Employee Benefits Associate
Frost Brown Todd LLC
in KY, OH

Insurance Benefits Analyst
The Air Line Pilots Association, International
in VA

Quality, Compliance & Projects Analyst
DC Retirement Board
in DC

Client Relationship Manager
Goldleaf Partners
in NC

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Healthcare Reform Fees and Taxes: PCOR, Reinsurance, HIT, and Cadillac
RECORDED
(Hill, Chesson & Woody)

Secret to Success with Voluntary Benefits
RECORDED
(Benefitfocus)

DB Top Tips
July 14, 2015 WEBCAST
(ASC)

Affordable Care Act – Compliance Challenges for Employers
July 16, 2015 WEBCAST
(Winston & Strawn)

Excepted Benefits
July 22, 2015 WEBCAST
(Hill, Chesson & Woody)

Groom Retirement Policy Report
July 22, 2015 WEBCAST
(Groom Law Group)

What the Healthcare Law Means for your Small Business
July 30, 2015 WEBCAST
(Small Business Majority)

Safe Harbor 401(k) - Dallas
August 6, 2015 in TX
(SunGard Relius)

Advanced Cross-Tested Plans: Adding More Tools - Dallas
August 7, 2015 in TX
(SunGard Relius)

Certificate of Achievement in Public Plan Policy (CAPPP®)
October 6, 2015 in RI
(International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP])

61st U.S. Annual Employee Benefits Conference
November 8, 2015 in HI
(International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP])

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[Guidance Overview]

Small-Employer Transition Relief Ended June 30 for Payment of Employees' Individually-Owned Health Policies
"[Further, it is] important to note that the transition relief provided by [IRS Notice 2015-17 did not] apply to stand-alone Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) or other arrangements that reimburse an employee for medical expenses other than insurance premiums. As a result, employers that offer stand-alone HRAs that reimburse medical expenses other than health insurance premiums will be subject to penalties for 2014 and 2015 regardless of whether or not they qualify as an [Applicable Large Employer]." (Troutman Sanders, via TerraLex)  

[Advert.]

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[Guidance Overview]

Are Wellness Programs Alive and Well?
"There are two things that the EEOC proposed rules do not do: [1] Address the extent to which an employer can condition a wellness reward on a family member's participation in a wellness program, which may run afoul of [GINA] ... [or] [2] Discuss in any detail whether the statutory provision, which at least two courts have held provides the basis for permitting wellness programs under the ADA ... provides an alternative means for wellness programs to comply with the ADA. The EEOC did note in the preamble to the proposed rule its view that the insurance safe harbor is not the 'proper basis for finding wellness program incentives permissible' because, in the EEOC's view, that would result in the voluntary provision being superfluous." (Sutherland, via TerraLex)  

[Guidance Overview]

Agencies Issue Final Rule Amending Summary of Benefits and Coverage Requirements (PDF)
7 pages. "[S]ignificant changes to the SBC regulation include: [1] Requiring online access to individual underlying policy or group certificate ... [2] Duty to monitor ... [w]here an entity required to provide an SBC to an individual has entered into a binding contract with another party to provide the SBC ... [3] Permitting more than one SBC ... [4] Requiring disclosure of abortion services by QHP issuers." (Groom Law Group)  

Peers Most Likely to Influence Employers' Health Strategies; 2016 Election a Non-Factor
"More than three-quarters of companies (77 percent) said the actions of their peers have a significant or moderate influence on their own health care strategies, and 59 percent said so do the actions of major employers in their key geographies.... [V]ery few employers are planning to make changes to their health strategies in 2015. Even some of the most prevalent tactics in employers' health strategies had significantly low adoption rates in 2015: [1] Increasing deductibles and copays (16 percent); [2] Providing cost and quality transparency tools (10 percent); [and] [3] Providing personalized, aggregated online views of health care usage and other information (9 percent)." (Aon Hewitt)  

Private Exchanges: An Employer View (PDF)
12 pages. "[1] Cost continues to drive decision-making in all aspects of employee benefits. [2] Private exchanges are a hot topic for employers, but raise more questions than answers at this time. [3] Controlling costs and expanding employee choice motivate likely adopters. [4] Employee perception and employer lack of knowledge are the biggest barriers ... [5] Likely adopters want long-term cost containment and easy-to-use, secure platforms. [6] Employee-related criteria are important considerations ... [7] Employers will rely heavily on their advisors to evaluate private exchange options and provide support through all stages of decision-making, implementation, and deployment." (Prudential)  

Medicare Proposes Paying Doctors for End-of-Life Counseling
"Medicare... announced plans [on July 8] to reimburse doctors for conversations with patients about whether and how they would want to be kept alive if they became too sick to speak for themselves.... Medicare's plan comes as many patients, families and health providers are pushing to give people greater say about how they die -- whether that means trying every possible medical option to stay alive or discontinuing life support for those who do not want to be sustained by ventilators and feeding tubes." (The New York Times; subscription may be required)  

Small-Group Marketplaces Need Fixing, Senators Told
" 'SHOP [the Small Business Health Options Program] is an incredible opportunity for small business, but it is a dismal failure,' Thomas Harte, owner of Landmark Benefits ... told the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security ... 'The information technology systems for SHOP been nonfunctional in many states, and that's a barrier,' [Sabrina Corlette, JD, senior research fellow at Georgetown University,] said.... The hearing also looked at what to do about the small group market overall." (MedPage Today)  

Noteworthy Developments of Interest to Sponsors of Multiemployer Health Plans, Third Quarter 2015 (PDF)
"Health benefit plan cost trend rates projected for 2015 show a slight drop for some types of coverage, but a substantial increase for prescription drug coverage.... Employers are implementing value-based purchasing strategies to improve the value of health care services by: [1] Holding vendors and providers accountable for the cost and quality of care, [2] Using information on the quality of care, [3] Managing the use of health care to reduce inappropriate care, [4] Identifying and rewarding the best-performing providers, and [5] Increasing participant responsibility to reduce and manage their own health risks." (Segal Consulting)  

Connecticut Passes Law Imposing New Requirements on Health Insurance Companies
"The new law imposes additional hurdles for insurance companies to acquire physician groups; a practice that has emerged as a recent trend as health insurers attempt to control costs and increase the quality of health care. Many provisions of [Public Act 15-146] are also intended to help facilitate informed decision-making by health care consumers, while others are intended to prohibit certain billing practices." (JDSupra Business Advisor)  

[Opinion]

Chamber of Commerce Letter Supporting S. 1697: 'Small Business Healthcare Relief Act' (PDF)
"Permitting small employers to set aside tax-preferred dollars to help employees either pay the premiums for individual health plans or pay for other qualified medical expenses would help ensure access to coverage and services. Currently, employers that offer stand-alone HRAs to their employees face a $100 per-day, per-employee fine.... S. 1697 would allow those small employers that are not subject to the employer mandate to offer HRAs to their employees." [Similar letter also submitted in support of H.R. 2911, the 'Small Business Healthcare Relief Act'.] (U.S. Chamber of Commerce)  

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Proposes Clawback Rules
"The SEC proposal acknowledges that one result of implementation of incentive-based recovery policies may be that executive officers demand incentive-based compensation be a smaller portion of their total compensation. As incentive-based compensation typically aligns the interests of executive officers and shareholders, less incentive-based compensation may move shareholder and executive interests in opposing directions." (Bryan Cave LLP)  

Delaware Court Decides in Favor of Board in Director Compensation Lawsuit
"Now along comes a Chancery Court decision reciting Disney-esque facts and governance practices, but finding in favor of the board at the motion to dismiss stage (Freidman v. Dolan). This is, of course, great news for Delaware corporations and their board members. And what was the magic bullet that differentiated this case from those allowing compensation lawsuits to go forward? ... [T]he fact that the company maintained a separate stock plan for the non-employee directors." (Winston & Strawn LLP)  

FASB Approves Project for Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost
"The Board decided to add a project to its technical agenda to improve the presentation of net benefit cost in an employer's financial statements ... by requiring the following: [1] If a plan is material, an entity would be required to present service cost in the same line item or items as other current employee compensation costs ... and present the remaining components of net benefit cost in a separate line item outside operating items, if applicable ... [and] [2] Limit the components of net benefit cost eligible to be capitalized to service cost[.]" (Financial Accounting Standards Board [FASB])  

Will Domestic Partner Benefits Stay or Go After the Supreme Court Decision?
"More than half of employers (57.4%) offered benefits to same-sex domestic partners at the time of the ruling. Among those organizations, more than 70% are likely to continue providing those benefits and 30% are unlikely. What's the main reason 30% of employers are unlikely to continue providing benefits to same-sex domestic partners? They only offered it in the past because same-sex couples couldn't legally marry -- and now they can.... Almost half of employers (45.4%) offered benefits to opposite-sex domestic partners at the time of the ruling. Among those organizations, more than 80% are likely to continue providing those benefits and less than 20% are unlikely." (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP])  

ERISApedia.com Adds Forms Suite to The Fiduciary Responsibility eSource
Burrmont Compliance Labs LLC

Alliance Benefit Group Adds The Retirement Plan Company
Alliance Benefit Group

Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors Ranked a Top RIA by Financial Advisor Magazine
Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors, Inc.

National Business Group on Health Elects Erik Sossa, PepsiCo Benefits Executive, to Board of Directors
National Business Group on Health

DST Acquires Retirement Plan Rollover Specialist WMSI
DST

KPMG To Acquire Towers Watson’s Human Resources Service Delivery Practice
KPMG LLP

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