401(k) Daily Valuation Administrator
Swerdlin & Company
in GA

Class Action ERISA Lawyer
Washington DC Plaintiffs Firm
in DC

Account Executive
Principal Financial Group
in GA

Paralegal Team Lead
UNITE HERE HEALTH
in IL

401(k) Daily Relationship Manager
Swerdlin & Company
in GA

Plan Services Consultant
OneAmerica Financial Partners, Inc
in IN

Actuarial Client Services Consultant
OneAmerica Financial Partners
in IN

Account Specialist (Health & Benefits)
Aon
in IL

Retirement Analyst
BayCare Health System
in FL

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Retirement Plan Loans to Participants
RECORDED
(IRS [Internal Revenue Service])

Healthcare Reform Fees and Taxes: PCOR, Reinsurance, HIT, and Cadillac
June 24, 2015 WEBCAST
(Hill, Chesson & Woody)

Reinsurance Payments Series I
June 25, 2015 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS])

Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP) Workshop
July 9, 2015 in NY
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor)

Invoicing & Collections Process for Reinsurance, Risk Adjustment and Risk Corridors (3Rs) Issuers
July 15, 2015 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS])

Fundamentals of 401(k) and Other Qualified Plans - Minneapolis
July 21, 2015 in MN
(SunGard Relius)

Five Most Dangerous Trends in Employee Wellness And What You Can Do to Avoid Them
July 23, 2015 WEBCAST
(Thompson Information Services)

Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program and Abandoned Plan Program Workshop
August 26, 2015 in KY
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor)

Health Benefits Laws Compliance Assistance Seminar
September 14, 2015 in PA
(Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor)

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International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP]

[Guidance Overview]

Are You My Common Law Employer?
"With the summer upon us the agriculture industry is quickly approaching one of the busier times of year. For the first time employers have to comply with the Play or Pay Mandate or risk paying a financial penalty. This risk can be completely avoided by offering full-time employees coverage that provides minimum value at an affordable price. This sounds simple enough, but in the agriculture industry determining who should offer the coverage to the employee is not so simple." (Health Care Attorneys P.C.)  

[Advert.]

State and Local Government Benefits Association (SALGBA)

(SALGBA) is the premier organization providing educational and collaborative support for public sector employee benefits professionals, such as national and regional conferences, member directory, and more. For a complete list visit www.salgba.com.

[Guidance Overview]

What Can an Employer Do with Health FSA Forfeitures?
"Under proposed IRS regulations ... these forfeitures may be: [1] retained by the company; [2] used to reduce required salary reduction amounts for the immediately following plan year, on a reasonable and uniform basis; [3] returned to employees on a reasonable and uniform basis; [4] used to increase the annual coverage amount; or [5] used to defray administrative expenses. Under the proposal, the forfeitures can never be allocated among employees based on their individual claims experience." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)  

[Guidance Overview]

Massachusetts Attorney General Issues Final Regs on Sick Time Law
"[Employers] may require employees to personally verify in writing that they used earned sick time for allowable purposes after using sick leave, but employers cannot require employees to explain the nature of an illness or details of domestic violence. The AGO added a provision allowing employers to require an employee to provide a fitness-for-duty certification from a medical provider before returning to work after using earned sick time if such certification is customarily required and consistent with industry practice or state/federal safety requirements, and the employer has a reasonable belief that the employee may pose a significant risk of harm to him/herself or others." (Mintz Levin)  

Text of Fifth Circuit Opinion: Religious Accommodation for Contraceptive Coverage Does Not Violate RFRA (PDF)
"Although the plaintiffs have identified several acts that offend their religious beliefs, the acts they are required to perform do not include providing or facilitating access to contraceptives. Instead, the acts that violate their faith. are those of third parties. Because RFRA confers no right to challenge the independent conduct of third parties, we join our sister circuits in concluding that the plaintiffs have not shown a substantial burden on their religious exercise." (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit)  

Fact Sheet on the Essential Health Benefits Prescription Drug Standard: How It Affects Mail-Order Pharmacies (PDF)
5 pages. "Beginning in 2017, health plan enrollees will have the option of obtaining prescription drugs at in-network retail pharmacies, with some exceptions. This change is a significant step forward, but advocates will have to monitor health plan compliance with the new requirements to ensure enrollees can obtain the prescription drugs they need in a manner that is appropriate for them." (National Health Law Program [NHeLP])  

Catastrophic Claims Warrant Use of Stop-Loss Insurance
"[A recent report] shows that individuals with claims in excess of $1 million remain a major driver of stop-loss payments, accounting for $348 million of the total paid stop-loss claims. Cancer, congenital anomalies ... and premature births account for 28% of all claims breaching the $1 million mark. The findings confirm the need for self-funded employers to protect against common health events that could turn into catastrophic claims." (PLANSPONSOR)  

Anthem/Cigna Mega-Merger Includes Another Major Player: The Independent Blues
"Anthem's June 20 proposal to purchase Cigna Corp. has stumbled in part because of one big unknown: how the deal would hold up against the licensing rules of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, which controls utilization of the Blue brand by all BCBS carriers, including Anthem's 14 Blue subsidiaries." (HealthLeaders-InterStudy)  

Medicare Slow to Adopt Telemedicine Due to Cost Concerns
"Anthem and a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center health plan in western Pennsylvania are the only two Medicare Advantage insurers offering the virtual visits, and the traditional Medicare program has tightly limited telemedicine payments to certain rural areas.... The Congressional Budget Office and other analysts have said giving seniors access to doctors online will encourage them to use more services, not replace costly visits to emergency rooms and urgent care centers." (Kaiser Health News)  

Oregon Insurers Ordered to Increase (Yes, Increase) Premiums
"Actuaries at Oregon's Insurance Division have concluded that the state's individual health insurance market needs some stabilization in the form of premium increases, based on a discrepancy between proposals from 13 health plans and utilization trends of the insured population, so far. In 2014, individual health plans in Oregon brought in $703 million in premiums but spent $830 million on claims, with costs exceeding premiums by more than $600 per person." (Healthcare Payer News)  

[Opinion]

Shrink Obamacare's Costs by Removing Rule Driving up Young People's Premiums
"If the age rating restrictions were lifted, the premium for the second-lowest cost silver plan could easily be expected to drop to $270, a reduction of $66. The tax credit would drop by the same amount, $66, which amounts to a drop of over one-third from $191. Aggregated over the entire Obamacare population, this would dramatically reduce Obamacare's claim on taxpayers." (National Center for Policy Analysis [NCPA])  

[Official Guidance]

Text of Treasury Department Notice and Request for Public Comment: Treasury Public Engagement Pages
"The Department of the Treasury is issuing this notice to inform the public and solicit comments about a new method it is using to collect information and opinions posted on social media platforms. Relying on Treasury-generated 'hashtags' and other social media identifiers, Treasury is aggregating public posts relating to Treasury activities and missions from third-party social media websites. Treasury is collecting and, in some cases, republishing this material to facilitate public engagement and awareness of Treasury and bureau initiatives. In this manner, social media will enable Treasury to interact with the public in effective and meaningful ways; encourage the broad exchange of and centrally locate a variety of viewpoints on proposed and existing Treasury missions; and educate the general public about evolving Treasury initiatives.... This initiative will launch upon publication of this notice. Treasury may make adjustments to the program based upon timely comments received." (U.S. Department of the Treasury)  

Is the IRS Stepping Up Nonqualified Audits?
"[F]or certain types of plans (mostly non-account balance plans), there is much in the way of actuarial calculations that determines potential tax liabilities. Frankly, we don't know what was intended. We tend to reference the FICA regulations, but even there ... the regulations are not prescriptive. Section 409A is a mess." (Benefits and Compensation with John Lowell)  

IRS Releases Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Audit Techniques Guide
"[D]espite the first update since 2005, the new Audit Technique Guide (ATG) leaves the impression that 409A is only a minor concern for the IRS auditors of nonqualified deferred compensation plans. However, maybe that is the message IRS is trying to send to us, to wit, in your obsession with 409A, don't ignore all of the other rules that apply to nonqualified deferred compensation plans." (Winston & Strawn LLP)  

Top CEO Compensation Soars, and Why We Do Not Look at 'Average CEOs'
"[This] analysis, which shows that CEO pay grew far faster than pay of the top 0.1 percent of wage earners (those earning more than 99.9 percent of wage earners), indicates that CEO compensation growth does not simply reflect the increased value of highly paid professionals in a competitive race for skills ... CEO compensation in 2013 ... was 5.84 times greater than wages of the top 0.1 percent of wage earners, a ratio 2.66 points higher than the 3.18 ratio that prevailed over the 1947-1979 period." (Economic Policy Institute)  

SouthWest Benefits Association Announces Newly Elected Board of Directors and Officers
SouthWest Benefits Association

Michael Kreps Re-joins Groom Law Group, Expanding Premier Policy Practice
Groom Law Group

Overall Client Loyalty Shows Slight Declines As Ratings For Key Client Touch Points Lag According To Chatham Partners’ 2015 Provider Loyalty Index
Chatham Partners

FTB Advisors, Inc. is Certified for Fiduciary Excellence
Centre for Fiduciary Excellence [CEFEX]

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