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Insurance

ACA FAQ explains wellness issues

02/06/2014
The Obama administration has released its 18th round of frequently asked questions about implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Post-Windsor, what’s the tax status of benefits for same-sex married couples?

02/05/2014
Q. In the wake of United States v. Windsor, we have extended a number of our employee benefits to same-sex married couples. Can you provide any guidance on the proper treatment of flexible spending account (FSA) expenses and health savings account (HSA) and dependent care assistance program (DCAP) contribution limits for same-sex married couples?

ACA individual mandate could cost employers more

01/28/2014
Many employers anticipate spending more on health benefits this year as employees who previously declined insurance sign up in order to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.

Does workers’ comp cover injuries an employee suffers at a work-related social event?

01/24/2014
Q. Is an employee who injures himself at a ­company-sponsored picnic eligible for workers’ ­compensation?

Fired special needs therapist denied unemployment

01/24/2014
A former special needs therapist has lost her bid for unemployment compensation after a supervisor testified that the therapist told students she needed therapy herself because of the way the students behaved. The incident occurred while the supervisor was observing the class.

IRS issues integration rules for HRAs and FSAs

01/24/2014

You can go some way toward meeting the Affordable Care Act’s requirements that your group plan provide minimum value and is affordable by setting up health reimbursement accounts or health flexible spending accounts for employees. But according to new IRS guidance, these accounts must be integrated into your group health plan.

Status of Health Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Reimbursement Accounts and Health Savings Accounts under the Affordable Care Act

01/22/2014

The ABCs of HRAs, FSAs and HSAs: It can be difficult to pick your way through the alphabet soup of group health plan add-ons, such as HRAs, FSAs and health savings accounts (HSAs). To help you along, this chart lists the characteristics of these accounts and how the health care reform law affects each.

Looming ACA issues in 2014: Nondiscrimination rules & Cadillac tax

01/21/2014
Employers subject to the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2015, have some complicated issues to sort out: How will yet-to-be-settled nondiscrimination rules and the looming “Cadillac tax” affect their benefits plans?

Workplace lexicon: Value-based insurance design

01/14/2014
This is the insurance industry’s lingo for a system of carrots and sticks that rewards patients for undergoing medical procedures with a good track record of success (think flu vaccines and hypertension treatment) and penalizes them for treatment of questionable value (hip-replacement surgery and many kinds of high-tech imaging, for example).

More small businesses might drop health benefits

01/13/2014
The Affordable Care Act probably won’t prompt many large employers to drop health insurance benefits, but small businesses are more likely to do so than they were last year, according to the National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans.