Healthcare

Two years after President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, the U.S. Supreme Court this month will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the individual mandate that requires all individuals who can afford it to buy health insurance. The Court will also determine whether the Medicaid expansion is constitutional, which may affect employers with retiree health care plans. The majority of employers, however, are attuned to the Court's decision on the individual mandate and how much of the law will survive if that provision is found unconstitutional. Whatever the Supreme Court ultimately decides in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida, here EBA outlines each potential ruling concerning the constitutionality of the individual mandate and how it affects plan sponsors and advisers alike.

Aon Hewitt isn't letting health care reform dictate its business model. If anything, it's the other way around. In addition to publishing an influential report on the implications of health reform for large employers, CEO Kristi Savacool has been to the White House several times in recent months to discuss the company's retiree health care exchange and upcoming active employee exchange model.

On January 3, 2012, the Internal Revenue Service issued Notice 2012-9 which provides clarifying and additional guidance on the requirement that employers report the cost of employer-provided health coverage on employees' Forms W-2, as required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Discount dental plans have, for decades, been on the fringes of the benefits world, existing as an individual product almost exclusively. But as employers continue to shift costs, move to consumer-driven health plans and, in some cases, discontinue dental coverage altogether, voluntary discount dental plans could be poised for growth.

Today, employee benefit plans - and those responsible for administering and overseeing them - are facing greater scrutiny and more regulations than ever before. With the growth in the number of defined contribution plans, the Department of Labor is paying closer attention to how plan administrators and trustees discharge their legal obligations to prudently monitor plan investments, comply with the plan documents and exercise oversight over third-party vendors.

In 1998, Aspex Eyewear, an eyewear designer that also develops frame technology, was in talks with Altair Eyewear, Inc., another frame designer, about potentially licensing a clip-on technology. Aspex alleges Altair sent the frames to China to make copies and then came out with a very similar clip-on frame. On August 5, 2002, Aspex filed suit for patent infringement.

Traditional health plans are designed around the idea of treating sickness and chronic conditions. Your employees get sick, go to the doctor, get treated, the explanation of benefits statements is sent out, and employees try desperately, and many times unsuccessfully, to understand the EOB (how much do they owe and to whom?) and then the cycle starts all over again.

Avalanches seem to happen randomly, out of the blue. But to experienced skiers and climbers, the warning signs are obvious. Similarly, people with asymptomatic preconditions can appear healthy, but the warning signs of impending chronic conditions are there if you know what to look for.

Katie Griffith is in many ways the walking example of statistics of a working mom today. She is 32, pregnant with her second child and has just been promoted to director in the advisory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Employers likely would have better luck predicting winning lottery numbers than how the Supreme Court will rule this summer on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's individual mandate. So many benefits practitioners, like Karrie Andes, SPHR, senior benefits manager for Kansas City-based virtual meeting provider PGi, have decided simply not to try to read the legal tea leaves. Rather, Andes and her team - while keeping a close eye on the legal challenges that mounted since the law's passage two years ago, and this month's oral arguments before the Supreme Court - opted for a business-as-usual approach to make sure PGi's health plans first and foremost continued "protecting associates and dependents on our health plan and also helping competitively with attracting talent," Andes says.