Category: Articles
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Compliance Q&A: Fiduciary Duties in Vendor Selection and Management
Question My company hired a vendor to outsource the utilization management and appeals processes for our health plan. I have heard that we, as the plan sponsor, have a fiduciary duty to monitor the vendor’s activities. What does that mean, and, if this is really required, how can we comply? Summary The 1974 Employee Retirement…
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Compliance Q&A: On-site Clinics
Question We are considering starting an on-site medical clinic where our employees can receive medical care. Can you explain the main employee benefits compliance concerns for such a clinic? Summary Employers providing access to an on-site medical clinic for their employees have several potential compliance issues to consider, including ERISA, COBRA, HIPAA, the ACA, and…
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Compliance Q&A: Group Term Life Insurance – Taxation
Questions We provide a basic group term life insurance policy of $50,000 to employees. We understand that providing a group life insurance policy under $50,000 would not require an imputed income calculation, but what about supplemental life insurance? Can you provide a high-level overview of group term life insurance and when an employer might have…
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Payroll and HR Bandwidth Considerations: Searching for the Right Solution
With over 300 technology providers in the market place, the search for a benefits administration (“ben admin”) solution can be quite a daunting task. One often neglected step in making this process more palatable is first assessing your organization’s current payroll platform connectivity capabilities and HR bandwidth. Committing to this initial appraisal will help make…
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Employee Retention in an Age of Choice
Will They Stay or Will They Go? The seasoned HR manager/director/executive will tell you: “If you want to know what your employees are thinking, just ask them.” Traditionally we have done this through two methods: the anonymous “employee engagement survey” or the “exit interview”. Although both can provide some useful information, they can be…
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Health and Welfare Considerations in M&A Deal
What would happen if you arrived for work on Monday to find that your company is contemplating acquiring (or selling to) another company? Do you feel confident in your ability to guide your colleagues through the employee benefits aspects of the transaction? The acquisition process is fraught with traps for the unwary, especially when it…
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Musculoskeletal Disorders: Posturing a Productive Work Environment
As you’re reading this article, take a moment to think about your posture. Are you leaning forward at your desk, or have your neck craned over a phone? Are you sitting upright with your head forward? Or, are you noticing tension in your neck, and an ache in your lower back? Compared to the…
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Leadership That Drives Results
I was recently in an airport when I overheard a traveler talking to another passenger who had been consulting with a large company experiencing growing pains. That is, the company had great potential, but was having difficulty delivering on it. In the consultation interview he asked the CEO what had already been done to ease…
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Set Your Self-Funded Health Plan Up for Success
At any company, data is one of the keys to building a successful benefits strategy. But data alone isn’t enough – it’s how you use it that makes the difference. The right data analysis combined with the right benefits broker will put you ahead of the game. The first quarter of a new plan year…
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Common Misconceptions ERISA ACA Compliance
Rules I’ve always been a rule-follower … to the point that my own family makes fun of me for never even breaking the speed limit! So, naturally, I am attracted to the field of Human Resources where we are bombarded with over 50 categories of rules and regulations affecting virtually every aspect of the employment…