Client Alerts
GBAC continually monitors legislation at the state and federal levels. We communicate changes in legislation and market conditions via email and seminars throughout the year which are free of charge. Below are our a list of our articles which are released every Friday.
- Supreme Court to Hear Health Care Reform Arguments at End of March The Supreme Court has scheduled arguments over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for March 26, 27, and 28, reserving that entire week for arguments and conference on the matter. The Court has reserved over five hours of argument time on four discrete issues on the PPACA. {read more}
- Understanding the Web: FMLA, WC, ADA and Even STD Benefits The key to untangling the web of FMLA, Workers Compensation, ADA and STD benefits is understanding the obligations under each statute and then, if the laws conflict or are applied simultaneously, you grant whichever provides the employee the greater benefit. {read more}
- Beyond the Basics: Things You May Not Know About Connecticut's Paid Sick Leave Law The law took effect January 1, 2012, mandating that employers with 50 or more employees provide 40 hours of paid sick leave to hourly service workers each calendar year. Most employers are aware of the new mandate and those covered under the law should have already made revisions to their policies and practices to ensure compliance. {read more}
- HR Function Requires a Trained Professional As a business owner, your primary focus is on the success of your core business. Whether you own a small retail outlet, technology start-up, accounting, legal, medical or other professional services firm, or some other type of business, concerns that distract you from providing the best goods or services and top-notch customer relations can negatively impact your bottom line. {read more}
- Two Month Payroll Social Security Tax Cut Extension A payroll tax cut extension through February 2012 was passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama on Dec. 23, 2011. The Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 extends the 2 percentage point payroll tax cut for employees, continuing the reduction of their Social Security tax withholding rate from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent of wages paid through Feb. 29, 2012. {read more}
- Creditable Coverage Disclosure to CMS The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), requires Group health plans, including those offered by employers, to complete the Online Disclosure to CMS Form to report the creditable or non-creditable coverage status of their prescription drug plan(s) that are offered to Medicare Part D eligible individuals. {read more}
- 7 Reasons To Add Voluntary Benefits Since voluntary benefits work so well, they'll likely be around for a long time. Health reform and HHS have contributed to the many challenges in healthcare. Voluntary benefits work well, people like them and they are affordable. GBAC is able to provide a variety of voluntary solutions to our clients. {read more}
- Why Background Checks Are Essential For All Employers With more jobs becoming available today, there is a major problem presenting itself for employers. Employees who are applying for jobs are lying about important aspects of their lives. In most cases, the truth may be a disqualifying factor. To avoid the hassle of hiring an unfit employee, it's important to conduct a background check. {read more}
- Connecticut Is the First State To Mandate Paid Sick Leave for Service Workers Connecticut is officially the first state in the country to mandate that employers provide paid sick leave to employees. The new law, effective January 1, 2012, requires certain employers to provide five paid sick days per year to service workers. {read more}
- The New Amendment for Women's Preventative Care The Department of Health and Human Services, commonly called HHS, recently added an update to the Interim Final Regulations for Women's Preventative Care. This preventative program is regulated under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is commonly called PPACA. {read more}
- 10 Reasons to Encourage Fitness in the Workplace Every employer knows that the most important assets to any company are employees. The ultimate goal employers want from employees is to reach maximum productivity levels. To accomplish this, employees need to be at their best. {read more}
- Is it Better to Self Fund Employee Health Benefits? Employee health bills are fluctuating because of uncertainty related to the 2010 healthcare reform bill. Companies are trying to contain the damage by paying employee health claims out of pocket. {read more}
- Have You Considered Full-Replacement CDHP? The Corporate Executive Board, an advisory and research company, and HighRoads, a compliance and health care costs services provider, assembled 2011 data from almost 11,000 medical plan design and the medical plan rates of over 30 million Americans. {read more}
- Keep Your Best Employees on Your Payroll, Not on Your Competitors Employee turnover is a substantial expense for most employers. After all, a great deal of time and money goes into recruiting and training employees. There is also a certain degree of productivity loss from the learning curve involved with a new employee replacing a seasoned one. Recent studies have actually estimated the total cost of replacing an employee as anywhere between 30% to 200% of the employee's yearly salary. {read more}
- Dispelling Voluntary Insurance Myths As if health care insurance wasn't difficult enough for most consumers to understand before, the starts, pauses, and stops surrounding our new health care laws are making the topic even more complicated and confusing for insurance consumers. No matter what happens with the current health care legislation, voluntary insurance is one segment of the health care industry that will fortunately remain unchanged. {read more}
- Do Your Employees Appreciate Their Benefits and Make the Correlation to Their Total Compensation? It's just a fact that employers, especially those in highly competitive industries, must have a striking benefits package to remain competitive in attracting and retaining the best employees. You probably spend a great deal of time and money providing your employees with an attractive benefits package, but do they actually appreciate what you've invested? Do they even have the slightest idea of how much it costs you to provide them with it? {read more}
- CDHPs Reduce Spending...Along with Use of Preventive Care Services Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) lower health care spending in their first year, but employers implementing these plans will be well-advised to beef up communications on preventive care coverage. This is because, according to one recent study, consumers in these plans are curtailing their use of preventive care along with other health care services, even though the plans studied covered preventive care on a first-dollar basis. {read more}
- Study Finds That Employees Value Benefits, But Still Don't Understand The Costs Whether an employee is old, young, male, or female, they most likely already understand the value and importance of benefits like dental insurance, health insurance, and 401(k)s. {read more}
- Are Your Communications with Employees Targeted and Effective? Modernity of communication has brought with it an overload of information. In this age, immense volumes of mail not only accumulates at the front door, it also accumulates in email in-boxes. The sheer volume alone leads us to spontaneously get rid of anything that isn't a bill, personal or business matter, or of otherwise importance. {read more}
- Curb Health Plan Overspending Through Dependent Eligibility Monitoring Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) lower health care spending in their first year, but employers implementing these plans will be well-advised to beef up communications on preventive care coverage. This is because, according to one recent study, consumers in these plans are curtailing their use of preventive care along with other health care services, even though the plans studied covered preventive care on a first-dollar basis. {read more}
- U.S. DOL Issues Final Regulations Updating FLSA The U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") issued revisions to the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") regulations designed to implement various statutory amendments to the FLSA not previously reflected in the regulations. The new rules took effect on May 5, 2011. The most significant changes are to payments to tipped employees and on fluctuating workweek requirements. {read more}
- Employer Questions & Answers Questions sent in to us from employers that we have answered. {read more}
- The Importance of Disability Insurance to Workers and Their Employers The need for disability insurance is all too often underestimated. While most people wouldn't dare forgo necessary evils such as homeowner's insurance, insuring a new car, or even obtaining life insurance, the need for disability insurance is far too often underestimated. Underestimating the value of insuring earning power, especially considering the rate of personal savings in the U.S. is at an almost unprecedented low, could spell disaster if a disabling event was to occur. {read more}
- Employees Value Benefits and Job Security the Most According to a recent report from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), employees consider benefits and job security as the two most important factors that contribute to their overall job satisfaction. This marks the fourth time in as many years that these two factors topped the SHRM's annual Employee Job Satisfaction survey. {read more}
- Focused, Simple, and Straightforward - Effectively Informing Employees of Changes in Their Benefits Whenever changes occur to the rates and/or structure of employee benefits programs, employers are given the difficult task of making sure everyone is on the same page. No matter if the changes are big or small, experts suggest being straightforward in communicating the news, keeping your messages focused and simple. {read more}
- Legislative Updates Updated information on Public Acts and Mandates. {read more}
- Health Care Reform: Small Employers Get Break on W-2 Reporting for 2012 Under the Affordable Care Act, the cost of employer-sponsored group health insurance coverage is to be reported on Form W-2 beginning with the 2012 tax year (meaning, on forms which will be distributed in 2013). {read more}
- New Guidelines from the IRS on W-2 Reporting of Health Care Costs On March 29, 2011, the IRS issued Notice 2011-28 to employers regarding the information reporting requirements on each employee's annual Form W-2 of health insurance coverage. This new reporting to employees is for informational purposes only. It is to inform employees of the cost of their health care coverage. Furthermore, the IRS has stressed that employer-provided health care coverage continues to be excludable from an employee's income, and is therefore not taxable. {read more}
- Evaluate and Plan Today for Good Enrollment Results in the Future Companies devote a great deal of energy and countless working hours to meet the demands of end-ofyear enrollment periods. Since the offering of quality benefits is a crucial aspect in keeping existing employees and attracting new employees, having a less than enthusiastic response to an open enrollment can be very distressing for employers. {read more}
- Don't Overlook the Value in Promoting Wellness in the Workplace In recent years, employers across the United States have been paying more and more attention to promoting the wellness of their employees. One way that many employers are focusing on the wellness of their employees is by offering a workplace wellness program. {read more}
- New Study Shows Disconnect Between how Employers and Employees View Voluntary Benefits MetLife's ninth annual "Study of Employee Benefit Trends: A Blueprint for the New Benefits Economy" is just the latest research showing a disconnect when it comes to how employers and employees perceive voluntary benefits. Only around 43% of employers believed that their employees were interested in a broader array of voluntary benefits. In reality, 52% of employees actually were interested in such. {read more}
- Wage Enforcement App by US DOL The U.S. Department of Labor recently launched a new smartphone application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that makes it more convenient for employees to assure they are being paid for all hours worked and getting the right pay for those hours. The DOL Timesheet app enables workers to track regular work hours, break time, and overtime hours. {read more}
- Incentives Can Drive Wellness Program Participation Wellness programs are on the rise, as employers try to encourage a healthier workforce, and financial incentives increasingly are being used to drive employee participation in these programs, recent surveys indicate. {read more}