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Employee Benefits Jobs
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Webcasts and Conferences
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[Guidance Overview]
2015 FSA Limit and Other ACA Indexed Amounts (PDF)
"The IRS has announced that the health flexible spending account (health FSA) salary reduction cap will increase by $50 for 2015 -- from $2,500 to $2,550. The IRS previously announced the 2014 PCORI fee of $2.08, which is payable in 2015 for calendar year plans.... The IRS has not yet announced the 2015 employer shared responsibility assessment amounts, but the 2015 assessment amounts can be estimated."
(Buck Consultants at Xerox)
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[Advert.]
Intuitive, web-based Welfare Plan Document Solutions
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[Guidance Overview]
Agencies Target Employer Health Plans Without Hospitalization, Physician Services
"The pending guidance will arrive after a few steps. The HHS will propose amending 45 C.F.R. 156.145 to provide that a plan won't provide minimum value if it excludes substantial coverage for inpatient hospitalization or physician services. Treasury and the IRS will issue proposed regulations that apply the HHS regulations under Section 36B. Under the HHS and Treasury regulations, employers won't be able to use the MV Calculator, or any actuarial certification, to show that a plan that fails to provide substantial coverage for inpatient hospitalization services or physician services provides minimum value[.]"
(Bloomberg BNA)
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[Guidance Overview]
Massachusetts Voters Pass Mandatory Sick Time Law for All Employers, Effective July 1, 2015
"[E]mployers are required to provide a minimum of one hour of earned sick time for every 30 hours worked by an employee. Employees begin to accrue the earned sick time commencing on the date of their hire ... but they are not entitled to use their accrued sick time until the 90th calendar day following their hire date.... The law empowers the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office to enforce its provisions, but also provides for a private right of action by aggrieved individuals. The private right of action provision provides for the recovery of mandatory triple damages and attorneys' fees."
(Jackson Lewis P.C.)
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Sixty-Five Percent of Workers in the Northeast Had Access to Paid Sick Leave in March 2014
"In March 2014, among all workers in private industry, 76 percent had access to paid holidays, 61 percent had access to paid sick leave, and 77 percent had access to paid vacation days.... The availability of different types of paid leave varies across geographic regions. Sixty-five percent of workers in the Northeast had access to paid sick leave, compared to 57 percent of workers in the Midwest. Access to paid vacation days ranged from 73 percent in the West to 78 percent in both the South and Midwest."
(U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS])
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The ACA Skinny Plan War: Four Ways It Could Burn You
"The agencies want an employer that offers a non-hospital plan -- including a non-hospital plan set up before Nov. 4, 2014 -- to correct any earlier disclosures that stated or implied that the plan might keep the enrolled employee from qualifying for a [ACA] premium subsidy tax credit. If an employer with a non-hospital plan fails to tell an employee that the employee is still eligible for a tax credit, the agencies will consider the plan as implying that the employee was ineligible for the tax credit, officials say. Officials did not say what penalties employers might face if the agencies find that employers use poorly explained non-hospital plans to discourage employees who might qualify for the premium subsidy tax credit from applying for the tax credit."
(LifeHealthPro)
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EEOC Attacks Another Wellness Program
"[The authors] understand the national EEOC decision makers in Washington, D.C. are divided over whether wellness programs, like the one adopted by Honeywell, violate the laws over which the EEOC has authority. Nevertheless, this is the third similar action this particular EEOC regional office has brought in recent months. These actions may be the result of a regional bias rather than a nationwide position. The areas over which this regional office has authority are all of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, and the Northern two-thirds of Illinois[.]"
(Mazursky Constantine LLC)
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How to Build Grassroots Support for Your Wellness Program
"By creating a team of local wellness champions, employees at sites throughout the country know who they can go to when they have a question about or idea for the wellness program. The champions continue to represent employees during ongoing conference calls, and make wellness a new way of life at their locations. [The] network of wellness champions help increase participation and boost engagement in [the] corporate wellness programs."
(HealthFitness)
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When It Comes to Exchanges, Don't Let Your Employees Go It Alone
"Exchanges make it possible for employers to offer more choice in health plans and benefit types.... But with this new level of choice and discretion over how their money will be spent comes the need for individuals to become more savvy consumers and informed purchasers of health benefits products. It's a big step for people who are -- perhaps for the first time -- shopping and making purchase decisions for something as important to their health and financial well-being as health insurance."
(The Institute for HealthCare Consumerism [IHCC])
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Discovering Hidden Health Plan Savings Through Data Analytics and Predictive Modeling
"Organizations that use data analytics and predictive modeling to manage their health plan costs can uncover substantial plan savings.... Data-driven organizations will be better positioned to assess what investments are advisable to provide more efficient and effective care. Moreover, the insights generated by these data tools can be used to make effective changes without simply shifting costs to employees. This article discusses how organizations can use data analytics and predictive modeling to make decisions that improve their health plan's performance and their employees' health."
(Sibson Consulting)
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Marketplace Insurance Premiums in Early Approval States
"In 17 states plus the District of Columbia, six states will have average premium reductions across the carriers' lowest cost silver plans; 10 will have small premium increases (defined as 5% or less); and two will have increases greater than 5 percent. Larger premium increases are more likely to occur in rural areas. Of the 39 rating regions, 26 will see a change from 2014 in the carrier offering the lowest cost silver premium in 2015."
(Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
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Designing Smarter Pay-for-Performance Programs
"The idea behind pay for performance is simple. Because individuals and organizations respond to incentives, physicians whose patients achieve desirable outcomes should be paid more as an incentive to improve their performance. Yet the results of pay-for-performance programs have been largely disappointing. One argument is that neither the right set of incentives nor the right set of metrics has been identified. Another explanation, which has received far less attention, is that the right set of patients has not been identified for targeted efforts."
(JAMA)
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[Opinion]
Aetna Buys bswift: Why Benefit Brokers Must Pay Attention
"Aetna has invested billions in technology preparing for what they view as a consumer-centric health care model. They want to reinvent the patient experience. To quote [Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna], 'We're going to begin to change the health care industry by giving people tools they can put in the palm of their hand.' Here is another quote from Bertolini that would make brokers pause. When asked about the future of health care, Bertolini responded: 'There wouldn't be plan designs. You wouldn't need them. What you would do is invest in all those things that are necessary to keep people healthy.' "
(Joe Markland)
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Press Releases
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