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Affordable Care Act Workshop for Large Employers


Product Code - TMW61
Speaker(s): Alden J. Bianchi, Mintz Levin Cohn Ferrris Glovsky and Popeo PC and Greta Cowart, Haynes & Boone LLP
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In this workshop, our experts will explain - step-by-step - how to prepare your clients for open enrollment for the 2014 plan year and beyond.

Pay or Play. Many of your clients may not realize that employing on average as few as 50 employees during 2013 can subject them to the “pay or play” provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that apply to large employers. Pay or play means that these clients may have to choose between offering employee health coverage that covers at least 60% of medical costs for health benefits, or paying a tax penalty of $2,000 or $3,000 per full-time employee for the year. Coverage that is too expensive also can subject an employer to penalties.

The speakers will answer:

  • Can an employer simply give each of its employees a lump sum and send them to a health care exchange?
  • How are “affordable” coverage and “minimum value” measured?
  • How are penalties calculated and assessed?
  • What new fees do employers have to worry about, how much will they cost and when are they payable?

Plan Redesign and Compliance. ACA created many plan requirements that are in effect already and more changes will be effective soon that may make plan design changes necessary for employer-sponsored plans. In addition, HR and benefits professionals will need ongoing guidance in plan administration.

You’ll learn about:

  • The definition of a “full-time employee” and what happens if a client has workers with variable hours
  • Safe harbors for new hires and temporary and seasonal workers
  • Nondiscrimination rules for insured plans
  • Automatic enrollment
  • The 90-day waiting period
  • New rules for wellness programs
  • Notice and reporting requirements
  • The future of executive health plans
  • How cases going through the courts now may affect the way ACA is implemented

Prerequisite: None
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Delivery Method: Group Live; followed by Q & A
Recommended CPE Credit: 1.5 credits 

Alden J. Bianchi, Mintz Levin Cohn Ferrris Glovsky and Popeo PC and Greta Cowart, Haynes & Boone LLP

Alden J. Bianchi is the practice group leader of Mintz Levin's Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice and is a member in the Employment, Labor & Benefits Section. He advises corporate, not-for-profit, governmental, and individual clients on a broad range of executive compensation and employee benefits issues, including qualified and nonqualified retirement plans, stock and stock-based compensation arrangements, ERISA fiduciary and prohibited transaction issues, benefit-related aspects of mergers and acquisitions, and health and welfare plans. Bianchi represented the Romney administration in connection with the historic 2006 Massachusetts health care reform act, and he has testified before the Senate Finance Committee on the subject of health care reform.

Bianchi is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Suffolk University and Georgetown University law schools, and he holds an LL.M. in taxation from Boston University School of Law. He is also a fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. Bianchi is a member of the Bloomberg BNA Pension & Benefits Publications Advisory Board. He is also a co-author of Bloomberg BNA Compensation Planning Portfolio 374: "ERISA-Litigation, Procedure, Preemption and Other Title I Issues," and a report available on the Bloomberg BNA Benefits Practice Resource Center as part of the Benefits Practitioners' Strategy Guide: "An Introduction to the Temporary Federal Subsidy For COBRA Premium Assistance Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009."

Greta Cowart a partner in the law firm of Haynes and Boone, Greta E. Cowart is known for fixing complex employee benefit plan issues and has secured significant results in Internal Revenue Service employee plans team audits and in U.S. Department of Labor audits of employee benefit plans. During Greta's 26-year career, Greta has also resolved significant employee benefit compliance issues through the various voluntary compliance programs. Through her work on the Employee Benefits Committee of the American Bar Association, Section of Taxation, she has worked with the technical provisions governing retirement plans and executive compensation. Greta has worked extensively with Code section 409A and the regulations under such section governing nonqualified deferred compensation, and other employee benefits issues in depth and provided recommendations to the government for its use in rule making. Greta is a former Chair of the Employee Benefits Committee of the American Bar Association's Section of Taxation. Greta's extensive knowledge of employee benefits and executive compensation provides her with the background to assist corporations quickly with plan design and administration issues, including litigation of benefit disputes.