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A wave of HIPAA privacy audits far more comprehensive than anything attempted to date was officially launched Nov. 8 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). While their official purpose is not enforcement, these audits are likely to cast a broader net than HHS scrutiny has to date — including possibly group […]
The IRS and Treasury Department want to “initiate a dialogue” with the governmental plan community about how to better define when a retirement plan becomes a government plan, but while dialogue is good, will it result in burdensome regulatory requirements? On Nov. 8, the IRS and Treasury Department issued proposed rules on determining governmental plan […]
Have you filed a Form 5500? It may be tempting to procrastinate or more — but you do so at your own peril, because the IRS has upped the ante in a new project to increase compliance. The IRS Employee Plans Compliance Unit (EPCU) is conducting the Form 5500 Non-Filer Project, an effort in which […]
The summary of benefits and coverage (SBC), while still a work in process, will improve plan participants’ ability to comparison-shop for coverage. That fills a currently unmet need, federal regulators told a recent conference. They were responding to concerns that the SBC — mandated by the health reform law — is redundant, confusing or even […]
For years, BLR has surveyed HR and benefits professionals to find trends in benefits. We appreciate your participation in our monthly series of brief, targeted benefits surveys. Today’s survey topic: Health Insurance. (We’ll publish the results in a future issue.) Please participate in this brief survey and we’ll determine what employers are doing with this […]
Concerns about the implementation of participant fee disclosure rules did not just rest within the retirement plan community – the Department of Labor (DOL) itself raised red flags about how the rules would interact with a formatting requirement under Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules. But we recently got word from DOL that the SEC […]
Have you asked your doctor or dentist to see his fee schedule? When I did so once, a dentist refused, saying in effect: “my prices are higher, but that’s what you need to get my quality advantage.” What’s a consumer to do? A similar relation exists between large employers and institutional providers (hospitals.) The lack […]
As the government fulfills its promise to create an essential benefit package, employers can be forgiven for thinking the government’s putting a competitor plan out there to lure plan members away from employer-sponsored plans. And it is tempting for them to just say: “Fine! You asked for it; no more funding health benefits!” But paradoxically […]
Retirement plan investors will save between $5 billion and $13 billion annually, thanks to new exceptions to DOL’s prohibited transaction rules, DOL estimates. The DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) opened the door to allowing fiduciaries to offer investment advice in a final rule published to become effective Dec. 27, 2011. DOL estimates this new rule […]
Health reform’s expansion of dependent health coverage may not have a profound effect on expenses in the Dept. of Defense (DoD)’s TRICARE program, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) study. Background Employees’ dependents can be covered by their parents’ employer-provided insurance up to age 26 under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). […]