



		Corporate Transactions

		Retirement Plans

		ESOPs

		Welfare Benefits Plans

		ERISA Exempt Plans

		Legal Compliance Audits For Benefit Plans

Welfare Benefits Plans

We provide our corporate clients with comprehensive solutions designed to create a balance between holding the line on the ever increasing costs of providing health care and other welfare benefits, and attracting and retaining a qualified workforce.

Our welfare benefits practice includes:

Design of comprehensive welfare benefit programs;

Negotiation of service agreements with third party contractors, including insurers;

Design of self-funded plans and arrangements, fully insured plans, and a combination of the two;

Counseling of clients regarding structuring welfare plans to take full advantage of the tax deductions available;

Advising clients regarding establishing "domestic partner" welfare benefit plans;

Design of Section 125 cafeteria and flexible spending accounts in furtherance of your health care cost containment strategies;

Counseling clients on health savings accounts, health reimbursement arrangements and flexible spending accounts;

Advising clients regarding funding options through the establishment of voluntary employee beneficiary associations (VEBAs);

Assisting clients regarding compliance with HIPAA-mandated privacy requirements;

Counseling clients regarding COBRA and other ERISA mandated reporting and disclosure responsibilities;

Counseling clients regarding retiree welfare benefit plan issues.

Domestic Partners Benefits - With legislative changes and court decisions occurring at the state and federal levels, the availability of medical benefits, indeed of all benefits, for same gender couples is a sensitive matter of increasing importance and concern to our corporate clients. Consequently, over the past few years, we have been increasingly asked to assist our clients in their decision making process because we keep abreast of the continuing changes in the law and consequently are able to handle the complex issues involved, by developing effective strategies.

HIPPA - At the present time, all companies regardless of size must comply with HIPPA's privacy rules. We counsel and train our clients, particularly their HR and benefits departments, on their obligations to safeguard from disclosure protected health information, assist them in establishing the necessary health plan amendments and update their business associate agreements, and content of their communications with plan participants regarding participant privacy rights.

COBRA - The final regulations introduce a new complexity in the procedural rules and notice requirements of an already complex and confusing area for many health plan sponsors. A failure to comply with the new requirements may result in high liability exposure as well as the imposition of severe penalties. Janich Law Group routinely counsels many of its clients on various COBRA administrative issues, and advises them on the most efficient manner of implementing these new rules. We also have prepared new notices that are now required under these rules to ensure our clients' continued compliance with COBRA regulations.

Representative Engagements - Welfare Benefit Plans

Plan Merger - Following a merger, we were retained by one of our corporate clients to consolidate its insured welfare benefit plans, and the acquired company's self-funded plans, so as to facilitate and lower the overall costs of plan administration. The consolidation led to a redesign of the client's benefits structure and the establishment of a few new plans, including a cafeteria plan and a medical savings account thus assisting in the client's effort to control its health care costs while providing tax advantages to participating plan employees.

Retiree Medical Benefits - We were retained by a corporate law firm to assist a corporate purchaser in the evaluation of the seller's retiree medical benefits plan and its potential liabilities. As a result of our due diligence and liability analysis, we were able to minimize the purchaser's potential risks by recommending various approaches to address the issues involved in the plan.

HIPAA Privacy - We advised a national manufacturing company sponsoring a self-insured health plan on what it needed to do to comply with HIPAA's privacy requirements. We assisted the client in identifying and controlling the flow of protected health information; counseled company personnel involved with the plan on privacy rights; drafted privacy policies and procedures consistent with company business operations; drafted privacy notices and various administrative forms consistent with the company's privacy policy; negotiated the business associate agreements; and provided administrative support to the company's human resources director in the development and implementation of a company wide training program on HIPAA's privacy rules and the plan's compliance procedures.

Domestic Partner Welfare Benefits - We assisted a client in implementing a health care benefit program for domestic partners as well as a life insurance program, by revising the terms of the plans, updating the summary plan descriptions and preparing the employee communication materials for rollout of the program.

Mediation of Welfare Benefit Plan Dispute � We acted as mediator of a dispute involving the right of an insurance carrier to offset premium payments from a subsidized premium reserve fund that was being held by the insurer for the benefit of Fortune 500 company employees participating in a welfare benefit plan. As a result of our efforts during this mediation process, the parties successfully narrowed the issues in dispute and, notwithstanding a prior lack of settlement discussions, made significant progress toward settlement of their dispute.