align with the rules of other exchanges, with respect to the provisions of Rule 15.5(d)(5) that govern a listed issuer's Compensation Committee. The rule proposal also adds new text to the 'Interpretations and Policies' of Rule 15.5(d)(5)." (National Stock Exchange)  

Fifth Circuit Finds Executive Compensation Plan Was Governed by ERISA
"The court agreed that the express purpose of the plan was not to provide retirement income, but found ... the statement of purpose refers to the [Wealth Accumulation Plan (WAP)] as a 'deferred compensation plan' and explains that, by design, employees have the option 'to defer receipt of a portion of their compensation to be earned with respect to the upcoming Plan Year.' ... The court also found the express terms of the WAP contemplate employees deferring income 'to the termination of covered employment or beyond.'" [Tolbert v. RBC Capital Markets Corp., No. 13-20213 (5th Cir. July 14, 2014)] (planadviser)  

Eighth Annual Study of Employee Benefits Today and Beyond: Delivering the Benefits Message (PDF)
"Overall, usage of both traditional and emerging communications methods has increased.... Employers are thinking about additional ways carriers can communicate with their employees outside of the annual enrollment period.... Employees' preference for digital communications is strong but not exclusive.... Brokers' use of mobile devices has increased significantly across all activities" (Prudential)  

First-of-its-kind Web-based Tool Predicts Which Public Health Policies and Programs Provide the Biggest Improvements in Health and Costs
HealthPartners

Michigan Chamber of Commerce to Launch Statewide Private Health Insurance Marketplace On Sept. 1, 2014
Michigan Chamber of Commerce

WellPoint Announces Intent to Change Corporate Name to Anthem, Inc.
WellPoint, Inc.

Wells Fargo Advantage Funds White Paper Gives Plan Sponsors and Advisors New Tools for Evaluating Target Date Fund Performance
Wells Fargo

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