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.

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.

The following plan changes could make your plan more attractive to all employees.

Offer a 401(k) plan and discuss its advantages:

• Contributions are made with pre-tax dollars, which lowers the income tax bill each year.
• Earnings are not taxed until they are withdrawn.
• Matching employer contributions,if you decide to make them, help employees’ savings grow faster.
• Automatic payroll deductions mean the employee has only one advertised chance a year to decide not to save for retirement.

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.

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.

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:

• Alzheimer’s
• Paralysis
• Coma
• Multiple sclerosis
• Loss of hearing

For more information about the right critical illness or employee benefits plans, contact us at Group Services.

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.

Cost-conscious behaviors include:

• Checking whether their plan would cover care
• Talking to their doctor about prescription options and costs
• Developing a budget to manage healthcare expenses
• Checking the price of a service before getting care
• Using online cost-tracking tools provided by their health plan
• Checking the price of a service before getting care

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.

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.

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:

• Premium payment rules
• Interaction with COBRA
• FMLA “decision tree”

Register today.

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!