Regulation

U.S. health insurers will have to justify big premium rate hikes under new rules issued by the U.S. Health and Human Service Department last week.

The Supreme Court explained that the requisite level of harm for a particular case will be dependent upon the applicable equitable theory of relief. If a plaintiff can satisfy one of the standards, it may then be rebutted by the defendant, if the defendant can demonstrate that the inconsistency was a harmless error.

Employers seem to be especially challenged by the duty to accommodate religious beliefs, and the EEOC appears to be particularly interested in pursuing enforcement of the accommodation requirement.

A Rhode Island state court has upheld a statute under which insurance companies that want to wind up their operations can buy policies back from policyholders.

What could be simpler than merely indicating to whom or to what entity a participant wishes their assets to be transferred in the event of death? Unfortunately, numerous issues arise in connection with the simple task of designating a beneficiary.

Simplicity should be a key goal in plan design, plan objectives and participant communications. Regulations make this challenging, but the benefits of simplicity are many.

The only things certain in life are death and taxes," Ben Franklin famously said. If you file a Form 5500 on behalf of your company's pension or health and welfare plans, the filing deadline for calendar-year plans is July 31. There are a number of changes in store for plan years 2010 (and any years prior that have not yet been filed) that might cause you to allow more than the usual preparation time.

Until recently, I directed a corporate benefits department and was responsible for complying with the legislation that affected my organization's benefits program. There were mountains of legislation, and while my staff and I were able to handle it effectively, we definitely struggled to keep abreast of everything we needed to do. Then came the law that broke the camel's back: health care reform.

Over two days of hearings in March, the Department of Labor heard from almost 40 retirement industry players on its proposed rule to update the definition of the term "fiduciary" under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The agency also has received over 200 public comments on the proposal.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the establishment of health care exchanges to enable individuals to purchase health insurance on the open market is proceeding as scheduled.