Tag: benefits

Vendors Segment ‘Fiduciary’ Services as DOL Treads Water on New Definition

While most retirement plan sponsors and their vendors think being deemed a plan fiduciary is an “all-or-nothing” proposition, it is in fact becoming a growing continuum of service-provider job titles and responsibilities, one industry expert suggests. For example, a survey of 100 randomly selected, non-client plan sponsors conducted by retirement planning and wealth management firm […]

Outsourcing, Offshoring: Bane or Benefit?

What Is Outsourcing? Outsourcing is the contracting of an internal business process to a third party organization, says Letke, who is founder and CEO of Integrity HR, Inc., in Louisville, Kentucky. She offered her tips at BLR’s Strategic HR Leadership Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona. What’s the Difference Between Outsourcing and Offshoring? The two terms are […]

Planning Ahead for Health Care Reform: 2014

Employers — particularly those that sponsor self-funded plans — have important health care reform mandates to comply with in January 2014, many of which are unaffected by the Obama administration’s stay in enforcement of the pay-or-play rules. There is still time for employers to get their health care reform fixes right. The job is more […]

Mental Health Parity Rules Remove ‘Clinically Appropriate’ Exemption

Final mental health parity rules issued Nov. 8 make several changes to the prior, interim version. The exemption for “clinically appropriate standards of care” was eliminated because regulators decided it was confusing and subject to abuse, and the rules’ application to “intermediate” coverage levels was clarified in response to uncertainty about how the interim rules’ […]

Leggo My Jell-O

Many workplaces seem to have one, a refrigerator thief. The coworker who believes that food in the fridge is there for the taking. While many victims simply vent to colleagues about their missing lunch, or start using Post-it® notes to ward off would-be bandits, there are others who feel the act is a crime—literally. Yes, […]

Security Among Questions Dogging Exchange Rollout

New concerns about data security on the health care reform exchanges are being raised by Republican lawmakers, who cite an internal agency memorandum that warned of inadequate testing on the eve of the exchanges’ Oct. 1 rollout. The security control assessment required by the Federal Information Security Management Act “was only partially completed” because the […]

CMS on Premiums, Contributions for Small Employer Exchange Coverage

Small employers enrolling in coverage on Small Business Health Options Program exchanges need to decide what their employer contribution will be and whether to charge different employees different amounts based on their age. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gives them new health care reform guidance to help them mull over those questions in […]

Recruiting and Retention—What’s Working in the Real World?

Please participate in our brief survey and see how what you are doing stacks up against what other successful companies are doing. We’ll get answers to these questions and more: What sources yield the best candidates? How is online recruiting working out? Which recruiting software works best? How much are you willing to negotiate salary […]

‘Strike Zone’ Payout Curve for Executive Incentives

Goal Setting Goal setting is the most important and challenging aspect of annual and long-term incentive design, says Harris, who is Managing Director at Frederic W. Cook & Co. Harris was joined by Ron Miller, Head of Global Rewards, Mobility, M&A, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, in a presentation at the WorldatWork Total […]

HHS Secretary Says Sorry Over Failed Launch of Health Care Reform Website

In apologizing for the failed launch of the healthcare.gov website, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius conceded to a House committee panel that accessing the site has been a “miserably frustrating experience for way too many Americans.” She expressed frustration regarding the flawed launch of the site, to be used to purchase affordable […]