401(k) Retirement Plan Administrator
Nicholas Pension Consultants
in CA

Team Lead / 401(k) Pension Administrator
Nicholas Pension Consultants
in CA

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Wellness Panel
February 15, 2018 in AZ
Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Phoenix Chapter

38th Annual Conference - Breaking Barriers: Disruptive Innovation in Health Care & Benefits
May 2, 2018 in IL
Midwest Business Group on Health

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[Guidance Overview]

Massachusetts Issues Employer Assessment Regs
"The Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) recently issued regulations and FAQs explaining how the EMAC supplement will work. Payments will be due quarterly ... The higher EMAC rate and EMAC supplement will appear in employers' first-quarter unemployment insurance statements for 2018, and payment is due April 30. Other recent legislation ... requires that employers with six or more employees notify the DUA of their offer to pay or arrange for employees' health coverage and describe the coverage, although forms and instructions for doing so are not yet available."
Willis Towers Watson

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2018 Health Policy Agenda Starts with Win for Employers
"Congressional Republicans haven't formally outlined their 2018 agenda, but they are currently divided on whether to revive efforts to repeal and replace the ACA or move completely away from health care.... While November's midterm elections and pushback from the pharmaceutical industry may spell legislative gridlock, bipartisan interest in drug pricing will continue, and perhaps even increase, this year."
Mercer

Employee Benefits Changes in 2018
"The end of the individual mandate for healthcare coverage may lead to an increase in the number of employees and their family members who will not buy health insurance.... Employees with employer-provided health coverage may not have enrolled their spouse or children in prior years because their family could have obtained coverage at a lower rate through some other program."
Butterfield Schechter LLP

Medicare Beneficiaries' Out-of-Pocket Health Care Spending as a Share of Income Now and Projections for the Future
"In 2013, Medicare beneficiaries' average out-of-pocket health care spending was 41 percent of average per capita Social Security income; the share increased with age and was higher for women than men, especially among people ages 85 and over. Medicare beneficiaries' average out-of-pocket health care spending is projected to rise as a share of average per capita Social Security income, from 41 percent in 2013 to 50 percent in 2030."
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

New York and Minnesota Sue Over Loss of Basic Health Program Funding
"The states have sued for over $1 billion in annual funding ... They request a declaratory judgment that HHS is violating its obligation to make Basic Health Program payments and ask that HHS be required to consider and then adopt alternative funding proposals or a new payment methodology that is subject to the notice-and-comment rulemaking process."
Health Affairs

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Workplace Wellness Programs Really Don't Work, New Study Concludes
"Over the years, hundreds of studies have examined the efficacy of wellness programs with mixed results... Much of that research has calculated savings by looking at the difference in health-care spending between employees who opt in to such programs and those who don't. But the new study, as a randomized control trial, measured differences by randomly creating a control group with no access to the wellness program at all. With that method, the researchers found that medical spending disparities pre-existed the wellness program."
Bloomberg

2018 Millennial Benefit Trends Report (PDF)
14 pages. "When asked if they take into account whether a job offers benefits when considering applying, an impressive 96.77 percent said yes.... When asked to rate five general benefits categories in order of importance, '401(k) Retirement Savings' easily outpaced the others, with 38.98 percent rating it 'Extremely Important.' ... HR respondents said that health insurance was the top benefit that our millennial job seekers asked about[.]"
Pentegra

Federal Courts in Tennessee: Claimants and Administrators Must See the Administrative Process All the Way Through
"[Two recent] decisions reflect the courts' view of the importance of the ERISA 'administrative process' playing out to the very end, even if it results in a decision coming out beyond the statutory deadline. There's certainly appeal to the notion that the administrative process should be a flexible, open, information-sharing process not hampered by the rigidity of statutory deadlines or the fail-safe of substantial compliance.... Sometimes it makes sense to file suit immediately, other times it makes sense to allow the administrator to continue with the decision-making process. But I have different advice for Tennesseans: On Day 46, do not pass Go, do not collect $200, go straight to court."
Roberts Bartolic

Tax Law Prompting Enhanced Benefits and Pay, Companies Say
"31 percent of large and midsize U.S. employers have taken at least one action regarding their benefit programs, and 19 percent have done so regarding broad-based employee compensation, in response to the lower corporate tax rate. Many more are planning, or at least considering, doing so."
Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM]

Don't Disband That Compensation Committee of Outside Directors Just Yet
"[A] compensation committee qualifying under 162(m) still must certify the achievement of performance goals for performance periods ending in 2017. Most equity awards made before November 2017 should qualify for grandfathering under the 162(m) transition rule. Until IRS guidance clarifies the extent of the grandfathering protection, we don't want to do anything that might adversely affect that."
Winston & Strawn LLP