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

Implementation Specialist
benefitsCONNECT
in CA

Vice-President of Sales
Verisight, Inc.
in CA

Pension Field Service Rep
Nationwide Insurance
in CO, WA

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Evaluating Your Employee Health Benefit Program
November 21, 2014 WEBCAST
(Clear Law Institute)

A Deeper Dive into Social Security Claiming Strategies: Mary Beth Franklin Answers Your Questions
December 9, 2014 WEBCAST
(InvestmentNews)

Ethical Considerations for the Employee Benefits Practitioner
December 9, 2014 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

Retirement Plan Distributions - What Every Participant Should Know
December 11, 2014 WEBCAST
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

Information Risk Management Essentials
December 11, 2014 WEBCAST
(Clearwater Compliance)

Protection of IRA & Qualified Plan Assets after Clark v. Rameker
January 8, 2015 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

Just for ERPAs Workshop
January 27, 2015 in FL
(SunGard Relius)

SunGard's Advanced Pension Conference
January 28, 2015 in FL
(SunGard Relius)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Official Guidance]

Text of CMS Guidance for Issuers of Qualified Health Plans: Re-Adjudication of Claims Subject to Cost-Sharing Reductions (PDF)
"CMS expects issuers to re-adjudicate claims in a manner resulting in cost-sharing reduction calculations approximating the amounts that would result if the claims were re-adjudicated in the order in which the claims arose ... [To] ensure accuracy and consistency, an issuer that uses a third-party PBM for pharmaceutical claims may elect to re-adjudicate claims by first setting all accumulators to zero, and then reprocessing the medical claims in temporal order followed by the pharmaceutical claims in temporal order.... [This] guidance also applies with respect to any other third-party administrator of a subset of an issuer's benefits, such as a third-party administrator of substance use disorder benefits." (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS])  

[Advert.]

ftwPortal Pro is here to help you during the testing season!

Streamline your census and annual questionnaire process with ftwPortal Pro. Choose from batch delivery or online electronic completion on the portal, and seamlessly import the information directly into our Admin software!

[Guidance Overview]

New FAQs Address Premium Reimbursement Arrangements (PDF)
"These recent FAQs clarify (and appear to modify the IRS position) that even after-tax amounts designated or otherwise limited to reimburse premiums will be considered a group health plan that will fail to meet market reforms and which could trigger penalties. Presumably, an employer could provide additional (undesignated) salary to employees, which would not be considered a group health plan, even if at some point, the employee chooses to use the money to purchase individual health insurance." (Buck Consultants at Xerox)  

[Guidance Overview]

Government Moves to Prevent Health Policy Reimbursements
"On November 6, 2014 ... [the DOL] killed cost savings strategies that were especially helpful to small and mid-size businesses. Employers may not reimburse employees for the cost of individual health policies, even with after-tax dollars. The DOL opinion extends to all employers, including those which are too small -- less than 50 full-time equivalents -- for the 'pay or play' penalties ... Welcome to Internal Revenue Code Section 4980D tax penalties, and the self-assessment process of Form 8928." (Chimento & Webb, P.C.)  

[Guidance Overview]

CalPERS Announces Guidance Regarding Eligibility for Health Benefits of ACA Variable-Hour Employees and Retired Annuitants
"A CalPERS agency can now enroll previously ineligible variable-hour employees (who work full-time under the ACA) into [Public Employer Medical and Hospital Care Act (PEMHCA)] health benefits by written designation.... The designation is a permitting event outside of open enrollment.... CalPERS developed a designation template that employers can use to designate an employee as PEMHCA-eligible.... CalPERS recommends that employers develop policies prohibiting retired annuitants from working full-time, as defined by the ACA." (Liebert Cassidy Whitmore)  

Incentives for Small Firms to Self-Fund Their Health Plans
"This article will first explain the ACA's regulatory incentives for small firms to self-fund their healthcare plans. Second, it will review the potential risks involved with self-funding by small firms even with stop-loss reinsurance. Third, it will discuss various proposals to reduce these risks within current political and legal constraints." (The Brookings Institution)  

[Advert.]

Reduce costs. Improve cash flow. Curb rising benefit premiums.

Explore the advantages of a Self-Funded Health Plan! By bringing together cutting edge cost containment strategies, excellent service and outstanding resources, IPMG's EBS division can help you make a difference for your plan.

What to Expect During Open-Enrollment Season: Findings From the SHRM/EBRI 2014 Health Benefits Survey (PDF)
"[O]nly 1 percent of plan sponsors are planning to eliminate health benefits in 2015. However, while most workers will not see major changes to their benefits next year, they are likely to see a continuation of changes that employers have been making for a number of years. A relatively large number of employers continue to introduce wellness rewards and penalties ... Few employers are planning to make changes to eligibility for spousal coverage and part-time worker benefits, and few are moving toward tiered networks, private health insurance exchanges, value-based insurance design, and reference pricing." (Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI])  

The Shrinking Market for Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance
"This year, 75 percent of the brokers surveyed had at least one employer client decide to end health coverage and instead urge their workers to buy insurance through public exchanges. In 2015, 17 percent of brokers expect to lose about a quarter of their group clients because of coverage cessation ... Almost 75 percent of brokers surveyed saw premium increases for small and mid-sized businesses in the double-digits and more than one-third saw rate increases of at least 60 percent." (Healthcare Payer News)  

Then and Now: The Spiraling Cost of Prescription Drugs
Infographic. "Despite the introduction of new, and in many cases more innovative, medical treatments, prescription drugs that have been around for years continue to get more and more expensive. And what about claims of innovation when the price of one drug can rise by an astounding 9,145 percent in only six months? ... This is just one example ... Doxycycline in 2013: $20 per bottle ... Doxycycline in 2014: $1,849 per bottle." (America's Health Insurance Plans [AHIP])  

Modest Health Benefit Cost Growth Continues as Consumerism Kicks Into High Gear
"[A]verage total health benefit cost per employee rose 3.9% in 2014. Enrollment in high-deductible, consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) jumped from 18% to 23% of all covered employees following a surge of new implementations. Nearly half of large employers (48%) now offer a CDHP, up from 39%. Private exchanges used by 3% of large employers, with 28% likely to make the shift within five years." (Mercer)  

Private Exchanges: Do You Really Know All the Questions to Ask?
"The private health insurance exchange market is very complex, and each exchange or marketplace is different. In fact, many employers remain largely unaware of the variety of solutions available today under the 'private exchange' label.... [Is] the exchange you are considering a technology company or a marketplace offered by a broker, consultant, association or health plan?" (KTP Advisors, via The Institute for HealthCare Consumerism [IHCC])  

Medical and Prescription Drug Deductibles for Plans Offered in Federally Facilitated and Partnership Marketplaces for 2015
"[This] slide show provides an initial look at the deductibles for medical care and the specific deductibles applied to prescription drugs for the plans offered in the federally facilitated and partnership Marketplaces available healthcare.gov. The amounts are simple averages of the plans available[.]" (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)  

How 13 Million Americans Could Lose Insurance Subsidies
"Based on [CBO] estimates, ... a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis ... shows that 13 million Americans could lose financial assistance, with more than half living in five states. A map based on the Foundation analysis provides a state-level breakdown of the number of Americans who in 2016 could be denied financial assistance to help pay insurance premiums for plans purchased in the ACA's federally operated insurance exchanges." (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)  

[Opinion]

Insurers Gleefully Partner with Government for Mandated Taxpayer Premium and Claim Support Created by ACA
"After 2017, some insurers will continue to support the law as they will have grown addicted the the government premium checks. However, [the author suspects] most of them will be ready to abandon the program due to the loss of the Three Rs, horrific levels of adverse selection, and the ever-mounting pile of regulatory burdens." (Benefit Revolution)  

[Opinion]

The Momentum of Pension Reform in Wisconsin Must Be Extended to Health Insurance for Public Employees and Retirees
"Evaluated on the same basis as [the Wisconsin Retirement System] (under the reporting rules of the Government Accounting Standards Board), this other post-employment benefit (OPEB) program has an unfunded actuarial accrued liability equal to a burdensome 29 percent of all the future wages of active participants. Wisconsin would be better served by reducing its OPEB commitments and by introducing a new system of health saving accounts to fund OPEB benefits for younger and future employees." (National Center for Policy Analysis)  

Technical Explanation, Estimated Revenue Effects, Distribution Analysis, and Macroeconomic Analysis of the Tax Reform Act of 2014 (PDF)
702 pages; based on Discussion Draft prepared by the Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means. Provisions related to pension and retirement begin on page 101, and include: Changes to rules for individual retirement arrangements; Repeal of exception to 10-percent penalty for first-time home purchases and elimination of first-time home purchase as a qualified distribution from a Roth IRA; Termination of new simplified employee pensions; Termination for new SIMPLE 401(k) plans; Modification of required distribution rules for pension plans; Reduction in age for allowable in-service distributions; Modification of rules governing hardship distributions; Extended rollover period for the rollover of plan loan offset amounts in certain cases; Coordination of contribution limitations for 403(b) plans and governmental 457(b) plans; Application of 10-percent early distribution tax to governmental 457 plans; and Inflation adjustments for employer-sponsored retirement plan dollar limitations on benefits and contributions. Provisions related to compensation begin on page 457 and include: Nonqualified deferred compensation; Modification of limitation on excessive employee remuneration; Excise tax on excess tax-exempt organization executive compensation; Denial of deduction as research expenditure for stock transferred pursuant to an incentive stock option; and Determination of worker classification. (Joint Committee on Taxation [JCT], U.S. Congress)  

On Tetreault, Gabriel, and the First Circuit's Reluctance to Recognize Equitable Estoppel in ERISA Cases
"As an evidentiary bar, [the Ninth Circuit's requirement of extraordinary circumstances] separates the routine case where there is a random misstatement from a low level HR person upon which a plaintiff's lawyer tries to fashion an entire estoppel claim (which federal court judges have been seeing, and for the most part rejecting, for years) from a deliberate pattern and practice of self-serving conduct that harms participants (and which federal court judges don't see all that often). These types of additional requirements for estoppel claims under the equitable relief provision of ERISA, above and beyond the standard requirement of reasonable reliance on a misstatement of fact, allow the courts to limit this type of relief, in the ERISA context, to the more egregious circumstances only." [Tetreault v. Reliance Standard, No. 13-2353 (1st Cir. Oct. 6, 2014); Gabriel v. Alaska Electrical Pension Fund, No. 12-354581 (9th Cir. June 6, 2014)] (Stephen Rosenberg of The Wagner Law Group)  

2015 Compensation Committee Handbook
"The Handbook is intended to help compensation committee members understand and comply with the duties imposed upon them, and ... will also be a useful resource for compensation committee advisers. [The authors] deliberately wrote the Handbook in a less technical manner so as to make its content more accessible. As such, the Handbook should not be considered an exhaustive compliance resource. At the same time, however, ... it will provide helpful insights and bring clarity to an area that has become increasingly complex." (Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP)  

Expansion Continues for Pensionmark Retirement Group with New Houston Office
Pensionmark Retirement Group

Mercer Alum Laura Ramanis Joins Verisight as COO
Mercer

Creative Retirement Systems, Inc. is Certified to Industry Best Practices
Centre for Fiduciary Excellence [CEFEX]

Ameritas Expands Investment Options in Retirement Plans Program
Ameritas Retirement Plans

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