Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Even though it isn’t a California or federal law requirement, many employers have an employee handbook or at least a few written company policies. Exactly where do those policies come from? The answer to that question is easy―the HR department. But where does HR get the policies that govern the company? The answer to that […]
An increasing number of employers are examining providing a low-benefits health plan that covers only preventive health services but not high-price major medical claims. Offering this type of low cost or “skinny” plan is allowed under the health reform law. The question is: Will skinny plans trigger a large-employer exodus to de minimis coverage, and if so, […]
Health reform fees that health insurers and self-funded plans must pay in order to fund the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute are “ordinary and necessary business expenses,” and therefore qualify as deductible from federal taxes, a recent IRS memo states. Insurers and health plans will pay the $1 (soon to become $2) per covered life fee […]
Creditors of retirement plan participants sometimes try to tap into a participant’s supplementary benefits under various legal arrangements, including garnishment and domestic relations orders. If a plan administrator or adviser is faced with the prospect of a participant’s deferred compensation being assigned to a creditor, the administrator must be familiar with a number of complicated […]
Concerns about the effect of lump-sum retiree distributions on the funded status of defined benefit pension plans with ongoing obligations to future beneficiaries were prominent as members of the ERISA Advisory Council tackled issues of “derisking” at a June 5 open meeting at the U.S. Department of Labor. There was high interest in the topic […]
Starting July 31, 2013, the IRS will start collecting, and employers will start paying, a new excise tax authorized by the health reform law. This annual fee will be imposed on most insured and self-insured group health plans for the next seven years. The feds have amended the April 2013 IRS Form 720 (Quarterly Federal […]
A health reform requirement that all insurers offer four levels of health coverage to small businesses will be delayed until 2015. Under a final rule from HHS (to be officially published June 4), many small employers will have fewer plans to choose from the Small Business Health Options (SHOP) program in 2014. Background Starting in 2014, small […]
Federal agencies just issued new final rules for contingency-based wellness program goals under health reform. If employers offer to give a reward (such as discounted health insurance premiums) to workers who accomplish some kind of biometric goal (a contingency standard), then employers must have a standing “reasonable alternative” to the contingency-based standard, government officials told […]
Matrices for Sales Comp Use a matrix when sales people have concurrent accountability for two competing measures, says Cichelli, who is senior vice president at the Alexander Group. His remarks came at the WorldatWork Total Rewards 3013 Conference and Exhibition held recently in Philadelphia. The payout matrix provides improved payout as performance on both measures […]
Fast-moving events have advanced state-level proposals aimed at regulating stop-loss, which would make it more expensive for small employers to self-insure health benefits, and put power over self-funding in the hands of state insurance commissioners. Utah law now requires stop-loss insurers to cover incurred and unpaid claims if a small employer plan terminates — an unprecedented requirement. […]