Experts to discuss employee health care benefits in BNA Tax & Accounting webinar

When President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, he ushered in dramatic health care reforms unparalleled since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. On April 8, two of the nation's foremost employee benefits and health care law experts from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, Bruce Fried and Martin Moderson, will present a BNA Tax & Accounting webinar, Health Care Reform – Preparing Employers and Health Plans, directed to professionals who advise employers large and small on employee health care benefits or work with ERISA or non-ERISA health plans. Our speakers will explain the implications of changes to the tax Code, ERISA and other laws controlling the design and administration of health plans for today and the future.  

In 60-90 minutes, Fried and Moderson will:

• Provide insights into the future of ERISA health plans and help you advise corporate clients contemplating plan changes
• Sort through the opportunities and challenges for Health Plan Design and Administration in this new legal environment
• Identify New Requirements and which parts of the legislation take effect the earliest so that you can prioritize your practice

Discussion will focus primarily on key provisions of the new law that go into effect this year and in 2011.  Topics will include:

• Insurance industry reforms, including the ban on Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions and Rescission of Benefits
• Requirements regarding Medical Loss Ratios
• New tax measures on the Health Plan Industry
• Cadillac Plan Taxes
• Health Plan Standards (such as Lifetime Limits or Annual Limits and expansion of Coverage of Dependent Children to age 26)
• Early Retiree Reinsurance
• Limits on Health Accounts (HSAs and FSAs)

"Employers and health care plans are at the heart of this legislation, which will impact nearly every business in some way," says BNA senior tax analyst Sharon Fountain. "It is complex, has staggered effective dates and will be enforced partly through the IRS. Knowing its implications is essential for employee benefits specialists and their corporate clients in order to make decisions and to comply with the law and avoid penalties."

The Speakers:

Bruce Merlin Fried is a partner in Sonnenschein's national Health Care and Public Law & Policy Strategies groups.  He has been recognized by Chambers USA and ExpertGuides as one of the leading health care attorneys in the U.S.  Mr. Fried is a health care law and policy expert who counsels and represents health plans, physician organizations, hospital groups, consumer organizations, health care information technology and data companies, pharmaceutical and biotech companies and other health care organizations with regard to Medicare, Medicaid, HIPAA and other federal health care programs and policies.

Mr. Fried has more than thirty years of experience in health care law and policy, both in the public and private sectors.  He served as the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA, now CMS) Director of the Center for Health Plans and Providers where he was responsible for policy and operations for the Medicare program.  Prior to that, Mr. Fried was Director of HCFA's Office of Managed Care where he managed the rapid growth of the Medicare managed care program.

Prior to joining the government, Mr. Fried was Vice President of Federal Affairs at FHP International Corporation, then one of the nation's largest managed care organizations.

Mr. Fried served as Chief Coordinator of the 1992 Clinton/Gore Campaign's Health Care Advisory Group.  After the election, he was a member of the President's Transition Health Policy Team.

From 1990 to 1994, Mr. Fried was Executive Vice President of The Wexler Group where he counseled and represented insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, clinicians, consumer groups and philanthropies on legislative and regulatory matters.  Prior to 1990, Mr. Fried was involved in health care public interest activities and practiced with national, regional and local legal aid organizations.

Martin J. Moderson has over 25 years experience in the employee benefits area and is vice chair of the firm's national Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Group.  In addition to his work with privately and publicly-held employers, he assists tax-exempt, religious, and governmental employers in designing, implementing, and maintaining various employee benefit programs. 

Mr. Moderson provides legal counsel on a full range of employee benefit matters.  His employee benefit expertise includes qualified retirement plans, tax sheltered annuities, 457 plans, nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements, executive compensation and insurance arrangements, statutory and nonstatutory stock option plans, self-insured health and dental plans, disability plans, group term life plans, cafeteria plans, dependent care plans, and tax-exempt trusts.  He has also assisted multinational companies with select international benefits matters. 

Health Care Reform – Preparing Employers and Health Plans takes place April 8, 2010, from 12:30 – 2:00 pm, ET). To register for this webinar and obtain further information about CLE and CPE credits, go to>1-800-372-1033, menu Option 6, then Option 1. The fee is $249 for BNA subscribers, $299 for nonsubscribers.

SOURCE BNA Tax & Accounting