| BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter |   |
March 14 - 17, 2003 - 8,072 subscribers
Today's sponsor: WorldatWork
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
Our Bookstore now carries books published by WorldatWork! WorldatWork, the professional association for compensation, benefits and total rewards professionals, now has more than 30 select publications appearing for sale in the BenefitsLink.com bookstore.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
BenefitsLink Web Site is Back Up, Mostly (BenefitsLink)
View details by clicking on the headline -- thanks.
Federal Government Getting Closer to Offering Cafeteria Plan to Employees (Washington Post)
Excerpt: "The Office of Personnel Management announced Friday that it has awarded a contract to a Louisville company to administer the accounts, known as FSAs, for federal workers. The company, SHPS Inc., manages nearly a million FSAs and similar accounts for state and local governments, the federal judiciary, Fortune 500 companies and other clients, OPM said."
Commentary: I'm a Doctor, Not an Adversarial Unit of the Health Care Industry (Washington Post)
Excerpt: "None of us [in the class of '66] went into medicine for money and none of us is fabulously wealthy, which is the way it ought to be. But we never expected to be harassed and 'supervised' by government officials and insurance company clerks citing unreadable 'treatment manuals,' and we certainly didn't expect to be treated as fungible by the corporations that are increasingly likely to become our employers."
Healthcare: the Perils of Prevention (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Excerpt: "Belief in this sort of interventionist preventive medicine has ascended in lock step with the proliferation of diagnostic tests, which allow doctors to detect signs of disease in people who have few or no symptoms."
Hundreds Sue UnumProvident, the Largest Disability Insurer in U.S. (USA Today via Yahoo! News)
Excerpt: "[H]undreds of policyholders ... have filed lawsuits against the nation's largest disability insurer, UnumProvident, alleging that it unfairly cut off their benefits by targeting certain policies for cancellation, particularly high-cost cases and policies offered through employers, which come with fewer legal protections."
Durham County, N.C. Decides Not to Provide Domestic Partner Benefits, Citing 1805 Law (The Durham [N.C.] Herald Sun)
Excerpt: "The nearly 200-year-old state law Durham County evoked to block health benefits to employees' domestic partners is a 'smoke screen' for lack of political will, said critics of the county's position.... The 1805 fornication and adultery law reads, 'if any man and woman, not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together, they shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.'"
Bethlehem Steel's Top Executive Regrets Retirees' Loss of Benefits (The Buffalo News via NewsAlert.com)
Excerpt: "[Steve Miller, Bethlehem Steel's president,] said he has mixed emotions ... 'These are people who gave their lives to this company,' he said. 'They retired, they expected to have their health care and their full retirements protected for the rest of their lives. And this company, for a lot of reasons over the last 20 or 30 years, ended up in a situation where it couldn't make good on that promise.'"
Bush Administration Threatens Action Against Importers of Cheaper Drugs from Canada (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Excerpt: "Drug companies welcomed the [Food and Drug Administration's] tough stance, which was reported today by The Wall Street Journal. But several members of Congress denounced the agency's position."
Ready or Not, Here Comes HIPAA (Industry Week)
Excerpt: "At the crux of HIPAA is an attempt to make health information management more efficient and to limit disclosure of employee health-related information, particularly to prevent it from being used to discriminate against employees. The sweeping legislation contains loads of requirements, including but not limited to: ..."
CalPERS' New Health Pitch (The Sacramento Bee)
Excerpt: "In a move that could be a road map for workers and employers nationwide coping with soaring hospital costs, CalPERS has proposed a dramatic overhaul of its health-benefits program to tie premiums and patients' out-of-pocket fees to the price and quality of care at different hospitals."
Updated Health and Welfare Plans Legislative Tracking Chart from Towers Perrin (Towers Perrin)
Updated March 7, 2003.
Medicare Outperforms Private Insurance at Containing Health Care Spending, 30-Year Trend Shows (The Urban Institute)
Excerpt: "Medicare health care spending per enrollee rose at a slower rate than private health insurance between 1970 and 2000, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute's Cristina Boccuti and Marilyn Moon in the March/April 2003 issue of Health Affairs."
Issue Brief: Savings Needed to Fund Health Care in Retirement (PDF) (Employee Benefit Research Institute)
Excerpt: "This Issue Brief presents illustrations of how much money a person may need to save to completely pay for health insurance and out-of-pocket health care costs during retirement. The combination of the erosion of retiree health benefits and limited benefits from Medicare and Medigap means that retirees should expect to pay a significant amount of money for health insurance and health care services during retirement."
Consumer Participation Seen as Key to Controlling Health Costs (Reuters Health via Medscape; one-time registration required)
Excerpt: "Consumers are at the center of the latest equation for taming runaway healthcare costs, as more U.S. employers seek to engage workers in making better-informed choices, industry leaders said on Thursday."
5th Circuit: Healthcare Claim Can Be Assigned from Participant to Healthcare Provider to an Agent (PDF) (FindLaw.com)
11 pages. Tango Transportation v. Healthcare Financial Services LLC, No. 02-60284 (5th Cir. 2003). From FindLaw.com: 'The assignee of a health care provider who has a valid assignment from a plan participant or beneficiary has derivative standing to bring a cause of action to recover benefits from an ERISA-governed employee welfare plan."
Tax Breaks Fail To Facilitate Childcare Benefits (BenefitNews.com)
Excerpt: "Despite the fact that childcare has long been one of the most popular work/life benefits, these programs have grown at only a modest pace over the past two decades."
Is a Health FSA Exempt from HIPAA's Privacy Rules? (EBIA Weekly (Question of the Week))
Excerpt: "Question: The third-party administrator administering our company's health FSA has informed us that the health FSA must comply with HIPAA's privacy rules. I thought health FSAs were exempt from HIPAA. Who is right?"
Workplace Giving Encourages Employees To Be Philanthropists (BenefitNews.com)
Excerpt: "Workplace giving programs 'are entering a new era' in which they're seen not as an obligation, but a benefit, according to Matthew Howe, executive director of the National Alliance for Choice in Giving (NACG)."
Health Insurance Back as Key Public Issue; Universal Coverage Idea Gets Traction (Washington Post)
Excerpt: "A decade after the collapse of President Bill Clinton's attempt to redesign the nation's health care system, an unlikely alliance of consumer advocates, business leaders and policymakers across the political spectrum has coalesced into a new movement that seeks health insurance for every American."
Online Health Insurance Becomes Option of Choice to Replace Employer Plans (The Denver Post via NewsAlert.com)
Excerpt: "Online purchases of health insurance have skyrocketed 450 percent in the last year at Redwood, Calif.-based HealthInsuranceFinders.com.... Shoppers on eHealthInsurance.com, the nation's largest purveyor of online health benefits, are showing particular interest in short-term insurance policies designed to bridge the insurance gap between jobs ..."
Small Businesses, Large Insurers at Odds over Association Health Plans Proposal (The [Nashville] Tennessean)
Excerpt: "Some of the nation's largest health-insurance companies and the biggest organization of small businesses are battling over insurance law changes that would allow business associations to sell policies exempt from many state government regulations."
Study: Companies of All Sizes Less Likely to Offer Health Insurance for Lower-Paid Workers (The Commonwealth Fund)
Excerpt: "Low-wage workers are at a serious disadvantage when it comes to health insurance coverage and access to care, even when they work for large businesses. A new report from The Commonwealth Fund reveals that low-wage workers are less likely to work for companies that offer coverage or to be eligible to participate."
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Stock Option Vote by FASB Nears (USA Today via Yahoo! News)
Excerpt: "It's crunch time in the quiet, tree-lined suburb of Norwalk, Connecticut, where the brightest minds in accounting rulemaking are on the threshold of reopening a political battle on stock options. Far from the loud debate on Wall Street and Silicon Valley, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which sets accounting rules in the U.S., will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to add stock options to its agenda."
Investors Hit FASB with Questions About Stock Options (Reuters)
Excerpt: "[R]etail investors are bombarding the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) with letters and e-mails on the contentious issue of stock option expensing."
The Other War Over Stock Options: How Many to Allow (The [San Jose, Calif.] Mercury News)
Excerpt: "The fundamental issue ... is just how much dilution, or new options, investors are willing to swallow-- and how much clout they're willing to exercise. A quick primer here: Savvy investors have always known there was a real cost to options, primarily because they create more shares and thus depress cash flow per share."
Tax Expenditures and Employee Benefits: An Update From the FY 2004 Budget (PDF) (Employee Benefit Research Institute)
3 pages. Excerpt: "The following is a listing of the employee benefits tax expenditures, as published in President Bush's Fiscal Year 2004 budget, prepared by the White House Office of Management and Budget, using a methodology that is flawed but mandated by Congress."
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Pension Consultant
for Kraft CPAs
in TN
Senior Benefits Analyst
for Colgate-Palmolive
in NY
DC/401(k) Administrator
for BMI
in MO
DB/HW Implementation Consultant
for Northern NJ Consulting Firm
in NJ
Compliance Analyst
for Transamerica-The Winning Organization
in CA
401K Enroller/ Field Service Representative
for RSM McGladrey, Inc.
in IL
Vice President, National Sales - Self Funded Products
for Corporate Benefit Services of America, Inc. - Third Party Administrator
in ALL STATES
Administrative Assistant / Office Assistant
for Benefits Integrity
in CO
Retirement Plan Senior Consultant
for One of New England's leading professional services firms
in MA
Extraordinary & Fun Defined Benefit Consulting Opportunities in So. Calif.
for Louis Kravitz & Associates, Inc.
in CA
Newly Posted Webcasts
(Post Yours!)
Romanow and Kirby Reports
on March 20, 2003
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Executive Compensation - Strategizing in a Changing Environment
on March 27, 2003
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI Benefits Forum
in IL
June 12, 2003
Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
Most High-Tech Companies Provide Alternative Work Schedules
(Culpepper and Associates, Inc.)
Culpepper Releases Employee Benefits Survey for Technology Companies
(Culpepper and Associates, Inc.)
Pension Reform: Why Congress Still Doesn't Get It
(Retirement Solutions Foundation)
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
Copyright 2003 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you can forward this email in full (including this boilerplate part) or otherwise reprint this email in full (including this boilerplate part) without obtaining our permission.
Published by:
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
https://benefitslink.com/about.html
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park FL 32789
(407) 644-4146
Fax: (407) 644-2151
Editor and Publisher: David Rhett Baker, J.D.
Housekeeping: