If someone will suffer financially when you die, chances are you need life insurance. Life insurance provides cash to your family after your death. This cash (known as the death benefit) replaces your income and can help your family meet many important financial needs like funeral costs, daily living expenses and college funding. What’s more, there is no federal income tax on life insurance benefits. Most Americans need life insurance. To figure out if you need life insurance, you need to think through the worst-case scenario. If you died tomorrow, how would your loved ones fare financially? Would they have the money to pay for your final expenses (e.g., funeral costs, medical bills, taxes, debts, lawyers’ fees, etc.)? Would they be able to meet ongoing living expenses like the rent or mortgage, food, clothing, transportation costs, healthcare, etc? What about long-range financial goals?
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Who Needs Life Insurance?
Health Care Reform: Medical Loss Ratios and Federal Mandated Rebates
Reprinted courtesy of Alfred (Mike) B. Fowler, ERISA and employment attorney for Kutack Rock LLP. www.abferisa.com. Contact Mike at mike@abferisa.com.
As one of the major pieces of Health Care Reform legislation (HCR), the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) provisions are intended to assure that health care coverage will be reasonably affordable. However, by requiring health care policy issuers to limit their administrative expenses to no more than 15% (large group) or 20% (small group) of premium, HCR opened Pandora’s Box. We are about to see the results. Please note that the MLR rules apply to both group and individual policies; however, we will limit our discussion in this Memorandum to group policies.
View the recorded Webinar: Leaves of Absence – Navigating the Legal Maze
Beginning with the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family Medical Leave Act in the early 1990s, employers have been confronted in recent years with a slew of state and federal laws regulating leaves of absence in the workplace. Today, employers face a labyrinth of leave laws that address when and under what circumstances employees may take a protected leave. The complexity of the law, and the often confusing interplay between the alphabet soup of statutes, often lead to missteps in both interpretation and application of employer duties and rights that arise before, during and after employee leaves of absences.
The webinar identifies prominent traps; and guide employers on how they can implement their leave of absence policies lawfully and effectively.
Click to view the recording
And Download the PowerPoint Slides.
Early Statistics show Health Care Reform costs more, but Startups aim to influence long term effects
In Business Insurance, Matt Dunning writes that an early survey of compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act shows increases in some employers’ health benefits costs up to 5%.
Early Results
Here are a few highlight statistics, but read the rest of the article for the whole story:
- 55% of those who calculated the effects attributed Health Care Reform directly to cost increases of at least 2%
- 15% said Health Care Reform directly increased their costs at least 5%
- 62% said they expect employers to pass more costs to employees in the form of higher contributions to premiums
- 56% said they expect employers to raise deductibles and copays
Long Term Effects: Entrepreneurial Spirit to the Rescue
These early results can’t predict the final effects of Health Care Reform. Even though the national health care debate centers around health insurance, it has shed a lot of light on the root cause of the problem: the cost of the health care itself and how we pay for it. This spotlight has given rise to a lot of new companies like Castlight Health and SeeChangeHealth that saw the importance of end user decision making and revealing the actual cost of health care and not just the size of health insurance premiums and copays. Companies like Apixio and entrepreneurs like Jay Parkinson who started HelloHealth and Future Well are taking advantage of the attention to get funding for companies that improve data analysis and efficiency in the behemoth that is our health care system.
Many industries that have become Institutions with a capital “I” end up doing things “the way they’ve always done them” because, well, that’s they way they’ve always been done. Whether or not the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ends up raising or lowering costs on its own, as the dust of the debate between fierce proponents and opponents settles, there are many more companies focused on making sensible health care choices and employing health care data more efficiently. And for that, we’ll all be better off.
At Andreini & Company, we have a range of insurance products from traditional guaranteed cost to fully self-insured that allow employers to take advantage of improved transparency and data efficiency as well as new wellness and employee decision making information to take control of their own health care costs. Want to see a variety of options? Contact us today.
Find out how Health Care Reform and compliance will affect your company in our free webinars:
Summary of Benefits & Coverage Requirement: Final Rule and Action Plan
Reprinted courtesy of Alfred (Mike) B. Fowler, ERISA and employment attorney for Kutack Rock LLP. www.abferisa.com. Contact Mike at mike@abferisa.com.
Summary of Benefits: Agencies Provide Some Relief
The Department of the Treasury, Department of Labor, and the Department of Health and Human Services (the Agencies) have concurrent jurisdiction over most federal health care legislation including the implementation of the “Summary of Benefits and Coverage” (SBC) requirement under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The Agencies published proposed SBC regulations in August 2011 with a target effective date of March 23, 2012. On February 14, 2012, the Agencies published the SBC Final Rule, which moved the effective date to September 23, 2012.
Free Webinar – Leave of Absence: Effectively Navigating the Legal Maze
Join us for a Free Webinar on April 3
Space is Limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
Creative Benefits to Engage, Motivate, and Retain Great Employees
Thank you to Kyle Lagunas, the HR Analyst at SoftwareAdvice.com—a resource for selecting HR software and more (reports on trends, technology, and best practices in human resources and recruiting), for allowing us to republish part of his article: Creative Benefits to Engage, Motivate, and Retain.
The lines between work and personal lives are blurring for many employees. They’re seeking balance between the two, and are finding value in the ability to choose the specific benefits that best meet their needs at this point in their lives. And employers are learning that, when chosen and implemented effectively, benefits can demonstrate leadership’s concern for the well-being of employees, reinforce cultural values, and foster deeper employee engagement.
Compliance Alert: Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Limit of $2,500 Applies to 2012 Fiscal Year Plans
Reprinted courtesy of Alfred (Mike) B. Fowler, ERISA and employment attorney for Kutack Rock LLP. www.abferisa.com. Contact Mike at mike@abferisa.com.
Although most Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 125 plans (Cafeteria Plans) are calendar year plans, there are some plans that are fiscal years plans (e.g. February 1 – January 31). To the delight of tax lawyers everywhere, the IRC contains traps for the unwary! In this instance, plan sponsors with fiscal plan years (all plan years other than calendar years) whose Cafeteria Plans include Health Care Spending Accounts (HCSA), must institute the $2,500 pre-tax contribution account maximum beginning with the first day of the 2012 fiscal year.
Legislative Update: California SB 299 and Companion Legislation – A New Maternity Mandate
Reprinted courtesy of Alfred (Mike) B. Fowler, ERISA and employment attorney for Kutack Rock LLP. www.abferisa.com. Contact Mike at mike@abferisa.com.
New Laws
As the cornerstone of four new laws (SB 299, AB 592, SB 222, and AB 210), the California legislature intends to assure health care coverage for pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions. These new laws expand protection under California insurance policies and health care plans in a significant way:
Health Care Reform in 2012: W-2 Health Care Reporting Requirements and more
Reprinted courtesy of Alfred (Mike) B. Fowler, ERISA and employment attorney for Kutack Rock LLP. www.abferisa.com. Contact Mike at mike@abferisa.com.
We will also be discussing all of these topics in our free Health Care Reform in 2012 Webinar. Space is limited so register now.
Ever since the Affordable Care Act (HCR) became law, the HCR W-2 reporting rules have confused even the best and the brightest. At one point, there even was a rumor that employer-sponsored health care coverage would now be taxable (and it is not). The IRS Notice 2011-28 provides us with more guidance and interim relief.
