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Showing posts for: Employee Benefits

May 20 2011
Employee Benefits

IDAHO: Governor bars state agencies from implementing health care reform

Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter recently issued an executive order prohibiting state agencies from receiving federal funding or otherwise taking steps to implement new programs or rules pursuant to federal healthcare reform law (Executive Order 2001-03, April 20, 2011). It also prohibits state agencies from assisting federal agencies in implementing the law. While…

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May 04 2011
Employee Benefits

Employer’s wellness program does not violate ADA

Surprisingly, an employer’s wellness program that penalized employees $20 per paycheck if they did not submit to a health questionnaire and biometric screening was not in violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to a recent decision by a federal district court in Florida (Seff v. Broward County, SD…

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Apr 22 2011
Employee Benefits

Budget bill repeals health reform’s free choice vouchers

H.R. 1473, P.L.  112-10). This provision was set to take effect on January 1, 2014 and was intended to make exchange coverage affordable for employees with low incomes who were not eligible for federal income-based assistance.  It remains to be seen how this development will affect employers’ strategies for addressing health reforms in…

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Apr 22 2011
Employee Benefits

DOL/IRS/HHS issue more health care reform FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions” about the federal health care reform law known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), focusing on issues of how plans lose grandfathered status. Key points include guidance on the anti-abuse provisions of the grandfathering rules—specifically, what is a “bona fide employment-based reason” for transferring employees from one grandfathered plan to another, such…

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Apr 22 2011
Employee Benefits

Early Retiree Reinsurance Program to stop accepting applications

76 Fed Reg 65, April 5, 2011). Under the program, the federal government has made available $5 billion to reimburse early retiree medical plans for up to 80 percent of claims between $15,000 and $90,000. Based on the rate at which the available funding is being disbursed, the Centers for…

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Feb 21 2011
Employee Benefits

EEOC rejects pay discrimination claim based on pension payments

If the courts take the same approach as the EEOC did in this case, it will be a huge relief for employers. One question that was left unanswered, though, is what happens when there is a significant gap in time between an employee’s last date of employment, and the date of…

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Feb 18 2011
Employee Benefits

CALIFORNIA: Health coverage of adult children subject to state income tax

Although last year’s health care reform law made coverage available to employees’ adult children up to age 26, and provided a federal income tax exclusion for the coverage, California employers should be aware that California’s tax law does not provide such an exclusion from income for adult child coverage. If passed by the…

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Feb 07 2011
Employee Benefits

Health care reform: Here to stay? Courts may disagree

HR 2, titled “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” and many other proposed bills. But regardless of the volume of legislative activity devoted to opposing health care reform, most experts agree that if our legislators have anything to say about it, health care reform is here to stay. The Democratic-controlled Senate is…

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Jan 07 2011
Employee Benefits

IRS issues new guidance on FSA and HRA debit cards

IRS Notice 2011-5).The new guidance modifies previous IRS guidance and allows FSA and HRA debit cards to be used to purchase OTC medicines or drugs at non-health care merchants that have pharmacies, and at mail order and web-based vendors that sell prescription drugs, as long as certain conditions are met.…

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Jan 07 2011
Employee Benefits

Automatic enrollment requirement delayed pending further guidance

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently promised to issue guidance about automatic enrollment in employer-sponsored health plans—sometime in the next three years. Automatic enrollment is a mandate imposed by last year’s health care reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The mandate will apply to employers of 200 or…

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