DC Administrator
E.R.I.S.A., Inc.
in ANY STATE, IL

Compliance Analyst
National Retirement Services, Inc.
in NC

Dedicated Retirement Counselor
Prudential
in CA

Post Your Job

View All Jobs

RSS Feed: All Jobs

ESOP Distribution Policies
October 20, 2015 WEBCAST
(National Center for Employee Ownership [NCEO])

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Rev. Proc. 2015-62: Indexing Adjustments for Calculation of Individual Premium Tax Credit, and Indexed Required Contribution Percentage for Determining Eligibility for Affordable Employer-Sponsored Minimum Essential Coverage (PDF)
"This revenue procedure... updates the Applicable Percentage Table in Section 36B(b)(3)(A)(i) to provide the Applicable Percentage Table for 2016. This table is used to calculate an individual's premium tax credit. This revenue procedure also updates the required contribution percentage in Section 36B(c)(2)(C)(i)(II) for plan years beginning after calendar year 2015. This percentage is used to determine whether an individual is eligible for affordable employer -- sponsored minimum essential coverage under Section 36B.... plan years beginning in 2016, the required contribution percentage for purposes of Section 36B(c)(2)(C)(i)(II) and Section 1.36B-2T(c)(3)(v)(C) is 9.66%." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Advert.]

Set Yourself Apart From Your Peers With the CEBS Designation

Co-sponsored by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the CEBS designation gives you the knowledge and confidence to succeed in today's business environment. Learn More!

[Guidance Overview]

If at First You Don't Have SSNs for Your ACA Returns, Ask, Ask Again
"[If] the filer claims the individual's failure to provide his TIN is the impediment to the filer reporting the individual's TIN, the only way a Filer may show it acted in a responsible manner is to prove compliance with the information solicitation requirements ... [which] requires an initial solicitation at the beginning of the relationship, followed by two annual solicitations ... [If] the annual solicitations are made by mail or telephone, the individual must be informed that he or she is subject to a $50 penalty ... if he or she fails to provide his TIN. Mail solicitations also must include a Form W-9 and a self-addressed return envelope ... Telephone solicitations must be made to an adult member of the household and you must maintain a contemporaneous record of the phone call." (Benefits Bryan Cave)  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Health Care Tax Tip 2015-64: 2016 Reporting Deadlines for Employers and Health Coverage Providers
"Here are the due dates you should put on your calendar.... [1] Forms 1095-B and 1095-C are due to individuals by Feb. 1, 2016. [2] Forms 1094-B, 1095-B, 1094-C and 1095-C are required to be filed with the IRS by Feb. 29, 2016 if filing on paper, or March 31, 2016, if filing electronically." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Guidance Overview]

Paid Sick Days Required by Growing Number of Cities and States
"Four states ... have passed paid sick leave legislation, and more than 20 cities have passed comprehensive paid sick leave legislation ... Additional localities ... have enacted paid sick leave ordinances to provide paid sick leave for employees working in certain industries, such as hotel workers. Some of these laws go into effect in 2016. However, most are already in effect, and covered employers must now comply." (Michael Best & Friedrich LLP)  

[Guidance Overview]

ACA Reporting Requirements for Carriers and Employers (Part 13 of 24): Coding Form 1095-C, Part II for Short- and Long-Term Disability Benefits
"A 'full-time employee' for [purposes of the employer shared responsibility rules] is an employee who works on average 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month. 'Hours of service' includes both hours for which an employee is paid for the performance of services, as well as hours for which an employee is paid for a period during which no duties are performed -- including short- and long-term disability leave. Including paid hours for which no work is performed poses some unique reporting challenges[.]" (Mintz Levin)  

[Advert.]

Recognizing and Addressing COBRA

November 11 -- Failure to provide required notices have cost employers thousands of dollars in courts all across the country. Don't be a statistic - learn about your responsibilities. BenefitsLink discount.

Text of Comments Filed with IRS on Notice 2015-52: Proposed Rules for High Cost Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage (Cadillac Plans)
BenefitsLink has obtained and compiled the full text of each of the 139 comments that have been submitted to the IRS in response to IRS Notice 2015-25. The Notice addressed "additional issues under Section 4980I, including the identification of the taxpayers who may be liable for the excise tax, employer aggregation, the allocation of the tax among the applicable taxpayers, and the payment of the applicable tax." The Notice also addressed "further issues regarding the cost of applicable coverage that were not addressed in IRS Notice 2015-16." (BenefitsLink)  

Claims Administrators Can Be Liable for Violations of the Mental Health Parity Act
"The third party administrator was responsible for deciding claims and so was the entity ultimately determining whether a particular benefit would be covered by the plan.... The court found that the third party claims administrator could be responsible for a failure to comply with the MHPA because it was the one ultimately deciding the claims. In that regard, it acted as a fiduciary and its failure to comply with the MHPA could be a breach of that fiduciary duty." [N.Y. State Psychiatric Ass'n v. UnitedHealth Grp., No. 14-20-cv (2d Cir. Aug. 20, 2015)] (Stinson Leonard Street)  

Supreme Court Declines to Address ERISA Proper Defendant Status
"Health plan claims administrators won't be getting an answer anytime soon on whether they can be considered proper defendants in ERISA lawsuits for benefits after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to examine the contours of ERISA's civil enforcement provision. The federal courts are divided on whether claims administrators can be sued under [ERISA] to recover benefits.... The Supreme Court's Oct. 13 refusal to take up the issue leaves standing a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling that didn't directly answer whether claims administrators are proper defendants in ERISA actions for benefits." [Spinedex Physical Therapy USA Inc. v. United Healthcare of Arizona, Inc., No. 12-17604 (9th Cir. Nov. 5, 2014; cert. denied, Oct. 13, 2015)] (Bloomberg BNA)  

Legislative Efforts to Repeal Key Provisions of the ACA
"The House Ways and Means Committee made the most ambitious recommendations, calling for the repeal of the individual and employer mandates, the Cadillac high cost employer-sponsored health coverage excise tax, and the Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board.... The Education and Workforce Committee recommended repeal of the ACA provision requiring large employers with more than 200 full-time employees to automatically enroll their employees in a health plan offered by the employer subject to the employee opting out -- a provision that has yet to be implemented. The House Budget Committee adopted all recommendations." (Timothy Jost in Health Affairs)  

New ACA Definition Allows Small Employers to Continue as Large Group Insurance Plans
"The original rules would have affected 3.4 million workers, 29 percent of all enrolled workers at companies with fewer than 100 workers that offer health insurance ... Now that they won't have an incentive to avoid small group coverage and rating requirements, fewer companies in the 51 to 100 size range may opt to self fund." (Healthcare Payer News)  

Complying with HIPAA: A Checklist for Covered Entities
"[1] Civil penalties are mandatory for willful neglect.... [2] HIPAA violations may be a crime.... [3] Covered entities must self-report HIPAA breaches.... [4] Potential for a private cause of action.... [5] Develop compliant forms.... [6] Execute appropriate business associate agreements.... [7] Perform and document a risk analysis.... [8] Implement required safeguards.... [9] Train workforce.... [10] Respond immediately to any violation or breach.... [11] Timely report breaches.... [12] Document actions.... [13] Beware more stringent laws." (Holland & Hart LLP)  

Narrow Networks: Do They Come at the Cost of Quality?
"In a recent survey, when asked to rank elements of a health plan that were most important to them, the most frequent response was low monthly premiums. The least frequently mentioned? Access to prestigious institutions. Welcome to the new era of thin health plan networks." (Health Affairs)  

Less Physician Practice Competition Is Associated with Higher Prices Paid for Common Procedures
"Using county-level measures of the concentration of physician practices and county average prices, and statistically controlling for a range of other regional characteristics, [the authors] found that physician practice concentration and prices were significantly associated for twelve of the fifteen procedures [that were] studied. For these procedures, counties with the highest average physician concentrations had prices 8-26 percent higher than prices in the lowest counties." (Health Affairs)  

New Data Shows Large Insurer Losses on Obamacare Plans
"Despite Administration claims that incoming payments from profitable insurers would cover losses from unprofitable ones, the risk corridor program shortfall exceeded $2.5 billion in 2014.... [I]nsurers lost such significant money in 2014 on ACA plans even including the $7.9 billion reinsurance program subsidy they received.... As the reinsurance program phases out and the risk corridor program provides much less relief than insurers had assumed, next year's high premium increases are likely to be replicated for at least one more year.... [S]harply higher premiums will likely cause additional adverse selection in the individual market in the near term." (Brian Blase in Forbes)  

401kDIRECT Introduces Fiduciary Secure Service that Includes Fiduciary Insurance Coverage -- An Industry First
401kDIRECT

Karen Eisenbach Joins Voya Financial as Chief Marketing Officer of Retirement
Voya Financial

Envisage Information Systems Promotes Christen Marsenison
Envisage Information Systems

View All Press Releases