Cafeteria Plan Direct
  • Home
  • $79 Cafeteria Plan
  • About $79 POP
  • HSA Savings Calc
  • About Us
  • Blog

Executive Order on Health Costs to Affect Employer Health Plans

7/24/2019

0 Comments

 
President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order aimed at improving price and quality transparency in health care. The order is intended to increase availability of health care price and quality information and protect patients from surprise medical bills.

What’s in the Order?

Specifically, the order is aimed at:

  • Eliminating unnecessary barriers to price and quality transparency
  • Increasing the availability of meaningful price and quality information for patients
  • Enhancing patients' control over their own health care resources, including through tax-preferred medical accounts
  • Protecting patients from surprise medical bills
Employer Impact

Within 120 days, the order directs the Treasury to issue guidance to expand access to high deductible health plans. Additionally, the order directs the Treasury to propose regulations within 180 days to:
  • Treat expenses related to certain types of arrangements—potentially including direct primary care arrangements and health care sharing ministries—as eligible medical expenses
  • Increase the amount of funds that can carry over without penalty at the end of the year for flexible spending accounts ​
0 Comments

IRS Releases Inflation-adjusted Limits for HSAs and HDHPs for 2020

7/3/2019

0 Comments

 
On May 28, 2019, the IRS releasedRevenue Procedure 2019-25 to announce the inflation-adjusted limits for health savings accounts (HSAs) and high deductible health plans (HDHPs) for 2020. These limits include:
  • The maximum HSA contribution limit
  • The minimum deductible amount for HDHPs
  • The maximum out-of-pocket expense limit for HDHPs
These limits vary based on whether an individual has self-only or family coverage under an HDHP.

HSA Contribution Limits for 2020 

The IRS limits for HSA contributions increase for 2020. Eligible individuals with self-only HDHP coverage will be able to contribute up to $3,550 for 2020, while eligible individuals with family HDHP coverage will be able to contribute up to $7,100 for 2020. The $1,000 catch-up contribution limit that applies to HSA-eligible individuals who are age 55 or older will remain unchanged.

HDHP Cost-sharing Limits for 2020 

For self-only coverage in 2020, the HDHP minimum deductible will increase to $1,400 and the out-of-pocket maximum will increase to $6,900. For family coverage, these limits will increase to $2,800 and $13,800, respectively.

Action Steps 

Because these limits change for 2020, employers that sponsor these plans may need to make plan design changes for plan years beginning in 2020.



Making Emotional Intelligence Work for You​Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to understand and manage your emotions, as well as others’. It’s similar to empathy, but the ability to manage the emotions effectively is key.

Many businesses are flocking to high-EQ individuals for their attractive leadership style.

Leaders with high EQ are able to communicate their feelings effectively, look at a situation from all perspectives and maintain a positive outlook regardless of the situation.

Do We Need EQ Here? 

Effective managers tend to have higher EQ than others, so you may already have leaders like them on board. They have good people skills, can self-regulate and lead by example.

Managers who operate by more authoritarian practices get a much different view of their workplaces than high-EQ leaders.

Authoritarian managers are identified by their lack of self-awareness, making them hard to confide in. You want employees to feel comfortable talking to their managers.

If your managers have high EQ, they will likely have a better rapport with employees and be able to manage their needs more effectively.

Most importantly, fostering high EQ invites more democratic corporate management, which is critical for effectively managing differences in opinion. You don’t have a shouting match when your leaders are able to have a mature discourse.


Don’t Forget About PCORI Fees

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) imposes a fee on health insurance issuers and self-insured plan sponsors in order to fund comparative effectiveness research. These fees are widely known as Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) fees.

The PCORI fees were created to help patients, clinicians, payers and the public make informed health decisions by advancing comparative effectiveness research. Fees paid by health insurance issuers and sponsors of self-insured health plans fund the institute’s research, in part. The PCORI fees apply for plan years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2012, but do not apply for plan years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2019. For calendar year plans, the fees will be effective for the 2012 through 2018 plan years. Therefore, the 2018 plan year is the last plan year that these fees will be effective, for calendar year plans.

Issuers and plan sponsors must pay PCORI fees annually on IRS Form 720 by July 31 of each year. The fee will generally cover plan years that end during the preceding calendar year. For the 2018 plan year, PCORI fees are due by July 31, 2019.

How Much Are the PCORI Fees? 

On Nov. 5, 2018, the IRS published Notice 2018-85, which increased the PCORI fee amount for plan years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2018, and before Oct. 1, 2019 (that is, 2018 for calendar year plans), to $2.45 multiplied by the average number of lives covered under the plan.

Who Must Pay the PCORI Fees? 

The entity responsible for paying the PCORI fees depends on whether the plan is insured or self-insured.

  • For insured health plans, the issuer of the health insurance policy is required to pay the fees.
  • For self-insured health plans, the fees are to be paid by the plan sponsor.
Although sponsors of fully insured plans are not responsible for paying PCORI fees, issuers may shift the fee cost to sponsors through a modest premium increase.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has advised that, because the PCORI fees are imposed on the plan sponsor under the ACA, it is not permissible to pay the fees from plan assets under ERISA, although special circumstances may exist in limited situations. On Jan. 24, 2013, the DOL issued a set of frequently asked questions regarding ACA implementation that include a limited exception allowing multiemployer plans to use plan assets to pay PCORI fees (unless the plan document specifies another source of payment for the fees).

What’s Next? 

PCORI fees are reported and paid annually using IRS Form 720 (Quarterly Federal Excise Tax Return). These fees are due each year by July 31 of the year following the last day of the plan year. This means that, for plan years ending in 2018, the PCORI fees are due by July 31, 2019. Covered employers should have reported and paid PCORI fees for 2017 by July 31, 2018.

0 Comments

    Small Business blog

       

    Archives

    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • $79 Cafeteria Plan
  • About $79 POP
  • HSA Savings Calc
  • About Us
  • Blog