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Senate ACA Repeal and Replace Bill Fails
"The ACA repeal and replace simultaneous effort is likely over. Majority Leader McConnell ... [indicated] the Senate's intent to move back to the original plan to repeal the ACA first, with a replacement bill to be developed sometime down the road ... At this point, it looks more likely than not that a repeal-only bill is also doomed to failure -- despite the Republican passage of such a bill less than two years ago when President Obama was still in office."
ABD Insurance & Financial Services
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Is Health Care Reform DOA?
"The Republicans' efforts to repeal and replace the [ACA] may be dead on arrival. The defection of a total of four Senators from support of BCRA 2.0 means that bill has no chance of passage.... While a full repeal would appeal to the conservative faction in the party, it is far from clear that Senator McConnell has enough votes among the moderates to accomplish repeal in the current environment."
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
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Evaluating the Effects of SHOP in California and Colorado
"Although SHOP has made modest gains in enrollment in California and Colorado, and in the many states in which it is managed by the federal government, the program still covers fewer than 150,000 people nationwide.... While SHOP has the potential to grow, especially if it evolves into more of a 'one-stop shop' for employee benefits, the program has a long way to go if it is to become a focal point of the small-group insurance market."
The Commonwealth Fund
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Obamacare Exchanges In Limbo
"California's Obamacare exchange scrubbed its annual rate announcement this week, the latest sign of how the ongoing political drama over the [ACA] is roiling insurance markets nationwide. The exchange, Covered California, might not wrap up negotiations with insurers and announce 2018 premiums for its 1.4 million customers until mid-August -- about a month later than usual. Similar scenarios are playing out across the country as state officials and insurers demand clarity on health care rules and funding, with deadlines fast approaching for the start of open enrollment this fall."
Kaiser Health News
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Anatomy of an ERISA Disability Benefit Claim (PDF)
"Because the administrative record is often limited to the evidence that was before the administrator at the time it made the final claims decision, perfecting the claim and appeal is arguably the most important part of any benefits claim."
Plaintiff Magazine
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When Switching to Unlimited PTO, Coordinate with FMLA
"When switching to unlimited paid time off (PTO) for the C-suite, employers should consider their [FMLA] obligations to ensure that FMLA time off, which is typically unpaid, doesn't become 12 weeks of paid leave, management attorneys recommend. And before unlimited PTO takes effect, employers should decide whether to pay out remaining accrued leave or offer a grace period during which employees can use that accrued leave."
Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM]
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[Opinion]
How Not to Lower Healthcare Costs
"With national healthcare expenditures topping $3.2 trillion annually, legislators on Capitol Hill are looking to root out the kind of wasteful spending that has flattened American wages and sent health insurance premiums soaring. At the same time, Congress is under pressure from voters not to sacrifice the quality or accessibility of medical care. What few seem to realize, however, is that financial disincentives in healthcare rarely work and, more often, carry unintended consequences."
Robert Pearl, M.D. in Forbes
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Benefits in General
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[Opinion]
American Benefits Council Letter to Senate Finance Committee: Successful Employer-Sponsored Benefits System Depends on Smart, Forward-Thinking Tax Policy
"[T]he tax incentives for health and retirement plans are typically scored as the largest income tax expenditures in the federal budget ... [T]he tax 'expenditure' for employer-provided health plans -- attributable to the exclusion of employer contributions from individuals' income and payroll tax -- is a relative bargain compared to the enormous federal expenditures on the Medicare and Medicaid programs, even though employer plans offer far superior coverage.... Second, the tax 'expenditure' for employer-provided retirement plans is not actually an expenditure at all -- it is a tax deferral."
American Benefits Council
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Executive Compensation
and Nonqualified Plans
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Public Company Summer/Fall To-Do List: 5 Steps Toward CEO Pay Ratio Disclosure
"[1] Form a team.... [2] Determine the message and audience.... [3] [G]ather, and process the data necessary to determine the median employee and the median employee's compensation.... [4] Decide how and where in the proxy statement to present the CEO Pay Ratio disclosure and prepare a mockup of the disclosure.... [5] Determine the corporate governance process and an appropriate timeline for completing the process."
Latham & Watkins
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Discussions on
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Showing the Participant Count on Form 5500 for Welfare Plan That's Merged Into Another Plan
"Welfare Plan covers employees of a particular division of a larger employer. It terminates on 12/31/16 and is brought into the larger plan effective 1/1/17, per corporate resolutions. So, on 12/31/16, there were participants in the original plan, but on 1/1/17 there were none. I need to file a final Form 5500 for 2016. I know I will need to include the various Schedule A's showing premiums, commissions, etc., but do I also show zero participants at year-end?"
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David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Holly Horton, Business Manager
BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9595. Copyright 2017 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. All materials contained in this newsletter are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., or in the case of third party materials, the owner of those materials. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notices from copies of the content.
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