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Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter October 30, 2018 |
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Jobs
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This Newsletter:
BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter:
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Retirement Plan Administrator|
[Official Guidance]
133 pages; updated Oct. 25, 2018. "The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to all types of external transmitters about composing and successfully transmitting compliant submissions to IRS.... This document covers details on composing and submitting Forms 1094/1095-B and Forms 1094/1095-C by transmitters to IRS."
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[Advert.]
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs): Compliance Obligations Under the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA
Nov. 28 webinar. Although HSAs have numerous tax advantages, it is easy to inadvertently fail to satisfy the requirements. This webinar will help health plan administrators navigate this sometimes treacherous terrain. BenefitsLink discount. |
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[Guidance Overview]
States Enter Association Health Plan Fray "[A] State of Connecticut Insurance Department [bulletin states] that small employers in Connecticut will continue to be treated as small employers for insurance rating purposes.... The Maryland Insurance Administration took a similar 'look through' approach ... Oregon Division of Financial Regulation [Bulletin 2018‑07] ... makes clear that Oregon's rules apply to any association offering a health plan, whether the association is established in Oregon
or any other state.... [T]he Washington State Insurance Commissioner confirmed that self-funded AHPs are prohibited in Washington."
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[Guidance Overview]
Proposed Rules Allow the Use of HRAs to Pay For Individual Market Coverage "[T]he Departments have proposed a fairly significant substantiation of coverage requirement on employers sponsoring the [Individual Coverage HRAs (ICHRA)].... [T]he Proposed Regulations do not permit employers to distinguish between salaried and hourly employees.... [T]he Proposed Regulations would require that former employees be treated as being in the same class to which they belonged immediately prior to their separation from service.... [T]he current rules that permit retiree-only HRAs are still in effect[.]"
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[Guidance Overview]
An Employer's Guide to Proposed Regulations Expanding HRAs "[S]tarting in 2020: [1] employers of any size not offering health coverage to all or certain employee classes could use HRAs to reimburse those employees for the cost of individual health insurance coverage (IHIC), subject to certain conditions; and [2] employers offering traditional group coverage could provide an HRA up to $1,800 annually (indexed) to reimburse employees for certain qualified medical expenses."
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[Guidance Overview]
New Jersey State Paid Sick Leave Law Is Now In Effect -- Are You Ready? "If you are a New Jersey employer or an employer with employees in New Jersey, regardless of size or employee number, you are now required by law to provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked -- up to 40 hours in a benefit year -- to all employees (including part-time and seasonal) with ... minor exceptions... The state law preempts the various municipal laws previously in effect."
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[Advert.]
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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! |
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[Guidance Overview]
New York City Updates FAQs and Amends Rules for Earned Safe and Sick Time Act "Employers with employees both inside and outside of New York City who have used an addendum to their general leave policies to meet the requirements of ESSTA should consider reorganizing their policies such that any such addendum is at a minimum attached to the general leave policy or included in the same section in an employee handbook to avoid running afoul of this new 'single writing' requirement."
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"In 2018, nearly two-thirds (63%) of employers offering health insurance to opposite sex spouses also offered coverage to same sex spouses and the share of employees with such access has increased over time so most (88%) now have access."
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Affordability Concerns Lead More Employers to 'Future-Focused' Strategies to Manage Health Cost "Average total health benefit cost per employee rose 3.6% in 2018, continuing to outpace inflation. Smaller employers were hit with higher cost increases (averaging 5.4% among those with 10‑499 employees); many added high-deductible consumer-directed health plans. Strategy with the most momentum[:] Creating a culture of health."
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Two Trump Moves That Could Reshape Health Insurance "In a span of less than 24 hours this past week, the Trump administration took two seemingly contradictory actions that could have profound effects on the insurance marketplaces set up by the [ACA]. Health analysts say that at least one of the efforts, coupled with previous changes initiated by the administration, could help transform the insurance market to be much more like it was before the 2010 federal health law took effect -- when regulation, coverage and consumer protections varied widely across the United States."
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"Medical plan costs paid by employers around the world are set to rise nearly 8% in 2019, far outpacing average general inflation of nearly 3% ... The expected average increase before plan changes in medical and pharmacy cost for employer-sponsored medical plans in 2019 of 7.8% is slightly lower than the 8.4% in 2018 due to employer cost containment measures, tighter procurement of medical goods, new health improvement initiatives and lower rates of projected inflation worldwide."
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184 pages. "The Life Insurers Fact Book, the annual statistical report of the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), provides information on trends and statistics about the life insurance industry.... In 2017, group insurance represented 46 percent of all life insurance policies in force. Group purchases increased 11 percent in 2017 to $1.3 trillion. At the end of 2017, group life insurance provided $8.4 trillion of protection, 2 percent more than a year earlier."
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"[T]he court found that the plaintiff's claim contained no factual allegations indicating that the defendant knew that the decedent's conversion rights would be important to him and 'that [its] silence might be harmful.' Moreover, the Sixth Circuit noted that nothing required the defendant to disclose the information at issue, and that neither ERISA nor the DOL's regulations required summary plan descriptions to include information about conversion rights." [Vest v. Resolute FP US Inc., No. 18-5046 (6th Cir. Oct. 10, 2018)]
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[Opinion]
2018 Health Insurance Exchanges: Progress Made, But Time to Say Goodbye? (PDF) 33 pages. "The design of the public exchange program allows administrative costs to rise proportionately with the cost of health plans ... [A]dministrative costs are significantly outpacing the cost of the technology and labor needed to operate the exchanges.... [T]his report raises the question of whether innovation on the exchanges is occurring at a pace consistent with e-commerce developments in the private sector, and whether the consumer facing features of the ACA exchanges might be better left to private companies."
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Most Popular Items in the Previous Issue |
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Trump Administration Moves to Incentivize Health Reimbursement Arrangements
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DOL Announces Guidance and Relief for Employee Benefit Plans Impacted by Recent Hurricanes
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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 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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