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The Internal Revenue Service has issued final regulations to help employers comply with health savings account (HSA) comparability rules in situations in which employees have not established an HSA by the end of the year. The regulations appeared in the April 17 Federal Register…
On April 15, the House passed H.R. 5719, the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act of 2008. This is a $1.1 billion tax bill that includes a provision requiring more reporting on the use of health savings accounts (HSAs). Rep. Charles Rangel (N.Y.) introduced the bill on April 8…
In Advisory Opinion 2008-04A, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) concludes that a bank can utilize the custody services of a foreign bank, foreign clearing agency, or foreign securities depository to maintain the indicators ("indicia") of ownership of foreign securities and foreign currencies held by a pooled vehicle or ERISA subfund relating to a "multinational cross-border pooling product" (MCBPP) The advisory opinion was written by Louis J. Campagna, chief of the division of fiduciary interpretations in the EBSA’s Office of Regulations and Interpretations…
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued final regulations that update and clarify provisions of proposed regulations issued in May 2007 for the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. The final regulations, which were published in the April 15 Federal Register, include significant clarifications to policies pertaining to the retiree drug subsidy (RDS) that may be claimed by employers and unions sponsoring prescription drug programs for retirees. Included is guidance on aggregating plan options for purposes of meeting the “net test” for actuarial equivalence and guidance on applying the Medicare supplemental adjustment when calculating actuarial equivalence…
The Internal Revenue Service has issued proposed regulations that provide guidance on the determination of minimum required contributions for purposes of the funding rules that apply to single-employer defined benefit plans. The proposed regulations appeared in the April 15 Federal Register…
For single-employer pension plans terminating in May 2008, and for multiemployer plans involved in a mass withdrawal, the interest rate established by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation for calculating immediate annuities is 5.81%, up from the 5.64% rate that applied in April. The interest rate for calculating immediate lump sums is 3.25%, the same rate that applied in April…
Although many more employers are planning a more direct role in managing employees’ health, employees are not so sure that they want their employers more involved, according to recent research from Hewitt Associates. In addition, some legal experts urge restraint in wellness program implementation…
The growing trend toward employer adoption of wellness programs warrants careful consideration of the potential legal consequences, according to the recommendation of Todd Alan Ewan and Carolyn M. Plumb, two attorneys specializing in labor and employment law at the Philadelphia law firm of Mitts Milavec LLC, in a recent article in The Legal Intelligencer. In the article, Mr. Ewan and Ms. Plumb explain "why companies would be best served to let this trend pass," in light of the many potential pitfalls to which companies would be exposed…
The Department of Labor has released a new online video intended to help small employers and accountants understand the various options for providing a retirement program for their employees. The video, “Choosing a Retirement Solution for Your Small Business,” introduces employers to the three most popular retirement arrangements…
A beneficiary was not entitled to recover disability benefits following a hit-and-run accident because the beneficiary did not become disabled “as a direct result” of the accident. This was the ruling of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Thiel v. Life Insurance Company of North America, et al. (No. 07-1371)…
Medical errors at U.S. hospitals during 2004 through 2006 cost the Medicare program $8.8 billion and resulted in 238,337 potentially preventable deaths, according to HealthGrades’ fifth annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study. An examination of 41 million Medicare patient records from nearly 5,000 nonfederal hospitals revealed a 43% lower chance of experiencing a medical error for patients treated at HealthGrades-identified top-performing hospitals than for patients treated at the hospitals with the worst performance…
Both mortality and costs continue to rise because of the lack of health care coverage, according to two reports that attempt to update a 2002 report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which estimated that 18,000 adults nationwide died in 2000 because they did not have health insurance…
The terms of collective bargaining agreements required an electrical subcontractor to make contributions to a multiemployer pension fund on behalf of all electrical workers engaged in project work, regardless of whether the workers were union or nonunion employees. This was the decision of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Trustees of the Southern California IBEW-NECA Pension Trust Fund v. Flores (No. 06-55812)…
At a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on April 3, Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), who was the temporary chair for the hearing, said that Americans between 55 and 64 increasingly lack health insurance coverage. Between 2000 and 2007 an estimated 9% fewer employers offered health care coverage for their workers. Often people in this age group earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but are too young to qualify for Medicare, he said…
Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao has announced the appointment of five new members to and new leadership of the 2008 Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans. The 15-member council provides advice on policies and regulations affecting employee benefit plans governed by ERISA. Members are selected by the Secretary of Labor and are appointed for staggered three-year terms…
Increased cost sharing and utilization management restrictions characterize Medicare Part D prescription drug plan (PDP) coverage in 2008, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) reported this month. According to the report, Medicare Prescription Drug Plans in 2008 and Key Changes Since 2006, these cost factors could "have important implications for beneficiaries’ access to needed medication and out-of-pocket expenses."…
A health care plan properly denied a beneficiary’s claim for coverage of a "back-up" prosthetic arm because the device was not "medically necessary." This was the decision of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Menz v. Procter & Gamble Health Care Plan, et al. (No. 07-1997)…
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