Jerry Geisel
Business Insurance
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Past articles by Jerry:
Captives move from alternative to mainstream
Once just a dot on the insurance market landscape, captive insurers have become a mainstream risk management tool over the past 50 years. → Read More
Brokers guide clients through health insurance maze
While individuals buying health insurance coverage in public exchanges are facing big premium increases next year — expected to be well over 20% in many states — and a dwindling number of insurers offering coverage in the exchanges, the health insurance marketplace for midsize employers is in far better shape, brokers and others say. “Premiums are soaring in the public exchanges,” said Tim… → Read More
Vermont eases rules on captives not writing business
Vermont lawmakers Friday gave final approval to legislation to clarify that certain types of captives, such as sponsored and industrial insured captives that are not writing any business be allowed to enter a dormant status, exempting the captives from Vermont's minimum annual premium tax. The measure, H. 538, also allows for cells to be converted from a protected cell to an incorporated cell,… → Read More
Public health insurance exchange enrollment 'turbulent'
Only about one-third of individuals who enrolled for coverage in the federal health insurance exchange during the 2016 open season opted for the same plan as they had in 2015, according to a new analysis.Of the 9.6 million people who chose coverage in the federal exchange, which is offered in the... → Read More
San Francisco employee health care report due April 30
Employers with workers in San Francisco have until April 30 to file a report mandated by the city's health care spending law, the city's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement announced Tuesday. Under that 2006 law, employers must spend a certain amount of money on employees' health care coverage. In 2015, the year the required report covers, employers with 100 or more employees had to spend at… → Read More
Alabama Senate to take up captive insurance bill
The Alabama Senate is expected to soon take up legislation passed unanimously by the state House of Representatives last week to update the state’s 10-year-old captive insurance company statute.Under the measure, H.B. 270, approved on a 98-0 vote by the Alabama House, a $100,000 annual cap... → Read More
IRS signals grad student health plans need overhaul
The IRS has given colleges and universities more time to scrap long-established health insurance plans offered to student teaching assistants and devise new approaches, but the plans' end looks to be in sight. In Notice 2016-73, the IRS affirmed earlier guidance that a widespread approach colleges and universities use to provide health coverage to students — typically graduate → Read More
Number of workers insured by employers expected to drop, level off
The number of individuals with employment-based health insurance coverage will remain steady this year and next, then slide in 2018 and remain near constant after that, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.In both 2016 and 2017, 155 million employees and dependents will have employment-... → Read More
Public health insurance exchange signups grow in 2016
About 12.7 million individuals signed up for coverage in public health insurance exchanges during the 2016 open enrollment season, a more than 10% increase over 2015, the Department of Health & Human Services reported Friday.Of those 12.7 million enrollees, 9.6 million selected coverage in the 38... → Read More
Aon Hewitt private health insurance exchanges attract more employers
The number of employers participating in two Aon Hewitt private health insurance exchanges is continuing to increase. This year, 55 employers with more than 1 million employees and dependents are participating in the Aon Active Health Exchange, Aon Hewitt said Tuesday. That compares with 33 employers with 850,000 employees and dependents who offered coverage through the exchange in 2015. In… → Read More
Largest pensions slip again in February
Hit by falling interest rates, which boosted plan liabilities, the funded status of very large pension plans sponsored by public companies slipped in February, according to a Milliman Inc. survey released Tuesday.Defined benefit plans offered by U.S. employers with the 100 largest pension programs... → Read More
Health care reform added 20 million adults to coverage rolls
More than 20 million adult Americans have gained health insurance coverage due to the health care reform law, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a report released Thursday. “Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 20 million Americans have gained health care coverage. We have seen progress in the last six years that the country has sought for generations,” HHS Secretary Sylvia… → Read More
Senate Democrats urge revisiting multiemployer pension law
Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee want Congress to take another look at a 2014 federal law that allows financially troubled multiemployer pension plans to cut participants' benefits after receiving regulatory permission, but the panel's Republican chairman is defending the law.... → Read More
Public opinion divided on health care reform
Americans, by political affiliation, are deeply divided on what they think Congress should do to the health care reform law, according to a new poll. Twenty-six percent of individuals responding to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, which was released Thursday, and who identified themselves as Republicans said the Affordable Care Act should be repealed and not replaced, while 34% said the ACA… → Read More
ERISA Industry Committee names senior vice president of retirement policy
Will Hansen, a former employee benefits manager and congressional staffer, joined the ERISA Industry Committee Monday as senior vice president of retirement policy of the Washington-based employer benefits lobbying organization.Previously, Mr. Hansen, 35, was senior manager of global employee... → Read More
Fortune 500 continues to shed pension plans
The number of defined benefit pension plans sponsored by the nation's largest corporations continues to fall.Just 99, or about 20%, of Fortune 500 companies offered a defined benefit plan to new salaried employees in 2015, down from 104, or nearly 21% in 2014, and a dramatic fall from a decade... → Read More
Scalia's death could leave court deadlocked on contraceptives
The death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia casts new uncertainty on the how the court will rule in the next case challenging the health care reform law.That case, Zubik et al v. Burwell, involves a key issue for religious, nonprofit employers: the legality of Department of Health and... → Read More
831(b) captives make IRS Dirty Dozen tax scam list
Even with recent legislative changes, 831(b) captive insurers have, for the second year in a row, ended up on the latest IRS annual Dirty Dozen list of “tax scams.” Through the end of this year, parents of 831(b) captives can make up to $1.2 million in tax-deductible premium contributions to the captives each year, and such captives' underwriting income is exempt from federal taxes. Legislation… → Read More
831(b) captives make IRS Dirty Dozen tax scam list
Even with recent legislative changes, 831(b) captive insurers have, for the second year in a row, ended up on the latest IRS annual Dirty Dozen list of “tax scams.” Through the end of this year, parents of 831(b) captives can make up to $1.2 million in tax-deductible premium contributions to the captives each year, and such captives' underwriting income is exempt from federal taxes. Legislation… → Read More
Crawford elevates Bonnie Sawdey to chief people officer
Crawford & Co. has named benefits executive veteran Bonnie C. Sawdey to be its senior vice president and chief people officer, a newly created position. In that post, Ms. Sawdey is responsible for all aspects of corporate human resources, including talent acquisition, benefits and compensation design and administration. Previously, Ms. Sawdey was vice president of human resources. “After rising… → Read More