Defined Contribution Plan Administrator

Pension Investors Orlando Telecommute / Altamonte Springs FL

Retirement Plan Administrator

Nicholas Pension Consultants Rancho Cordova CA / Corona CA

?View More Jobs

?Post a Job

California's New COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Requirement
October 5, 2020 WEBCAST
Ogletree Deakins

Election 2020 -- Health Policy
October 8, 2020 WEBCAST
Groom Law Group

COVID-19's Impact on the Workplace and Employees: A Case Study
November 5, 2020 WEBCAST
Thompson Hine LLP

?See All 86 Upcoming Webcasts and Conferences

?See All 1623 Recorded Webcasts

New Topics on the BenefitsLink Message Boards

New Comments and Topics

All Topics , Grouped by Forum

[Official Guidance]

22 pages, Oct. 2020, for Processing Year 2021. "[This publication] contains general and program specific testing information for use with ACA Assurance Testing System (AATS).... Software Developers must pass IRS AATS test scenarios for the forms and tax years that the software package will support.... Transmitters and Issuers must pass a one-time communication test for the forms they will file." 

Internal Revenue Service [IRS]

[Guidance Overview]

New York City Employers Have New Safe and Sick Leave Obligations; Statewide Law Also Goes Into Effect

"Just days before New York's statewide paid sick leave law (NYPSL) takes effect on September 30, the New York City council passed a suite of amendments to NYC's existing Earned Safe and Sick Leave Law (ESSL), in part aligning safe and sick leave obligations with the impending NYPSL and in part creating new obligations under the ESSL.... Meanwhile, with just one day to go until the NYPSL's effective date, the state has not yet issued any guidance or regulations on NYPSL, leaving employers with many unanswered questions with respect to their obligations under the state safe/sick leave law due to ambiguities in the statute's language." 

Fisher Phillips

[Guidance Overview]

"The new CFRA dramatically expands the CFRA's reach to more employers and significantly increases the reasons for which an employee can take CFRA leave and the family members for whom CFRA leave may be used. The new law also substantially raises the risk that employers will have to provide 24 weeks of unpaid time off in 2021 and beyond, as compared to the current 12 weeks." 

Ogletree Deakins

[Guidance Overview]

States, Cities Tackle COVID-19 Paid Leave (PDF)

37 pages, revised Sep. 28, 2020. "This [paper] provides brief summaries of new state and local paid leave benefits, as well as guidance addressing how current paid leave benefits apply during the COVID-19 pandemic.... The federal emergency paid sick and family leave requirements under the [FFCRA] do not preempt any state or local paid leave mandates. Employers need to watch for guidance from state and local authorities on coordinating the new federal paid leave rights with state and local mandates." 

Mercer

[Guidance Overview]

"Employers with 50 or more Full Time Equivalent employees, who offer self-insured coverage, and have one or more California-Resident employees enrolled, must file with the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) of California.... Employers can transmit the same federal Forms 1094-C and 1095-C they transmit to the IRS to the FTB.... The deadline is March 31, 2021 for employers and insurers to complete their reporting to the FTB for Tax Year 2020." 

Tango Health

"California will be the first state to create its own line of generic drugs to cope with high drug prices. A new law lets the state outsource manufacturing but control pricing and distribution." 

National Public Radio [NPR]

"The U.S. spent $10,637 per capita on health care in 2018. Comparable countries spent $5,527. The overwhelming majority of the difference -- 76% of it -- came from spending on inpatient and outpatient care -- not drugs, which get more attention but represent just 10% of the difference." 

Drew Altman, via Axios

"2021 costs to employer plans are expected to be slightly higher (0.5% to 5.0%) than the non-pandemic baseline projection. Nevertheless, when 2020 and 2021 are combined, all scenarios show cost reductions (-2.8% to -3.8%) relative to the non-pandemic baseline.... Employers should consider these scenarios as they budget for and measure the performance of their health care plans in the upcoming year." 

Willis Towers Watson

"[N]et federal subsidies in 2021 for insured people are $920 billion, or 4.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). In 2030, that annual amount is projected to reach $1.4 trillion, also 4.4 percent of GDP. Over the 2021-2030 period, subsidies are projected to total $10.8 trillion. Medicaid and [CHIP] account for about 45 percent of the federal subsidies annually during the period; Subsidies for employment-based coverage, about 35 percent; Payments for Medicare, about 15 percent; and Subsidies for coverage obtained through the marketplaces established by the [ACA] or through the Basic Health Program, about 5 percent." 

Congressional Budget Office [CBO] and Joint Committee on Taxation [JCT]

"HHS's investigation revealed that the plan failed to: [1] Conduct an accurate and thorough assessment of the risks and vulnerabilities concerning the ePHI in its possession. [2] Implement sufficient security procedures to adequately reduce the risks and vulnerabilities to its ePHI. [3] Implement adequate hardware, software, or procedural mechanisms to record and review activity on its information systems containing ePHI until March 2015. [4] Prevent unauthorized access to the ePHI of more than 10.4 million individuals that was stored on its network." 

Thomson Reuters Practical Law

"With telework likely to continue for the foreseeable future, employers may wish to take a fresh look at their fringe benefit offerings and evaluate the impact those benefits have on remote workers' productivity and well-being. Whether they simply tweak current benefits or offer brand new ones, employers must determine whether a perk is taxable or nontaxable to the employee." 

Voya

[Opinion]

"By making full use of his executive authority, President Donald Trump has helped to reduce health care costs by increasing choice and competition. The president’s executive order would damage the Medicare Part D program, which is generally working well for taxpayers and seniors. The administration should advocate reforming Medicare Part D through bipartisan congressional action, not deforming it with foreign price controls." 

The Heritage Foundation

Press Releases

Women's Health Care Costs in Retirement Projected to Be $200,000 More Than Men's HealthView

Capitalize Launches to Help 30M Americans Consolidate their 401ks, Announces Seed Round Capitalize

Sterling Administration Offers New Valued-Priced Online HSA Plan Sterling Administration

View All Press Releases

Most Popular Items in the Previous Issue

ERISA and COBRA Rules Apply to EAPs and Wellness Programs Verrill Dana LLP

Key Decision Points in ACA Reporting Vendor Setup Questionnaires, Part 4: Miscellaneous Questions ABD Insurance & Financial Services

New Parity Law in California Expands Coverage Obligations for Mental Health and SUD Treatment Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP