Office Manager - Retirement/Investments
Retirement Advisory Services Corp
in NJ, PA

HR Benefits Analyst
UNITE HERE HEALTH
in IL

401K/Pension Services Consultant
CUNA Mutual Group
in WI

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Employer Penalties Under Code ? 4980H: What We?ve Learned and What We Expect for 2016
RECORDED
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Ringing in the New ACA Health Coverage Reporting
Topics include: [1] New year, new forms; [2] Extensions; [3] Penalties; [4] Electronic filing and providing statements electronically; [5] Plan start month; [6] Coverage of non-employees and terminated employees; [7] Corrections. (Nixon Peabody LLP)

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DOL Says Certain Stop-Loss Insurance Policies Are Not Plan Assets
"The DOL, in Advisory Opinion 2015-02A , has determined that a stop-loss insurance policy purchased by an employer for its self-insured health plan is not a plan asset, even though part of the plan's costs are paid through employee contributions.... It is not clear from Advisory Opinion 2015-02A whether DOL requires all of the [listed factors] to be present for a stop-loss policy to avoid plan-asset status." (The Wagner Law Group)

IRS Health Care Tax Tip 2015-81: Why the Number of Your Employees Matters
"If you have: [1] Fifty or more full-time equivalent employees, you will need to file an annual information return reporting whether and what health insurance you offered your full-time employees. In addition, you are subject to the Employer Shared Responsibility provisions. [2] Fifty or fewer employees, you are generally eligible to buy coverage through the Small Business Health Options Program." (Internal Revenue Service [IRS])

ERISA Trumps State Law Claims in Anthem Data Breach (PDF)
"In reaching its conclusion, the [California] District Court found that Defendants -- Anthem and two ERISA plan administrators -- did not have an independent legal duty to protect Plaintiffs' privacy under state privacy laws... Judge Koh's decision stands in contrast to a recent ERISA preemption ruling out of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, where a federal court reached the opposite conclusion regarding whether ERISA completely preempted a state law claim that was based on California's constitutional right to privacy." [ In re Anthem, Inc. Data Breach Litig. , No. 15-CV-04739-LHK (N.D. Cal. Nov. 24, 2015)] (King & Spalding)

New Transit Benefit Requirements for D.C. and New York Employers Effective January 1, 2016
"[E]mployers need to determine whether their current transit benefit programs, if any, comply with the new D.C. and NYC requirements, and update these benefits as necessary, effective by January 1, 2016. In addition, employers who are subject to the new requirements and do not currently offer any transportation benefit programs, need to establish such programs in compliance with the new laws, effective by January 1, 2016." (McDermott Will & Emery)

Open Enrollment Checklist: Last Chance to Catch Items You May Have Missed
"IRS regulations do not allow for automatic rollover of FSA elections.... COBRA participants must be offered the same open enrollment opportunities as active employees as they apply to medical, dental and vision -- even including HRA plans.... [N]ew benefits must be offered to the COBRA participants as though they were active employees." (Frenkel Benefits)

Lone Profitable ACA Insurance CO-OP Is Now Losing Millions
"Maine's Community Health Options lost more than $17 million in the first nine months of this year, after making $10.9 million in the same period last year. A spokesman said higher-than-expected medical costs have hurt the cooperative.... The announcement casts further doubt on the future of insurance cooperatives, small nonprofit insurers that were created during the ACA's creation to inject competition in insurance markets.... An Associated Press review of financial statements from 10 of the 11 surviving co-ops shows that they lost, on average, more than $21 million in the first nine months of the year." (InsuranceNewsNet.com)

Why Are Many CO-OPs Failing? How New Nonprofit Health Plans Have Responded to Market Competition
26 pages. "[The authors] describe how CO-OPs responded to the prohibition on using federal loans for marketing, problems associated with outsourcing health plan functions, CO-OP plan design and pricing strategies, dynamics of both high and low enrollment, and challenges related to the ACA's premium stabilization programs. [The report concludes] by highlighting the role of federal and state policy decisions in adding to rather than reducing barriers to market entry for CO-OPs." (The Commonwealth Fund)

Reducing Taxpayer Subsidies to Wealthy Medicare Recipients Is Sound Policy
"Historically, taxpayers, through payroll taxes and general revenues, have funded about 88 percent of Medicare's total costs in any given year.... Both the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) require upper-income Medicare enrollees to pay higher premiums. This policy affects approximately 6 percent of the total Medicare population. Income testing of Medicare premium payments has not, as some critics fear, resulted in an exodus of wealthy recipients from the program." (The Heritage Foundation)

2015 End of Year Plan Sponsor 'To Do' List: Executive Compensation
List of 13 items for year-end consideration and action. (Snell & Wilmer)

Executive Compensation-Related Corporate Governance Practices at the Top 250 Companies as of March 31, 2015 (PDF)
15 pages. "Ninety percent of top 250 companies have a clawback policy that covers one or more named executive officers (NEOs); 78% of top 250 companies have a clawback policy that covers a broader group of executives. Clawback policies for 78% of top 250 companies cover both cash and equity incentive compensation. The prevalence of clawback trigger definitions was approximately equal for those that include 'financial restatement (no fraud or misconduct required)' (38%) and 'financial restatement due to fraud or misconduct on part of the executive' (39%)." [The Top 250 companies represent the largest U.S. companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index by market capitalization.] (Frederic W. Cook & Co., Inc.)

Northern Wyoming Community College Foundation dba Sheridan College Foundation is Certified for Fiduciary Excellence Centre for Fiduciary Excellence [CEFEX]

HHS Partners with Nation?s Largest Pharmacies to Promote Health Insurance Marketplace U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Former FPA Head Joins Pension Resource Institute Pension Resource Institute [PRI]

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