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Voluntary Certification gives businesses more confidence when dealing with a PEO

By June 3rd, 2015   Human Resources, PEO

Currently businesses bear the responsibility when PEOs have failed to pay all wages and taxes, even when they may have already been paid to the PEO beforehand.

Under a new voluntary certification effective January 1, 2016, when a Certified PEO (CPEO) Regulation (H.R. 5771, Division B, Title 2, Section 206) contracts with a business, the CPEO becomes solely responsible for paying wages to employees, and collecting employment taxes on those wages. The CPEO is still responsible even if the client business has not made sufficient payment to the CPEO.

Prior to this Act, when a business enters or terminates a PEO agreement, at a time other than the beginning of a year, the business had to restart the taxable wage base for FICA and FUTA taxes. Now, CPEOs become successor employers and restarts are not necessary. The Act also establishes that certain credits apply to the client business and not to the CPEO, including Work Opportunity Tax Credits (WOTC), Research & Development Credits (R&D), Empowerment Zone Credits (EZ) and Indian Employment Credits (IEC). Previously it was at the PEOs discretion whether to take these credits themselves, or pass them on to their client companies.

Employee Benefit Advisors provides employee benefits, tax-advantaged healthcare, compliance guidance for ACA and Health & Welfare DOL Audits, and PEO Advisory & Consulting Services.

Videos Cover Basics of IRS Section 6055/6056 Reporting

By May 20th, 2015   Compliance - ACA & Other, Human Resources

UnitedhealthCare has provided two videos covering the basics of IRS section 6055 and section 6056 reporting to help give a better understanding of what the reporting is and what is required of employers, both fully insured and self-funded.

Section 6055 reporting supports the individual mandate.  It is the required reporting to the Internal Revenue Service of information relating to covered individuals that have been provided minimum essential coverage by health insurance issuers, certain employers and other entities that provide minimum essential coverage.

Section 6056 reporting supports the employer mandate. It is the required reporting to the IRS of information relating to offers of health insurance coverage by employers that sponsor group health plans.

Specifically, the videos cover:

  • What are sections 6055 and 6056 reporting (click to view videos)
  • When the provision becomes effective
  • When reporting needs to be done
  • Who is responsible to report
  • UnitedHealthcare’s approach to supporting fully insured and self-funded groups

All content for this Blog was provided by UnitedhealthCare.

Employee Benefit Advisors provides employee benefits, tax-advantaged healthcare, compliance guidance for ACA and Health & Welfare DOL Audits, and PEO Advisory & Consulting Services.

Pre-Active Medicine – CompanionDx

By May 6th, 2015   Apps / Websites, Healthcare, Healthcare Services, Human Resources, Wellness

Anywhere between 40 and 75 percent of drugs are ineffective for individual patients. That means a large portion of patients may not only be wasting their money—but they may not be receiving the treatment or the results they seek.

Pre-Active medicine is a new diagnostic discipline that uses genetic insights to help prevent adverse drug reactions, misdiagnosis or other negative consequences of inadequate medical discovery.

CompanionDx™ is one of the only providers of both pharmacogenomics evaluations and cancer companion diagnostic testing. When used separately or in conjunction, these two types of tests are giving physicians the resources they need for more comprehensive patient treatment profiles—and that means more certainty when it comes to effective therapeutic decisions.

Tests include:
Pharmacogenomics testing
Cancer companion diagnostics testing
Colorectal cancer screening
NextGen Sequencing testing (in development)
 
You’ll receive easy-to-read test reports within 3-7 days.

Employee Benefit Advisors provides employee benefits, tax-advantaged healthcare, compliance guidance for ACA and Health & Welfare DOL Audits, and PEO Advisory & Consulting Services.

Clean up your mouth!

By April 29th, 2015   Healthcare

 The following was posted on the wall when I visited my dentist recently. – Glad to report my teeth and gums are healthy.

Periodontal infection increases risk

Heart disease
Infectious endocarditis
Carotid artery stenosis
Stroke
Diabetes
Rheumatoid arthritis
Mouth and throat cancer
Pancreatic cancer
Colon cancer
Kidney infection lung infection/COPD		 Low fertility in men
Erectile dysfunction
Brain abscesses
Cognitive dysfunction/ Alzheimer’s
Infectious mononucleosis
Pre-term babies
Yeast infections
Multiple sclerosis
Osteoporosis

periodontal (adjective) of, denoting, or affecting the gums and other tissues surrounding the teeth: periodontal disease

Employee Benefit Advisors provides employee benefits, tax-advantaged healthcare, compliance guidance for ACA and Health & Welfare DOL Audits, and PEO Advisory & Consulting Services.

ACA 2015 Tax Forms 1094 and 1095

By April 15th, 2015   Compliance - ACA & Other, Human Resources

The ACA forms chart is voluntary for employers that wish to file in 2015 for 2014. The return and transmittal forms are to be filed with the IRS on or before February 28 (March 31 if filed electronically) of the year following the calendar year of coverage.

Here’s the IRS link for complete instructions.
http://tinyurl.com/mgzhyoc

Employee Benefit Advisors provides employee benefits, tax-advantaged healthcare, compliance guidance for ACA and Health & Welfare DOL Audits, and PEO Advisory & Consulting Services.

ACA: Employer Mandate Tree

By April 8th, 2015   Compliance - ACA & Other, Human Resources

The employer mandate tree easily breaks down what we see today and the changes taking place next year.

Employee Benefit Advisors provides employee benefits, tax-advantaged healthcare, compliance guidance for ACA and Health & Welfare DOL Audits, and PEO Advisory & Consulting Services.

Your HSA Contributions May Trigger Cadillac Tax

By April 1st, 2015   Compliance - ACA & Other, Healthcare, Human Resources

The Cadillac Tax is coming in 2018. – All “premiums” over the designated amounts, currently set at $10,200 for single coverage and $27,500 for family coverage, will be taxed at 40%.

BUT, the IRS and DOL are currently counting employee contributions into their own HSA’s as “premiums”.

So, if you are being a responsible healthcare consumer, choosing a high deductible plan and putting dollars into an account in order to pay medical expenses, those dollars, if pre-taxed in an employer’s Section 125 Plan, will now count against you!

If the IRS does adopt rules requiring employers to include employees’ pretax HSA contributions in calculating plan costs, employers are likely to redesign their high-deductible plans, such as capping pretax contributions or allowing only after-tax contributions to reduce the likelihood of triggering the excise tax.

Thanks to Susan Luskin, FLMI, CLU, CEBS, RHU, ChHC, Diversified Administration Inc, www.Div125.com, for pointing this out.

“Embedded” Out-of-Pocket Maximum Rule Clarified

By March 18th, 2015   Compliance - ACA & Other, Human Resources

HHS recently finalized regulations to verify the annual out-of-pocket maximums for an individual in 2016 are limited to the annual limit for self-only coverage. This applies to all individuals, including each individual under family coverage. The regulation provides that the embedded out-of-pocket limit applies to all plans.

This embedded rule means that plans (including self-funded plans) will now have to have embedded out-of-pocket limits for each individual covered under family coverage. For example, using the 2016 limits, if a family plan has an annual out-of-pocket limit of $12,000 and one family member incurs an expense of $25,000, that family member would be responsible for expenses up to $6,850 (the self-only out-of-pocket limit), and the remaining $18,150 would be paid in full by the plan. Additional expenses incurred by that family member would be paid by the plan with no cost sharing for the remainder of the plan year.

 

Employee Benefit Advisors provides employee benefits, tax-advantaged healthcare, compliance guidance for ACA and Health & Welfare DOL Audits, and PEO Advisory & Consulting Services.

Obamaco$t – OUCH!

By March 4th, 2015   Compliance - ACA & Other, Healthcare

The Congressional Budget Office reports Obamacare will cost $2 Trillion, $1.35 Trillion for everyone enrolled in Obamacare ($50,000 per person), premiums plus subsidies, and $643 Billion to pay for the expansion of Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program). Costs will be paid by the federal government (taxpayers) and $643 Billion in taxes, penalties and fees.

Was Obamacare the most cost efficient way to deliver healthcare? I hope you saw Steven Brill on 60 minutes Jan 11, 2015. Read his book America’s Bitter Pill.

Tower of Babel teaches valuable lesson

By February 18th, 2015   Compliance - ACA & Other, Healthcare, Human Resources

Gen 11:1-6 Now the whole world had one language…as one people speaking the same language…then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

PPACA requires group health plans to provide both a Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC), and a Glossary of Health Coverage and Medical Terms in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner. When populations speaking Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog or Navajo reach 10 percent of the population in a county, federal regulations require translation.

‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ – Think of the possibilities.

Follow this link to review an updated list of counties where translation is required.  

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