Each month on Talking Benefits, I join the International Foundations three resident benefits nerdthusiasts Julie Stich, Kelli Kolsrud and Justin Held to discuss the top stories in retirement and health care and take a deeper dive into a trending benefits topic affecting plan sponsors. This month, the team tackles elder care benefits. But first, a quick news update.

Elder Care Challenges: Why Employers Should Care

ACA Update
On July 6, the Trump administration announced it would stop the risk adjustment payments to health insurers. We’re not sure how insurers will react to this action—if they will raise premiums or cease participation in the public health insurance exchanges.

Fiduciary/Conflict of Interest Rule
Is it really dead or partially dead? Julie explains. Prevailing wisdom is that the DOLs rule is pretty much dead nationwide and that the old five-part fiduciary test from 1975 is back.

New Supreme Court Nomination
Justin provides a summary of what Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh has ruled on in the past regarding employee benefits and ACA-related cases.

Elder Care Benefits
In the last episode, the podcast team dove into trendy benefit offerings; but in this episode a more perennial benefit is covered—elder care. This is a benefit oftentimes upstaged by other family-friendly perks like parental leave or fertility benefits, but it’s increasingly more critical for employers to address since it impacts multiple generations in the workplace.

Tune into this episode to hear stories from employees who are caregivers and discover takeaways for implementing a supportive workplace culture for caregivers.  The team provides a variety of ideas (many at low or no cost) to consider for offering elder care benefits.

Don’t miss a single episode! Subscribe to Talking Benefits on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts for automatic updates as new episodes are released, or watch for new episodes on the International Foundation website.

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Anne Patterson
Social Media and Communications Associate at the International Foundation

 

Annual Employee Benefits Conference

 

Anne Patterson

Communications Associate at the International Foundation

Favorite Foundation service/product: The innovative member survey efforts and results from the research team.

Benefits-related topics that interest her most: Health care, nontraditional wellness initiatives, employee benefit communication.

Personal Insight: It’s all about balance with Anne. She loves to run and enjoys a good culinary adventure. She’ll jump at the chance to travel or to spend fun times with family and friends, but she’ll also take time to catch her breath with an occasional Netflix binge or diving into a classic novel.

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