Tag: insurance

What Is a Voluntary Benefit Plan?

A voluntary benefit plan is a suite of benefits offered by an employer that is voluntary for employees to use and is typically paid for by the employee via payroll deductions. These types of benefits are usually offered in addition to the core benefit program provided by the employer. They represent extra benefits that the […]

COBRA

New Report May Help COBRA Plan Admins Seeking Insight on HCTC Advance Payment Process

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) plan administrators seeking to better understand how the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC)—including its advance payment system and how it will impact COBRA coverage and documentation—may find useful a new report issued by Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), as well as corresponding Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recommendations. […]

ADA

Are Employers Required to Provide Disability Leave?

An employee or applicant who is disabled (or who qualifies as disabled) has the right to the legal protections granted under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But does that right extend to the right to take leave related to the individual’s disability?

Medicare

What Employees Don’t Know About Medicare May Hurt Them

For employees, today’s healthcare environment is a little like squeezing a balloon: when health insurance premiums are affordable, then the side with the out-of-pocket costs inflates. If that side is more reasonable, monthly premiums expand. Either way, health care coverage and insurance costs are likely to drain the budgets of those they are designed to […]

trumpcare

CBO Releases Analysis of Senate Healthcare Bill

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have completed an estimate of the direct spending and revenue effects of the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017.

commission

The Benefits of Total Compensation Statements (And Pitfalls To Avoid)

Summer is upon us, and you know what that means: soon 2018 planning will begin. Perhaps you’ve been considering providing employees with a total compensation statement. These can be a way of giving employees a more complete picture of the benefits you provide, which may lead them to appreciate you more as their employer. At […]

ACA

CMS Seeks Input on Easing ACA Burdens

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking input on how it can reduce the economic and regulatory burdens of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The request for information (RFI), published June 12 in the Federal Register (82 Fed. Reg. 26885), calls for recommendations on streamlining the ACA’s regulation of the individual and small-group […]

Pension

LIMRA Data: Pension Buyouts at Highest Q1 Level in 15 Years

Single-premium pension buyout sales as part of the “derisking” of defined benefit (DB) retirement plans for the first quarter rose 31% from the same period in 2016, totaling $1.4 billion—the highest first-quarter results in 15 years, according to the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.

Is Mandatory Paid Family Leave on the Horizon?

It’s fairly well-known that the United States is one of only a couple countries in the world that does not have any federally mandated requirement for employers to provide paid time off for new parents. This is a fact that comes as a bit of a shock to those in other countries, many of which […]