COBRA After Health Care Reform (2:00PM EST/ 11:00AM PST)

14 Dec 2010

In a way, "health care reform" began 25 years ago, with the coverage continuation requirements enacted as part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (better known as "COBRA"). With the passage earlier this year of comprehensive health care reform, this is a good time to take stock of COBRA's place in the world of employer health plans.

In this webinar, we'll provide a brief overview of COBRA's requirements, consider whether COBRA has any long-term future (in view of the ability to purchase coverage through the Exchanges starting in 2014), and then address several short-term implications for COBRA of comprehensive health care reform. These include the following:This webinar will address these two interconnected aspects of health care reform.

• How the calculation of COBRA rates may affect a plan’s “grandfathered” status
• Expected IRS guidance on the calculation of COBRA rates (for the purpose of W-2 reporting of the value of health coverage)
• Application of the Tax Code's nondiscrimination rules to subsidized COBRA coverage under insured health plans
• New restrictions on rescinding COBRA coverage
• Allowing COBRA beneficiaries to add adult children to their coverage

Nondiscrimination Rules for Insured Health Plans and the Latest Guidance on "Grandfathering" (2:00PM EST/ 11:00AM PST)

16 Nov 2010

For employers sponsoring insured health plans, one of the most challenging aspects of health care reform is the prospect of having to comply with a set of income-based nondiscrimination rules found in Section 105(h) of the Tax Code. The IRS guidance on these rules, which have applied to self-insured plans for decades, is woefully obsolete. And it certainly doesn't address all of the issues facing today's health care market.

Although these nondiscrimination rules do not apply to insured plans that retain their "grandfathered" status, determining whether a plan is actually grandfathered is a challenge in itself. The guidance on this point has been coming in dribs and drabs (a few FAQs here and there), and has failed to address many significant issues. Of course, a determination of grandfathered status has other significant implications under health care reform, including a "pass" on many of the new coverage mandates.

This webinar will address these two interconnected aspects of health care reform.

Presenters will be Robert A. Browning, Partner, and Chandron J. Patton, Associate, of the firm Spencer Fane Britt & Browne LLP.
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Participant Notices Required to Administer Employer Health Plans (2:00PM EST/ 11:00AM PST)

12 Oct 2010

Even before the passage of comprehensive health care reform, the number of participant notices required to administer an employer group health plan had become overwhelming.  Many of these notices, such as those required under COBRA or HIPAA, are event-driven.  But in recent years, the number of annually required notices has also grown.  Starting with the Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act, these annual notices have grown to include those required under Medicare Part D and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Now comes health care reform, and the notices have only multiplied.  Some of these new notices are one-time requirements (in some cases, with fairly tight deadlines), while others must be provided annually.  Fortunately, the government has issued model notices that can be used to satisfy most of these new notice obligations.  In this webinar, we'll cover the gamut of notices required to administer an employer health plan in this era of health care reform.

Presenters:  Julia M. Vander Weele and Kenneth A. Mason, both Partners with Spencer Fane Britt & Browne LLP.
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CFO Briefing: Negotiating Your Upcoming Renewal in the Face of HealthCare Reform (8:00AM PST)

06 Oct 2010

HealthCare Reform has added new complexities and decisions to the "old" method of simply raising deductibles and co-pays to adjust cost.  In this important session, Michael Rankin of e3 Financial will deliver 4 Essential Tactics to reducing the impact of HealthCare Reform on your SG&A.

4 Essential Tactics:

1. Avoiding The Cost Shift - If you can
2. Cut Your Renewal in Half with Market-Driven Responses
3. Using Alternate Financing to Reduce Cost
4. HealthCare Reform Penalties to Avoid

Social Media 2.0: Lessons Learned and Applied to Electronics in the Workplace (2:00PM EST/ 11:00AM PST)

21 Sep 2010

Once thought a flash-in-the-pan, social networking is here to stay and is impacting day-to-day HR management. Individuals, as employees, are increasingly accessing these media at work, on company time. Employers beware! While online social media offer incredible marketing opportunities, employers need to prevent misuse that might compromise confidential business information or violate various employment laws. This session will address the incredible growth of online social media and myriad legal and practical considerations for all employers including the use of social media and networking websites for HR purposes, use of e-devices and how to prevent "e" devices from becoming key "e"vidence.

Presenters will be David M. Kight and Erik P. Kelly, both Partners with Spencer Fane Britt & Browne LLP.
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The Effect of Health Care Reform on Employers (2:00PM EST/ 11:00AM PST)

10 Aug 2010

Now that the Affordable Care Act has become law, employers and their advisors face the task of learning what health care reform really means for employer health plans.  Although the key elements of this reform (the individual mandate and the employer "free rider penalty") do not take effect until 2014, a surprising number of provisions will become effective either later this year or by January of 2011.  And while existing health plans are "grandfathered" from many of these new requirements, there is no grandfather protection for many others.  In this webinar, we'll focus on the (i) changes effective in 2011 (technically, plan years beginning on or after September 23), (ii) regulatory guidance that has been issued to date (i.e., grandfathered plan rules, dependent coverage, and lifetime and annual limits), and (iii) changes to be aware of that will take effect in later years. ...View More

Cafeteria Plan Compliance (2:00PM EST/ 11:00AM PST)

13 Jul 2010

Most employers maintain a cafeteria plan, often more than one (including flexible spending accounts).  In addition, many states now require that employers establish cafeteria plans to allow their employees to pay health insurance premiums on a pre-tax basis.  Yet these are some of the least understood - and most poorly documented - benefit plans.  In fact, many employers create cafeteria plans without knowing that they have done so, and without understanding the applicable rules.  In this session, we will:

• Explain what a cafeteria plan is, and what it is designed to do;
• Outline the IRS guidance in this area;
• Highlight cafeteria-plan changes made by the Affordable Care Act; and
• Touch on some of the common mistakes in cafeteria plan administration.

Compliance 201 - Advanced ERISA (2:00PM EST/ 11:00AM PST)

15 Jun 2010

Taking up where we left off in our "Compliance 101" webinar, "Compliance 201 for Plan Administrators" will take a deeper dive into some of the issues facing HR professionals and welfare plan sponsors.  Topics will include:

• Understanding When Welfare "Plan Assets" Must be Held in Trust
• ERISA Preemption
• Cafeteria Plan Compliance Issues
• Fiduciary Duties
• Plan Discrimination Issues After Health Care Reform
• Claims and Appeal Procedures and Judicial Review of Denied Claims

Form 5500 Annual Report for 2009 - Are You Ready? (2:00PM EST/ 11:00AM PST)

11 May 2010

The 2009 Form 5500 (the annual return for most employee benefit plans) includes several significant changes from prior years, including:

• Mandatory electronic filing under the DOL's EFAST 2 filing system
• Increased disclosure of compensation paid to service providers (on Schedule C)
• The requirement that Section 403(b) plans complete all lines of the Form 5500 (and attach an independent auditor's report, if the plan has over 100 participants)

Fair Labor Standards Act Crackdown: Understanding and Eliminating the Most Common Errors (2:00PM EST/ 11:00AM PST)

13 Apr 2010

In fiscal year 2008, the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $185 million in back wages for over 228,000 underpaid employees. The vast majority of this recovery (88%) was due to incorrect overtime practices. Depending upon the size of the workforce, and the extent of the violations, these types of back-pay awards can be financially devastating.

While government initiated FLSA audits have always been a possibility, newly appointed Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is sending a clear message to employers that workplace enforcement will be one of her top priorities.  Secretary Solis and the Obama administration have already increased the DOL’s budget by massive amounts to, in part, hire as many as 500 additional full time enforcement personnel for employer audits.

Faced with the increased likelihood of government audits, and the growth of FLSA “class action” lawsuits, employers are well advised to proactively examine their FLSA practices, and to verify compliance.  This Webinar is specifically designed to provide employers with the tools and insight necessary to do exactly that.

Webinar Learning Objectives:

    * To understand the exposure created by non-compliant pay policies;
    * To understand how to conduct self-audits;
    * To understand the most common FLSA errors, including:

        Misclassifying employees as exempt
        Permissible and impermissible payroll deductions
        Employee vs. Independent Contractor misclassifications
        Compensable “off-the-clock” activity
        Not paying for compensable break times
        Improper time clock rounding practices
        Child labor violations
        Failure to pay for compensable travel time

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Health Care Reform Webinar - You're Invited! (1:00PM EST/ 10:00AM PST)

08 Apr 2010

Please join e3 Financial for a highly informative and productive online learning session dedicated to the new Health Care Reform legislation.  This event is designed to give you important, specific information to help you begin to understand the impact of Health Care reform on you and your firm.
 
The bill itself is over two thousand pages, and covers a timeline stretching out to 2014.  We have boiled down the essentials, and would like to share them with you.  Please join us.
 
Health Care Reform – What You Need to Know
Date:    Thursday, April 8th, 2010 
Time:   1:00PM EST/ 10:00AM PST
 
NOTE: As an added benefit – all webinar attendees will receive a copy of the 2010 Health Care Reform Survey.   This timely survey reports on the clear-cut views from employers across America about Health Care Costs, Wellness Programs and Mandated Health Care.
 
Upon registration, we will send you the instructions and call-in information.
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Complying With New Mental Health Parity Rules (11:00 A.M. PST)

09 Mar 2010

Now that the federal agencies charged with enforcing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) have finally issued regulations in this area, sponsors of employer group health plans will want to turn their attention to complying with the regulatory requirements.  The MHPAEA not only broadened the scope of the 1996 Mental Health Parity Act - for instance, by prohibiting virtually any differential in coverage between mental health benefits and medical/surgical benefits - but also applied the new parity rules to substance use disorder benefits. ...View More

Employee Handbooks: How They Help And Hurt Employers

16 Feb 2010

An employee handbook is generally considered an essential tool in communicating expectations and rules of conduct to employees.  It is considered a key document in most employment litigation and its content can either help or hurt an employer.  Do you know what policies you must include in your handbook, which are highly recommended, and which are optional?  Do you know if the content of your handbook is sound?  This Webinar will cover the pro's and con's of handbooks, the types of written policies that are "must haves" and "should haves," and common errors in drafting handbooks.
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GINA Reshuffles The Deck: Complying With The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act

12 Jan 2010

As is so often the case, Congress took an unobjectionable goal - protecting individuals from discrimination on the basis of their genetic make-up - and turned it into a nightmare for employers.  The 2008 Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) imposes a number of constraints on employers' actions. This is true in both the pure employment context and as sponsors of group health plans.  Moreover, GINA "reshuffled the deck" on a number of other federal laws - including the ADA, FMLA and HIPAA - thereby forcing employers to go back to school on those laws, as well. The primary focus of this webinar will be GINA's impact on employer health plans.  You will learn how GINA extends even to wellness programs including health risk assessments. ...View More