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[Guidance Overview]
New Colorado Leave Requirements Scheduled to Accompany the Upcoming Fall School Year (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "On June 1, 2009, Colorado's Governor, A. William Ritter, signed into law the Parental Involvement in K-12 Education Act ('Act'). House Bill 09-1057, now codified at C.R.S. § 8-13.3-101 et seq., takes effect on August 5, 2009, unless a referendum petition is filed before this date. According to the General Assembly Bill Information Office, referendum petitions are rarely filed, meaning employers should plan accordingly to ensure they are prepared to comply with the Act's requirements this fall." (Snell & Wilmer)


[Guidance Overview]
Pennsylvania and Illinois Join States Expanding Insured Health Coverage for Adult Children (PDF)
Excerpt: "Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has just signed legislation expanding insured group health coverage to adult unmarried children until they reach age 30. A new Illinois law requires insured coverage to be extended to unmarried children until they reach age 26 and to those children who served in the military until age 30. At this time, more than half of the states in the union have taken some action to expand insured dependent coverage." (Buck Consultants)


[Guidance Overview]
COBRA Premium Subsidy: More Guidance from IRS, CMS and DOL
Excerpt: "IRS will defer to an employer's determination of whether an employee's termination was involuntary for purposes of the COBRA payroll tax credit as long as the determination is consistent with a 'reasonable interpretation' of the statute and IRS guidance. CMS issued a 'Request for Review' form for use by individuals denied COBRA premium assistance under public-sector government plans or state mini-COBRA laws. DOL issued a Spanish-language version of its 'Request for Expedited Review' form." (Deloitte via BenefitsLink.com)


Some Media Reports Mischaracterize CBO Estimate of Senate 'HELP' Health Reform Bill Cost
Excerpt: "The news media are widely reporting that, according to a partial and preliminary Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis, health reform legislation that the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) is developing would cut the number of uninsured by only 16 million people while costing $1 trillion over ten years. That conclusion, however, is incorrect. The CBO analysis covers only a part of the HELP plan (the parts for which the Committee gave CBO detailed specifications) and does not include major elements of the plan that would further substantially reduce the number of uninsured." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)


Study of Wealthy Countries Shows Only U.S. and Australia Have No Paid Parental Leave Rights for Fathers or Mothers
Excerpt: "[T]he United States has no national policy requiring paid leave for fathers (or mothers); and we lag far behind other high-income economies that provide families, and often fathers specifically, with paid leave from work to actively care for and bond with their children. . . . [Only] the United States and Australia have no paid leave rights for parents; the remaining 19 peer countries offer paid leave to mothers and often fathers, too. For the countries that mandate a minimum amount of paid paternity leave, the benefit ranges from the equivalent of two days (United Kingdom) to seven weeks (Sweden)." (Economic Policy Institute)


CBO Response to Questions About Health Care Industry Stakeholders' Proposals (PDF)
3 page letter to Rep. Dave Camp. Excerpt: "You asked the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to review the documents accompanying a letter to the President in which a group of health care industry stakeholders describe their commitments to reduce health care costs, strengthen quality, and improve access. In particular, you asked CBO to determine the level of savings that their proposals would yield for the federal government. The industry leaders' attention to these goals and agreement that significant savings can be obtained are no doubt welcome. However, most of the proposals are steps that do not require the involvement of the federal government or are not specified at a level of detail that would enable CBO to estimate budgetary savings." (U.S. Congressional Budget Office)


CBO Letter on Health Care Reform and the Federal Budget (PDF)
18 pages. Letter to the Honorable Kent Conrad and the Honorable Judd Gregg. (U.S. Congressional Budget Office)


How the HELP Committee's Draft Legislation Would Affect Employer-Sponsored Insurance
Excerpt: "We have received several questions about CBO's analysis of the draft health care reform legislation released by the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) -- in particular, about the legislation's effects on employer-sponsored coverage. Looking at one year -- 2017 -- as an example, CBO estimates that, under the HELP proposal, about 147 million people would have employer-sponsored insurance in that year, 15 million fewer than would have such insurance under current law." (U.S. Congressional Budget Office Director's Blog)


Health Care Reform Update as of June 17, 2009
Excerpt: "This is one of a series of regular health care reform updates from Spencer's Benefits Reports. Included are links to items already covered, brief summaries of actions taken by the federal government, recent reports and studies on health care reform, policy statements by major stakeholders, and other recent health care reform activity." (Wolters Kluwer)


Health Insurance Exchanges Likely to Be Part of Reform, but Health Plans Wary of Such Models
Excerpt: "With health insurance exchanges included in health care reform proposals offered by both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate, it appears likely that some form of the purchasing system will be included in the final bill. But how an exchange would operate -- including how much authority it would have, whether it would be one national entity or many state entities, and whether individuals could receive coverage subsidies without using the exchange -- still must be hammered out. Insurers remain wary of the proposals, but say they are waiting to see a final bill before taking a position." (AISHealth.com)


Employees Like Wellness Programs, but Don't Want Wages Tied to Them, According to Survey
Excerpt: "While 70% of employees believe that employers should offer some type of program, employees are ambivalent about how to get employees to participate. The majority of employees surveyed said that compensation should be tied only to their work, regardless of how much they participated in wellness activities. And two-thirds said that employers should not provide extra pay to wellness program participants. However, three-quarters of employees said that their employers should be able to offer lower health premiums to employees who participate, specifically linking healthy behavior to discounted premiums." (AISHealth.com)


Pennsylvania Employers Now Have Option to Cover Adult Dependents up to Age 30
Excerpt: "According to a statement on [Governor] Rendell's Web site, S.B. 189 goes into effect in six months and the adult dependent coverage will become available on a rolling basis as employer group health contracts are renewed. The bill allows employers to increase employee premiums to fund the additional coverage." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)


Society for Human Resource Management Offers New Approach on Employee Leave
Excerpt: "'It's time to pursue a new approach to this issue absent of rigid, unworkable mandates,' said [the SHRM representative] in concluding her remarks. 'It's time to give employees greater flexibility and to give employers more predictability. It's time to encourage paid leave -- without stifling existing innovative benefits or hindering job creation.'" (Society for Human Resource Management)


SHRM, Democrats Tangle Over Paid Sick-Days Bill
Excerpt: "The HR organization's China Miner Gorman warns that the legislation mandating paid sick days would foist new requirements on employers that could turn out to be as difficult and costly to administer as the Family and Medical Leave Act -- whose 200 pages of regulations she held up at the hearing." (Workforce Management; free registration required)


Obama Being Pressed to Tax Health Benefits
Excerpt: "In legislation that could be unveiled as early as this week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is expected to propose a new tax on the health benefits that millions of Americans currently receive tax-free through employers. Economists say taxing employer-sponsored benefits would help trim runaway health costs and force society to broadly share the burdens of reform. The idea also has bipartisan appeal. Former president George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the 2008 GOP presidential candidate, championed a form of the tax; so did Obama advisers Jason Furman and Ezekiel Emanuel before they joined the administration." (The Washington Post; free registration required)


Sweeping Health Care Reform Legislation's Debut Draws Ire of Employers
Excerpt: "During the meetings of stakeholders, known as the 'workhorse group' and organized by Kennedy's staff, employers made clear that they opposed four potential provisions under discussion: the introduction of a publicly run health plan; any changes to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which gives employers the freedom to design one health plan for employees in various states; a requirement that employers provide health benefits; and taxing an employee's health benefits." (Workforce Management; free registration required)

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Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

[Guidance Overview]
Obama Administration Outline of Executive Compensation Guidelines and Legislative Initiatives (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "While boards of directors and compensation committees have recognized that compensation practices are now under intense scrutiny, there have been no mandated changes to public companies' existing practices, except for financial institutions receiving funds under the United States Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program ('TARP'). Now the Obama Administration is proposing legislation that would continue the regulatory course begun with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act ('SOX'), mandating changes in corporate governance for all public companies." (Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP)


[Guidance Overview]
Treasury Secretary Signals Direction of Executive Compensation Reform (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner issued a public statement on June 10, 2009 outlining five broad-based principles intended to bring compensation practices more in line with the interests of shareholders and reinforce the stability of firms and the financial system. Along with the statement of principles, Treasury released two fact sheets - one on shareholder 'say-on-pay' and one on compensation committee independence." (Buck Consultants)


[Guidance Overview]
Revenue Ruling 2008-13 Reminder: Review Bonus Plans Intended to Provide Qualified Performance-Based Compensation under IRC § 162(m)
Excerpt: "In PLR 200804004, the IRS departed from previous PLRs and held that compensation paid pursuant to a plan's provision that permits payment without regard to whether the performance goals are met in the event the employee is terminated without cause or terminates for good reason would be subject to IRC § 162(m) disallowance even if the performance goals were satisfied." (Deloitte via BenefitsLink.com)


New EESA/ARRA Interim Final Rules on Executive Compensation for TARP Institutions
Excerpt: "Later in the week I will provide a link to a full summary of the new Interim Final Rules. Until then I summarize below the many refinements in the new Rules that went against TARP institutions. In fact, the new Rules shot down nearly every proposed strategy devised by practitioners for dealing with the more onerous EESA/ARRA TARP restrictions." (Michael Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)


Work-Sharing May Help Companies Avoid Layoffs
Excerpt: "As companies struggle to make it from recession to recovery, many are turning to a novel but unheralded program that cuts their costs while sparing their workers' jobs. Under the program, known as work-sharing, employers reduce their workers' weekly hours and pay, often by 20 or 40 percent, and then states make up some of the lost wages, usually half, from their unemployment funds." (The New York Times; free registration required)


IRS Says Cell Phone Law Obsolete
Excerpt: "In a reversal of course, the Internal Revenue Service says it will suggest that there be no tax consequence for employers or employees for personal use of work-related cell phones. In a statement, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said: 'Although some of the proposed changes would add clarity, the current law will inevitably leave widespread confusion among employees and businesses. Therefore, (Treasury) Secretary (Timothy) Geithner and I ask that Congress act to make clear that there will be no tax consequence to employers or employees for personal use of work-related devices such as cell phones provided by employers.'" (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)


U.S. Government to Extend Its Job Benefits to G.ay Partners
Excerpt: "President Obama will sign a presidential memorandum on Wednesday to extend benefits to same-s.ex partners of federal employees, administration officials said Tuesday evening, but he will stop short of pledging full health insurance coverage." (The New York Times; free registration required)


Government Work Is No Longer the Job of Last Resort
Excerpt: "Post-crash, job seekers are lining up to apply for the new hot career: in government. Public-sector work has new appeal: no taint of scandal, low risk of layoffs." (Workforce Management; free registration required)

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Webcasts and Conferences

Fiduciary Responsibility in the New Age of 403(b) Plans (Recorded Webinar)
Nationwide on June 17, 2009
presented by Nixon Peabody LLP

( Click to post your webcast or conference )

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Press Releases

PBGC Assumes Source Financing's Fortunoff Pension Plan
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)

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