The Regulator’s draft Code on funding defined benefits aims to strike a balance between employers’ pension obligations and their ability to invest in sustainable business growth. There’s a greater emphasis on living with risk: understanding and managing it, rather than eliminating it. The key is to hold three elements – funding, investment and the employer covenant – in balance. This article looks at how trustees are supposed to do this, and how the Regulator will measure their success.
The design and operational failures of the federal insurance exchange and comparable failures of a number of state exchanges will generate contract disputes and litigations. Read on for more information.
The new regulatory framework for defined contribution pension arrangements is now live. It applies to all trust-based schemes providing DC-type benefits, whether wholly DC, elements such as AVCs in a defined benefit scheme or DC benefits with a DB underpin. The Regulator expects trustees to assess their schemes against its quality features and will monitor compliance. The following article provides an overview of the framework.
The Regulator has published a new and much more detailed statement on its approach to asset-backed funding arrangements. While acknowledging the advantages of these structures in principle, it is concerned to ensure that trustees take potential risks into account before signing up, and have a back-up plan available in case things go wrong. This article looks closely at the Regulator’s concerns.
Dormant pots carry a significant administration and cost burden for pension schemes; the number of these pots could increase quickly once the power to make short service refunds from DC schemes is abolished (expected in 2014). What can administrators do to limit the burden of dormant pots? This bulletin sets out options to help schemes and members minimise the accidental creation of DC pots and consider the full range of options for dealing with existing deferred pots.
Each of the respective industries in healthcare face different issues when negotiating contracts. This program will highlight what are essential provisions to be included in health care agreements from the perspective of hospitals, providers, medical device companies, pharmaceutical companies and health plans. Concepts to be discussed include the requirements of the variety of U.S. and international laws impacting the healthcare industry, the different needs of for-profits and non-profits, and the changes imposed by healthcare reform.
With over 900 pages of law & tens of thousands of pages of regulations, “ObamaCare” has been in the news and courts & now it’s on your desk and in your board room, C-suite and business units. Get your "cheat sheet" to navigating the implications of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The panel will tackle the hottest Affordable Care Act issues including: (1) Medicaid expansion - what states are expanding and what will be the impact to states that are not expanding; (2) New regulations - what are some of the most significant and controversial regulations and can more be expected in the near future; (3) Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) - great rewards are promised for healthcare companies willing to be accountable for better outcomes and savings, but what “pay for performance” and quality controls are being implemented, measured and reported and is it really worth it?
The Stark Law has promulgated complicated regulations for transactions involving payments to physicians. All facets of the healthcare industry also face on a daily basis the shadow of government prosecutors focused on violations of the federal anti-kickback statute. These laws involve both criminal prosecution and civil liability, and in-house attorneys have at times been prosecuted as individual defendants. Enforcement is expanding to cover individual physicians as prescribers of company products and providers of services to companies, such as consulting and clinical investigator services, and to physician ownership of medical device distributors. Looming over healthcare companies and individuals is the potential to be debarred from participation in Medicare, Medicaid & other federal health care programs. In addition, in-house counsel need to be aware of obscure state laws on the issues of physician self-referral prohibition and anti-kickbacks. This program will discuss the government’s new enforcement trend and mechanisms that in-house counsel can employ to reduce these risks.
The US Affordable Care Act (a/k/a Health Care Reform, or the ACA) is complicated. While there is nothing in the ACA that requires any employer to provide group health care coverage to its employees, the failure to do so can come with a price. The ACA is a game changer - one that requires a different approach to compliance than in the past. As with any complex law, the devil is in the details. This article contains some of the big picture strategies to consider when dealing with the ACA.
This checklist outlines issues and gives tips for policy conditions, sublimits and deductibles, anti-concurrent causation clauses, and liability issues when natural disaster is a factor.