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Cleveland Clinic to Cut $330 Million from Next Year's Budget, May Cut Jobs

"Cleveland Clinic Chief Executive Toby Cosgrove [announced] ... that the health system may have to eliminate jobs to meet a target of cutting $330 million from its 2014 budget. The Clinic will first offer early voluntary retirement to about 3,000 employees, who will be notified in October. It's not clear if any further cuts in staff could be avoided if all these employees choose to retire, however.... 'Healthcare reform has really changed things, and the burden of cost is going to be falling on patients,' [said a hospital spokeswoman]. 'We want to make sure we can keep care affordable.'"

Cleveland-Area Employees Paying More for Health Coverage at Work

"Cleveland-area employees will contribute an average of $2,500 out of their paychecks next year for health insurance premiums -- that's 56 percent more than they paid toward coverage in 2007 ... premiums for single and family coverage will average $10,638 for employees in Northeast Ohio. The employee will pay about $2,500 of that out of their paycheck and the employer will pick up the rest."

SIFMA Comment Letter to SEC on Recommendations of the Investor as Purchaser Subcommittee on Broker-Dealer Fiduciary Duty (PDF)

"[T]he Subcommittee (and indeed, the Committee) does not have a single broker-dealer representative. A representative from our industry could provide the necessary perspective to help generate more practical, consensus-based recommendations that would benefit all parties, but most particularly retail investors.... Section 913 should be implemented through rulemaking under the Exchange Act for broker-dealers.... [This] rulemaking should require broker-dealers to provide customers with uniform, plain English disclosures.... Section 913 should not be abandoned in favor of an approach that Congress considered and rejected -- namely, tinkering with the broker-dealer exemption."

Cleveland Clinic Teams Up with Aetna to Launch Insurance Plan

"The Cleveland Clinic struck a partnership with CVS Health subsidiary Aetna to form a new accountable care organization (ACO). The two companies plan to launch a co-branded insurance plan this fall."

Text of PBGC Approval of Special Withdrawal Liability Rules: Service Employees International Union Local 1 Cleveland Pension Plan

"[A]n employer that completely or partially withdraws from a defined benefit multiemployer pension plan becomes liable for a proportional share of the plan's unfunded vested benefits.... Congress nevertheless allowed for the possibility that, in certain industries, the fact that particular employers go out of business (or cease operations in a specific geographic region) might not result in permanent damage to the pension plan's contribution base.... Each request for approval of a plan amendment establishing special withdrawal liability rules must provide PBGC with detailed financial and actuarial data about the plan.... PBGC [has] received a request [from] ... a multiemployer pension plan covering the commercial building cleaning and security industries in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area."

Obamacare Isn't Really Taking Away Jobs: Cleveland Clinic Edition

"[T]he 'Obamacare is killing jobs' story isn't really accurate. It's not totally false -- the Cleveland Clinic will in fact take in less money because of the law -- but it's a more complicated story about changes in medicine.... 'We felt health-care reform was absolutely necessary,' [Eileen Sheil, the clinic's Executive Director of Corporate Communications] said. 'This is the new normal. This is where hospitals have to focus to be viable in the long run. This is not doomsday for the clinic. We're still growing -- we're still hiring.'"

Can the Cleveland Clinic Save American Health Care?

"[W]hat if we actually did take money out of the equation? What if we put doctors on salary and substituted relentless cost-control for 'anything goes'? ... [T]here are places where it works. One of them is the Cleveland Clinic, one of the nation's leading hospital centers. Along with other landmark institutions like Mayo, it was a model for the Accountable Care Organizations provisions in Obamacare -- provisions which, it was hoped, would help simultaneously control costs and improve care."

Cleveland Clinic's Incredible Vision for the Future of Health Care

"For costs to come down, hospitals need to embrace innovation in how they do business, and start to change some of the behaviors that have made healthcare more and more expensive without making it any better for patients.... 98 percent of the people that request a same day appointment at the Cleveland Clinic get one, and there were over one million such appointments last year. Focusing on costs doesn't have to come at the expense of the patient."

Get Healthy or Pay Higher Insurance Rates, Cleveland Clinic Employees Are Told

Recalcitrant employees at Ohio's second largest private employer are seeing a significant rise in their insurance premiums ? 21 percent. But the hospital is giving these employees one last chance to have a portion of that increase refunded -- if they get on board and reach established goals before year's end.

Cleveland Clinic Opens Free Wellness Programs for Employee Dependents

Excerpt: The fact that a high-profile healthcare institution like Cleveland Clinic is aggressively expanding wellness benefits is another sign that wellness programs work.

Text of Recommendations of the SEC Investor Advisory Committee: Broker-Dealer Fiduciary Duty (PDF)

10 pages. Excerpt: "The [SEC] should conduct a rulemaking to impose a fiduciary duty on broker-dealers when they provide personalized investment advice to retail investors.... [T]he question is not whether broker-dealers are adequately regulated when they act as salespeople but whether they are adequately regulated when they act as advisers. In the view of the Committee, the existing securities regulatory scheme that treat broker-dealers as salespeople does not offer adequate investor protection when broker-dealers offer advisory services, since under a suitability standard they generally remain free to put their own interests ahead of those of their customers.... As part of its rulemaking, the Commission should adopt a uniform, plain English disclosure document to be provided to customers and potential customers of broker-dealers and investment advisers at the start of the engagement, and periodically thereafter, that covers basic information about the nature of services offered, fees and compensation, conflicts of interest, and disciplinary record."

Financial Services Institute Comment Letter to SEC on Duties of Brokers, Dealers and Investment Advisers (PDF)

45 pages. Excerpt: "FSI's members are committed to a regulatory environment that achieves three important goals: (1) Investor access to financial advice and services; (2) Investor choice between available providers of advice and services; and (3) Robust and effective investor protections. FSI and its members believe that a uniform fiduciary standard of care, plainly articulated conduct rules, effective customer disclosures, and balanced regulatory supervision efforts will achieve all three of these goals and promote an environment that provides widespread benefits to all stakeholders."

Cleveland Clinic Expands Centers of Excellence Program for Self-Insured Businesses

"The health system has added two new centers, covering musculoskeletal and bariatric health, to its program, giving business leaders a direct link to specialist services and allowing them to better manage employee healthcare costs.... Businesses are choosing this model not only to reduce the complexity of health plans and cut administrative costs, but to better manage soaring employee healthcare costs and boost health and wellness through more focused, evidence-driven care programs, including preventive care."

Treasury Department Approves Devastating Pension Cuts for Cleveland Iron Workers' Retirees

" 'These cuts will devastate retirees who count on their pensions to make ends meet in retirement. We're extremely disappointed that the Treasury Department approved these cuts, and we're not sure why they did it,' said Karen Ferguson, the Center's Director. 'We're puzzled as to why the agency did not provide specific reasons for approving the application.' "

When It Comes to Outsourcing Locations, No Place Is Too Exotic. Not Even Cleveland

Excerpt: Last year, when management at call-center services specialist LiveBridge Inc. was searching for a place to house the company's Spanish-language operation, it looked south of the border -- way south of the border. After considering the more traditional outsourcing venues in Latin America, the Portland, Oreg.-based company decided to build its state-of-the-art call center in Argentina.

United States v. Cleveland Indians Baseball Co.

Supreme Court opinion, handed down April 17, 2001. Excerpt: Back wages are subject to FICA and FUTA taxes by reference to the year the wages are in fact paid.

Some Heart Care Costs Stay Outside Insurance Coverage, Lowe's Does National Comparison Shopping For Employees' Heart Surgery

Excerpt: [H]ardware store chain Lowe's has decided to shop nationally for 'the best deal in heart surgery for its employees and it landed at the Cleveland Clinic,' The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. 'The nation's second-largest home improvement retailer reached a three-year agreement with the Clinic. The deal was praised widely as a groundbreaking business effort to purchase health care based on documented quality and value.

King v. Burwell and the 'Plain Meaning' Rule of Statutory Interpretation

"What each state will do if faced with the prospect that its citizens will no longer get subsidies to buy insurance if it does not establish and operate an insurance exchange is entirely unknown. Moreover, even a victory by the government will hardly guarantee the ACA's success in regulating the private insurance market.... Two important issues are raised by the decision. First, how broad is the 'absurdity' exception to the plain meaning rule? Second, to what degree and extent should the unusual factual circumstances that led to the ACA's passage affect the operation of the plain meaning rule?"

'Plain English' on 401(k) Fees? More Like Gibberish

"[R]ather than give employers a transparent view of their 401(k) costs, many critics say, Wall Street seems intent on drowning them in paperwork and fine print. A recent study of 500 small-business owners ... found that 80% of those who remembered seeing the documents still had questions after reading them. In response, a cottage industry of consultants is springing up to help translate 'plain English' into actual English."

401(k) Participants May See Plain-English Summary Prospectus Under New SEC Rule

Excerpt: Mutual funds may give investors a plain-English summary prospectus, rather than a full prospectus, under a final SEC rule effective March 31, 2009. The rule ultimately may change the form and content of fund information passed through to participants in many 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans. Once summary prospectuses become available, plan sponsors will need to re-evaluate 'pass-through' disclosure obligations under ERISA.