Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter

February 14, 2018

BenefitsLink.com logo EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com logo
Search   ·   Past Issues   ·   Get Message Boards Digest   ·   Get Retirement News

Jobs


Webcasts, Conferences

Emerging HR Technology to Maximize Employee Utilization of the Benefit Plan
February 22, 2018 in IL
Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Chicago West Chapter

Hot Topic: Navigating State and Federal Paid Sick Leave Laws
March 1, 2018 in MD
Worldwide Employee Benefits Network [WEB] - Baltimore Chapter

Mental Health Parity in 2018 - Is Your Plan Ready for a MHPAEA Audit?
March 13, 2018 WEBCAST
American Bar Association Joint Committee on Employee Benefits [JCEB]

►See 158 Upcoming Webcasts and Conferences

►See 1377 Recorded Webcasts


Discussions

New Topics on the BenefitsLink Message Boards

New Comments and Topics

All Topics, Grouped by Forum


This Newsletter:
Subscribe Now

BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter:
Subscribe Now

Message Boards Digest:
Subscribe Now


[Guidance Overview]

Maryland Paid Sick Leave Act Goes Into Effect
"The Act preempts Maryland localities from passing their own sick and safe leave laws in the future. Preemption is retroactive to January 1, 2017. Therefore, employers presumably must still comply with Montgomery County's paid sick and safe leave law, because it was enacted in 2016."
Ballard Spahr LLP

[Advert.]

Join Us in Shaping the Future of Employee Benefit Programs

Sponsored by ECFC [Employers Council on Flexible Compensation]

The 37th ECFC Annual Conference in Washington will feature congressional speakers, in-depth briefings by the ECFC lobbying team, inside the beltway keynote speakers, regulatory agency and technical panels. Join us!


Fifth Circuit Reverses District Court Health Plan Fraud Decision
"Cigna [had] filed suit against Humble in hopes of protecting itself -- and health plans for which it serves as claims administrator -- from healthcare fraud and abuse. In exchange, Cigna faced a judgment against it in excess of $16 million. The Fifth Circuit's decision vindicating Cigna's position constitutes a significant victory for ERISA plans, insurers, and other payors[.]" [Connecticut General Life Ins. Co. v. Humble Surgical Hospital, LLC, No. 16-20398 (5th Cir. Dec. 19, 2017)]
Seyfarth Shaw LLP

District Court Finds Dialysis Is Not 'Essential Health Benefit' Under ACA
"[T]he court ruled that it could not conclude that dialysis was an essential health benefit in 2013 under the category of chronic disease management because [HHS] had not yet said that it was.... When it prohibited plans from excluding coverage for certain categories of services such as 'chronic disease management,' Congress did not mandate that plans cover any specific benefit within those categories, and Congress left it to [HHS] to identify what products or services were covered within each of the categories it set forth." [Fresenius Medical Care Midwest Dialysis LLC v. Humana Ins. Co., No. 16-711 (E.D. Wisc. Feb. 5, 2018)]
Wolters Kluwer

Annual Report of ABA Subcommittee on the FMLA: 2017 Court Cases (PDF)
This 333-page report describes, and organizes by topic in detail, over 450 FMLA decisions of federal and state courts during 2017. Special thanks to attorney Jeff Nowak of Franczek Radelet P.C. for making this compilation available.
American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law, Committee on Federal Labor Standards Legislation, Subcommittee on the Family and Medical Leave Act

FMLA Leave Not Available Following Pet's Death
"Insomnia caused by emotional distress over the passing of a beloved pet probably was not a serious health condition under the [FMLA], according to the U.S. District Court of Eastern Wisconsin. Even if it was, a worker must give a supervisor adequate notice of the need for FMLA time off, and the court found that the employee in this case failed to do so." [Buck v. Mercury Marine Corp., No. 16-1013 (E.D. Wis. Dec. 22, 2017)]
Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM]

[Advert.]

Reading this on your mobile device? Get the BenefitsLink App!

Sponsored by BenefitsLink

Now available on Google Play and in the App Store, the free BenefitsLink mobile app includes all the same great content as the daily newsletter -- news, jobs, events, message boards -- at your fingertips when you're on the go. Download today!


Are Limited Networks What We Hope and Think They Are?
"Across health plans, CPR found no consistent formula for selecting providers by type, below a certain price point, or above a specific level of quality.... [H]ealth plans primarily consider which hospital or provider group will agree to a certain price ... whether excluding others is feasible given each provider's market power or 'must have' status, and whether exclusions create access issues.... Health plans may consider quality while developing a limited network, but it is secondary to other criteria."
Health Affairs

Employees Are More Likely to Stay If They Like Their Health Plan
"56 percent of U.S. adults with employer-sponsored health benefits said that whether or not they like their health coverage is a key factor in deciding to stay at their current job. 46 percent said health insurance was either the deciding factor or a positive influence in choosing their current job."
Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM]

Consequences for HIPAA Violations Don't Stop When a Business Closes
"A receiver appointed to liquidate the assets of Filefax, Inc. has agreed to pay $100,000 ... in order to settle potential violations of the [HIPAA] Privacy Rule. Filefax ... advertised that it provided for the storage, maintenance, and delivery of medical records for covered entities. Although Filefax shut its doors during the course of OCR's investigation into alleged HIPAA violations, it could not escape its obligations under the law."
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS]

Bipartisan Bills to Enhance Chronic Disease Management Would Modify HSA Requirements
"The bills would modify statutes governing HSAs to allow high deductible health plans (a required component of HSA eligibility) to fully cover, with no deductible, certain services and interventions that are a part of chronic disease management. The changes would allow these services to be considered 'preventive,' enabling them to fall within the safe harbor that affords coverage of expenses without first satisfying a plan deductible."
Ascensus

Treasury Inspector General Releases Report on ACA Tax Filings for Plan Year 2016
"Of the 5.1 million total tax returns during the 2017 filing season (for plan year 2016), about 2.1 million tax filers were entitled to a higher premium tax credit than they received in APTC. About 2.8 million tax filers received more APTC than they were entitled to and must repay some or all of this amount."
Health Affairs

Benefits in General

2017 in Review: ERISA Guidance and Enforcement (PDF)
11 pages. "In 2017, the principal focus in the administration of [ERISA] by the [DOL] appropriately remained one of the extraordinary developments under DOL's new fiduciary definition and related exemptions (Fiduciary Rule). DOL's regular program of issuing advance guidance and enforcing the statute continued in a more conventional manner as well ... The regulatory guidance plans under ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code, as they relate to employee benefits and executive compensation, were also recently updated."
Eversheds Sutherland

Press Releases

Beasley & Company is Certified to Industry Best Practices
Centre for Fiduciary Excellence [CEFEX]

Connect   LinkedIn logo   Twitter logo   Facebook logo

BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park, Florida 32789
(407) 644-4146

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 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.

Links to web sites other than BenefitsLink.com and EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com are offered as a service to our readers; we were not involved in their production and are not responsible for their content.

Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy