Why voluntary benefits aren’t voluntary if your firm wants to compete

By Jared Bilski

Obamacare has made healthcare coverage more accessible than ever. As a result,  traditional healthcare plans — even the most generous plans — won’t be enough to attract and retain top talent much longer.

So if you really want to set yourself apart from the competition, a solid offering of voluntary benefits will soon be a must – if it isn’t already.

Closing the gaps

Why are voluntary benefits — particularly voluntary medical benefits so important? Because they’ve expanded to fill virtually any gap that occurs between what employees’ traditional health plan covers — and the types of medical situations that can take place.

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Major pitfall when calculating full-time employees under Obamacare

By Jared Bilski

It’s been nearly five years since President Obama put his pen to the Affordable Care Act, and its employer mandate has finally kicked in. But its implementation has brought a new pitfall to light. 
As you know, the mandate says that starting in 2015 the largest employers (those with at least 100 full-time equivalent employees) must offer coverage to their full-time equivalent employees to avoid the law’s penalties.

But what at least some employers will likely fail to realize is this: There’s another group of workers who, under certain circumstances, will have to be offered coverage as well — former full-time equivalent employees.

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Tip Tuesday! 7 key Obamacare changes the feds snuck in at year-end

By Jared Bilski

If the feds’ latest announcement is any indication of what’s to come, 2015 will be a busy year for Obamacare changes.

Just before the start of the new year, the three main federal agencies — the Department of Labor (DOL), Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Treasury — issued proposed changes to the health reform law’s Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) statements that employers that offer healthcare coverage are required to distribute to all eligible employees at open enrollment.

The original SBC regs, issued back in 2012, caused a significant amount of confusion for HR pros. So you’ll definitely want to make sure you understand exactly what’s different about the feds’ amended SBC regs.

On or after Sept. 1, 2015

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Tip Tuesday! Determining Minimum Value and Affordability

By Linda Rowings

The IRS has released final regulations that address how wellness incentives or penalties, contributions to a health reimbursement arrangement, and employer contributions to a Section 125 plan are applied to determine affordability. While these regulations were issued in connection with the individual shared responsibility requirement (also called the individual mandate), the agencies said that they expect to use the same approach when determining affordability for purposes of eligibility for the premium tax credit and the employer-shared responsibility/play or pay requirements.
The regulations provide that when deciding if the employee’s share of the premium is affordable:

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The worst list of holiday party rules you’ll read this year

By Tim Gould

OK. so it’s time for the obligatory holiday party story — the one where we run down all the bad things that might get employers in legal trouble during a get-together that’s supposed celebrate the season, raise employee morale and get people pumped for a bang-up 2015.  
If we were just a hair more cynical, we’d suggest bagging the whole idea altogether. Instead, though, let’s take a look at the things you can do at your get-together to guarantee some fresh new legal problems in the New Year (a hat tip to attorney Robin Shea, whose blog posts sparked this approach).

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Supreme Court Agrees to Rule on Availability of Premium Tax Credits

By Linda Rowings

Premium tax credits are only available to individuals who obtain health coverage through a Marketplace. A dispute has arisen as to whether the IRS has the ability to interpret PPACA to allow the subsidy to individuals who obtain coverage through any Marketplace, or whether the language of PPACA limits eligibility to those who have obtained coverage through a state Marketplace. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rule on whether premium tax credits may only be available to individuals who receive tax subsidies as a result of being enrolled in a state exchange. In the meantime, the IRS has stated that it will continue to issue tax credits to individuals in both state and federally-run Marketplaces.

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Feds’ 2015 to-do list: 5 things that’ll impact your job

By Jared Bilski

If we had to sum up what federal agencies such as the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) had planned for next year in just two words, it would be this: New regulations.
At the Fall 2014 Regulatory Agenda meeting, federal agencies like the DOL and EEOC gave some insight into their progress on the more than 75 rules and regulatory proposals in their queue.
Here are the proposed deadlines of regs that will impact HR pros the most next year:

DOL action items

1. Changes to the DOL’s overtime rule

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