Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The U.S. Department of Labor has collected its rules, guidance and other materials on the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act into a new MHPAEA Web page. The materials on this page include a new set of frequently asked questions on “understanding implementation” of MHPAEA, which when enacted in 2008 substantially beefed up HIPAA’s […]
Employers likely will need to continue to pay close attention to how their individual states’ approach to same-sex marriage will affect their employee benefit plans, regardless of President Obama’s newly articulated support for it. The president on May 9 said that he supports same-sex marriage, but also that the states should be able to decide […]
Employers in North Carolina will not face the complications their counterparts in states where same-sex marriage is legal or recognized do, but local and municipal governments that provide domestic partner benefits may have to change their policies. Tar Heel State voters on May 8 approved an amendment to the state constitution that defines marriage as […]
Yesterday, we looked at a case involving a returning military service member who was terminated upon coming back to work. While that particular employee lost his case against his supervisor, the general rule is that you must reinstate returning service members. Today, we’ll look at some exceptions to this rule.
For example: About 38 percent offer wellness programs About one third offer flextime, only about one fifth offer telecommuting, and nearly 64 percent offer a flexible spending account About 21 percent think their benefits are more generous than their competitor’s and about 42 percent think their benefits are about the same (although 30 percent don’t […]
The federal government seems to be fishing around for evidence showing that self-insured health health plans will siphon off healthy lives from state-run insurance exchanges (a cornerstone of reform). On April 26, the U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS) and IRS/Treasury issued a set of questions about the use of stop-loss […]
Beginning in 2014, employers that sponsor health plans will have to watch closely if any employees qualify for a premium tax credit, triggered whenever the employer-sponsored coverage is unaffordable, or does not provide minimum value. On April 26, the IRS requested comments on how to determine whether a health plan provides “minimum value.” It did […]
Employers with high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) that make it possible for employees to open health savings accounts (HSAs) have plenty of lead time to prepare for 2013. The IRS on April 27 issued Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2012-26, which contains the HSA and HDHP limits for calendar year 2013. The HSA annual limits and the […]
About a year from now, employers and plan administrators will be preparing to pay a fee to fund the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The IRS on April 17 (77 Fed. Reg. 22691) issued proposed regulations on the fee. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) created the PCORI fee to promote research […]
As the U.S. Supreme Court decides the fate of health reform, America is getting the chance to try the law on for size while waiting for the people in the robes to say how much of it will remain in effect. Some employers are probably soft-pedaling implementation – they don’t like the law much anyway, […]