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[Guidance Overview]
What's in Store for Health Plans? Top 10 Legal Changes for 2009 - 2010
Excerpt: "December 31, 2009, is a significant date for group health plans that are operated on a calendar year. Non-calendar year plans face the same changes but with different timing requirements. And some new requirements are already in place. [The target document] is a brief description of some major new laws and rules that require implementation in 2009 or 2010." (Warner Norcross & Judd LLP)


[Guidance Overview]
New IRS Considerations Regarding Over-the-Counter Items as Medical Care Expenses
Excerpt: "While the IRS guidance adds some certainty, it also reminds us that for many over-the-counter items, reimbursement cannot be automatic. If you decide to cover the expenses of dual-purpose items as part of your FSA or HRA benefit program, you must ask questions necessary to verify that those expenses are reimbursable medical expenses." (Warner Norcross & Judd LLP)


[Guidance Overview]
Ninth Circuit on Disclosure of Contractual Time Limitations for Commencing Benefits Lawsuits (PDF)
Excerpt: "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that a one-year deadline to file a benefits claims lawsuit contained in a Summary Plan Description ('SPD') could be enforced against a participant despite the participant's argument that the one year deadline was: not placed in the proper section of the SPD and in a sufficiently conspicuous manner; and never conveyed by the plan's administrator in its claim denial letters." (Trucker Huss)


[Guidance Overview]
Frequently Asked Employment Law Questions This Flu Season
Excerpt: "In anticipation of higher-than-average absenteeism due to seasonal and H1N1 flu outbreaks, employers should implement specific best practices that protect employees, minimize business disruptions and avoid employment claims. . . . This article offers in depth responses to frequently asked questions, provides resources for more information, and suggests best practices for protecting the health and safety of employees, minimizing disruption to business activities and avoiding employment claims when the flu hits the workplace." (McDermott Will & Emery)


[Guidance Overview]
Key 2010 Medicare Values (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "This For Your Information provides key 2010 Medicare values just released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, including the income-adjusted Medicare Part B premiums as prescribed by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA)." (Buck Consultants)


Research Project: The Effect of Out-of-Pocket Spending for Health Care on Economic Preparation for Retirement
Excerpt: "In research previously funded by the Social Security Administration through MRRC, we estimated the fraction of households aged 65-69 who were adequately prepared for retirement by finding whether their economic resources could sustain an empirically estimated life-cycle consumption path. The only source of uncertainty in the model was longevity. The level of spending by each household was affected by average spending on health care but not by health spending shocks. In the proposed research, we will explicitly take into account the risk of out-of-pocket spending on health care to find, via simulation, the fraction of households financially prepared for retirement." (University of Michigan Retirement Research Center)


Small Businesses Could Benefit from Insurance Exchanges, According to Hearing Testimony
Excerpt: "Supporters of health reform legislation told a Senate subcommittee Tuesday that the insurance exchanges are critical for small businesses, which pay more than large companies to cover their employees and are cutting jobs and insurance coverage to control costs. The San Francisco Chronicle reports: 'Legislation approved by the Senate Finance Committee last week would create insurance exchanges that supporters say would aid small businesses by spreading risk among a greater number of participants. The result, they said, would be lower premiums. ... Small businesses could compare the price, quality and services of a number of plans offered through the exchanges, said Karen Mills, the administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.'" (Kaiser Family Foundation)


EEOC Rejects Second Wellness Questionnaire
Excerpt: "Requiring employees to complete a lengthy wellness questionnaire in order to receive funds from a health reimbursement arrangement would violate the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) because many of the 100-plus questions are 'disability-related inquiries,' according to a recent opinion letter from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC's 'informal discussion letter,' posted Oct. 6, is the second this year to reject a health risk assessment as an impermissible inquiry. In addition to prohibiting disability-based discrimination, the ADA restricts employers' use of 'disability-related inquiries and medical examinations.' For current (as opposed to entering) employees, such inquiries -- which include 'questions likely to elicit information about a disability' -- must be 'job-related and consistent with business necessity.' These rules apply to all employees, whether or not they have an ADA-recognized disability." (Thompson Publishing Group, Inc.)


Federal Agencies Challenge Employees to Lead a Healthier Lifestyle
Excerpt: "The president met with industry leaders in May to discuss strategies for improving employee health, and he directed the Office of Personnel Management to develop wellness best practices and a plan for the federal workforce. In response, OPM this summer announced its work-life campus initiative, a joint effort with the Federal Reserve Board, General Services Administration and Interior Department. The four agencies, located within blocks of one another, will develop and share facilities, possibly including green space and a healthy cafeteria." (GovernmentExecutive.com)


Technical Answers to Questions Pertaining to PWC Report on Potential Impact of Health Reform on Cost of Private Health Insurance Coverage
Excerpt: "A recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers /1/ examines the potential impact of key provisions of the Senate Finance reform proposal on the cost of private health insurance premiums and premium-equivalents for self-insured plans. The report estimates the potential impact of four elements of the proposed reforms on the cost of private insurance premiums: insurance market reforms, the tax on high-value plans, cost shifting of reductions in Medicare and Medicaid hospital payments, and new fees imposed on certain industries. [The target page contains] some questions that have arisen about technical aspects of the report and to what extent other factors were considered." (America's Health Insurance Plans)


Head of Employee Benefit Security Administration, Phyllis Borzi, on Health Care Reform and ERISA Remedies
Excerpt: "[She talks] about the need for need for ERISA reform in the area of remedies as part of the push for health care reform. [In BNA's Pension and Benefits Daily, she says] Plan sponsors and employee benefit attorneys too often jump to the defense of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act for all the wrong reasons . . . ." (Workplace Prof Blog)


[Opinion]
The High Cost of Small Business Health Insurance: Limited Options, Limited Coverage
Testimony at October 20, 2009, Hearing Before the Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations United States House of Representatives. Excerpt: "Small employers and their workers face an assortment of barriers to obtaining health insurance coverage. These include high administrative costs, limited ability to spread health care risk, and a low-wage workforce. These issues have led to low rates of coverage offers by small employers and high rates of uninsurance among their workers. An insurance exchange, such as the one proposed in H.R. 3200, would spread health care risk and reduce administrative costs. The financial assistance provided to the low-income under the bill would benefit many small-firm workers. As such, the bill would significantly increase coverage among workers of small employers." (Urban Institute)


[Opinion]
Excise Tax on Very High-Cost Health Plans Is a Sound Element of Health Reform (PDF)
Excerpt: "An excise tax on very high-cost health plans, which the Senate Finance Committee included in its health reform bill, represents a sound way to help pay for health reform. The excise tax finances nearly a quarter of the costs of the Finance Committee bill over the first ten years ($201 billion out of $829 billion) and makes a major contribution to the deficit reduction that the bill would achieve in later decades. It would help to slow the rate of health care cost growth, without which health care reform is not likely to be sustainable over time. Of particular note, the excise tax produces savings that rise over time at least as fast as the costs of providing health insurance to those now uninsured. Without such a tax, Congress will be hard-pressed to comply with the President's pledge -- and Senate rules -- that the bill not increase the deficit in future decades." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

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Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

[Guidance Overview]
2010 Benefit Limits
Excerpt: "The Service has also released health and fringe benefit plan adjustments effective January 1, 2010." (Kilpatrick Stockton LLP)


IRS Mounts Audit Initiative Targeting Misclassification and Fringe Benefits
Excerpt: "In the next few months, the IRS will commence an audit initiative intended to study compliance in the areas of payroll taxes, independent contractor (IC) status and fringe benefits/executive compensation arrangements. One of the goals is to reduce: (1) the tax gap by increasing tax compliance' and (2) the number of 'misclassified' ICs. A likely secondary objective, and one urged by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), is to ensure benefits coverage and 'labor protection' associated with employee status." (Thompson Publishing Group, Inc.)


Executive Compensation: Facts
Excerpt: "In this paper we describe the important features of executive compensation in the US from 1993 to 2006. Some confirm what has been found for earlier periods and some are novel. Important facts about compensation are that: the compensation distribution is highly skewed; each year, a sizeable fraction of chief executives lose money; the use of equity grants has increased; the income accruing to CEOs from the sale of stock has increased; regardless of the measure we adopt, compensation responds strongly to innovations in shareholder wealth; measured as dollar changes in compensation, incentives have strengthened over time, measured as percentage changes in wealth, they have not changed in any appreciable way." (National Bureau of Economic Research; paid subscription or individual purchase required to retrieve fulltext)


At Rescued Banks, Chief Executive Perks Keep Rolling with Fringe Compensation Rising 4 Percent Last Year
Excerpt: "Even as the nation's biggest financial firms were struggling and the federal government was spending hundreds of billions of dollars to save many of them, the companies as a group were boosting the perks and benefits they pay their chief executives. The firms, accounting for more $350 billion in federal bailout funds, increased these perks and benefits 4 percent on average last year, according to an analysis of corporate disclosures filed in recent months." (The Washington Post; free registration required)


New York Court Asked to Rule on Same-S.ex Marriage Benefits
Excerpt: "For the first time since 2006, when it ruled the state Constitution does not guarantee same-s.ex couples the right to marry, the New York Court of Appeals last week took up the issue of same-s.ex marriage. Tackling two cases simultaneously, the court on Oct. 13 heard arguments challenging Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano's 2006 decision to recognize same-s.ex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, as well as the state Department of Civil Service's extension of health insurance benefits to same-s.ex spouses of government workers in 2007. Lower court rulings have affirmed the government's position in both cases. " (Legislative Gazette)

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Webcasts and Conferences

"Would You Like Some Catch-up With Those Deferrals?" Web Seminar
Nationwide on November 10, 2009
presented by SunGard Relius

Managing Outsource Service Providers for Your Company's 401(k)
Nationwide on November 19, 2009
presented by FA Associates, LLC

Phyllis Borzi, Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, Speaks About DOL Priorities
Nationwide on November 12, 2009
presented by Western Pension & Benefits Conference - Los Angeles Chapter

Reducing Costs and Improving Performance Through a Vendor Management and Oversight Program
Nationwide on November 10, 2009
presented by Buck Consultants, an ACS Company

( Click to post your webcast or conference )

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Press Releases

PBGC Protects Powermate Corporation Pension Plan
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)

Cornerstone Insurance Group Joins Benefit Advisors Network
Benefit Advisors Network

Series of Surveys Gauge Employer, Employee Reaction to Retirement Issues During the Onset, Peak and Current Recovery Phase of the Recession
International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans

First Mercantile Adds Northwest Region Sales Director
First Mercantile

Announcing the Osler Pensions & Benefits Blog
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP

( Click to post your press release )

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Employee Benefits Jobs

Supervisor, Pension Administration Services
for Milliman
in TX

Retirement Plan Administrator
for Indiana Benefits, Inc. (On-Site, Not Telecommuting)
in IN

Second Vice President, Relationship Manager
for New York Life Retirement Plan Services
in CA

Second Vice President, Relationship Manager
for New York Life Retirement Plan Services
in MA

Second Vice President, ERISA Consultant
for New York Life Retirement Plan Services
in MA

Acquisition Integration Specialist
for Paychex, Inc.
in NY

( Click to post your job opening | View all jobs | RSS feed of all jobs )

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Handy Links:

• View Today's Active Message Threads
• Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
• Employee Benefits Library

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