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[Guidance Overview]
Five Common Mistakes Employers Are Making with the ACA
"[In] the event of an audit, an employer is going to want to have policies in place explaining its ACA compliance efforts. At a minimum an employer should have four policies ... [1] a policy that explains its look back measurement method.... [2] a document explaining how it determines whether an employee who has been rehired is a new or a continuing employee.... [3] a policy explaining the special unpaid leave rules.... [4] a policy explaining which affordability safe harbor it has elected to use."
(Health Care Attorneys P.C.)
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[Guidance Overview]
EEOC Final Regs on ADA and GINA Compliance in Wellness Programs
"The ADA rules address incentives in wellness programs that ask disability-related questions and/or require medical exams. The GINA rules focus on inducements tied to requests for a spouse's health information as part of an HRA or medical exam under a wellness program. Wellness programs must provide a notice explaining what medical information will be obtained, how it will be used and who will receive it."
(Willis Towers Watson)
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[Guidance Overview]
Employees Working in the City of Los Angeles Gain Enhanced Paid Sick Leave Rights
"Unlike the California law, the Ordinances do not allow employers to require employees to take sick leave in blocks of at least two hours.... [E]mployers exempted from the California law will still need to comply with the Los Angeles Ordinances. This includes providers of publicly funded in-home supportive services, some employees covered by collective bargaining agreements, certain employees of air carriers, and retired annuitants working for governmental entities."
(Epstein Becker Green)
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[Guidance Overview]
Los Angeles and San Diego Join the Fray with New and Expanded Sick Leave Laws
"The San Diego Ordinance requires employers to provide employees with one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked within the city limits, with no cap on accrual, and allows employees to use 40 hours of sick leave in a 12-month period.... [The Los Angeles] sick leave ordinance ... requires employers to provide up to 48 hours of paid sick leave per year.... [N]either local law provides for a collective bargaining agreement exemption (unlike the CA state paid sick leave law). In addition, both the San Diego Ordinance and the Los Angeles Ordinance provide penalties for violation of [their] requirements, including notice and posting requirements."
(Hanson Bridgett LLP)
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OCR's Updated HIPAA Audit Program: What You Need to Know
"Specific steps to take in light of the new HIPAA Audit Protocol: [1] Check your 'Clutter', 'Junk' or 'Spam' folders to ensure that an email sent from OSOCRAudit@hhs.gov (OCR office) is forwarded to the appropriate person.... [2] Review your organization's policies and procedures ... [3] Address risks found in previous risk analysis efforts.... [4] Identify who your business associates (BA) are ... and collect proof that the BA or Subcontractor actually has a HIPAA Security, Privacy and Breach Notification assessment and/or other proof of compliance ... [5] Ensure any software tools used are updated with the new release of the OCR's updated HIPAA Audit Protocol[.]"
(HIPAA One)
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Analysis Suggests Anthem Deal Could Raise Health Costs
"Anthem has said the added heft will work for employers, not against them. A bigger Anthem, it emphasizes, could drive better deals from doctors and hospitals and pass savings onto these customers. In addition, Anthem has argued that there still will be plenty of competition: large employers pit smaller, local insurers' bids against those of large national carriers in regional markets.... But an Aon Hewitt analysis of benefits data for Reuters found that a majority of large employers buy worker health benefits from just one or two insurers."
(Reuters)
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[Opinion]
Federal Standardized Health Insurance Plans Could Help Improve Access to Care Without Raising Premiums (PDF)
10 pages. "Health insurance companies should offer plans on the [ACA] marketplaces that cover the cost of basic outpatient care -- like primary care, specialty care, and prescription drugs -- before people pay off their deductible. The new federal standardized silver plans ... would have premiums that are comparable to current silver marketplace plans that cover little to no services before the deductible. Offering these standardized plans could improve access to outpatient care without driving up premiums."
(Families USA)
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[Opinion]
National Business Group on Health Comments on House Republican Task Force Outline for Health Care Reform
"Rather than taxing benefits, we encourage Congress to focus more on removing payment incentives for health care providers and suppliers that drive unnecessary health care spending. This includes moving faster toward paying for value in Medicare rather than volume, and ridding Medicare of financial incentives that encourage providers to use more expensive care in more expensive settings when lower cost alternatives of equal or better quality exist."
(National Business Group on Health [NBGH])
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Executive Compensation and Nonqualified Plans
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Clarifies Numerous 409A Issues (PDF)
"The new regulations still do not flatly state that beneficiaries are treated the same as participants for all section 409A purposes. However, the new guidance helpfully provides for that treatment in [certain specified] situations.... Many employers have struggled with the current section 409A rules around the timing of payments following death. The proposed regulations provide ... very helpful relief on this front.... The new regulations tighten significantly the correction opportunity afforded prior to the year of vesting ... A number of the changes in the new regulations impact equity awards and transactional matters."
(Groom Law Group)
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[Guidance Overview]
IRS Issues Sec. 409A Proposed Regulations
"[T]he proposed rules clarify that Sec. 409A applies to nonqualified deferred compensation plans separately and in addition to the Sec. 457A rules.... The proposed regulations also modify the short-term deferral rule (which provides that a prohibited deferral of compensation does not occur for certain short-term deferrals) to permit a delay in payments to avoid violating federal securities or other laws."
(The Tax Adviser)
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Press Releases
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BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
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Lois Baker, J.D., President
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Holly Horton, Business Manager
BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9595. Copyright 2016 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. All materials
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