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The Spencer’s Benefits Reports is a summary of the week's news items posted in the WHAT'S NEW pages of Spencer’s Benefits Reports Online. For questions regarding this email service, contact Customer Service at (800)449-9525.
The U.S. Master Pension Guide reflects the latest regulations, rulings and cases for qualified retirement plans, surveying the different type of plans from which an employer may choose, and describing the procedures for obtaining plan qualification.
Links within news stories display full text documents including legislation, regulations, court decisions, rulings and government reports.
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In the wake of the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) October 7 preliminary estimate of the cost of the Senate Finance Committee’s America’s Healthy Future Act, committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus (Mont.) said, “Our balanced approach to health reform has paid off yet again with the news today that the Act remains fully paid for, begins to reduce the federal deficit within ten years, and makes significant reductions in federal debt over the next several decades…”
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For the last few years, states have been leading the way toward more comprehensive health care coverage to ensure that more people have or can obtain health insurance. Because of the potential impact of this ongoing activity on employer-provided health insurance benefits, Spencer’s Benefits Reports provides regular updates about state health care reform…
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In a recent report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that participants in defined contribution plans and individual retirement accounts be provided with better information to secure their retirement savings. The GAO prepared the report for the House Ways and Means Committee…
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Three federal agencies have jointly issued interim final regulations under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). In the regulations, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS) provide guidance on implementing GINA in the individual insurance market and the group market. The regulations appeared in the October 7 Federal Register…
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The following interest rates have been announced for use in the operation and administration of qualified pension plans:…
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In Advisory Opinion 2009-02A, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) addresses whether an estate planning arrangement to handle benefit distributions from an individual retirement account upon the IRA owner’s death would give rise to a prohibited transaction under IRC Sec. 4975. 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…
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The American public appears to be evenly divided on whether or not health care interest groups should have a role in Congress’ discussion on health care reform and on how much attention Congress should pay to the these groups’ input. However, the public is clear on one thing: that its own voice, or that of the “average” person, is not being heard, nor represented, in this discussion. These were the primary findings of a recent study, Survey on the Role of Health Care Interest Groups, from National Public Radio (NPR), the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health…
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The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration EBSA) has issued a proposed exemption from ERISA’s prohibited transaction restrictions that would allow the New Chrysler Corporation to transfer an approximately $4.59 billion promissory note and company securities to a voluntary employees’ beneficiary association (VEBA) established to provide health care benefits for the company’s retirees. Notice of the proposed exemption was published in the October 5 Federal Register…
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Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) enrollees face an average cost increase of 8.8% for 2010, or a biweekly employee paycheck increase of $5.98 for individual coverage and $12.87 for family coverage, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has announced. The FEHBP covers nearly 8 million people, including more than 4 million current and former employees. Members of Congress also may enroll in an FEHBP plan. Cost increases in the previous two years averaged 7.9% for 2009, and 2.9% for 2008…
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Health care costs increased 6.0% in 2009, consistent with 2008, according to recent research from Hewitt Associates. The Hewitt Value Initiative, a cost analysis data base including 325 employers, also projects a 6.0% increase for employers through the end of 2010. This translates into an average total health care premium per employee of $8,607 in 2009, which will increase to $9,120 in 2010…
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has announced that it has assumed trusteeship of the underfunded pension plan maintained by Wadley Regional Medical Center, a nonprofit hospital in Texarkana, Texas. The plan covers approximately 650 former workers and retirees of the company…
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On October 2, the Senate Finance Committee released the amended version of America’s Health Future Act, which the committee will vote on this week as soon as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provides a preliminary budgetary estimate…
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In 2010, nearly all beneficiaries will have access to a Medicare Advantage plan, most of which offer prescription drug coverage, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) asserted in a press release. Only 1.5% of all Medicare beneficiaries (and approximately 7% of beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans) will need to choose a new health care plan or traditional Medicare in 2010 because their current plan, mostly private fee-for-service plans, announced earlier this year it would not renew in 2010…
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The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued a notice in which the agency announces rules for current enrollees in the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP) who will be eligible to change coverage during a limited “special decision period” to be held this year. The notice was published in the October 1 Federal Register…
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The Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment that allows Abby Paschal to continue as a fiduciary in order to terminate the 401(k) plan maintained by ZNET Financial Services and distribute its assets to participants. The consent judgment was entered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, in Solis v. ZNET Financial Services, Inc. (Civil Action No. 1:09-cv-2207)…
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A copy of the plain language version of the health reform bill the Senate Finance Committee will vote on early this week, along with cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), are scheduled to be available to the public prior to the committee’s final vote…
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Within the past two years, 60% of survey respondents have sought out objective retirement planning advice, according to research from TIAA-CREF. In addition, 87% of individuals said that advice regarding strategies for drawing income to live on in retirement was important to them, and 86% said that advice regarding paying for health care in retirement was important to them…
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Carriers’ earned premiums for group term life and group short term disability insurance as of midyear 2009 rose by 3% and 1%, respectively, from the same period in 2008, but the number of insured employees fell. These figures were reported by Portland, Maine-based JHA, the disability and group life reinsurance, risk management, and research division of General Re Life Corporation…
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The Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment that requires National Football League player Michael D. Vick and his company, MV7 LLC, to repay at least $416,461 in restitution to a pension plan sponsored by the company and ordering Mr. Vick to forfeit any rights to benefits from the plan. The consent judgment was entered by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in Solis v. Vick (Civil Action No. 4:09CV37)…
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