Planning for Open Enrollment
Compliance Solutions for Cafeteria Plans and Component Benefits
Live on Thursday, May 29, 2008
1:00-2:30 p.m. ET (12:00 p.m. CT; 11:00 a.m. MT; 10:00 a.m. PT)
Open enrollment presents a host of legal, administrative, and communication challenges. Whether your company is a plan sponsor, TPA, or compliance advisor, this fast-paced 90-minute web seminar will help you get a jump on open enrollment by identifying the issues and likely solutions for your cafeteria and component health & welfare plans.
For one registration fee ($235), you and your co-workers can gather in one room to attend the seminar together via a single web and telephone connection.*
Seminar Level
Topics Covered
Here’s some of what we’ll cover (sorry! 401(k) plans will not be included):
- Is open enrollment required? Distinguishing cafeteria plan elections (salary reductions to pay for coverage) from component benefit enrollments.
- What should be included in open enrollment materials, how should they be distributed, and who should receive them? What should your plan’s SPD say about open enrollment?
- Can you use open enrollment materials to also satisfy legal notice requirements (such as under HIPAA, COBRA, and ERISA)?
- What information should you require regarding dependent eligibility? How should you respond to employee or beneficiary requests for information?
- Cafeteria plan issues. When do elections become effective and salary reductions start? What should you do about late elections? Should automatic, evergreen, or negative elections be used?
- Insurance issues. What to do when rates and insurance booklets arrive late. Traps to avoid when communicating new coverage, especially when changing insurers. How to protect against enrollment disputes with insurers.
Details
Questions: Send your seminar-related questions to webseminars@ebia.com by Friday, May 23, 2008 for consideration by the speakers in preparing their remarks. We will also accept written questions during the seminar. Afterwards, we’ll issue a Q&A document of most frequently asked questions (sorry—not all questions can be included).
Speakers: Brigid Carroll Anderson, Esq. and Jody L. Dietel. Ms. Anderson is a Director of Seminars at EBIA and a Contributing Author of EBIA’s ERISA Compliance for Health & Welfare Plans manual. Ms. Dietel is the CEO of Creative Benefits, Inc., a third-party administrator with a nationwide client list.
Handouts: A PDF copy of the handouts will be available for download the day before the seminar.
* Viewing Details
Your registration provides one web and one phone connection. (Note: A separate registration fee will be charged for each additional web/phone connection.) If employees of the same company wish to view the seminar using more than one connection, please contact us about additional registrations available at a $40 discount.
For no extra fee, you may gather a group of individuals employed by your company to attend the seminar together at one location using one web/phone connection. You may also invite guests (e.g., clients, association members, or colleagues from other companies), but if more than five guests attend, there is a surcharge of $20 for each additional guest. Please contact us to arrange for payment.
The seminar is copyrighted; recording the web seminar is prohibited.
System Requirements to Attend the Seminar
For the phone portion of the seminar, you simply need a phone line. For the web portion of the seminar, we use WebEx technology. You may wish to view system requirements, test your system and download any necessary WebEx software at this link:
http://developers.webex.com/api/jointest/
If you are not able to complete the WebEx installation or access the web portion of the seminar, please contact WebEx live technical support at (866) 863-3904.
