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Commonwealth Financial Network
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National Business Group on Health
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Election Changes in 2015 and Beyond: What Employers and Administrators Need to Know
RECORDED
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

Leaves of Absence and Employee Benefits Compliance: Legal Rules and Compliance Traps
February 12, 2015 WEBCAST
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

Annual Qualified Health Plan Certification Conference
February 23, 2015 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS])

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[Official Guidance]

IRS Presentation Slides: How to Transmit ACA Information Returns to the IRS in 2015 (PDF)
8 slides. Topics: [1] Preparations for 1094/5 B & C; [2] Channels Available for ACA Transmissions and Acknowledgements; [3] Submitting ACA Information Returns; [4] Retrieving Acknowledgements for ACA Transmissions (Status and Error Detail); [5] Retrieving Acknowledgements for ACA Transmissions -- Status Definitions; [6] Completing the ACA Transmitter Control Code (TCC) Application. (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Advert.]

Form 5500 Reporting Update

This live webinar will help you understand when you need to file a Form 5500 and what you need to file, and will focus on some recent changes that may impact your filings. BenefitsLink discount.

[Guidance Overview]

Massachusetts Expands Parental Leave Rights
"This law is significant because it requires employers with six or more employees to provide gender-neutral parental leave. Although all Massachusetts employers should be aware of this change, those with fewer than 50 employees should take particular notice because their existing parental leave policies are more likely to be structured as 'maternity' leaves applicable only to female employees." (Morgan Lewis)  

IRS Limits Scope of Transit Exclusion's Retroactive Increase
"[A] limited number of entities will benefit from the retroactive allowance -- namely, companies with qualified transportation fringe benefits that provided an 'excess transit benefit' during 2014. That term refers to any amount in mass transit benefits -- either delivered to the employee through a compensation reduction agreement or funded by the employer -- in excess of the $130 monthly limit that was in place as of Jan. 1, 2014, up to the new limit applied retroactively, which is $250 per month.... The guidance, which provides a special administrative procedure for certain employers to claim refunds of employment tax overpayments, only applies to employers that administered their QTFBs by allowing an excess transit benefit while including the excess amount as taxable wages." (Thompson SmartHR Manager)  

HIPAA Medical Privacy Matters: Court Permits ADA Claim to Proceed
"[J]ust because there is not a violation does not mean the employer can freely act on that information. Remember that one of the purposes of the HIPAA privacy rules is to [make sure that employees] do not suffer adverse employment actions as a result of their employer getting wind of their medical costs paid by the plan. Here, the employer may not have violated the 'privacy rule' but it still used that information to terminate the employee. So even though the 'medical information' may not be protected does not mean the employee is not still protected from an employer misusing that information." [Myers v. Hog Slat, Inc., No. C13-3032-LTS (N.D. Iowa Oct. 24, 2014)] (Fox Rothschild LLP)  

Senate Hearing Discusses ACA Definition of 'Full-Time'
"Sen. Alexander started the hearing by citing a Hoover Institution study, which found that the 30-hour standard puts 2.6 million working-age Americans at risk of losing jobs and work hours. Alexander claimed many of these employees work in the hospitality, retail, and restaurant industries, and are disproportionately women. Dr. Doug Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum, testified that this number of workers at risk of having their hours reduced on account of the 30-hour definition was as high as 9.8 million." (Littler)  

Surviving Spouses of Caterpillar Retirees Entitled to Damages for Cost of Substitute Healthcare
"[Caterpillar] argued that surviving spouses who terminated Caterpillar's insurance plan because of the employer's breach were not legally entitled to recover damages for the cost of obtaining substitute coverage and reimbursement for out-of-pocket healthcare costs that would have been covered had Caterpillar honored the 1988 [group insurance plan]. The court disagreed ... [and] determined that it was entirely foreseeable that imposing premiums on a group of surviving spouses would result in some individuals' being unwilling or unable to pay the premiums. Because the risk that the surviving spouses would be unable to afford to pay premiums for their insurance was created by Caterpillar's breach it must bear the costs as the defaulting party." [Kerns v. Caterpillar, Inc., No. 3:06-CV-1113 (M.D. Tenn. Jan. 6, 2015)] (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)  

Harvard Professors Fall Out of the Ivory Tower with Health Care Hikes
"The New York Times recently stirred up a media firestorm when it reported about Harvard University professors who were lambasting the health care increases they were facing this year.... While Harvard employees have an annual deductible of $250 for a single individual and $750 for a family, nationally, most workers have an in-network median deductible of $1,500 for single coverage and $4,000 for a family ... Compare $1,500 for an individual and $4,500 for a family at Harvard to the national median in-network out-of-pocket limit of $3,500 for single and $8,000 for a family." (United Benefit Advisors)  

Characteristics of Those Affected by a Supreme Court Finding for the Plaintiff in King v. Burwell
"[T]his brief describes the characteristics of those that would be affected, particularly those who would otherwise have nongroup insurance. Of the 9.3 million people estimated to lose tax credits, two-thirds would become uninsured. Most are adults who are low and middle income but not poor, most are white, non-Hispanic, and most reside in the South. Financial burdens would increase substantially for those wishing to continue buying the same coverage they would have under current implementation of the law." (Urban Institute)  

Is There Really an Individual Health Insurance Mandate?
"According to the Wall Street Journal, 'The instructions for completing the mandate exemption form run 12 pages, list 19 types of exemptions (with multiple codes), and include worksheets that may require individuals to go to their state exchange's Web site to find the monthly premiums that will determine whether they had access to 'affordable coverage.' For the last year we have heard that a taxpayer that got too large a subsidy will have to pay the excess back -- and a taxpayer that got too little will get a refund. How will this be reconciled? The directions for doing this fill up pages 10 to 15 in IRS Publication 5187 and explain how Form 8962 must be prepared." (Healthcare Payer News)  

UnitedHealth's $43 Billion Exit from Fee-for-Service Medicine
"Value-based payments come in a variety of forms. They include: pay-for-performance programs, patient-centered medical homes and accountable care organizations, a rapidly emerging care delivery system that rewards doctors and hospitals for working together to improve quality and rein in costs. UnitedHealth said it is generating 1 percent to 6 percent in savings from its various value-based reimbursement approaches. Once rolled out by commercial and government insurers on a pilot basis, they are quickly becoming the norm." (Forbes)  

UnitedHealth Group Ahead on ACA Enrollment, Forecasts Profitable 2015
"Insurance premium revenue grew by 6 percent, with medical costs increasing by 4 percent. Its medical cost ratio, what [United CEO Stephen Hemsley] calls 'the best overall metric describing medical cost performance across UnitedHealthcare's diverse benefits businesses,' was 80.9 percent in 2014 and is expected to remain around there or just below it for the full year 2015." (Healthcare Payer News)  

Plaintiffs' Lawyers Continue to Press New Theories in Executive Compensation Litigation -- with Some Success
"What seemed to win the executive compensation case for J&J was the investigation and report of special outside counsel appointed by the Board's special litigation committee. Obviously, boards of directors frequently create a special committee to investigate potential malfeasance or study the merits of and respond to litigation. Boards now may consider this approach for executive compensation matters as well. However, it will be unfortunate and costly if litigation developments begin to force companies facing this kind of litigation to protect themselves by retaining special executive compensation counsel." [George Leon Family Trust v. Johnson & Johnson, No. 12-cv-4401 (D.N.J. 2014)] (Winston & Strawn LLP)  

Court Holds Employer Responsible under ERISA for FICA Withholding Errors
"The Davidson case raises the specter that any failure to properly apply tax rules to a nonqualified deferred compensation plan that then results in additional tax liability to a participant may expose the employer to an ERISA benefit claim.... [A] participant might argue that other types of tax liabilities he or she incurred as a result of the employer's failure to operate the plan in accordance with applicable tax laws impermissibly reduced the benefits he or she was entitled to receive under the plan. Of particular concern are the complex requirements imposed under Code Section 409A which, if violated, can result in significant penalties to affected employees, such as immediate taxation of their plan benefits, a 20-percent additional tax and a 'premium interest tax.' " [Davidson v. Henkel Corp., No. 12-cv-14103 (E.D. Mich. Jan. 6, 2015)] (McGuireWoods LLP)  

Southeast Michigan’s First Municipal Employer Sponsored Health and Wellness Center Opening in Madison Heights
Cornerstone Municipal Advisory Group, LLC

PSCA Updates ERISA Fiduciary Training
PSCA [Plan Sponsor Council of America]

Broadridge to Acquire Wilmington Trust Unit
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.

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