9:30-10:30 a.m.

U.S. Legislative Update
Speaker: James Klein, President, American Benefits Council, Washington, D.C.

With the forthcoming midterm election as a backdrop, this perennially favorite session provides an insightful, thorough and memorable assessment of the legislative landscape, its effect on the health and retirement policy agenda, and how benefit professionals can prepare.

Canada Legal/Legislative Update
Speaker: Lisa Chamzuk, Partner, Lawson Lundell, Vancouver, British Columbia

This session kicks off 2½ days of Canadian content with an overview and analysis of recent and forthcoming legislative and regulatory activity and legal cases at the provincial and federal levels and what you need to know about their potential impact on group, retirement and other benefit issues in Canada.

11:00 a.m.-12:00 noon

How to Respond to IRS Penalty Letter 226J
Speaker: Lisa C. Allen, Vice President Regulatory Affairs, Relph Benefit Advisors, Fairport, New York

IRS Penalty Letter 226J will be arriving at your doorstep, if it hasn’t already! How an employer responds could lead to a notice and demand for payment (Notice CP220J). There is no cap on the Employer Shared Responsibility Payment so it is critical to respond accurately and within the 30-day time frame. This session will review the 2015 Employer Shared Responsibility penalties, minimum essential coverage percentage, minimum value percentage and safe harbor review.

Takeaways

• How to prepare for Letter 226J
• How to complete and submit Forms 14764 and 14765
• Understand the IRS process and what documentation you need

Benefits Drive Business Strategy
Speaker: Rocke Blair, CEBS, President, Fiduciary Analytics, West Chester, Ohio

Learn a unique process to measure retirement readiness at the employer level to assure participants “off-board” on time on their terms. Retirement plan professionals will come away with an understanding of how to influence organizational strategy by using data, analytics and insights to optimize organizational wage and benefit spend. This will drive a customization of retirement plans and other benefit programs to fit the needs of their employees and improve the organization’s income statement and balance sheet.

Takeaways

• Learn to work with finance to drive superior results for the organization
• Use data, analytics and insights to show senior management efficient ways to spend budget for improved ROI
• Improve the income statement and deleverage the balance sheet by leveraging proper benefit design and funding

Tax Reform Impact on Employee Benefits and Compensation Programs
Speakers: Ron Krupa, CEBS, Senior Manager, Ernst & Young, Bradenton, FL
Allan Ellenby, Executive Director, ACA Technical Advisory Leader, Ernst & Young, Chicago, IL

With the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, changes will be felt across entire employer organizations, including benefits professionals. The legislation includes changes to the taxation of executive compensation and employee benefits for large, publicly traded businesses and for privately held businesses. Many of these changes went into effect January 1, 2018, giving companies very limited time to consider and adopt the changes.

Takeaways

• Understand what programs are impacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
• Learn about options for each type of program
• Have a list of questions to apply to each impacted program to get them into compliance

Future of Health Care
Speaker: Brian Lindenberg, Senior Partner, Mercer, Calgary, Alberta

The health care landscape is embarking on fundamental transformation. With five generations in the workforce, an aging population, rising costs and changing individual needs/wants/ expectations, the current environment is complex and diverse. Layer on top of this unprecedented innovation in digital health, pharmacogenetics, personalized medicine, data analytics—How we access benefits, how we take personal ownership for health and well-being and how we make decisions will change dramatically. This session will highlight the fundamental trends shaping benefits today and predict how our world will change in the future.

Takeaways

• Current trends impacting benefit plan design, delivery, funding
• Predictions on how benefit plan design, delivery and funding will change
• Be prepared for the effect of these profound changes

12:00 noon-1:30 p.m.

Lunch and Roundtable Discussions

1:30-2:30 p.m.

Arriving Now—Rare Disease Therapies $500,000 and Higher: Plan Sponsors Take Warning!
Speaker: Ryan Siemers, CEBS, Principal, Aegis Risk LLC, Alexandria, Virginia

With the removal of annual and lifetime dollar limits under the ACA, life preserving therapies for rare disease not previously treatable or financially viable can carry six and seven figure annual costs. Their rarity stymies purchasing programs, effective PPO discounts and wellness programs. The financial risks to health plan sponsors, particularly those that self-insure, are significant. If it is an ongoing annual therapy, an unreserved future liability can be several millions of dollars. Risk management in the form of stop loss is being tested as never before, and increasingly applicable to plan sponsors of all sizes.

Takeaways

• Financial severity of these claimants, objectives driving prices and lack of effective PPO pricing
• Understanding risk management approaches, including medical stop-loss, even for plan sponsors traditionally not covered
• Potential pitfalls in securing stop-loss coverage

Operational Risk: Ensuring That the Achilles’ Heel of Retirement Plans Is on Good Footing
Speaker: Sean Mahon, CEBS, Lead Senior Consultant, Administration Consulting, Sibson Consulting, Lawrenceville, New Jersey

Operational risk is defined as any of the specific risks associated with operating a retirement plan, such as vendor and/or staff errors, systems failures, criminal activities and/or fraud, as well as other disruptions of business processes. Plan sponsors, their staff and chosen service providers must maintain a framework to minimize the probability and severity of loss related to operational-risk events. Learn how a proper framework allows plan sponsors to reduce the
probability of operational failures, as well as mitigate the severity of the impact of such failures if they do occur.

Takeaways

• Governance structure to assign risk management roles and reporting requirements
• Best practices for operational audits and risk assessments
• Develop key performance and risk measures across plan functions and examples of plan failures

Predicting and Disrupting the Opioid Addiction Cycle
Speakers: Ted Borgstadt, CEO, TrestleTree, Fayetteville, Arkansas
Julia Nicholson, Principal, JN Consulting, Folsom, California

The session will provide the latest research data on the opioid crisis and on the multilayered impact of opioids on society; identify and discuss the main factors of the problem; identify the current “solutions” being used and the pros/cons of each; and present new strategies that disrupt the addiction cycle before it begins, leveraging a validated opioid risk prediction tool, an effective behavior change model and innovative partnerships with physicians and pharmacists leading to successful behavior change.

Takeaways

• Measurable results are achievable
• A holistic approach is necessary for change to be sustainable
• Be proactive and willing to disrupt the current status quo

Making DC Great Again
Speaker: Joseph Nunes, President, Actuarial Solutions Inc., Windsor, Ontario

DC plans have moved from single investment platforms to multimanager
multi-investment options, with decision making transferred to the individual plan members. Some plans provide members with advice, others only education. Unfortunately, DC plans are not having the success expected of them, and plan members are not achieving an adequate level of savings. Come away with what to do next with investments, fees, plan design and member engagement, and decumulation to ensure a bright future for DC plans.

 

Takeaways

• What isn’t working in DC
• What our goals should be
• How we can get there

2:45-3:45 p.m.

 

Five Things to Ask Your Health Plan That You’re Not Already
Speaker: Ryan Olmstead, Director of Member Services, Catalyst for Payment Reform, Berkeley, California

As rising health care costs continue to eat into bottom lines, employers can take an active role and expect their health plans to be progressive, accountable and transparent. Is your health plan reporting on the right measures when it comes to the performance of their ACOs? What measures should an employer request
from a carrier to meaningfully assess mental health access and quality? What does an employer need to know about health plan’s coverage policies on genetic testing and screening and the risks and opportunities associated with these benefits?

Takeaways

• How the employer’s relationship as health plan customer is a potent asset
• Specific, critical topics to ask your health plan about trends today
• How to assess whether health plans are delivering the right reporting for those topics

Financial Wellness Leadership: A Tale of Ostriches, Warthogs and Giraffes
Speakers: Kathy Krogmeier, CEBS, Wellness Events Coordinator, Legacy Financial Group, Urbandale, Iowa
Joanne Kuster, Entrepreneur, Financial Educator, DynaMindsPublishing.com, Johnston, Iowa

Dozens of studies verify that financial stress is on the rise and that employees need help to build personal finance skills. Learn what it takes to create cost-efficient programming that really engages employees, helping them take control of their financial futures and lower their financial stress. Delve into the interplay
between early financial wellness and retirement readiness to see where you can make the most of improvements to take employees to the next level. Get trending program ideas that work, no matter the size of your organization, and learn how others measure the success of their workplace initiatives.

Takeaways

• Increase the ROI of your employee benefits package
• Create effective financial wellness programming that employees want to attend—and will take home to their family
• Find tips and tools to reach employees in every age group in your workplace

 

The Blueprint for Successful Diabetes Management
Speaker: Paul Mulhausen, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Telligen, West Des Moines, Iowa

In this session we will explore the diabetes epidemic with research findings, statistics and future projections, focusing on diabetes management (DM) programs as well as early intervention programs for those in a prediabetic state.

Takeaways

• Intensive diabetes management is needed; how to prevent complications and ensure member adherence
• Addressing prediabetes with targeted programs; at-risk coaching and the Diabetes Prevention Program
• Programs in action; hear real stories of the impact of both diabetes management programs and early intervention programs

Your Future: Consolidated Analytics
Speaker: Gerald Frye, CEO, The Benefit Services Group, Inc., Pewaukee, Wisconsin

Do you have the tools to use data in a comprehensive, strategic way? Data analytics must expand to encompass not only siloed health plan data, but also workers’ compensation, dental and disability data. Analyzing this data will yield an entirely new way of coordinating care and improving outcomes. Consolidated
analytics creates a holistic, member-centric view across all insurance payers and all delivery of care. This presentation will delve into how to coordinate workers’ compensation and ancillary benefits data with health plan analytics to present a vision of what your future can be.

Takeaways

• Consolidated analytics goes beyond current analytic tools
• A holistic approach to care requires consideration of all insurance and care providers
• How consolidated analytics can transform your risk management strategy

Target-Date Funds: More Than Meets the Eye
Speaker: Debra Rosenberg, CEBS, Director of Retirement Plan Consulting, Stiles Financial Services, Inc., Edina, Minnesota

Target-date funds (TDFs) are the most widely used defined contribution investment and by far the most common default investment. Hear the latest on best practices and fiduciary considerations for evaluating the range of available funds, advances in design, pricing differences, and litigation trends for TDFs and other default investments.

Takeaways

• How TDFs continue to grow and evolve
• Criteria for differentiating TDFs and documenting your evaluation
• DOL guidance on selecting and reviewing TDFs

Reaching Your Participants: Making the Case Against Technology
Speaker: Carey Wooton, CEBS, Director, IUE–CWA Pension Fund, Bloomington, Indiana

When a significant percentage of participants lack access to the technology so prevalent in our benefit plans (paperless systems, automation, etc.) they could be left behind, frustrated, angry, and less likely to understand and fully utilize their benefits. Learn how plan sponsors can work with their vendors to meet their disconnected participants where they are in terms of access, knowledge and skill in technology use; and study an example of how the plan sponsor worked with the 401(k) vendor/recordkeeper to make sure participants are cared for in a paper-full technology environment.

Takeaways

• Participants are more disconnected than we think given that “everyone” has a smartphone
• Ways you can work with vendors/recordkeepers to better reach your participants
• Ideas to work with C-suite, vendors, etc. to engage more participants in your plans

The Medicalization of Unhappiness
Speaker: Peter Gove, Innovation Leader, Health Management, Green Shield Canada, Toronto, Ontario

This presenation examines the history of mental illness in Canada, how it has been treated and/or gone untreated, and how much the landscape has changed over the last few decades. It will zero in on the changing medical and social landscape that has led to the proliferation of mental health diagnoses and the widespread prescribing of antidepressants.

Takeaways

• Are there better strategies for care?
• Where do therapy and wellness professionals fit in?
• Other options and what the statistics say