While IRS Revenue Procedure 2014-61 contains a great deal of information (in its 22 pages), the most pertinent information to health and welfare benefit plans is as follows: Increase to the maximum deferral for a HCFSA (Health Care Flexible Spending Account) is now $2,550 Also, of note: Cafeteria Plans – For the taxable years […]
Benefits enrollment and administration strategies must be intelligent, adaptable, and accessible to succeed. Our system is rules-based, very powerful, and extremely user-friendly. While building the system we focused our energies and resources on perfecting the back-end, ensuring that our eligibility transmissions to carriers would be processed flawlessly every time. Features of the system include: The […]
IRS Announces 2015 Pension Plan Limitations IR-2014-99, Oct. 23, 2014 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced cost‑of‑living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related items for tax year 2015. Many of the pension plan limitations will change for 2015 because the increase in the cost-of-living index met the statutory thresholds […]
Update, Sunday, Nov 16, 2014: The Department of Health and Human Services has received requests for an extension of the deadline for contributing entities to submit their 2014 enrollment counts for the transitional reinsurance program contributions under 45 CFR 153.405(b). The deadline has now been extended until 11:59 p.m. on December 5, 2014. The January […]
Many legislative updates for IRS, DOL, and other regulatory bodies have come about in the last few months. Ensuring that your organization stays on top of these updates and their potentially far-reaching effects is paramount. Read some of our most popular legislative and consultative blogs to find out more: Final Regs: Excepted Benefits (Dental, Vision, […]
Join AP Benefit Advisors Senior Counsel, Patrick Haynes as he reviews 15 critical mistakes to avoid in your next open enrollment. With the increased challenges and scrutiny impacting enrollment, employers must ensure these critical, and often overlooked errors are avoided. Attorney Haynes will discuss the many nuances of these common errors. Here are a few […]
Public Health Service (PHS) Act section 2707(b), as added by the Affordable Care Act, provides that a non-grandfathered group health plan shall ensure that any annual cost-sharing imposed under the plan does not exceed the limitations provided for under section 1302(c)(1) of the Affordable Care Act. Section 1302(c)(1) limits an enrollee’s out-of-pocket costs.(1) For plan […]
From Freedom to Marry Today, October 6, the U.S. Supreme Court denied review of five cases seeking the freedom to marry, leaving standing marriage victories in three federal circuits and opening the door to the freedom to marry in many more states, while deferring for another day the national resolution that Freedom to Marry, businesses, […]
The purpose of the Welfare Compliance & Benefits Forum is to discuss important healthcare regulatory issues including PPACA, HIPAA, COBRA, ERISA, and more. Staying informed regarding healthcare reform legislation can prove challenging and costly. Leveraging professional networks with experts and like-minded organizations can greatly improve your ability to steer your company down a successful path. This […]
Federal regulators have released some long-overdue guidance on benefits that many HR professionals and their brokers/consultants have long categorized by the catch-phrase “excepted benefits”. With the release of these final regulations (from the IRS, DOL and HHS) there are some minor changes to those self-insured dental, vision, LTC (Long-Term-Care) and EAP (Employee Assistance Plan) plans […]