Team Lead, Client Services
Verisight
in CA

ESOP and 401(k) Administrator
Primark Benefits
in CA

Pension Administrator
Primark Benefits
in CA

Retirement Field Services Representative
Georgia Municipal Association
in GA

Document Consulting Manager
Verisight
in CA

Retirement Plan Implementation/Conversion Project Manager
Great West Financial
in MA

Manager, Compliance
Verisight
in IL

BAC Analyst
Towers Watson
in MA, NY, PA

Senior Benefits Advisory and Compliance Consultant
Towers Watson
in MA, NY, PA

Defined Contribution Senior Consultant
Towers Watson
in MA, NY, PA

In-House Legal Counsel
Evercore Trust Company
in NY

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HIPAA Compliance Audits: New Protocols and Requirements
October 26, 2015 WEBCAST
(MentorHealth)

SPDs for Group Health Plans: Complying With Content and Distribution Rules
November 19, 2015 WEBCAST
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

Life After Tibble: Investment Monitoring and Litigation Defense Considerations for ERISA Fiduciaries
December 3, 2015 WEBCAST
(Bloomberg BNA)

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[Guidance Overview]

Got the Social Security Numbers for ACA Reporting Yet?
"Who reports under Section 6055? ... What is reported under Section 6055? ... What is a reasonable effort to obtain a Social Security number? ... What about someone who no longer receives health coverage? ... Is there model language to request a Social Security number? ... Would you like to make suggestions to the IRS on the reasonable good cause rules?" (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans [IFEBP])  

[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]

Legislative Relief for the Small Group Market Is Small 'PACE' in the Right Direction
"Staying in the large group market is significant for employers with 51-100 employees because several ACA requirements apply in the small group market that do not apply in the large group market. These small group requirements would have increased premiums and caused administrative issues for most employers with 51-100 employees. The three most significant differences ... [are]: [1] Small group insured plans must cover ten essential health benefits ... [2] A small group insured plan must meet specified actuarial values ... [3] [S]mall group insured plans are subject to ACA's national community rating rules." (Benefits Bryan Cave)  

Federal Law Keeps Self-Funding as an Option for Many Employers But Some States Differ
"In New York, employers with 50 or fewer FTEs are prohibited from purchasing stop-loss coverage, without which self-funding is far too risky for companies of that size. The state legislature passed a law in 2013 that expands the prohibition, as of Jan. 1, 2016, to companies with up to 100 FTEs. Two bills have been introduced seeking to quash that law.... California, like New York, has already changed its definition of 'small group' to 100 or fewer FTEs and is unlikely to reverse that move.... Other states that have expanded the definition of 'small group,' like Colorado and Virginia, are more likely than California and New York to revert to the lower threshold[.]" (CFO)  

Post-2018 HSA Contribution Strategy
"The vast majority of employers that offer HSA-qualified high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) offer the ability for employees to make pre-tax payroll HSA contributions and even encourage them to do so. For now, such contributions count towards the calculation of the gross cost of 'high cost' health coverage for excise tax purposes. Should employers take away the pre-tax payroll HSA contribution feature from their cafeteria plans? Otherwise, an HDHP with a lower gross cost than a traditional PPO plan may actually end up triggering a greater excise tax because any employee pre-tax payroll HSA contributions would get tacked on to the total cost of the employer's health coverage." (Mercer/Signal)  

Voters, Employers Oppose Tax on Health Benefits
"[T]hree-quarters of all respondents nationwide are concerned about ... the 'Cadillac tax' ... A strong majority of respondents (66 percent nationwide) say this tax should either be delayed or repealed, and many believe the Affordable Care Act has already made health care less affordable." (Business Roundtable [BRT])  

[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 Amicus Brief Urging Supreme Court to Consider Broader Effect on Welfare Benefit Plans of Vermont Healthcare Database Reporting Mandate (PDF)
39 pages. "The more States are empowered to impose burdensome regulatory requirements on employers, the more they will do so. This slippery slope presents a serious threat to the viability of welfare benefit plans, and thus to the purposes of ERISA. State programs such as Vermont's all-payer claims database undercut ERISA's objectives by subjecting self-funded plans to a morass of state reporting requirements that Congress neither intended nor allowed in enacting ERISA." (American Benefits Council, America's Health Insurance Plans [AHIP], ERISA Industry Council [ERIC], HR Policy Association, National Business Group on Health [NBGH], and Chamber of Commerce of the United States)  

Court Looks at Calculating Credit and Taxes in Disability Benefits Case
"[If] a worker is promised a tax-free disability insurance benefit, and that employee later becomes simultaneously eligible to receive both long-term disability payments and Social Security disability insurance payments, which reduce the LTD payments, does the insurer get to offset the gross amount of SSDI or the after-tax net amount? ... The court ruled that no language in the plan supported the plaintiff's claim that the offset of Social Security benefits would be based on the net benefits after taxes and that illustrations in a summary plan description ... compelled a conclusion that the gross benefit is offset.... The court's ruling appears unjustified." [Troiano v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., No. 14-496-ML (D.R.I. Sept. 30, 2015)] (DeBofsky & Associates, PC)  

Automatic Enrollment in Private Disability Insurance
"[A]llowing automatic enrollment to expand [disability] coverage to workers who have not traditionally been covered by [private disability insurance] merits careful examination to ensure that the workers being auto-enrolled are receiving added value for the additional premiums they will pay.... [A]ny legislation that gives an employer explicit auto-enrollment authority... should contain minimum benefit requirements and consumer protections to ensure that the coverage enhances the economic security of workers and increases the likelihood of continued attachment to the workforce." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)  

Cancer and the Workplace: The Employer Perspective (PDF)
25 pages. "Recently escalating co-payments and deductibles, if not thoughtfully applied in the oncology arena, may place unintended roadblocks for employees seeking access to care. While high deductible health plans -- increasingly popular among employers -- may help employers control costs, they need to be further assessed in terms of their potential to cause avoidance or delay in employees seeking needed treatments and prescriptions -- a potentially serious downside, especially in cancer care." (Northeast Business Group on Health [NEBGH])  

Carrier Selection on Private Exchanges: Understanding the Impact of Price and Incumbency in a Multi-Carrier Exchange Environment (PDF)
12 pages. "Incumbency (the carrier was the previous provider of health insurance for the company's employees in the year prior to using the exchange) plays a major role in a carrier's ability to gain market share over non-incumbents. If prices were equal, and there was no incumbent, chance would ascribe 25% market share to each provider, assuming a choice of four providers. If, however, one is the incumbent carrier, it would have, on average, an advantage of 37 percentage points in market share over non-incumbents.... If a carrier's annual price is 1% higher than the average price, it can expect to lose, on average, 3.5 percentage points in market share, demonstrating the highly elastic nature of demand in response to price." (Liazon)  

Amount of Savings Needed for Health Expenses for People Eligible for Medicare: Unlike the Last Few Years, the News Is Not Good (PDF)
"In 2015, a 65-year-old man needs $68,000 in savings and a 65-year-old woman needs $89,000 if each has a goal of having a 50 percent chance of having enough money saved to cover health care expenses in retirement. If either instead wants a 90 percent chance of having enough savings, $124,000 is needed for a man and $140,000 is needed for a woman. This analysis does not factor in the savings needed to cover long-term care expenses. Savings targets increased between 6 percent and 21 percent between 2014 and 2015." (Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI])  

Instructions for Reconciling Tax Credits, Basic Health Plan Funding Methodology Released
"The [2015] draft instructions are three pages longer than the 2014 instructions... [T]he draft 2015 instructions further note that the employee will receive a 1095-C form from the employer (a form that was not available in 2014) with information about employer coverage.... [CMS] released on October 21 its proposed Basic Health Program federal funding methodology for 2017 and 2018.... Since two states -- Minnesota and New York -- are now implementing Basic Health Programs, the methodology is no longer of just theoretical interest." (Health Affairs)  

[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Proposed Regs: Definition of Terms Relating to Marital Status
"[T]hese proposed regulations amend the current regulations under section 7701 ... to provide that, for federal tax purposes, the terms 'spouse,' 'husband,' and 'wife' mean an individual lawfully married to another individual, and the term 'husband and wife' means two individuals lawfully married to each other. These definitions apply regardless of sex. In addition, these proposed regulations provide that a marriage of two individuals will be recognized for federal tax purposes if that marriage would be recognized by any state, possession, or territory of the United States.... Although these proposed regulations define terms relating to marital status for federal tax purposes, the IRS may provide additional guidance as needed. For example, the IRS has already issued more particular guidance for employers regarding the application of Revenue Ruling 2013-17 to qualified retirement plans, and that guidance remains in effect.... [T]he IRS will not treat civil unions, registered domestic partnerships, or other similar relationships as marriages for federal tax purposes." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Guidance Overview]

SEC Addresses Rulemaking Mandates on Compensation (PDF)
"During 2015, the SEC issued rules on three significant and highly anticipated compensation-related matters. The rules, two of which are proposed and one of which is final, address pay-for-performance disclosure, the clawback of erroneously awarded incentive-based compensation, and, perhaps most significantly, pay-ratio disclosure.... Some of the underlying requirements of the rules have been met with fierce criticism. This article reviews the SEC's rules on these major compensation matters and summarizes their likely impact on public companies." (Ballard Spahr LLP via The Legal Intelligencer)  

Trends and Gaps in Employee Stock Plan Communications Revealed by Survey of Multinational Companies
"[T]he use of equity awards by the surveyed companies generally continued to grow in 2014 and 2015, after falling in 2009-2011 and rebounding in 2012. With this growth in the use of equity has come an expansion in stock plan education and communications. While most of the surveyed companies (73%) communicate with plan participants at the time of grant, a widespread traditional practice, 47% of the companies now also communicate with participants again at the time of vesting, exercise, or payout. This figure rose from 37% in 2012. Some companies report that they communicate with participants at other times as well (or instead)." (myStockOptions.com)  

ProCourse Fiduciary Advisor’s Deana Harmon Named to List of Top Women Advisors by National Association of Plan Advisors
ProCourse Fiduciary Advisors, LLC

PSCA Announces the Winners of the 2015 Signature Awards
PSCA [Plan Sponsor Council of America]

Leading Employee Benefits Attorney Joins Integrated Retirement
Integrated Retirement

Prudential Financial Announces Leadership Changes Designed to Strengthen Position in U.S. Markets
Prudential Financial, Inc.

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