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New reform standards for health plan value and coverage are important for employers, first because they will determine the kind of insured coverage that small employers buy. But grandfathered and self-funded employer health plans also need to know the rules to avoid penalties under health reform. The proposed rules, which HHS announced on Nov. 20, […]
Plan sponsors in areas Hurricane Sandy affected may want to prepare for an increase in loan or hardship withdrawal requests after the IRS on Nov. 16 said it temporarily will relax its rules that apply to such emergency funding for retirement plan participants. The IRS announced the relief in Announcement 2012-44. Hurricane Sandy should be […]
States will get one more month, until Dec. 14, to notify federal regulators whether they will set up and run their own health insurance exchanges, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told two governors in a letter dated Nov. 15. Without the extension, the deadline for signaling intent would have been Friday, Nov. […]
Eliminating a participant option to switch to a defined benefit plan from a defined contribution offering does not violate ERISA anti-cutback provisions, even if participants’ accrued — but unclaimed — benefits are reduced. The recent ruling in Andersen v. DHL Retirement Pension Plan (Case No. 2:12-cv-00439-MJP WL 5389141, U.S. Dist., Western District of Washington Nov. […]
Time will soon tell how many states will run health exchanges and expand Medicaid as directed in the federal health reform law. But for employer plans, the waiting game just draws out the inevitable confusion that may occur as those plans anticipate being impacted in different ways on a state-by-state basis, speakers explained at a […]
How much vacation time do employees accrue? According to the survey of 807 organizations, most reported that they provide 2 weeks of vacation time to employees in their first year of employment while most employers provide 3 weeks of vacation to those with 5 years of employment. Nearly all employees with 10 or 15 years […]
The infographic also links to answers on frequently asked questions (FAQs) regarding holiday pay as well as a sample paid holiday policy, and provides information on planned paid holidays for 2013.
When a self-insured health plan adopts value-based purchasing and insurance design, its goal is to persuade workers to adopt a healthy lifestyle and go to the best performing providers. That’s how plan savings occur, by catching cases before they become acute care cases that harm a self-insured health plan. Self-insured health plans that want to […]
A “snapshot” survey conducted in October found the start of disclosure of fees from retirement plan service providers spurred little change in the behavior of either plan participants or sponsors. A total of 176 defined contribution plan sponsors responded to the Plan Sponsor Council of America’s survey, launched a few weeks after sponsors began disclosing […]
Funding gains by U.S. corporate pension plans in September were erased in October, according to data Mercer Investment Consulting Inc. released Nov. 5. Mercer reports that the aggregate deficit in pension plans S&P 1500 companies sponsored increased by $26 billion during the latest month, to $619 billion. This deficit corresponds to an aggregate funded ratio […]