Group Services receives the 2012 Small Business of the Year Award from the Quad Cities of Chamber of Commerce. 
The award recognizes companies that portray professional skill and community leadership, as well the ability to serve as a role model for other small businesses.
Group Services supports employers throughout Illinois and Iowa, including Davenport, Moline, Bettendorf and Rock Island, for group health insurance, 401k administration, life insurance policies and more.
Don’t forget to tune in today’s “Understanding Several Important Rules” webinar at 11:00 p.m. (Central).
Stacy H. Barrow, Associate in the Labor & Employment Law Department, will cover topics that might arise as part of a DOL audit, which include domestic partners, imputed income, form 5500 and other requirements under ERISA.
You might have the best retirement plan, but if employees aren’t participating, what’s it worth?
The following plan changes could make your plan more attractive to all employees.
Offer a 401(k) plan and discuss its advantages:
Offer automatic enrollment: Enrolling employees automatically in a 401(k) plan essentially switches the retirement savings decision from opt-in to opt-out.
Make it simpler to borrow again the plan. Learn more.
Give them confidence with a lifecycle fund. Learn more.
Contact us for more information on making your company’s retirement plan more attractive to employees.
Many employers are forced to cut costs and cutting back on mental health benefits is tempting. However, scaling back mental health benefits may raise health costs in the long term for the 22% of adults in the U.S. who suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder, according the the National Institute of Mental Health.
The most common mental health disorders that arise in the workplace are anxiety and depression.
Employees who have access to quality mental health benefits are less likely to be out in disability leave. Employees on behavioral health disability tend to stay out longer than those with any other condition.
By offering comprehensive mental health benefits, your company invests in employees’ overall wellness. Meeting your employee’s mental health needs produces long-term savings by decreasing health care costs, increasing productivity and reducing absenteeism.
Contact our benefits administrators for assistance with your mental health benefits program.
As medical technologies and treatments improve, more people are surviving once-fatal forms of cancer and other conditions.
Many employers responded to the rising costs by increasing their employees’ share of costs. This can leave several employees with overwhelming health care costs. So what’s the solution? Supplemental health benefits.
Critical illness policy pays a lump sum benefit if a plan participant is diagnosed with a serious health condition, like cancer, heart attack or stroke.
Illnesses covered under the policies vary, but can include the following:
For more information about the right critical illness or employee benefits plans, contact us at Group Services.
Qualified plans cannot discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees. The plans must cover at least 70 percent of non-highly compensated employees, and employers must offer them to all full-time employees on the same terms. Any time an employer makes a contribution, it must make contributions on behalf of all participants. Qualified plans require extensive reporting.
Nonqualified plans are employer-sponsored retirement plans designed to benefit a select group of executive or key employees. The employer can include only those employees it chooses, without having to abide by the anti-discrimination rules that qualified plans must follow. Nonqualified plans can be formal or informal.
For more information, please contact us at Group Services.
The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) found that individuals with Consumer Driven Health Plans (CDHPs) are more likely to engage in cost-conscious decision making than those with traditional plans.
Cost-conscious behaviors include:
Consumer-driven health plans can help employers keep their employee medical costs under control.
Group Services can help you determine the plan that offers the best balance of coverage and cost for your employees. Contact us to learn more about our employee benefits plan options.
The Unemployed Anti-Discrimination Act of 2012 was recently signed by the Mayor of District of Columbia, which prohibits employers and employee agencies from discriminating against job applicants based on their unemployment status.
As legislators across the nation are gaining interest in hiring regulations, employers may want to pay close attention to the broad protections under the Act as similar legislation may be on the horizon in your state.
The Act covers discrimination based on job status, unlawful retaliation and whistleblower protection. Any violations of these can result with monetary penalties.
To view the Act, please click here.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the Unemployed Anti-Discrimination Act, please contact us at Group Services.
Register online today at Group Services for the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Employee Benefits Webinar on Wednesday, April 18 from 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. (EST).
The webinar will provide an overview of FMLA basics from an employee benefits perspective.
Stacy Barrow, an Associate in the Labor & Employment Law Department at Proskauer Rose, will review the following topics:
Recently, justices have been debating on enforcing all Americans to have medical insurance or face paying a fine under Obama’s health care plan.
Eight in 10 in the United States already are covered by workplace heath plans or government programs like Medicare so most people won’t need to worry or buying anything new.
But when it comes down to it, Americans don’t like being told how to spend their money.
Federal judges have come down on both sides, but now it’s up to the Supreme Court. The justices are allowing a period of six hours over three days (beginning March 26) to hear arguments challenging the law’s constitutionality.
The Obama plan relies on private companies to provide basic benefits, keep premiums reasonable, and cover the sick and healthy.
That’s where the mandate comes in. If insurers must cover everyone, even those with existing medical conditions, healthy people have little incentive to sign up before they get sick.
In the insurance companies’ defense, they argue that if only the sick sign up, insurers will go broke. So the law will support them and require everybody to have insurance or pay a fine.
Because everyone needs health care at some point, if everyone purchases insurance, the price per person can be lower with the cost of care spread out over many people.
Contact Group Services for more information. We offer group health insurance and more!
