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How to Prepare for a Privacy/Breach Notification OCR Audit or Investigation
March 27, 2014 WEBCAST
(Clearwater Compliance)

U.S. Department of Labor Regulatory Agenda Update
April 2, 2014 WEBCAST
(Worldwide Employee Benefits Network (WEB))

Employer Mandate Delay ? Recorded
April 3, 2014 WEBCAST
(Hill, Chesson & Woody)

Employee Benefits Law for Employment Lawyers
April 17, 2014 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

Derisking: Tradeoff between Reduction in Volatility and Retirement Security
April 24, 2014 WEBCAST
(ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits)

Compensation: Understanding All of the Options
May 6, 2014 WEBCAST
(American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA))

Public Exchanges: Translating Lessons Learned Into Insurer Strategies for 2015
May 6, 2014 WEBCAST
(Atlantic Information Services, Inc)

How Will Health Care Reform Impact You in 2014?
May 21, 2014 WEBCAST
(Lorman Education Services)

Winning Combinations: Cash Balance & 401(k) Plans
May 22, 2014 WEBCAST
(American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA))

Health Care Reform for Employers: Now What?
June 12, 2014 in LA
(Lorman Education Services)

2014 Fall Forum
November 17, 2014 in AZ
(Ascensus)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

Final Employer 'Play or Pay' Mandate Guidance: Employer Action Needed (PDF)
21 pages. Excerpt: "An employee will be treated as being offered coverage for purposes of the Employer Mandate only if the employee has been given an effective opportunity to accept or decline coverage. An employee need not be given an effective opportunity to decline coverage if the coverage offered provides minimum value and is offered either at no cost to the employee or at a cost, for any calendar month, no greater than 9.5% of the monthly amount of the federal poverty line for a single individual for the applicable calendar year ... An election of coverage by an employee for a prior year that continues under the plan for succeeding plan years unless the employee affirmatively opts out of the plan will constitute an offer of coverage for purposes of the Employer Mandate." (Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP)

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DATAIR's FlexPlus System ? Makes Administration Profitable

New Regs Simplify Employer Reporting Requirements Under ACA
"Instead of reporting all of the information ... on a month-by-month basis, employers are permitted to report an employee's name, address, Social Security number and indicator code for each full-time employee who receives a 'qualifying offer' of coverage for at least 12 months.... This simplified reporting option is not available for full-time employees who don't receive a qualifying offer for 12 months. A 'qualifying offer' means: the employee-only option is affordable (using the federal poverty line safe harbor) and of minimum value; and coverage is also offered to the employee's spouse and dependents." (Miller Johnson)

Obamacare's Risk Corridor 'Bailout' Just Got Bigger -- Much Bigger
"The table below shows an insurance plan with $10 million cost target versus $11 million of allowable costs. Actual medical claims are $8.8 million. Using the formula for calculating its payout from the risk corridor, allowing 20 percent of administrative costs, the plan gets a $410,000 'bailout' ... If it can add administrative costs up to 22 percent of allowable costs, the payout increases to $635,641 -- an increase of 55 percent[.]" (John Goodman's Health Policy Blog)

HHS Prepares for HIPAA Audits
"In anticipation of these audits, here are some examples of what we expect OCR will be looking for: [1] Whether formal or informal policies or practices have been adopted to conduct a risk assessment regarding the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information (PHI); [2] Whether an encryption mechanism is in place to protect electronic PHI; ... [3] Whether individuals have been notified of the potential uses and disclosures of PHI; ... and [4] Whether a standard template or form letter exists for notifying individuals of breaches of unsecured PHI[.]" (Winston & Strawn LLP)

Navigating Federal Health Insurance Exchanges? Find an International Road Map
"[Despite the ACA's] fanfare, mandates and provisions -- even those that prohibit insurers from denying coverage to those with preexisting conditions -- finding fair-priced healthcare remains an unthinkable proposition for far too many, or at least to 59 percent of Americans who say they have had a negative experience with the exchange websites. The good news is that those who have made medical tourism more than an afterthought, but instead a reality are finding an innovative path to sound, inexpensive care that has left them healthy and happy." (Healthcare Reform Magazine)

Idaho Judge's Order to Unwind Hospital's Acquisition of Physician Group Tests Boundaries of Antitrust Laws and the ACA
"Although this case ... addresses the anticompetitive effects of a merger among healthcare providers, the Idaho district court's decision will have significant implications for ACOs.... As [the federal district judge] recognized in his decision, ACOs represent a bona fide effort by the United States Congress and several executive agencies to address the mounting healthcare crisis in the U.S. ACOs can generate compelling benefits for consumers, as their structure enables moving away from the 'perverse incentives' of fee-for-service payment methods and toward the benefits of outcome-based payment plans.... [The judge] concluded that the transaction would lead to an increase in healthcare costs in Nampa, Idaho, where the combined entity, through the combination of the hospital-staff physicians and the independent physicians, would control 80 percent of primary care physicians.... The Ninth Circuit is expected to hear the case in the latter half of 2014 or early 2015." [ St. Alphonsus Med. Ctr. et al. v. St. Luke's Med. Ctr.; FTC v. St. Luke's Med. Ctr. and Saltzer Medical Group P.A. , No. 1:13-CV-00116-BLW (D. Id. Jan. 24, 2014)] (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati)

New York Appellate Court Rejects Changes to School District Retiree Health Insurance Benefits
"Although the Court recognized that contractual obligations do not ordinarily survive beyond the termination of a collective bargaining agreement, the Court held that '[r]ights which accrued or vested under the agreement will, as a general rule, survive termination of the agreement.' In considering the specific language set forth in the CBAs, the Court held that the plaintiffs had a vested right 'to the "same coverage" during retirement as they had when they retired, until they reach 70.' ... The Court held that the Insurance Moratorium Law only applies in those instances where a school district attempts to change health insurance benefits that were voluntarily conferred, not where the benefits were 'negotiated in the collective bargaining context.' Accordingly, the Court held that the Insurance Moratorium Law did not permit the District to reduce retiree health insurance benefits simply because it negotiated a corresponding change to the health insurance benefits of active employees." [ Kolbe v. Tibbetts, et al. , No. 235 (N.Y. App. Div. Dec. 12, 2013)] (Bond Schoeneck & King)

Justices to Weigh Contraceptive Mandate Against Religious Freedom Claims
"The oral arguments regarding the law's contraception coverage mandate, slated for March 25, will be a rematch between two lawyers who squared off in the first health law challenge ... Much of the publicity about the cases focuses on a threshold issue that the justices have never faced: whether religious owners of for-profit, privately held corporations can claim any religiously-based rights on behalf of their companies, under either religious freedom act or the First Amendment. The Obama administration says no. If the two companies can overcome that hurdle, they must then clear three others to secure the exemption they seek." (Kaiser Health News)

The ACA's Contraception Coverage Mandate: Constitutional Limits On Exempting Employers
"Ours is a society that, in embracing Constitutional rule of law, protects the right to worship freely (or not at all) and simultaneously seeks to govern collectively for the public's health and welfare. Exemptions from the contraception coverage mandate place these values in tension. When, however, the law creates religious accommodations that subordinate third parties' important interests to someone else's religious beliefs, the law violates the Constitution's Establishment Clause and should be invalidated." (John Kraemer in Health Affairs Blog)

Republicans Considering Proposing High-Risk Pools: Health Insurance Ghettos?
"A high-risk pool proposal would likely mean the Congress giving states the flexibility, and perhaps funding, to set up these risk pools. Risk pools by definition are a place where people can go when they are not able to buy health insurance in the regular market because they have a health problem. That means Republicans would be turning the clock back to a time when insurance companies could turn people down for health insurance because of their health status." (The Health Care Blog)

IRS Employee Plans News, March 19, 2014 (PDF)
Topics include: [1] Cycle C determination letter applicants who intend to adopt a pre-approved cash balance plan may withdraw their applications by May 31, 2014, if they sign Form 8905, Certification of Intent to Adopt a Pre-approved Plan, by March 31, 2014; [2] FAQs on withdrawing Cycle C applications; and [3] Unreasonable assumptions in actuarial certifications of post-retirement medical benefit reserves may have consequences. (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])

Recurring Benefit Payments and the Statute of Limitations
"This case has potential relevance in situations where actuaries or plan administrators face claims relating to miscalculations many years in the past. The possibility of arguing that the statute of limitations began with the first payment may depend, however, on showing that the recipient disagreed with the benefit calculation at the outset in order to avoid the argument that the statue of limitations only began to run at a later point in time when the recipient 'discovered' the error." [ Riley v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company , No. 13-2166 (1st Cir. Mar. 4, 2014)] (Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c.)

State Tax Laws 'A Mess' For Same-Sex Couples And Employers
"[Attorney Carol] Calhoun [said] that the situation is 'a mess in a couple of ways. We think of it primarily as to the couples themselves, but it also affects their employers.' She calls it 'an administrative nightmare' in addition to being a burden on the couples and their employers.... Calhoun is also reminding same-sex couples that under some state laws, they may actually pay higher taxes as a married couple." (Carol Calhoun via NPR's Here & Now)

New Plan Design Database for Higher Education Retirement Plans PlanPILOT

JULY Adds Cassie Aragon to Expanding National Sales Team July Business Services

Pensionmark Retirement Group Releases Proprietary Employer Document Vault Pensionmark Retirement Group

Sibson Consulting Expands Retirement Consulting Practice Sibson Consulting

International Foundation to Raise Awareness of Retirement Crisis on 10th National Employee Benefits Day International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans

Actuarial Analysis Shed Light on Risks and Costs Under Health Reform Legislation American Academy of Actuaries

Nine in 10 Registered Investment Advisors Simply ?Accommodating? Retirement Plan Business Fidelity Investments

Benefit Advisors Network Admits Bouchard Insurance as Newest Member Benefit Advisors Network

International Foundation and ISCEBS Members Appointed to the 2014 ERISA Advisory Council International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans

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