Draft Mortality Tables for Public Retirement Plans Released
The Society of Actuaries has released an exposure draft for their public retirement plan mortality study. This study focuses exclusively on the mortality experience of public retirement plans, in contrast to the Society’s previous study which excluded public experience. The goals of this study were not just to develop public mortality tables, but also to examine the data for insights into … Read More
ACA Affordability Threshold Increases in 2019
In order to determine coverage affordability under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the IRS sets an “affordability percentage” annually. The affordability percentage is applied to the employee’s annual household income and the result is divided by 12 in order to determine the maximum “affordable” monthly contribution. Coverage is deemed to have met the ACA’s affordability standard if the employee cost for … Read More
Society of Actuaries Releases Study of Public Pension Mortality Assumptions
On June 26, 2018, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) released a study of the mortality assumptions used for funding purposes by state-based and large-city public pension plans. The study includes comparisons of how the mortality tables being used now compare to the latest mortality tables developed by the SOA (based on corporate pension plan data). Two items that we noted … Read More
Managing Prescription Drug Plan Costs: Pricing Tricks Employers Should Watch For
Employers typically pay close attention to medical plan provider discounts, stop loss premiums, and administrative costs, but often overlook ways to manage prescription drug plan costs. Proactively controlling prescription drug costs in your self-funded group health plan can save your organization up to $40 per employee per month through better-negotiated pricing alone. For a 500-employee group, this amounts to over … Read More
Are you Prepared for a HIPAA Audit?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects the privacy and security of an individual’s protected health information (PHI) by governing how covered entities use, store, and share health information. As covered entities under HIPAA, self-funded plan sponsors must comply with HIPAA’s Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights … Read More