Ashley Gillihan and John Hickman presented "Employee Wellness Programs: Overcoming Legal Compliance Hurdles" on Thursday, September 25, 8:15am - 9:15am, at this conference hosted by HR Hero. Employee wellness programs have been called the "final frontier" in containing health care costs. However, many employers and third party administrators have over looked the significant legal compliance issues that are attached to these types of plans. Plus, there are a host of hidden compliance costs associated with an employee wellness program's "carrots" and "sticks" that are catching many employers off guard. This session helped identify and avoid the potential compliance traps, including:
- The types of employee wellness programs that are subject to HIPAA's non-discrimination rules
- What HIPAA's privacy rules say that employers must do to protect an employee's medical information
- ADA violations that could arise from offering an employee wellness programs
- The rules and requirements for continuing COBRA health care coverage under employee wellness programs
- How employee wellness programs change the tax withholding and reporting requirements for employers
Additionally, Ashley and John presented "Health & Welfare Benefits Compliance Boot Camp" on Friday, September 26, 2:00pm-5:00pm, during the post-conference workshops. Legislators and regulators have issued new laws and regulations pertaining to workplace health and welfare benefits lately - and additional changes are on the way. Topics discussed include....
- How far employers can go in regulating employee's off the clock behavior through wellness and disease management programs
- How your wellness programs could violate discrimination laws, ERISA, and other statues
- The new DOL compensation reporting and disclosure rules for benefit plans and their service providers
- New legal issues that are cropping up for consumer-driven health plans such s HSAs, HRAs and flexible spending accounts
- New cafeteria plan rules and requirements for using electronic payment cards to pay for health care, dependent care, and/or transit expenses
- Compliance issues and strategies for effective and useful benefits plan documents and enrollment materials up to date
- Overview of the benefit continuation and reinstatement requirements for employees who are serving in the military
September 25-26, 2008
Caesars Palace / Las Vegas, NV