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ERISA Workshop
October 27, 2015 in WI
(SunGard Relius)

Advanced Plan Design Workshop
October 28, 2015 in WI
(SunGard Relius)

What the Healthcare Law Means for your Small Business
October 29, 2015 WEBCAST
(U.S. Small Business Administration [SBA])

Experts' Guide to Employee Benefits Research
November 12, 2015 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

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[Guidance Overview]

ACA Reporting Requirements for Carriers and Employers (Part 11 of 24): Reporting 2015 Coverage of 'MV-Lite' Plans on Form 1095-C
"Notice 2014-69 provided a transition rule under which a plan that was adopted before November 4, 2014 and that had a plan year beginning no later than March 1, 2015 would not be subject to the new rules until the following plan year. Such a plan was treated for purposes of complying with the Affordable Care Act's employer shared responsibility rules as providing minimum value. But employees covered under an affordable MV-lite plan were not barred from qualifying for premium subsidies from a public insurance exchange. The 2015 Final Instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C do not provide a way for employers to claim reliance on the Notice 2014-69 transition relief." (Mintz Levin)  

[Advert.]

Register for NBCH's 20th Annual Conference, Nov. 16-18 in Dallas

This must-attend event convenes employers, health plans, providers, business health coalitions and other key stakeholders focused on the future of health care and benefits. Free admission for employers that are members of an NBCH coalition. Join us.

[Guidance Overview]

Annual Notice Requirements for Group Health Plans for 2016
"Because compliance with these annual participant notice requirements is still important, here is a summary of these annual participant notice requirements: Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act (WHCRA) ... Medicare Part D Notice of Creditable or Non-Creditable Coverage ... HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices ... Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) ... Summary of Benefits and Coverage ... Notice of Exchange Availability ... Notice Regarding Grandfathered Plan Status ... Employer Reporting." (Miller Johnson)  

[Guidance Overview]

What Employers Need to Know About Tacoma's New Paid Sick Leave Ordinance
"Tacoma has now joined Seattle as the third city in Washington State to mandate paid sick leave for employees ... The new law will go into effect February 1, 2016. Tacoma has just issued its rules interpreting this law, making this the best time for employers to take steps to comply.... Tacoma's law differs from Seattle's law in many aspects, and should thus not assume compliance with Seattle means compliance with Tacoma." (Fisher & Phillips LLP)  

House Votes to Protect Employees from Rising Health Care Costs, Cancelled Plans
"The House of Representatives [on Sept. 28] approved H.R. 1624, the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act, authored by Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Vice Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY). This bipartisan, commonsense legislation will help protect employees from cancelled health plans and rising health care premiums." (Energy & Commerce Committee, U.S. House of Representatives)  

House Votes Unanimously to Repeal Scheduled ACA Expansion for Small Groups
"In a unanimous vote, the House passed legislation [on Sept. 28] that would rescind the Affordable Care Act's expanded definition of a small employer. The bipartisan bill has had strong support from employers and benefit industry insiders who feared the expansion could lead to premium increases and jeopardize the ability for small and mid-sized businesses to compete in today's market.... The ACA proposes that effective Jan. 1, 2016, the definition of a small group employer increases from 1-50 employees to 1-100 employees. The Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act (PACE) would maintain the current definition of a small group market as 1-50 employees and give states the flexibility to expand the group size if they feel the market conditions in their state necessitate the change." (Employee Benefit News)  

Description of Budget Reconciliation Legislative Recommendations Relating to Repeal of Certain ACA Excise Taxes (PDF)
The bill includes provisions repealing the individual mandate, the employer mandate, the medical device excise tax, the 'Cadillac' tax on high-cost health coverage, and the requirement to report the cost of health coverage on Form W-2. Excerpt: "The House Committee on Ways and Means has scheduled a committee markup of Budget Reconciliation Legislative Recommendations Relating to Repeal of Certain Excise Taxes Enacted in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on September 29, 2015. This document, prepared by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, provides a description of the bill." (Joint Committee on Taxation [JCT], U.S. Congress)  

HHS Inspector General Report: OCR Should Strengthen Its Followup of Breaches of Patient Health Information Reported by Covered Entities
"OCR should [1] enter small-breach information into its case-tracking system or a searchable database linked to it; [2] maintain complete documentation of corrective action; [3] develop an efficient method in its case-tracking system to search for and track covered entities that reported prior breaches; [4] develop a policy requiring OCR staff to check whether covered entities reported prior breaches; and [5] continue to expand outreach and education efforts to covered entities." (Office of Inspector General [OIG], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS])  

HHS Inspector General Report: OCR Should Strengthen Its Oversight of Covered Entities' Compliance With the HIPAA Privacy Standards
"OCR's oversight is primarily reactive; it investigates possible noncompliance primarily in response to complaints. OCR has not fully implemented the required audit program to proactively assess possible noncompliance from covered entities.... OCR documented corrective action in its case-tracking system for most of these cases; however, OCR did not have complete documentation of corrective actions taken by the covered entities in 26 percent of closed privacy cases." (Office of Inspector General [OIG], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS])  

Narrow Networks Face Fresh Scrutiny: Can They Pass the Adequacy Test?
"Narrow networks mean lower premiums. Now, state insurance commissioners are wrestling with how they should be regulated so that insurers stay solvent and consumers are protected.... The [Network Adequacy Subgroup of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)] is working out the details, word by painful word, of a new model network adequacy law. The effort updates a 1996 version that has become badly outdated as insurance products have evolved and the narrow network has become increasingly common." (Managed Care)  

Managing FMLA and Other Leaves (PDF)
8 pages. "1,634 employee FMLA complaints were concluded in 2013, and almost half (46%) resulted in violations. Employers found in violation were fined $1,642,793 in back wages.... Between 2012 and 2013 the percent of companies outsourcing the tracking of various absences or considering outsourcing them has grown with the majority of those currently outsourcing seeing value and achieving benefits. Approximately 88% of plan sponsors say they are tracking absences to some extent in an effort to manage workforce productivity and 60% report that the tracking system has been very effective." (Prudential)  

[Opinion]

Repealing Employer Mandate Would Weaken Job-Based Coverage, Increase Uninsured
"A just-released survey finds that in 2015, 21 percent of employers with 100 or more FTEs expanded eligibility to include more workers and 5 percent now offer more comprehensive benefits to some workers who had received only limited benefits.... [CBO] -- which estimated in 2013 that delaying the employer responsibility requirement by one year would leave 1 million fewer people with employer coverage (about 500,000 of whom would end up uninsured) -- warned that repealing the requirement would likely cause even more people to become uninsured, relative to current law." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)  

[Guidance Overview]

Law and Background on Prohibited Transactions, Investment Advice, and Fiduciary Status with Respect to Retirement Plans, IRAs, HSAs and MSAs (PDF)
62 pages. "The Subcommittee on Oversight of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives has scheduled a public hearing on September 30, 2015, on the [DOL's] proposed fiduciary rule. This document ... provides a description of present law relating to prohibited transactions, investment advice, and fiduciary status with respect to retirement plans and individual accounts and data relating to such plans and accounts." [JCX-131-15, Sept. 28, 2015] (Joint Committee on Taxation [JCT], U.S. Congress)  

Pension, Patent Rights at Stake in Supreme Court Case
"The Spokeo case presents the question of whether Congress can confer constitutional standing on plaintiffs who have not suffered a concrete injury by authorizing private rights of action for violations of federal statutes.... If Spokeo wins the broad holding its lawyers ... are advocating, class actions under all sorts of consumer and civil rights statutes ... will be endangered.... The nonprofit Pension Rights Center argued in its amicus brief that if the Supreme Court decides Congress can't confer constitutional standing, pensioners may lose their right to sue under ERISA, 'thus preventing them from remedying alleged fiduciary breaches or other violations of their statutory rights or enforcing reporting, disclosure, vesting and funding obligations.' " [Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, No. 13-1339 (cert. pet. granted Apr. 27, 2015; argument sched. Nov. 2, 2015)] (Alison Frankel via Reuters)  

DOL Weighs in Again on Select Group Requirement for Top Hat Plans (PDF)
"While there is very little guidance in the legislative history of ERISA on this Select Group requirement, exploring the guidance from federal court cases is important in determining the landscape of the Select Group issue. With the exception of the DOL's recent amicus brief, most of the useful guidance on this issue has come from [several] federal court cases ... The courts have taken varied and sometimes conflicting approaches[.]" (Groom Law Group via Bloomberg BNA Pension & Benefits Daily)  

Perceptions of Shareholders and Employees Are Chief Company Concerns About CEO Pay Ratio Disclosure
"While many companies continue to have concerns about the mechanics of complying with the new CEO pay ratio disclosure rule -- gathering the pay data, choosing the right sampling approach and identifying the median employee -- even more are concerned about explaining the pay-setting process to employees and about how their pay ratio will look in comparison to other companies' ratios." (Towers Watson)  

IRI Honors Financial Services Leaders
Insured Retirement Institute [IRI]

LPL Enhances Retirement Partners Tool Suite
LPL Financial

Genstar Capital and Aquiline Capital Partners To Acquire Ascensus from J.C. Flowers
Ascensus

Securian Continues to Add Expertise to Retirement Plans Group
Securian Financial Group

Delaware Valley Retirement, Inc. is Certified to Industry Best Practices
Centre for Fiduciary Excellence [CEFEX]

ECFC Leads Charge to Revise Cadillac Tax
ECFC [Employers Council on Flexible Compensation]

Department Awards $1.55M to Study Paid Family, Medical Leave Implementation
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

Lockton Expands Leadership Roles for Spencer, Nimmo, Hammond
Lockton

Employee Fiduciary Releases a Real-world Database of Small Business 401k Fees that Names Names with Full Dollar Cost Disclosures
Employee Fiduciary, LLC

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