Senior Attorney
CUNA Mutual Group
in WI

Assistant General Counsel
1199SEIU Family of Funds
in NY

Executive Director
Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System
in OK

Customer Service & Communication Manager
Southern California Pipe Trades Administrative Corporation
in CA

Retirement Plan Manager
City of Los Angeles
in CA

Retirement Plan Associate, Recordkeeping & Administration
Leading Retirement Solutions
in ANY STATE, WA

Senior Counsel
Nationwide
in OH

Retirement Fund Account Manager
AAAA Benefits, Inc.
in NC

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Qualified Health Plan (QHP) Series - Service Area Template Scenarios Demo, Prescription Drug Template Scenarios Demo and General Q&A
June 10, 2014 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))

Designated Roth Accounts and Roth Conversions
June 10, 2014 WEBCAST
(McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)

Top Ten Most Common Section 409A Pitfalls -- Recorded
June 17, 2014 WEBCAST
(King & Spalding LLP)

Qualified Health Plan (QHP) Series - DIT Tool Review and General Q&A
June 19, 2014 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))

Federally-facilitated Small Business Health Options Program (FF-SHOP) Series III - Update and Issuer Q&A
June 24, 2014 WEBCAST
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))

PPA Pre-Approved Plans Workshop - Corbel Documents - Richmond
July 1, 2014 in VA
(SunGard Relius)

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Text of IRS Corrections to Proposed Regs on Minimum Essential Coverage and Other Rules Regarding the Shared Responsibility Payment for Individuals
"This document contains corrections to a notice of proposed [rulemaking] and notice of public hearing that was published in the Federal Register on Monday, January 27, 2014. The proposed regulations relate to the requirement to maintain minimum essential coverage enacted by the [ACA]." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])

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Text of CMS EDGE Server Business Rules, Version 2.0 (PDF)
65 pages, dated May 27, 2014. Excerpt: "This document provides guidance to issuers on the business rules that CMS applies to enrollment files and claims files submitted to an issuer's EDGE server. The rules governing the submission of data to an issuer's EDGE server under these HHS-operated programs are not intended to change standard billing practices currently being followed by providers who submit claims to issuers for payment processing. Issuers retain the right to develop and communicate with providers the policies and procedures that support the business needs for claim processing." (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

Top Ten ACA Implementation Issues Facing Employers
"Earlier this year, the government issued long-awaited regulations addressing ... employer shared responsibility requirements ... waiting period rules [and] health coverage information reporting requirements.... [M]any questions remain. Implementation presents a challenge for employers, particularly since they have only a short time to comply. This article provides a brief background of the regulations and highlights the top ten issues that employers may face this year in implementing the regulations." (Groom Law Group, for Practical Law Company)

IRS Rules Captive Reinsurance Arrangement Involving Retiree Medical Benefits Qualifies as Insurance for Federal Tax Purposes
"[ Rev. Rul. 2014-15 ] is significant for employers considering a captive reinsurance arrangement to manage risk with respect to employee benefits because the ruling provides the IRS' first published support in more than two decades for the position first stated in Revenue Ruling 92-93 that an employer that insures (or reinsures) its employee benefit risks is not self-insuring the risks because the economic risk of loss being insured is that of the employees, not the employer's. The Revenue Ruling also demonstrates that this same position applies to retiree benefits as well as active employee benefits." (McDermott Will & Emery)

The IRS Tells Us That Employer Payment Plans (Really, Really, Really) Don't Work
"[T]hese penalties are self-reported ... and they apply to large and small employers alike. Thus, employers to whom employer payment plans have been sold as fitting this or that exception to Notice 2013-54 are already subject to penalties. Regrettably, it's a safe bet that these sorts of violations will occur predominantly in small employers with less access to reliable professional advice." (Mintz Levin)

IRS Guidance Emphasizes Health Care Reform Penalties If Employers Reimburse Employees' Individual Insurance Premiums
"[S]ome argue that arrangements reimbursing individual health insurance premiums [1] do not violate the annual dollar-limit prohibition because insurance premiums are outside the definition of EHB (and thus are exempt from the prohibition on annual dollar limits), and [2] can satisfy the preventive service mandate if designed to provide first-dollar coverage for preventive care. The new guidance seems intended to refute this analysis ... By focusing on the magnitude of the excise taxes and the unanimity of the IRS, DOL, and HHS positions, this guidance sends a clear warning to employers still using -- or contemplating -- an employer payment plan." (Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

Start Planning for the ACA 2015 Employer Mandate Status
"If you have legitimate reasons for making personnel changes that would impact your mandate status, the time to make this assessment is now. This is particularly true if you are currently at the cusp of mandate status.... What will determine whether your health plan passes muster with the ACA? ... [Y]ou'll face two tests, each of which has its own penalty if violated. One may contain a quasi-loophole you might consider using." (Lindquist Solutions)

CMS Update on Enrollment in the Federally-Facilitated SHOP Marketplace: Part 2 (PDF)
56 presentation slides, dated May 27, 2014. Topics include: 834 Enrollment Scenarios, and Transactions: Enrollment, Confirmation and Cancellation. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

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." (Benefits Bryan Cave)

New Step to Expose Hidden Retiree Health Debt
"In a new step to expose hidden debt, [GASB] proposed that retiree health care debt or 'unfunded liability' be reported on the face of government financial statements, not buried inside.... [California's] retiree health care has been the fastest-growing state retiree cost, doubling in a decade.... Legislation in the early 1990s created an investment fund for California state worker retiree health care, but lawmakers never put money in the fund." (Calpensions)

Feds to Consider Paying Doctors for End-of-Life Planning
"The federal government may reimburse doctors for talking to Medicare patients and their families about 'advance care planning,' including living wills and end-of-life treatment options -- potentially rekindling one of the fiercest storms in the Affordable Care Act debate.... Now, quietly, the proposal is headed toward reconsideration -- this time through a regulatory procedure rather than legislation." (The Pew Charitable Trusts)

Over Half of Workers Would Have to Borrow Money to Pay for Unexpected Medical Costs
"53 percent of workers would have to borrow from their 401(k)s and/or use a credit card to cover costs associated with an unexpected serious illness or accident; 49 percent have less than $1,000 to pay for out of pocket expenses associated with a serious illness or accident, and 27 percent have less than $500; 42 percent say they are not at all or not very prepared to pay out-of-pocket expenses associated with a serious illness or injury." (John Goodman's Health Policy Blog)

The Trouble with Narrow Networks
"Along with concerns for patients who may unwittingly lose access to a long-time doctor, there is a fear among some health policy scholars that narrow networks could lead to a 'race to the bottom' ... Policyholders could also be exposed to high financial risk paying out-of-network prices -- and it's not clear how well the [ACA's] risk adjustment programs will work at sharing risk among insurers[.]" (Healthcare Payer News)

The End of Group Health Insurance?
"Whether or not the transition of most small and large group health benefits to exchanges would constitute the 'end of group insurance,' it most certainly would save money for employers and probably erode insurers' current revenue. American companies with 50 or more workers could save a collective $3.25 trillion through 2025 by transitioning to exchanges and reducing their share of premium contributions ... By 2025 ... employee costs for their healthcare could double ... while employers' share of premium payments could fall from 70 percent to about one-third." (Healthcare Payer News)

New HHS Regulation Raises Subsidies, Adds $7 Billion to Obamacare Cost
"HHS plans to base [the method for determining the annual growth in average premiums for private insurance] only on average premium growth in employer-sponsored coverage, excluding the individual market for now because of the ObamaCare-related jump in premiums. Leaving out the individual market lowers estimated per-person premium growth from 6% to 4.2%, HHS has said. It will reduce the portion of next year's silver-plan premiums owed by ObamaCare subsidy recipients by 1.8%, or about $40 per subsidized household[.]" (Investor's Business Daily)

Proposed Legislation Would Exempt Classrooms from Obamacare's Employer Mandate
"The Safeguarding Classrooms Hurt by ObamaCare's Obligatory Levies (SCHOOL) Act (H.R. 4775) ... [1] Exempts K-12 schools, institutions of higher education, and state and local educational agencies from the requirements of the health care law's employer mandate. [2] Requires the secretary of education to evaluate the impact of the SCHOOL Act on schools' ability to meet the educational needs of low-income students and institutions' ability to maintain current academic opportunities." (Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives)

Latest ACA Guidance for Employers from IRS Stirs Exchange Controversy
"Under the ACA's implementing regulations, Congress is able to reimburse congressional staff who purchase individual coverage through an ACA exchange. However, ... IRS and [DOL] guidance has stated that employers cannot use pre-tax dollars to help pay for individual coverage in either the ACA exchanges or through private exchanges.... Allowing employers to reimburse employees who purchase individual coverage through any health care exchange with pre-tax dollars would very likely increase the number of healthy people in the ACA exchanges and help moderate future price increases." (HR Policy Association)

Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies: Exceptions Explained
"Two recent cases provide an important reminder that the judicial gloss on ERISA's claim procedure imposing exhaustion of remedies before filing suit must be carefully considered in any ERISA benefits case.... Aside from compliance with the plan's administrative review and appeal processes, the plaintiff must allege compliance with those procedures in any subsequent federal suit." (ERISA Wonk)

Two More States Extend Marriage Rights to Same-Sex Couples; State Bans Continue to Fall
"Although nondiscrimination and other laws in same-sex marriage states may require insurers to offer coverage for same-sex spouses, and federal rules will require other insurers to do so beginning in 2015 ... federal law currently does not require employers to cover same-sex spouses under their group health plans ... In contrast, employers must recognize all same-sex spouses for purposes of qualified retirement plans[.]" (Thomson Reuters / EBIA)

How the Millennial Generation Is Transforming Employee Benefits (PDF)
"Recession-strapped young workers are taking a conservative new approach to financial, medical and other life risks -- and they want their employers to provide comprehensive benefits that support them, guide them and protect them from these risks.... [This article examines] what millennials are really looking for in employee benefits, particularly in the key areas of financial planning and health insurance.... look[s] ahead at new benefits trends that are just beginning to emerge -- and make[s] some unexpected predictions about how this will all play out." (International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists [ISCEBS])

June and July 2014 Filing and Notice Deadlines for Qualified Retirement and Health and Welfare Plans
"[This] filing and notice deadline table ... provides key filing and notice deadlines common to calendar year plans for the next two months.... [D]eadlines will be different if your plan year is not the calendar year.... [T]he table does not include all applicable filing and notice deadlines, just the most common ones." (King & Spalding)

When Do State Laws Determine ERISA Plan Benefit Rights?
Includes a link to the full 256-page paper. Excerpt: "[This] article proposes that three principles may be used to decide when state benefit laws determine ERISA benefit rights. First, ERISA permits state laws that do not diminish or enhance (a) ERISA benefit entitlements; (b) ERISA enforcement mechanisms; or (c) ERISA mandates. Second, ERISA preempts any state law that diminishes or enhances any of these ERISA protections unless the diminution or enhancement was needed to implement a state law that is not otherwise preempted ... Third, a law is not otherwise preempted if the law [1] is described in an implicit or explicit exclusion from the ERISA General Preemption Rule, or [2] does not diminish or enhance any of the three above benefit protections other than with a reporting or disclosure mandate that is used to implement the law. Neither the courts nor other commentators have thoroughly explored these principles." (Albert Feuer in John Marshall Law Review, via SSRN)

IRS Begins Audit of Deferred Compensation Plans Subject to Section 409A
"The [compliance initiative program] will focus on larger employers and the 10 highest paid employees of those selected employers. Although the IRS' focus on selected employers is narrow now, many tax practitioners expect that the IRS will eventually broaden its scope as it sharpens its audit techniques and educates itself regarding the most common areas of non-compliance." (Mintz Levin)

As Performance Share Awards Gain Widespread Popularity, Some Question Whether They Truly Improve Corporate Performance
"53% of the companies used a [total shareholder return (TSR)] performance measure at least once in the 2008-2012 period, with an average five-year TSR of -0.18%. Companies with long-term incentive plans not using TSR had an average return of 2.67%. Companies that did not grant performance-vested incentives for any of the five years had average returns of 2.54% (but -0.47% if you leave out Apple and Amazon)." (myStockOptions.com)

Center On Executive Compensation Announces the Addition of Michele A. Carlin to Senior Leadership Team Center On Executive Compensation

Purchasing Power Offers Vacation Packages as a New Voluntary Benefit that Improves Employees' Work-Life Balance and Employers' Bottom Line PurchasingPower

MicroStrategy Launches a Free Public Health iPad App that Empowers People to Make Better Decisions about their Healthcare Options MicroStrategy Incorporated

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