Benefits Implementation Coordinator
USI Consulting Group
in CT

Vice President of Retirement Planning Services
USI Consulting Group
in TN

Retirement Planning Consultant
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in WI

Sr Benefits Analyst
Battelle Memorial Institute
in OH

Retirement Planning Consultant
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in MI

Retirement Plan Administrator
USI Consulting Group
in VA

Account Manager
Lincoln Financial Group
in ANY STATE

Relationship Manager
New York Life Retirement Plan Services
in CA, MA

Defined Contribution Implementation - Project Manager
New York Life Retirement Plan Services
in MA

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The Republican Midterm Victory and the Potential Impact on Healthcare Reform
RECORDED
(Health Management Associates)

7 Trends that Will Impact Wellness in 2015
December 18, 2014 WEBCAST
(Employee Benefit News)

Dealing with Employee Abuse of ADA and FMLA
January 6, 2015 WEBCAST
(Clear Law Institute)

Anthem’s Cancer Care Quality Program: A Blueprint to Improve Care and Reduce Costs
January 13, 2015 WEBCAST
(Atlantic Information Services, Inc)

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[Guidance Overview]

IRS Releases Guidance on Hardship Exemptions from ACA Individual Shared Responsibility Payment and Minimum Essential Coverage
"The regulations address three general areas: [1] employee contributions to a cafeteria plan; [2] health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs); and [3] wellness program incentives. In addition, the final regulations remove the references to specific hardship circumstances and, instead, provide that a taxpayer may claim a hardship exemption on a federal income tax return without obtaining an exemption certification for any month that includes a day on which the taxpayer satisfies the requirements of a hardship for which [HHS], the Treasury Department and the IRS, issue published guidance." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)  

[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.

Insurers Fire Back Over Obamacare Changes
"Risk corridors, a commonly used tool in public policy, were included in the healthcare law to spread risk among insurance companies participating in the new health insurance exchanges.... Critics of the healthcare law have worked for a year to stop the government from spending additional money to enlarge those payments. [HHS] at one point assured the industry that more money would be available, but the 'cromnibus' spending bill ... would prevent that." [See also: House Appropriations Committee Summary of FY 2015 Omnibus -- Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations.] (The Hill)  

Next Round of OCR HIPAA Audits Is Approaching: Are Your HIPAA Ducks in a Row?
"Of the 1,200 entities surveyed in the pre-audit, OCR intends to conduct a full audit of: [1] 350 Covered Entities -- 2/3 of which will be providers and 1/3 of which will be health plans or clearinghouses. Those audits are expected to be conducted between October 2014 and June 2015. [2] 50 Business Associates -- 70% of which are expected to be information technology-related business associates and 30% of which will be non-IT business associates, such as billing companies and TPAs." (McAfee & Taft)  

EEOC Targets Voluntariness of Employer-Sponsored Wellness Programs
"[A table in this article] summarizes certain facts related to the wellness programs at issue. The employee incentives involved in these cases are significant; employees who elect to forgo participation in the programs lose 'incentives' such as eligibility for health insurance coverage or 100% employer-paid premiums.... Although it is clear from the complaints that the EEOC believes the penalties at issue render the wellness programs involuntary, the complaints do not shed much light on the threshold at which an incentive is deemed a penalty that renders a wellness program involuntary." (Bass, Berry & Sims)  

Young Invincibles Want to Pay for Low-Deductible Plans
"In a [recent survey], more than 50 percent of those earning at least $50,000 said they would rather buy a health plan with a low premium and a high deductible -- something that less that 40 percent of those earning less than $50,000 would prefer.... Forty-six percent of Millennials ... said they'd prefer to buy a coverage plan with high premiums and low deductibles, compared to only 33 percent of those 50 or older." (Healthcare Payer News)  

[Advert.]

Join a free web briefing on December 11

With daily emails, a user-friendly website, and web briefings, Mercer Select members stay informed about key benefit, comp and HR issues. Sign up for a free web briefing on Dec. 11 at 1 pm ET, or for a free demo or guest membership.

Value-Based Payment Is Spreading, But Models Need Refinement
"Some 40 percent of payments by private plans to health care providers are now tied to 'value,' meaning they are linked to better or less costly care, rather than the volume of services provided. In 2013, just 11 percent of such payments aimed to improve quality and efficiency." (The Commonwealth Fund)  

Economics of Health Insurance Exchanges
Page includes summaries of and links to working drafts of papers presented at a meeting held December 5, 2014, and chaired by Leemore Dafny, Northwestern University, and Jonathan Gruber, MIT: [1] Measuring Consumer Valuation of Limited Provider Networks; [2] Controlling Health Care Costs Through Limited Network Insurance Plans: Evidence from Massachusetts State Employees; [3] The Effect of Market Size and Composition on Health Insurance Premiums: Evidence from the First Year of the ACA; and [4] Competing under New Rules of the Game: An Analysis of Insurer Entry and Premiums for Exchange-Based Coverage. (National Bureau of Economic Research [NBER])  

What to Watch for During This Year's Open Enrollment Period: Lessons from the Health Reform Monitoring Survey
"While increasing awareness of the Marketplace will continue to be important as the second open enrollment period unfolds, there are two additional issues that may determine how many more uninsured people actually gain coverage this year. First, will the remaining uninsured be reluctant to seek coverage and enroll during the current open enrollment period, and if so, why? Second, for people seeking information on health plans, what sources of information are they likely to turn to, and will those sources be adequate to meet the demand?" (Health Affairs)  

CBO Report: Comparing the Costs of the Veterans' Health Care System with Private-Sector Costs
"[L]imited evidence and substantial uncertainty make it difficult to reach firm conclusions about those relative costs or about whether it would be cheaper to expand veterans' access to health care in the future through VHA facilities or the private sector.... This report briefly describes some of the features that distinguish the health care system run by VHA from health care provided in the private sector. It also examines the available evidence about the relative costs of VHA and private-sector care" (Congressional Budget Office [CBO])  

[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Notice 2014-79: Standard Mileage Rates for 2015 (PDF)
"The standard mileage rate for transportation or travel expenses is 57.5 cents per mile for all miles of business use (business standard mileage rate).... 14 cents per mile for use of an automobile in rendering gratuitous services to a charitable organization under Section 170.... [and] 23 cents per mile for use of an automobile [1] for medical care described in Section 213, or [2] as part of a move for which the expenses are deductible under Section 217." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

A Potential Turning of the Tide: Eleventh Circuit Affirms Enforcement of Summary Plan Description Terms
"The court first rejected the argument that a document could not be both a written instrument that set forth the plan's terms ... and a summary plan description ... Although Amara precludes enforcement of SPDs 'where the terms of that summary conflict with the terms specified in other, governing plan documents,' the Eleventh Circuit noted that the Supreme Court only rejected the proposition that SPDs 'necessarily may be enforced ... as the terms of the plan itself.' This 'leaves open the possibility that terms in those summaries may, at times, be enforced, even though they are not always enforceable.' " [Bd. of Trustees of the National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan v. Montanile, No. 14-11678 (11th Cir. Nov. 25, 2014)] (Seyfarth Shaw LLP)  

Year-End Employee Benefits and Compensation Planning Ideas (PDF)
5 pages. "December may be the last time to take some actions in order to be effective in 2015, such as nonqualified plan salary deferral elections, while in other cases December provides a new opportunity to ensure arrangements are ready for new rules in 2015, such as the [ACA] employer mandate. [This article provides a] list of key considerations for the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015." (PricewaterhouseCoopers)  

Managing the Impact of Long-Term Care Needs and Expense on Retirement Security
"The collection of papers in this monograph were the result of a call for papers issued by the SOA's Committee on Post Retirement Needs and Risks in partnership with the Long Term Care Section to explore the impact of long-term care needs and expense on retirement security from a variety of aspects." [Page includes links to 12 papers, as well as an Overview Chapter and Collected Abstracts.] (Society of Actuaries)  

Proxy Advisory Firms Release 2015 Policy Updates (PDF)
5 pages. "ISS' most significant policy update pertains to the new equity plan scorecard (EPSC) for evaluating equity plan proposals. The EPSC is a more nuanced multi-factor approach to evaluating equity plan proposals in contrast to the current approach, which consists of a series of stand-alone pass/fail tests (e.g., shareholder value transfer (SVT) plan cost and burn rate) and the presence of certain 'egregious' plan features (e.g., stock option repricing without shareholder approval)." (Frederic W. Cook & Co., Inc.)  

Rebecca McLaughlan Promoted to Vice President of McGraw Wentworth
McGraw Wentworth

Congress’ Holiday Present to Retirees: Slashing Their Pensions
Pension Rights Center

LIMRA Names New Research Head for LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute
LIMRA

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