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Retirement Strategies, Inc.
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Department of Labor Fiduciary Definition Proposal: What’s Next?
June 18, 2015 WEBCAST
(LIMRA)

Health Care Exchanges: More than a Simple Swap Is a Private Health Care Exchange Right for Your Organization?
June 24, 2015 WEBCAST
(Ropes & Gray)

Flexible Spending Account Trends for 2015
July 16, 2015 WEBCAST
(Evolution1)

Safe Harbor 401(k) - St. Louis
July 16, 2015 in MO
(SunGard Relius)

Advanced Cross-Tested Plans: Adding More Tools - St. Louis
July 17, 2015 in MO
(SunGard Relius)

25th Annual IRA Academy
August 7, 2015 in DC
(PenServ Plan Services, Inc.)

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[Guidance Overview]

IRS Releases Additional Guidance on ACA Reporting, Including Electronic Filing (PDF)
"In addition to making minor changes to its Q&As on Section 6055 reporting, the IRS made more substantive changes to previously posted questions and answers on Section 6056 reporting and added a new document that provides employers with more specific information on completing Form 1094-C and Form 1095-C." (Buck Consultants at Xerox)  

[Advert.]

A Clear, Concise Guide to Health Care Reform

You've got questions—this book has the answers. 2015 Healthcare Reform Facts provides helpful and easy-to-understand answers to 532 questions asked by employers and their advisors. An essential guide for your bookshelf! Order Now.

[Guidance Overview]

Health Reimbursement Accounts and the Military Health System
"MHS differs from the private sector in that any payments received from these payment types as part of cost-sharing are not accepted. If an HRA payment is made to cover an HDHP copay and/or a deductible, then it must be returned to the payer per 32 CFR 220.2(b). However, unlike FSAs and HSAs, HRAs are not paid into by beneficiaries, but are established and funded by the employers in order to provide greater control over their health care coverage." (Altarum Institute)  

[Guidance Overview]

Oregon Legislature Mandates Sick Leave for All Employees
"The sick leave law will apply to all employers in Oregon. Employers with 10 or more employees anywhere in the state will be obligated to provide employees with up to 40 hours of paid sick time per year, without regard to whether the employees are full-time, part-time, seasonal, or temporary, and without regard to whether they are paid on a salary, hourly, commission, piece-rate, or other basis.... Employers that are not required to provide paid leave (i.e., those located in Portland with five or fewer employees or those outside Portland with nine or fewer employees) will still be obligated to provide employees up to 40 hours of sick time, but the leave may be unpaid." (Ogletree Deakins)  

[Guidance Overview]

Reminder for California Employers: Paid Sick Leave Effective July 1, 2015
"On July 1, 2015, California's Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 takes effect requiring that employers provide at least three paid sick days per year to employees. Employers must comply with notice and record-keeping requirements.... While most employers have paid sick leave policies in place, their policies may not satisfy the accrual or use requirements, so they should still review them for compliance." (Holland & Knight)  

CMS Announcement: Transitional Reinsurance Program -- Pro Rata Adjustment to the National Coinsurance Rate for the 2014 Benefit Year (PDF)
"[HHS] is pleased to announce that the national coinsurance rate for the 2014 benefit year for the transitional reinsurance program will be increased from 80 percent to 100 percent for non-grandfathered reinsurance-eligible individual market plans' covered claims costs between the attachment point of $45,000 and the reinsurance cap of $250,000. HHS will remit payments to issuers starting in August 2015." [This unnumbered document is dated June 17, 2015.] (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS])  

Magnifying a 2020 Vision: A Closer Look at Selected Proposals to Strengthen Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits (PDF)
10 pages. "This report highlights six serious challenges the Council has identified and describes our legislative proposals to fix them.... [1] Expand health reimbursement arrangements to increase flexibility;[2] End the forty percent tax on health benefits; [3] Modify the employer shared responsibility requirement; [4] Simplify employer reporting requirements; [5] Repeal the automatic enrollment requirement; [6] Improve health savings accounts." (American Benefits Council)  

Employers Considering Unconventional Strategies to Manage Double-Digit Drug Cost Increases
"Seventy-eight percent of employers are strongly concerned about the increasing costs of specialty drugs and 60% are strongly concerned about the number of specialty drugs in the pipeline. Eighty percent agree (34%) or somewhat agree (41%) that their Pharmacy Benefit Manager does a good job managing specialty drug costs, but 90% strongly agree (56%) or agree (34%) that new and innovative solutions to managing specialty drugs are needed.... 40% of employers include vendor performance guarantees, and 51% are willing to consider this in the future.... The top three most effective cost management strategies include: [1] coordinated information on disease therapies; [2] defined contracting terms/coverage for claims reimbursement; and, [3] day's supply/limitations messaging." (Midwest Business Group on Health)  

The Truth About Voluntary Benefits
"Some voluntary benefits, such as disability or term life insurance, may make financial sense for employees if the potential loss is more than they can cover with their savings. The problem with many other voluntary products is that employees trade a reduction in their monthly take-home pay to protect against a very small risk of incurring a large claim. In many cases, employees are already protected against a large financial loss by their health plan, group disability plan, and other employer-provided benefits.... Voluntary benefits often provide the broker with a first-year commission exceeding 60%, compared to a 3-7% commission for health plans." (Marsh Consulting Group)  

Feds Can't Verify $2.8 Billion in Obamacare Subsidies
"The OIG said the agency did not have a system to 'ensure that financial assistance payments were made on behalf of confirmed enrollees and in the correct amounts.' In addition, CMS relied too heavily on data from health insurance companies and had no system for state-based exchanges to 'submit enrollee eligibility data for financial assistance payments.' The government does 'not plan to perform a timely reconciliation' of the $2.8 billion in subsidies." (The Washington Free Beacon)  

[Opinion]

Uber and the 1950s Logic of the ACA's Employer Mandate
"[A] recent ruling by the California Labor Commission reminds us of what must be one of the worst features [of the ACA] -- the requirement that large employers provide health insurance to all employees working more than 30 hours per week. This mandate is a remnant of a 1950s economy where workers remained employed at the same firm for decades and the Internet was just a series of tubes that existed in our dreams. Ironically, the ACA insurance exchanges not only make the employer mandate obsolete, but the mandate actually weakens the viability of the exchanges by locking a large portion of the healthy population into the employer provided insurance market." (David Dranove and Craig Garthwaite, at Code Red)  

[Opinion]

ERIC Comment Letter to Agencies on Out-of-Pocket Limits in Group Health Plans
"We are writing ... to urge the Departments ... to immediately retract the recent 'clarification' of the rules applicable to cost-sharing limits in large group health plans. The assertion that these plans are subject to the self-only limit when they provide coverage other than self-only coverage is not supported by the statute.... We ask the Departments to recognize that the requirement is unenforceable and to announce that it has been withdrawn." (The ERISA Industry Committee [ERIC])  

One-Third of U.S. Companies to Change Pay-for-Performance
"33% of respondents expect the pay-for-performance disclosure rule will fundamentally change their approach to executive pay disclosure. More than half of the respondents (55%) expect to do more than the minimum that would be required under the SEC proposal: 37% plan to disclose additional information and analyses to help tell their pay-for-performance story, while 18% will perform and may disclose additional pay-for-performance analyses." (Towers Watson)  

HighRoads Receives Patent for Compliance Communications Portal
HighRoads

National Business Coalition on Health Launches National Risk Solution Purchasing Programs
National Business Coalition on Health [NBCH]

National Business Coalition on Health Elects New Board Officers
National Business Coalition on Health [NBCH]

One-Third of U.S. Companies Expect to Fundamentally Change Pay-For-Performance Disclosures, Towers Watson Poll Finds
Towers Watson

Robert Westbrooks Appointed PBGC Inspector General
PBGC [Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation]

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