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[Guidance Overview]
Tax Reform Offers New Incentive for Employers Providing Paid FMLA Leave
"Section 13403 of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ... adds a new section to the Internal Revenue Code (section 45S), which generally allows eligible employers to claim a general business tax credit equal to at least 12.5% of the amount of wages paid to qualifying employees during any period which such employees are on FMLA leave. However, the rate of payment must be at least 50% of the wages normally paid to the employee and must be provided pursuant to written policy."
Fraser Trebilcock
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[Advert.]
Online Learning Course: COBRA
Even with ACA coverage easier for individuals to obtain, group health plans must continue to offer COBRA coverage. This course explains technicalities of COBRA, including who is entitled and how to administer.
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Self-Funding of Ancillary Benefits Helps Control Plan Cost
"The most commonly self-funded ancillary benefits are dental and short-term disability, followed by vision. These employee benefits are relatively low risk.... Short-term disability is a popular benefit for employees needing maternity leave. However, if you plan accordingly, these claims won't drastically affect the benefit spend."
Corporate Synergies
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Amazon Wades In: A 'Disruption' in Healthcare?
"Given its outsize influence on Americans' daily lives, [Brian Marcotte, CEO of the National Business Group on Health] said it will be intriguing to watch how Amazon can overcome the 'fragmented and complex' nature of the current healthcare-delivery system. And while the independent healthcare company proposed in the partnership will only cover employees of the three participating companies, Marcotte said it would not be a surprise if the end result -- if successful -- is someday made widely available all consumers."
Human Resource Executive Online
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[Opinion]
Proposed Federal Changes to Short-Term Health Coverage Leave Regulation to States
"An upcoming proposed rule will likely rescind the minimal restrictions on short-term plans ... which were put in place to prevent insurers from siphoning healthy enrollees away from the individual marketplace. If these changes are finalized, regulation of short-term policies will be left almost entirely to states. But many states currently have few, or no, standards for short-term plans."
The Commonwealth Fund
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[Opinion]
How Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway Might Repackage Health Care
"Though details regarding the undertaking are thin, the companies said in a release that their partnership's intent is to improve employee satisfaction and hold down costs by bringing 'their scale and complementary expertise to this long-term effort.' ... KHN asked a variety of health policy experts their thoughts on this venture, and what advice they would offer these CEOs as they go forward."
Kaiser Health News
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Benefits in General
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Nearly One in Five Workers Had Access to Financial Planning Benefits in 2017
"In 2017, about one-fifth of private industry workers were offered free or subsidized financial planning services from their employers. These services help employees make decisions about savings, borrowing, investing, home buying, education expenses, or retirement. While union and nonunion workers had similar rates of access to financial planning services, access varied based on size of establishment, wage level, and industry."
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS]
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Employment Cost Index Summary, December 2017
"Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.6 percent, seasonally adjusted, for the 3-month period ending in December 2017 ... Wages and salaries (which make up about 70 percent of compensation costs) increased 0.5 percent, and benefits (which make up the remaining 30 percent of compensation) increased 0.5 percent."
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS]
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Selected Discussions on the BenefitsLink Message Boards
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Employer Overpays Its Portion of Health Premiums; Can It Recover from Employee?
If a company realizes that it overpaid its portion of H&W premium during every pay period in 2017 -- which resulted in an employee [1] not having his portion deducted pre-tax (because the employer's payment was enough) and [2] having additional taxable income, can the employer create a payment plan to recover the overpayment in 2018 (spread out over each pay period)? Are there ACA considerations (e.g., affordability of coverage in 2018 because the employee would be paying for 2017 benefits during 2018)?
BenefitsLink Message Boards
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David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
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BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9595. Copyright 2018 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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