MORE ROBUST & COMPLIANT SPD’s & SECTION 125’s

To help members reduce their costs, the Associations are providing complimentary services such as Summary Plan Descriptions (SPD) and Section 125 plan documents to all dues paying members in good standing. Our adoption agreements are compliant reflecting ALL the Health Care Reform Law changes as of January 2013. These documents are FREE to our members…Effective 5/1/12, the cost to non-members is $50 each.

What’s Different about MBPA/MFBA’s Summary Plan Description (SPD)?

The Employer Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) guidelines make it mandatory for all businesses with 2 or more employees to provide employees with a Summary Plan Description (SPD). We continue to take a leading role in informing and helping our members meet their obligations under ERISA.

Types of benefits covered by Summary Plan Descriptions include: Medical, Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability, Life/AD&D and freestanding Dental/Vision.

• The MBPA SPD is a comprehensive document that satisfies the all Department of Labor (DOL) requirements for SPDs.
• The MBPA SPD can be tailored to cover all of an employer’s employee benefit plans, and is not limited to only insured medical or medical/vision bundled programs.
• The MBPA is essentially a “wrap plan SPD” under which an employer can combine all of its benefits into one plan and one plan document for ease of administration and for purposes of DOL reporting requirements (e.g. Form 5500s) for those employers subject to such reporting.
• The MBPA SPD can be used for both insured and self-insured benefits.

New Summary of Benefits Coverage (SBC) Option Available with our SPD’s:

• Simply send us your clients SBC and MBPA will make a combined SPD/SBC customized document available to all Association Members who have BCBSM insurance through MBPA or MFBA.
• MBPA will create a combined document in its original DOL mandated form with no alterations, as permitted pursuant to the DOL final regulations.
• MBPA will issue this combined document with a letter containing clear disclaimers about differences in distribution requirements for SBC’s and SPD’s, consulting their own legal counsel, etc…
• We have SBC templates available for self-insured members.

NEW Material Modification Sheet Available for the SPD’s

NOW, Two Easy Ways to Get Your Client’s SPD for all Active Members: