WEBINARS

RECORDING

Employer sponsored plans established under Internal Revenue Code Section 125, also referred to as cafeteria plans, are one of the staples of the US-based tax-qualified health and welfare benefit system. Utilizing these versatile accounts, employer plan sponsors are empowered to both accrue tax and payroll tax advantages, all the while permitting employees, and their spouses and dependents, to obtain access to the pre-tax premium contribution structures afforded by tax law.

But these plans are not without their own obligations, conditions, and other responsibilities for sponsoring employers, as well as participants. Rules such as “use it or lose it” requirements, business owner participation restrictions, and domestic and civil union partner participation restrictions, among others, can add layers of tax law interpretation and additional obligations for sponsoring employers.

Join us for this introductory level survey of cafeteria plans, account-based products (such as HSAs and FSAs, as well as health reimbursements plans and health stipend accounts. Offering essential and practical knowledge for the employer benefits plan sponsor or administrator, this course is sure to be a program favorite. Register to save your spot now.

A Baldwin Professional Education Connection Webcast.

Speakers:
Jason Sheffield (S)
Stephanie Hall (S)
Marie Smith (M)

RECORDING

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. The ADA is divided into five titles (or sections) that relate to different areas of public life.

In this educational webcast, participants will explore the ADA in functional, practical terms, learning the employment-related requirements of the law which are outlined in Title I of the ADA, and include the following:

• To assist individuals with disabilities to access the same employment opportunities and benefits available to people without disabilities;
• To require that employers with 15 or more employees comply with the employment-related provisions of the Law;
• To require the availability of reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants or employees (“reasonable accommodations” are changes that accommodate employees with disabilities so they can perform the essential functions of their job without causing the employer “undue hardship”;
• To define the scope of depth of a defined disability and to establish guidelines for the reasonable accommodation process;
• To address medical examinations and related inquiries, and others.

Regulated and enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the ADA is an expansive and complex law. This introductory survey of the law and its employment-related requirements is a must for the human resources professional, particularly those specialists working in the employee benefits, leave, and/or accommodations processes.

A Baldwin Professional Education Connection Webcast. 

Speakers:
Paul Van Brunt (S)
Caitlin Hillenbrand (S)
Marie Smith (M)

RECORDING

Consistent with the requirements of the Employer Shared Responsibility provisions of the Affordable Care Act, employer plan sponsors of health insurance must annually report both offers of qualifying coverage and coverage obtained by employees, dependents, and spouses. The annual information reporting forms enable the IRS to ensure that employers are complying with the employer mandate. The forms are:

• Form 1095-A:This form is filled by individuals who have health insurance coverage under the Health Insurance Marketplace.
• Form 1095-B:Employers who offer self-insured health coverage file this form from health insurance providers. It is common with small businesses, although larger organizations are signing in for insurance coverage.
• Form 1095-C:This form is received by ALEs, who provide either fully insured or self-insured health coverage to individuals classified as full-time employees. This also includes self-insured ALEs with part-time employees.
• Form 1094-B:It is a cover sheet and, along with Form 1095-B, both provide information about coverage type and are filed together.
• Form 1094-C:All ALEs are obligated to file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C in respect of health coverage offered from 2016. It serves as a cover sheet for Form 1095-C, which is filed when employers have to send Form 1095-C to the IRS.

Every year, employers are expected to fill out forms with information on healthcare coverage in a calendar year before submitting them to the IRS as well as providing copies to their employees.

Necessary data includes:

• Employer Id Number and contact information;
• Names and addresses for employees and plan participants;
• Employees’ SSN and months of coverage for plan participants;
• Id of employee dependents by both name and social (or DOB in certain circumstances);

Taxpayer Id Number, and others.

A Baldwin Professional Education Connection Webcast.

Speakers include:
Stephanie Hall (S)
Jason Sheffield (S)
Marie Smith (M)

RECORDING

The Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act (“COBRA”) gives workers and their families who lose their health benefits the right to choose to continue group health benefits provided by their group health plan for limited periods of time under certain circumstances such as voluntary or involuntary job loss, reduction in the hours worked, transition between jobs, death, divorce, and other life events.

COBRA outlines how employees and family members may elect such “continuation coverage.” It also requires employers and plans to provide employees with certain notices and other required disclosures relative to the availability, cost, and length of coverage.

In this foundational program, participants will explore these and other legal and regulatory entitlements to the continuation of health coverage for employees who lose their jobs or who experience a reduction of working hours, disqualifying their health coverage.

Additionally, we’ll evaluate the effect of the COBRA requirements and the associated coverage entitlements extended to the children and spouse of an affected employee.

Practitioners looking for an actionable and practical survey of the law and regulation of COBRA, either as an introductory module or for purposes of refreshing their current knowledge and skills, will find this program both effective and informative.

A Baldwin Professional Education Connection Webcast.

Speakers include:
Nicole Fender (S)
Jason Sheffield (S)
Marie Smith (M)

RECORDING

The Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) was and continues to be, a life link for American families struggling with illness and significant injuries. This landmark legislation signed by former president Bill Clinton was one of the first substantive steps to provide workers with guaranteed worksite leave rights to care for themselves or their close family members while assuring an individual would be able to return to work upon resolution.

Guaranteeing unpaid worksite leave respecting short-term events up to twelve weeks in duration per year, as well as ongoing leave for intermittent medical emergencies and illnesses, the worksite leave rights guaranteed by the FMLA are an essential safety net for families navigating such uncertainties in life.

Worksite leave rights were further bolstered by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) USERRA protects the job rights of individuals who voluntarily or involuntarily leave employment positions to undertake military service or certain types of service in the National Disaster Medical System.

USERRA also prohibits employers from discriminating against past and present members of the uniformed services, and applicants to the uniformed services.

On September 29, 2022, President Biden signed S. 2293 the “Civilian Reservist Emergency Workforce Act of 2021” or the “CREW Act,” into law. The “CREW Act” extends employment protections under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reservists who deploy to major disaster sites.

Join us for an introductory survey of the worksite leave rights and other employee entitlements guaranteed by the operation of these two significant pieces of legislation in this important educational program.

A Baldwin Professional Education Connection Webcast.

Speakers include:
Marie Smith (S)
Bill Freeman (S)
Jason Sheffield (M)

RECORDING

During this timely session, participants will learn aspects of the most significant employee benefit-related events occurring in 2022 and throughout the first half of 2023.

Ranging from HIPAA and mental health parity updates to the many consequences and effects of the conclusion of the COVID-related National and Public Health Emergencies, this session is designed as a clearing house for legal and legislative highlights from the most-recent 18-month period. Attendees should expect a fast-paced, summarized digest of benefits-related news and happenings.

Although individual coverage of topics presented in this learning module will be summarized into a digest form, supplemental program materials will provide attendees with additional information and further commentary respecting many of the substantive updates offered during the program.

A Baldwin Professional Education Connection Webcast.

Speakers include:
Stephanie Hall (S)
Richard Asensio (S)
Jason Sheffield (M)

RECORDING

Companies can no longer afford to avoid or postpone efforts to develop their leadership teams and front-line managers. Managing an evolved workforce, even in the best of times, requires a different and more nuanced set of leadership skills, as well as a more adaptive, continuous approach to accelerate the development and application of those skills in the flow of work.

In this webinar, Jon Greenawalt (SVP of Customer Transformation at 15Five, former CPO of Shark Ninja) will be sharing the 5 essential elements the modern manager needs to be successful in today’s ever changing landscape.

You Will Learn:
• What is causing the disconnect between employees and managers
• How managers can serve as an extension of HR
• How the world of work continues to transform
• Why managers are more important than ever
• The Modern Manager and how to scale their effectiveness
• 5 practical ways the modern manager can create thriving teams
• How you can implement Workforce Training Grants for development of your teams

Speaker:

RECORDING

Each year, US-based employer-sponsored health and welfare plans must prepare and submit a Form 5500, Annual Report/Return of Employee Benefit Plan.

The Form 5500 preparation and filing process can become a monster in and of itself; however, balancing accuracy with the deployment of new efficiencies respecting the preparation of the annual statement may result in a more streamlined, and less disruptive, Form 5500 filing season.

In this program, participants will take a deep dive into Form 5500, dissecting its requirements to design an actionable plan of attack for accomplishing this important and reoccurring regulatory requirement. We’ll walk through the preparation and submission of delinquent Form 5500s, as well as a review of the interrelated corrective processes employers may utilize to re-submit previously reported inaccurate Form 5500 statements.

Broadcast during the same month as the launch of our new Form 5500 Filing Resource Center, this March 2023 educational program is a must for all employers grappling with the preparation and timely submission of these required annual statements.

A Baldwin Professional Education Connection Webcast.

Speakers include:
Nicole Fender (S)
Catlin Hillenbrand (S)
Jason Sheffield (M)

RECORDING

In this part two of our two-part mental health parity and addiction equity educational series, we delve deeper into the topic of mental health parity, specifically addressing the Department of Labor’s MHPAEA guidelines for self-funded health plan sponsors.

We’ll look at the DOL’s self-compliance tool for employer plan sponsors and discuss how this tool may help an employer obtain and maintain MHPAEA compliance assuredness. We’ll also work through the actionable steps of the MHPAEA obligations required of self-funded plan sponsors to ascertain, and demonstrate in a written comparative analysis, each plan’s state of mental health parity compliance.

It is suggested that interested participants who did not attend the MHPAEA 101 broadcast on January 31, 2023, request an emailed link to view an archived recording of the presentation, as an understanding of the foundational information provided in the MHPAEA 101 program is a suggested component of successful contemplation and administration of the employer obligations detailed in part two of our MHPAEA educational series.

A Baldwin Professional Education Connection Webcast.

Speakers include:
Bill Freeman (S)
Jason Sheffield (S)
Marie Smith (M)

RECORDING

Education reflective of HIPAA’s Enforcement and Breach Notification rules rounds out our HIPAA Complete foundational series respecting HIPAA’s four main rules.

In this module, participants will explore the substantive requirements underlying the concept of breach notification, including the specific conditions giving rise to the breach notification requirements, as well as the practical performance of these requirements, including form, content, dissemination, and archival of notifications.

Next, we’ll tackle the Enforcement Rule to obtain an understanding of the additional requirements from the 2013 Omnibus HIPAA Rule, along with an overview of the enforcement process for HIPAA breaches and administrative simplification violations.

Through an understanding of the various enforcement levers available to the Office for Civil Rights, as well as the larger US Health and Human Services organization, participants will glean advanced knowledge respecting avoidance and preparedness for the HIPAA enforcement process.

A Baldwin Professional Education Connection Webcast.

Speakers include:
Natashia Wright (S)
Jason Sheffield (S)
Marie Smith (M)

RECORDING

Join industry leader Steve Cain, Director and National Sales & Business Development Leader for LTCI Partners, for a dynamic discussion about the resurgence in worksite long term care insurance and why demand from both employers and employees is on the rise. RogersGray Employee Benefits Advisor Matt Holden will join Steve and help uncover what employers need to know about the marketplace and pending legislation.

Topics covered will include:

• A quick look in the rearview mirror and a marketplace update
• How legislative activity is impacting and driving interest in these solutions
• COVID’s impact on ER benefits and consumer behavior
• The makeup of a typical case • Market segments and product solutions
• Best practices for successful enrollments