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Fox Rothschild 'For Your Benefit' Newsletter, June 2012 (PDF)

Newsletter on current legal issues impacting employee benefits and executive compensation. This issue includes: COBRA Audits - Another Worry for Employers; What To Do About Those Underfunded Defined Benefit Plans? The Price of Fiduciary Failure - $36.9 Million; and FSA Cap Update - Limited Relief Announced

2025 Year-End Compliance Checklist: Key Action Items for Your Benefits and Compensation Plans

"[1] General year-end action items ... [2] Retirement plan operational compliance (SECURE 2.0 deadlines).... Prepare for mandatory Roth catch-up implementation.... Address plan forfeiture balances.... Finalize tax-exempt 457(b) plan amendments.... Review and amend plan documents for discretionary changes.... Encourage participant data review.... [3] Health and welfare plan action items.... Evaluate the impact of the one big beautiful bill act (OBBBA) on plan design.... Strengthen group health plan fiduciary and cybersecurity practices." 

Why Your Benefits Matter: Creating Value for Your Employees and Organization

"Providing a baseline level of core benefits coverage, combined with flexibility for personalization, can help meet the diverse needs of employees.... Benefits packages also significantly impact workplace culture.... Companies should prioritize offerings that foster a deep-rooted relationship with employees, such as retirement plans."

How to Drive Value for Your Benefits Package with the Enrollment Experience

28 pages. Excerpt: This white paper discusses how to reinvent the enrollment experience to benefit both employers and employees -- while increasing a company's return on its benefits investment. Employers will learn how this paradigm shift is driving the need for more comprehensive benefits education and what measures they can take to help employees better understand and appreciate their benefits choices. Readers will learn the importance of planning and reporting before, during and after the actual enrollment. The paper also illustrates why an effectively communicated benefits package can make a big difference in how employees perceive their company and how they may perform -- no matter if the company has a few employees or a few thousand.

A Formula for Choosing the Right PBM for Your Benefits

"Employers are more sophisticated about choosing the right PBM than they were just five years ago, which means expectations of what PBMs provide have changed. Previously, employers were mainly concerned with the drug prices PBMs offered. Transparent pricing, low markups and high rebates help manage costs. PBMs are now charged with helping employers manage utilization. Yes, prices, discounts and rebates all still matter, but a good price on a drug is irrelevant if the medication should not have been prescribed in the first place."

Selecting an Auditor For Your Employee Benefit Plan (PDF)

"If your employee benefit plan is required to have an audit, one of the most important duties of the plan administrator is to hire an independent qualified public accountant.... A quality audit will help protect the assets and the financial integrity of your employee benefit plan[.]"

Selecting An Auditor For Your Employee Benefit Plan (PDF)

6 pags. Excerpt: If your employee benefit plan is required to have an audit, one of the most important duties of the plan administrator is to hire an independent qualified public accountant. The sponsor of the plan is the plan administrator under the law unless another individual or entity is specifically designated to assume this responsibility. The following material will assist you, as plan administrator, in selecting an auditor and reviewing the audit work and report. [Reprinted Oct. 2011]

Eight Key Questions to Consider When Adding Telemedicine to Your Benefit Plan

"[1] Will my employees be receptive to a telemedicine option?... [2] What types of telemedicine will be offered? And will there be worksite access to telemedicine available?... [3] Will adding telemedicine lower our total health care costs?... [4] What are the main health concerns of your employees that would be best addressed by telemedicine?... [5] How will telemedicine be integrated into our current health benefits? ... [6] Who will be on my workplace team to ensure that telehealth is properly implemented?... [7] How will you construct a year-round telemedicine communications plan for your employees?... [8] What kinds of data will be available to provide measurement of ROI?"

For ACA, Don't Stop at Your Benefits Plans: Remember to Check Your Handbook

"[If] you chose to exclude 'part-time' employees (i.e. those who work less than 30 hours a week) from your health plan, make sure that exclusion is stated in your handbook. If you are using lookback measurement periods allowed by the regulations, you should also make mention of them in the handbook.... [If] your definition of 'part-time' is different for health benefits than it is for other purposes (hours, compensation, vacation, etc), that distinction should be made clear in the handbook.... You should also mention if a waiting period applies and what it is."

Employers: Your Benefit Claim Denial Letters Must Comply with ERISA

"Benefit claim denial notices must meet detailed regulatory requirements. An employer that is the responsible fiduciary under a group health plan is responsible, and potentially liable, for a deficient claim denial communication – even if the communication is issued by a TPA." [Doe v. Deloitte LLP Grp. Ins. Plan, No. 23-4743 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 24, 2025)]