Retirement Plan Services Administrator
Dixon Hughes Goodman, LLP
in VA

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NJ Based-Employee Benefit & Retirement Services Firm
in NJ

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Retirement Plan Administration Firm
in PA

Retirement Plan Consultant
Associated Pension Consultants, Inc.
in NY

Benefits Account Manager
Insurance Brokerage - Westchester Area
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Plan Documents 101: Who Needs What and Best Practices
March 8, 2016 WEBCAST
(Cowden Associates, Inc.)

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[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Q&As: Information Reporting by Employers on Form 1094-C and Form 1095-C -- Revision Underway
"17. How should an ALE member complete Part II of Form 1095-C for an ongoing employee who receives an offer of COBRA continuation coverage due to a reduction in hours? The answer to this question is currently being revised. Please check back later for the updated response." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])  

[Advert.]

On-Site & Near-Site Employee Health Clinics Forum – April 10-12

Employee health professionals exchange strategies and practical solutions to optimize the business of on-site clinics and improve employee health; insight on building, maintaining, and innovating on-site clinics. Use code BLINK2 to attend for $195.

[Guidance Overview]

The ACA, Student Health Plans, and the Law of Unintended Consequences
"The reprieve eases the minds of college and university legal counsel and benefit managers with respect to the apparent past inadvertent transgressions, but will require them to come up with an alternative method for helping the graduate students. Perhaps the most straightforward approach will be a modest pay raise for all graduate student employees. Those who wish to use the extra cash to pay for health insurance may do so, and those who do not may use the cash for other things." (Lockton)  

[Guidance Overview]

Leap Day Deadline Looms for Creditable Coverage Disclosures to CMS
"For calendar year plans, the Creditable Coverage Disclosure is due to [CMS] by February 29, 2016.... Identify the number of prescription drug options that you offer to Medicare-eligible individuals.... Determine the number of benefit options that are creditable coverage and the number that are non-creditable.... Estimate the total number of Part D-eligible individuals that you expect to have coverage under your plan at the start of the plan year ... Determine the most recent calendar date on which the required notices of creditable or non-creditable coverage were provided." (Findley Davies)  

[Guidance Overview]

Santa Monica Jumps on the Sick Leave Bandwagon
"Santa Monica is also the first municipality in Southern California to enact its own sick leave legislation, following such Northern California cities as San Francisco, Oakland, and Emeryville in allowing employees to accrue up to 72 hours of sick leave, with mandatory accrual and carry-over requirements. Santa Monica will become the fourth city in California, as well as one of a number of other municipalities nationally, to mandate that the majority of its employers provide paid sick leave to employees in excess of the state requirement. The provisions of the Ordinance are set to go into effect on July 1, 2016." (Littler)  

Annual Report of ABA Subcommittee on the FMLA: 2015 Court Cases (PDF)
This 309-page report describes, and organizes by topic in detail, close to 400 significant FMLA decisions of federal and state courts during 2015. [Hat tip to Jeff Nowak of FMLA Insights. -- Editor] (American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law, Committee on Federal Labor Standards Legislation, Subcommittee on the Family And Medical Leave Act)  

[Advert.]

Employer's Guide to Health Care Reform, 2016 Edition

This practical guide helps you design your employee health plans to satisfy ACA requirements; minimize penalty exposure; achieve significant cost-savings; understand new notice requirements; meet deadlines and more! Use code BENEFIT20 for 20% discount.

The Impact of Furloughs on Employee Benefit Plans
"In many cases, employers may be placing groups of employees on furloughs, assuming that because the employees are still employed and full premiums are being paid, that all benefits remain intact, as if they are in active pay status. In reality, these employees may no longer meet the eligibility or actively-at-work provisions in the employer's group policies, including medical stop loss insurance. Managers may believe they are helping employees by leaving them on the benefits plan; however, it just takes one large medical claim; one death; or one disability and a resulting denial of coverage to lead to a whole host of issues for a plan sponsor and the employees." (Ascende)  

Employer-Sponsored Wellness Programs Put Your Health Privacy on Life Support
"Most people think that the information collected in employer wellness programs is covered under health privacy laws, so they don't worry about the personal information that gets collected. But they should worry, because most wellness program data doesn't fall under federal health privacy laws, and programs have greatly expanded the scope of their data collections." (The Guardian)  

Supreme Court Decision Addresses Subrogation Rights of Health Plans (Again)
"The Court noted that the Board could have enforced the lien against the settlement had it acted quickly. But when the Board acted it appeared that the identifiable funds were gone. And the law of equity does not permit the Board to enforce a lien in equity against Montanile's general or other assets. The fact that this is an ERISA plan doesn't change the result." (Baker Botts LLP)  

Health Insurance Premiums Boost Consumer Price Index
"This morning's Consumer Price Index showed a significant jump of 1.1 percent in health insurance premiums in January, versus a flat CPI for all items and a 0.3 percent rise in CPI for all items less food and energy. Prices for physician services increased only 0.1 percent, less than prices for other services.... [O]ver the past twelve months, price increases for health insurance and hospital services stand out significantly more than price increases for prescription drugs." (National Center for Policy Analysis Health Policy Blog)  

Text of First Circuit Opinion: Plan Language Was Not Sufficient to Grant Discretionary Authority to Claims Administrator (PDF)
19 pages. "[A] grant of discretionary decisionmaking authority in an ERISA plan must be couched in terms that unambiguously indicate that the claims administrator has discretion to construe the terms of the plan and determine whether benefits are due in particular instances.... The phraseology that BCBS chose to use in the Certificate to describe its decisionmaking authority is capable of supporting reasonable differences of opinion as to the nature and extent of the authority reserved to BCBS.... [T]hat phraseology is insufficiently distinct to constitute a clear grant of discretionary decisionmaking authority." [Stephanie C. v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts HMO Blue, Inc., No. 15-1531 (1st Cir. Feb. 17, 2016)] (U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit)  

Scalia Brought Wit and Color to Court Opinions, Even About Tax Litigation
"[At] no time was [his] personality more on display to the public than when Justice Scalia wrote a dissenting or concurring opinion. It was while writing outside of the Court's majority opinion that Justice Scalia seemed to feel the most freedom ... And it was while displaying this freedom that Justice Scalia managed even to bring color to opinions on issues affecting federal taxation. Some of these opinions concerned critical issues, such as whether the constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage or the validity of the Affordable Care Act. Others concerned more mundane tax issues, such as the deductibility of an estate's administrative expenses. [This article quotes] some excerpts from these opinions." (Bloomberg BNA)  

SEC Brings $11,000 Sarbanes-Oxley Clawback Action
"The SEC alleges the CFO received bonuses during the 12-month periods following the filings containing financial results that MBI was required to restate.... The SEC did not allege that the former CFO participated in the misconduct giving rise to the restatement.... According to the SEC, Section 304 does not require that a chief executive officer or chief financial officer engage in misconduct to trigger the reimbursement requirement. According to the SEC the former CFO violated [the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002] by not voluntarily tendering a check to MBI." (Dodd-Frank.com, a blog by Stinson Leonard Street)  

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Acquires White & Company Insurance, Inc.
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

ICMA-RC Participates in America Saves Week, Introduces Online "Grow Your Savings" Calculator
ICMA-RC

Yardley, Pennsylvania Law Firm and Attorney Ordered to Restore $50K to 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan Following DOL Lawsuit
Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor

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