Employer Strategies

Enrollment in health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements continues to grow, but contribution patterns to these account-based health plans are changing, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute.

ERISA defines a multiple employer welfare arrangement as an employee welfare plan or any other arrangement which is established or maintained for the purpose of providing welfare benefits to the employees of two or more "unrelated" entities. Thus, if a welfare plan is maintained by an employer for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits to that employer's employees, former employees (e.g., retirees) or beneficiaries (e.g., spouses, former spouses, dependents) of such employees, the plan will be considered a "single employer" plan and not a MEWA.

Information commonly exits in silos: Pharmacy benefit managers, health plans, and absence management, disability and enrollment vendors generally all operate independently and invisibly to other health care entities that are caring for the same population of patients.

For large, self-insured employers, vendor management involves identifying and negotiating better arrangements with third-party vendors who administer benefits. A report from The Advisory Board Company shows that while vendor management is often overlooked by plan sponsors, the process can yield savings of between 5% and 10%.

As more U.S. employers hire international workers or extend their organization into foreign locations, benefits and tax issues have grown increasingly complicated when managing international assignees. Further complexity arises depending on the type of employee or independent contractor. U.S. multinationals have begun to fill more key positions with talent in other nations or third-country nationals, who work a position in a foreign country from the U.S., but are not from the U.S. or that foreign country, rather than implanting American expats to international positions.

In the information age, perhaps the only system left that hasn't gone completely digital or to the cloud is health care. Even insurance companies, who warehouse massive amounts of data, rarely share it with other insurance companies when an employee moves from one job to the next. And for patients to gain access to their own heath records, which largely are maintained on paper, they have to go through a lengthy process - on paper.

Among the most controversial requirements of health care reform is a preventive care provision that requires all insurers and nongrandfathered health plan sponsors to cover contraceptives without a deductible or copayment. Coverage includes all FDA-approved contraception methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling.

You may not be hearing it directly from your employees, but most are not happy with the customer service health plans provide. A new research report published by Temkin Group, a consulting firm, rates the customer experience of 206 large companies across 18 industries.

Diversity training, doing good in the communities in which it operates and encouraging employees to dream big dreams are the three pillars of Darden Restaurants’ human resources’ strategy, Clarence Otis, company chairman and CEO, told attendees at the Great Place to Work conference in Atlanta.

On Monday, the Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments addressing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Day one of the oral arguments focused on the application of the “Anti-Injunction Act,” which could prohibit the Supreme Court from ruling on the constitutionality of PPACA (if it is considered a tax law) because the penalties would not become applicable until 2015. Although both parties agree that the Supreme Court’s review should not be barred by the…