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Reminder: Medicare Part D Notice Due October 15
SHRM
Employers whose health care plans include prescription drug benefits must notify Medicare-eligible employees by October 15 of each year whether their drug benefit is creditable coverage, meaning that it is expected to cover, on average, as much as the standard Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.
The creditable-coverage notice must be given to all Part D-eligible individuals who are covered under, or apply for, an employer's prescription drug benefits plan. This requirement applies to Medicare beneficiaries who are active employees and those who are retired, as well as Medicare beneficiaries who are covered as spouses under active or retiree coverage. The full article is available here.
One Less Thing to Do: HIPAA Certificates of Creditable Coverage
International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Starting January 1, 2015, HIPAA certificates of creditable coverage will no longer be required.
The health plans used to have to provide these certificates to individuals losing health coverage, but now with the ACA prohibiting preexisting exclusion periods for all health plans, no certificates of creditable coverage need to be issued on or after December 31, 2014. Read the full article here.
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Tobacco Cessation Treatment and the ACA's Preventive Care Mandate
Lockton Health Reform and Compliance
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires non-grandfathered health care plans to cover a wide variety of preventive care benefits at no out-of-pocket cost.
Read the full article addressing tobacco cessation treatment and FAQs regarding its involvement in the ACA's preventive care mandate here.
Implementing Health Care Reform: Tax Form Instructions
Health Affairs Blog
On August 28, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service re-released the draft forms that will be used by employers, insurers, and exchanges for reporting Affordable Care Act tax information to individuals and to the IRS for 2014 and 2015, as well as the instructions for completing those forms.
The IRS also released in the Federal Register requests for public comments on three of those forms - the 1094-B, the 1094-C, and the 1095-C - under the Paperwork Reduction Act. There is a wide variety of instructions for each of these forms. Instructions and guidance released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services can be found here.
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EEOC Sick Over Wellness Programs
Mazursky Constantine LLC
Even if a wellness program complies with HIPAA and the applicable limits on the amount of rewards, it must also comply with the Americans with Disabilities (ADA), which generally limits an employer's ability to conduct medical examinations and disability-related inquiries unless participation is "voluntary."
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Recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against an employer under the ADA, related to its maintenance of a wellness program. Although far from a death knell for wellness programs, employers should nevertheless take note of the EEOC's attempted enforcement in this case when considering program design. Read the full article here.
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Client Reminder: More information, regarding Health Care Reform and other benefit resources, is available on the HR360 website, available to BSG clients under the "Resources" menu of your HR Express website.
BSG subscribes to this service for your benefit. If you would like to learn more regarding this resource, please contact your account management team at BSG.
Additional Tools:
- Pay or Play Toolkit
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Enlighten is published by The Benefit Services Group, Inc. (BSG®), and is provided free of charge to select BSG client representatives and associates. By providing links to other sites, BSG does not guarantee, approve or endorse the information or products available at these sites, nor does a link indicate any association with or endorsement by the linked site to BSG. The preceding is not intended to be and is not offered as legal advice. We are prohibited from the practice of law. Compliance is the responsibility of the employer or Plan sponsor and affected employees who should seek their own legal counsel regarding questions about information presented in this newsletter. Copyright© 2014 The Benefit Services Group, Inc. (BSG®) is a registered trademark of The Benefit Services Group, Inc.
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