Tip Tuesday! Is it legal to cut workers’ hours so you don’t have to give them health insurance?

by Christian Schappel

There may be a new type of Obamacare lawsuit looming on the horizon — and this one would target employers. 

Since the enactment of Obamacare’s employer mandate, attorneys and employment law experts have wondered if Section 510 of ERISA could be used to bring lawsuits against employers who cut workers’ hours to circumvent that mandate.

Section 510 says, in part:

“… it shall be unlawful for any person to discharge, fine, suspend, expel, discipline, or discriminate against a participant or beneficiary of an employee benefit plan for the purpose of interfering with the attainment of any right to which such participant may become entitled under an employee benefit plan …”

Click here for entire article. 

Obamacare’s summer fee is due soon: Ready to pay?

by Christian Schappel

If you sponsored a health plan in 2014, Uncle Sam is expecting a check this summer.

Remember the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund Fee that you started paying in 2013 — if you’re an insurer or self-funded plans sponsor, that is? Well, it’s back again.


All firms subject to the fee — again, insurers or self-funded plan sponsors — are expected to cut the IRS a check by July 31, 2015.

The money is for research conducted on the clinical effectiveness of medical treatments, procedures and drugs.

Those responsible for paying the fee must also file the new IRS Form 720 along with their payments.

Think you’re off the hook if you sponsor a fully-insured plan? You’re not. The fee and paperwork responsibilities may technically fall on your insurance company, but you can bet it’ll extract its pound of flesh from you by way of higher premiums.

Click here for entire article. 

Top 15 rules for keeping your benefits plans compliant

by Jared Bilski

Being a benefit plan fiduciary is a tricky role to play nowadays. Here’s some guidance you may want to share with your C-level folks.  

Between the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Tibble v. Edison and the increased interest from the feds, fiduciary responsibility is a critical issue for employers everywhere. That’s why it’s so important to have a comprehensive compliance strategy in place.

At the 2015 Mid-Sized Retirement & Healthcare Plan Management Conference in San Diego, Ian S. Kopelman, a partner with the DLA Piper US LLP law firm, offered a simple, 15-step process employers of all stripes can take to ensure they’re fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities:

Shortcuts to safety

Here are Kopelman’s “15 Shortcuts to Fiduciary Compliance”:

1. Prudence is paramount. As Kopelman put it, you don’t have to be right, you only have to be prudent, and prudence is a process. Employers must have a prudent process in place for evaluating their fiduciary duties — and apply that process consistently. Remember, according to ERISA’s prudent man rule:

Click here for entire article. 

3 healthcare cost-sharing tactics that won’t destroy workers’ morale

by Jared Bilski




Employers essentially have three ways to combat rising health costs: change carriers, change coverage or change (i.e., increase) workers’ contributions. And each of these options can seriously hurt workers’ morale.

Because the little guys are negotiating with small risk pools, they’re hit especially hard by increases.

That means many small firms are left with little choice but to pass along more of the cost burden to employees. Here are morale-saving ways to do it:
Good for high-earners, but …

Offering and partially funding tax-advantaged accounts like HSAs, HRAs and FSAs can go a long way toward helping workers with out-of-pocket costs and high deductibles.

But there are plenty of obstacles. Example: High-deductible plans coupled with HSAs and HRAs tend to go over well with high-earners.

Low-earners, however, tend to balk at fully funding tax-advantaged accounts, which can leave them in the lurch when a major medical event takes place.

To prevent this, show folks exactly how much they can save in taxes. Example: If you fully fund an FSA ($2,550 for ’15) and spend that amount, you’re saving $800 or $900.

Click here to entire article. 

Tip Tuesday! Why is the DOL so interested in your workers’ smartphone usage?

by Jared Bilski



The folks over at the Department of Labor (DOL) have expressed a keen interest in employees’ smartphone use, and that interest may force you to make some changes to your employment policies in the near future.

At the Spring 2015 Regulatory Agenda, the DOL announced that it’s requesting info regarding:

“… [T]he use of technology, including portable electronic devices, by employees away from the workplace and outside of scheduled work hours …”

While the DOL’s announcement makes no mention of its intention to draft regs on the subject, you can bet the feds aren’t looking into the subject simply for research purposes.

Tech muddied the waters

Technology has made tracking off-the-clock work a major pain point for employers in recent years.

Under the FLSA, employees don’t need to be required, or asked, to work beyond a 40-hour workweek to be entitled to OT pay – they must simply do so for the employer’s benefit.

Click here for entire article. 

Total compensation: How many of these critical benefits does your firm offer? (Graphic)

by Jared Bilski

A generous salary is great, but it’s only part of the equation. To attract and retain top talent, employees need a total compensation package that accounts for pay, benefits and recognition.

Namely, a cloud-based HR, payroll, and benefits platform, put together a detailed infographic that highlights exactly what today’s top talent is looking for.

Benefits can outweigh pay

Here are some of the key findings from the graphic:

Click here for entire article. 

New Obamacare guidance clarifies new employee-friendly rule

by Jared Bilski

The last time HHS tried to clarify this tricky Obamacare reg, it confused many employers even further.

So the DOL, Treasury and HHS again tackled out-of-pocket costs under the Affordable Care Act in a recent FAQ.

The ‘embedded’ rule

In the previous guidance, HHS clarified that the when the rules take effect in 2016, the limits will be set at: $6,850 for single coverage and $13,700 for family plans.

But the HHS added a new “embedded” requirement that capped the out-of-pocket limits for each individual covered under a family plan at the single coverage maximum.

In other words, each member in the family plan would only be subject to the individual cost-sharing limit for his or her expenses instead of the higher family limit of $13,700.

Here’s how the embedding rule would apply to a family plan with a $10,000 limit: If a spouse on the plan racked up $15,000 in medical expenses, that individual could only be required to pay $6,850, in spite of the plan’s $10,000 limit.

Click here for entire article. 

A real-world approach to getting the feedback you need from employees

by Guest Author

See if this sounds familiar: During an annual review with one of your department employees, they tell you that everything is fine and they couldn’t be happier – yet a month or two later they resign. What happened? Guest poster Deb Dwyer, founder and president of HSD Metrics, offers some perspective.  
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You may think that you give your employees every opportunity to share, but the results say otherwise. As much as employees might do their best to give you a forthright answer, you can also expect that they’re holding back – in order to protect themselves, keep their options open or out of fear or nervousness.

So how can you get honest answers?

Stick with these strategies for asking the toughest questions. Doing so will give you the best shot at improving engagement and reducing turnover.

Click here for the entire article.

Tip Tuesday! 4 keys to calculating full-time employees under Affordable Care Act

by Guest Author

Employers have 11 months to nail down just how many full-time employees they have before Obamacare’s employer mandate kicks in. The problem is, the law’s formula is tricky. To help with the math, 15-year benefits compliance vet Sheryl Southwick has some advice for employers.

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Under the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) shared responsibility provision, a large employer (who employs at least 50 full-time equivalent employees on average) must offer affordable medical coverage to at least 95% of its full-time equivalent employees and their dependent children age 26 or younger — or face stiff penalties.

But who exactly is a “full-time equivalent employee?” Under the ACA rules, generally an employee is considered full-time if he or she is reasonably expected to work on average at least 30 hours per week, or 130 hours per month. Variable hour and seasonal employees may also be considered full-time under the new ACA rules.

With the employer mandate in full effect, here are four steps you should take to determine how many of your employees are considered full-time under the law and otherwise comply with the employer mandate:

Click here for entire article.

Fiduciary compliance: A 15-point cheat sheet you can count on

by Jared Bilski

Between the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Tibble v. Edison and the increased interest from the feds, fiduciary responsibility is a critical issue for employers everywhere. That’s why it’s so important to have a comprehensive compliance strategy in place.

At the 2015 Mid-Sized Retirement & Healthcare Plan Management Conference in San Diego, Ian S. Kopelman, a partner with the DLA Piper US LLP law firm, offered a simple, 15-step process employers of all stripes can take to ensure they’re fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities:

Shortcuts to safety

Click here for entire article.

Using a third-party to audit your benefit plans? DOL says beware

by Jared Bilski

Most employers rely on the services of a third-party to ensure their benefit plans are in compliance with the host of applicable state and federal regs. But a new report suggests one particular type of TPA just isn’t hacking it.


The recent DOL Employee Benefits Security Administration’s (EBSA) report,  “Assessing the Quality of Employee Benefit Plan Audits,” found that just 61% of audits conducted by Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) fully complied with professional auditing standards or had only minor deficiencies.

Click here for entire article.

What are new FLSA overtime regs likely to cost? New report assigns price tag

by Jared Bilski

Ever since President Obama issued an Executive Order to overhaul the FLSA’s overtime regs, HR pros everywhere have been wondering: How much is it going to cost employers? 
That’s a question Oxford Economics, a global analytics, forecasting and advisory firm, attempted to answer in a recent report.

Based on how much the feds bump up the minimum salary threshold to be overtime-exempt – currently set at $455 per week ($23,600 per year) – here’s what Oxford Economics estimates it’ll cost businesses:

• If the salary threshold increases to $610 per week ($31,700 per year), it’ll cost businesses $297 million nationwide.

• If the threshold rises to $808 per week ($42,000 per year), it’ll cost businesses $648 million.

• If the threshold climbs to a whopping $984 per week ($51,000), it’ll cost businesses $874 million.

While these numbers are staggering, they only represent administrative costs, not actual increases to workers’ take-home pay.

Click here for entire article.

Tip Tuesday: The magic number that helps your benefits program boost retention

by Jared Bilski

When it comes to benefits, the number of perks you offer employees is a very important metric.  

At least that’s what MetLife’s 13th annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study discovered.

The MetLife study questioned more than 5,000 U.S. workers, with half of the respondents being
benefits managers.

Multiple benefits = great company

In a nutshell, benefits are a huge factor in workers’ happiness with their employer and their
willingness to recommend that employer as a “great place to work.”

Click here for entire article.

Feds’ latest Obamacare guidance answers key preventive coverage questions

by Jared Bilski

Pop quiz: How many of the 18 FDA-approved contraception methods is your plan required to cover under Obamacare’s preventive coverage regs?

Answer: All of them.

More specifically, plans must cover at least one version of all of the 18 contraception methods that are currently listed in the FDA Birth Control Guide.


That’s one of the key takeaways from the DOL’s recent FAQ on Obamacare’s preventive coverage requirements.

Click here for entire article.

Will Congress repeal health reform’s ‘Cadillac Tax’?

by Christian Schappel

We know what you’re thinking: This is just the latest attempt by Republicans to shoot holes in the Affordable Care Act. But it’s not; this bill’s backed by 71 co-sponsors, and only three of them are Republicans. 

It’s called the Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2015 (H.R. 2050), and it was introduced by Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT).

The goal: Repeal the ACA’s “Cadillac Tax,” which is a 40% excise tax on health insurance plans costing more than $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,000 for family coverage.

The tax takes effect in 2018, after having already been pushed back from its initial start date of 2013 — and therein lie one of the problems.

Click here for entire article. 

Chronic tardiness covered under the ADA? Hey, it could happen

by Tim Gould

You know that one irritating guy who’s late for everything? He could be asking for an ADA accommodation soon.  

According to a story from London’s Daily Mail, a man who has been late for everything in his life — from funerals to first dates — recently had his chronic tardiness diagnosed as a medical condition.

His penchant for lateness was diagnosed as a symptom of his Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at a hospital in Dundee, Scotland.

Click here for entire article.

Tip Tuesday! 5 steps to more joy

By W.H. Auden

What's your joyful noise? A whisper of gratitude for a stunning sunset? A belly laugh at a child's sweet silliness? A "Yes!" for a challenge mastered? 

No matter how you express it, you deserve and need joy in your life. And whatever its source — from a drowsy pup on your lap to a parchment diploma in your hand — it doesn't just feel fabulous. Blissful moments can also give your well-being a boost.

Click here for entire article.