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Employee Benefits Jobs
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Webcasts and Conferences
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[Guidance Overview]
DOL and HHS Enforcement Activities Targeting Health Plans and Insurers (PDF)
7 pages. "[T]he ACA and MHPAEA's enforcement scheme splits regulatory authority between state governments and the federal government -- and even federal enforcement is split among three different agencies, depending on the type of health plan at issue. This tangled enforcement scheme runs the risk of overlapping enforcement actions that could impose significant and unnecessary compliance costs on plan sponsors and insurers. This article provides a high-level overview of how ACA and MHPAEA enforcement authority is allocated between the states and the federal government, and how (and when) three federal agencies -- [HHS, DOL and IRS] -- may enforce the ACA and MHPAEA. [The article also discusses] current enforcement activities by HHS and DOL against insurers and plan sponsors ... [and] offers suggestions on how insurers and plan sponsors can best prepare for ACA and MHPAEA audits."
(Groom Law Group)
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ERIC Urges Sixth Circuit to Apply 'Ordinary Principles of Contract Interpretation' Concerning Vesting of Retiree Healthcare Benefits
"[ERIC has] filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit urging the court to apply 'ordinary principles of contract interpretation' involving vesting of retiree health benefits following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in M&G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett.... 'The Sixth Circuit potentially rehearing the Kelsey-Hayes case is an important opportunity to ensure a proper reading of the Supreme Court's Tackett ruling. For the first time in over 30 years, the Sixth Circuit is now writing on a blank slate when it comes to retiree health care benefits,'
said ERIC President and CEO Annette Guarisco Fildes.... 'No reasonable employer should be deemed by implication to have unalterably committed itself to provide such uncertain and costly benefits for life,' [she] added."
(The ERISA Industry Committee [ERIC])
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2015 Workplace Wellness Trends Survey Results (PDF)
"More than half of all organizations (55%) have budgets devoted to wellness, and more than four in five offer some type of wellness initiative. Among organizations with wellness offerings, seven years is the average amount of time these efforts have been in place.... 59% are primarily offering wellness to invest in/increase worker health and engagement, while 41% aim to control/reduce health-related costs.... One in five organizations without a wellness budget expects to adopt a budget in the next two years.... The top barriers to wellness implementation are not enough time for workers to participate, dispersed worker populations and difficulty keeping momentum going."
(International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP])
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Engaging Health Care Consumers: The Lowe's Experience
"In the early 2000s, to assist employees in managing chronic illnesses such as diabetes and other medical conditions and reduce overall health care costs, Lowe's became an early adopter of a disease management program managed by a health plan.... Lowe's quickly learned that third-party credibility was one of the most important things that mattered to employees, especially when it came to something as personal as health care. In retrospect, the results of Lowe's early disease management program aren't surprising."
(Health Affairs)
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Views on Employment-Based Health Benefits: Findings from the 2014 Health and Voluntary Workplace Benefits Survey
"[H]ealth insurance in particular continues to be, by far, the most important employee benefit to workers. Most workers are satisfied with the health benefits they have now, although nearly one-third would change the mix of wages and health benefits, which may reflect an intensifying desire for real wage growth. Choice of health plans is important to workers, and they would like more choices, but most workers express confidence that their employers or unions have selected the best available health plan.... Individuals are not highly comfortable that they could use an objective rating system to choose health insurance nor are they extremely confident that a rating system could help them choose the best health insurance."
(Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI])
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Top Ten Employee Questions on Enrolling in Health Plans
"An analysis of the top 10 questions asked by full-time active employees who enrolled in health plans ... shows that when offered a meaningful choice of health plans on private exchanges, first-time enrollees need basic information about their plan choices and how health insurance works. This underscores the importance of employers and exchange providers offering education, decision support tools and personalized, expert advice to help employees choose the plans that are best for them and their families. Here are the top 10 questions employees asked[.]"
(Towers Watson)
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Union Plans Need to Look Ahead to 'Cadillac' Tax Despite Lack of Guidance
"Most employers are anxiously awaiting guidance on the tax, dubbed the 'Cadillac' tax, but collectively bargained plans are especially sensitive to the timing of the guidance's rollout because the contracts they are negotiating now could stretch to or past Jan. 1, 2018.... At a minimum ... employers should have the tax in the back of their minds when they are negotiating, and they may want to consider putting a clause in the contract that would allow them to reopen negotiations in 2017 once more guidance is out."
(Bloomberg BNA)
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Is 408(b)(2) Disclosure for Health and Welfare Plans on the Horizon? (PDF)
"The FY 2016 Congressional Budget Justification prepared by EBSA provides insights into their agenda. Regulatory projects are included in the requests for increased staff and funds for enforcement activities. Number one on the list is 'amending 408(b)(2) of ERISA to improve fee disclosure for welfare plans'."
(ERISAdiagnostics)
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Even Insured Consumers Get Hit with Unexpectedly Large Medical Bills
"[M]any consumers who take pains to research which doctors and hospitals participate in their plans can still end up with huge bills. Sometimes, that's because they got incorrect or incomplete information from their insurer or health-care provider. Sometimes, it's because a physician has multiple offices, and not all are in network ... Sometimes, it's because a participating hospital relies on out-of-network doctors, including emergency room physicians, anesthesiologists and radiologists.... Efforts by doctors, hospitals and other health providers to charge patients for bills not covered by their insurers are called 'balance billing.' The problem pre-dates the federal health law and has long been among the top complaints filed with state insurance regulators."
(Kaiser Health News)
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More Employers Investigating Benefits of Private Exchanges
"47 percent of respondents have already implemented or are considering a private exchange for full-time employees by 2018, and 37 percent of respondents are doing the same for retirees.... [E]mployers remain committed to providing benefits to their full-time employees, with 96 percent of respondents saying they were very likely to offer coverage in 2016. That number is up from 77 percent in last year's survey and remains high over the near term, declining to 88 percent of respondents very likely to offer benefits in 2018.... 26 percent of respondents have implemented the public exchange for COBRA participants, and 11 percent have implemented for pre-65 retirees, both up from 6 percent in 2013."
(The Institute for HealthCare Consumerism [IHCC])
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EBSA Investigation Returns $39.8M to More Than 400 Benefit Plans Nationwide
"After nearly six years of litigation, a federal district court in Philadelphia recently entered a $39.8 million judgment, protecting the rights of workers who participated in more than 400 death benefit plans ... The defendants are permanently barred from serving as fiduciaries to any employee benefit plan and ... must make restitution to the plans.... The plans primarily provided death benefits to participants nationwide and were established in connection with [the] Regional Employers' Assurance Leagues Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association and Single Employer Welfare Benefit Plan."
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor [DOL])
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Pressure Mounts to Overhaul Military Health Plans
"Total costs of pay and healthcare for active military members, retirees and veterans is around $417 billion a year, or more than 60 percent of the combined DOD/VA budget, according to retired major general Arnold Punaro, chairman of the Reserve Forces Policy Board, who recently warned that the DOD could 'turn into a benefits company that occasionally kills a terrorist.' "
(Healthcare Payer News)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Guidance Overview]
SEC Issues Proposed Rule on Hedging Disclosure
"Among the four remaining Dodd-Frank executive compensation and governance disclosures awaiting rulemaking by the SEC, the disclosure on hedging transactions is the sole one that is uncontroversial and that does not create a significant compliance burden. Perhaps that is why the SEC decided at this time to issue its proposed rule on hedging transactions, rather than to adopt a final rule on the CEO pay ratio or to release proposed rules on the two other important Dodd-Frank mandates (i.e., disclosure on the relationship between pay and performance and mandatory recoupment or 'clawback' policies)."
(Meridian Compensation Partners, LLC)
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2014 JCEB Q&As Offer Nonbinding DOL Responses on Employee Benefits Issues
"The Q&As, compiled by JCEB, are based on discussions between JCEB and DOL representatives at their 2014 Joint Committee of Employee Benefits Technical Session, held on May 7, 2014. Responses to the questions are unofficial and nonbinding. Topics addressed include (but are not limited to): [1] The definition of 'party in interest.' [2] Exceptions to the plan asset rules. [3] The use of target date fund indices as a fund benchmark. [4] The use of a range of fees in an ERISA Section 408(b)(2) fee disclosure. [5] Participant threats and ERISA Section 510. [6] Form 5500 requirements for insurers."
(Practical Law Company)
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Press Releases
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