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March 5, 2004 - 8,783 subscribers
Today's sponsor: Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)
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Are Your Health Plans in Compliance? HIPAA imposes far-reaching privacy requirements on health plans, plan administrators, and insurers-- and EBIA is here to help! Our HIPAA Portability & Privacy manual is the best and most reasonably-priced resource for HIPAA privacy compliance. The manual is also the best resource on HIPAA portability (special enrollments, PCEs, certificates of creditable coverage, and nondiscrimination)! For more information, visit http://www.ebia.com
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Small Businesses Ripe for Insurance Fraud: What Your Company Needs to Know
Excerpt: "Health insurance scams are a real threat for small business employers and employees. Insurance failures hurt real people – workers and their families – who are seldom equipped to absorb large dollar losses. Small-business owners are often the targets of such scams, which resulted in at least $252 million in unpaid medical claims from 2000 through 2002, says the GAO, an investigative arm of Congress." (AccountingWEB)
Kaiser Family Foundation Provides Transcript of Hearing on Unregulated Health Insurance Schemes (PDF)
61 pages. Entitled 'Health Insurance Challenges: Buyer Beware,' the hearing was held by the Senate Finance Committee on March 3, 2004. Witnesses: The wife of an unauthorized health insurance plan victim; Kathryn Allen, GAO; Robert Cramer, GAO; Ann Combs, DOL; Fred Nepple, National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners; Jose Montemayor, Texas Department of Insurance; and Mila Kofman, Georgetown University. (KaiserNetwork.org)
Matchmakers Want To Become Employee Benefit
Excerpt: "Although work-life benefits abound in many workplaces, some that apply only to working parents, such as child-care services, may leave some single employees feeling short-changed. To help employers balance the scales, several dating services are offering their matchmaking services and relationship seminars to employers as a benefit." (BenefitNews.com)
Firm Offers Computer Purchases Through Payroll Deduction
Excerpt: "Gallagher Benefit Services Practice Leader Dave Cirulus reports that his company's first client, a Fortune 500 company, is 'extremely pleased' with the results. He notes that employers will want to provide their workers with this opportunity to be able to access self-service applications for benefits, training and job advancement." (BenefitNews.com)
American Benefits Council Makes HSA Recommendations
James Klein, president of the American Benefits Council, made recommendations for changes to health savings account (HSA) guidance. The Council's recommendations were included in a letter sent to the Internal Revenue Service commenting on the HSA guidance in IRS Notice 2004-2. (Spencer Benefits Reports)
Opinion: Health Savings Plans Unlikely to Achieve Lofty Goals
Excerpt: "Congress may have overestimated the appeal of family coverage with a $2,000 deductible-- a threshold that applies to pres.cription drugs as well." (Paul Ginsburg, published by the Center for Health System Change)
Opinion: Analysis of Key Health Care Provisions in Administration's Fiscal Year 2005 Budget
Excerpt: "President Bush's fiscal year 2005 budget offers no solutions to our health care crisis, even as the costs of health care climb and more Americans lose their health insurance." (Families USA)
Senate Bill Seeks to Expand Small Business Health Coverage
Excerpt: "Three Democratic U.S. Senators Thursday unveiled a proposal they hope can compete with President Bush's plan to help small businesses provide health insurance to their workers-- an issue expected to play a key role in the upcoming Presidential campaign." (Reuters Health via Yahoo! News)
Universal Coverage Backed by California Report
Excerpt: "Insurers, medical professionals and government officials agree that the brakes need to be put on the high costs and profits in the health care business, but there is wide difference of opinion over who is to blame for the situation, according to a report released [March 4, 2004]." (San Francisco Chronicle via Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights)
New Report Finds Widespread Support For Health Care Cost Controls
Press release. Excerpt: "Following two years of the most comprehensive consensus building process on health care reform in the state's history -- including patients, care providers, health insurers and small business owners participating in 6 broadcast town halls -- the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) found overwhelming support for health care cost controls that could lead to universal access." (California Health Consensus)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Hewitt Federal Legislation 'Quick Guides' Updated as of March 3, 2004
Excerpt: "Hewitt's Federal Legislation Quick Guide provides short updates on federal legislation that is currently under active consideration by Congress or has recently been enacted into law, regarding health and welfare benefit plans, retirement plans, and human resources and employment law. Click on the links ... to learn more about pending legislation in each area. These files have been updated on March 3, 2004." (Hewitt)
G.ay Marriage Impact on Oregon Employers, Workers Remains Unclear
Excerpt: "The bottom-line impact Oregon employers and workers will feel from Multnomah County's decision to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples remained largely unclear Wednesday. Employers, consultants and attorneys were scrambling to gauge how the move might affect employee benefit packages, among other things." (The Oregonian via Miami Herald)
Opinion: What Wal-Mart Has Wrought
Excerpt: "[W]hile Americans have focused, understandably, on the ongoing evisceration of manufacturing jobs, the downscaling of service-sector jobs in the age of Wal-Mart poses no less a threat to the existence and idea of a working-class career." (Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post)
Newly Posted Events
The FASB’s Proposed Amendment To Statement No.123, Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation
Nationwide on March 23, 2004
presented by Ernst & Young, LLP
Managing Retirement Assets Symposium
in Nevada on March 31, 2004
presented by Society of Actuaries
Annual Benefits Litigation Update 2004
Nationwide on March 12, 2004
presented by West LegalEdcenter
What's Hot in Qualified and Nonqualified Retirement Plans
Nationwide on March 9, 2004
presented by West LegalEdcenter
Benefits for Baby Boomers and Beyond
Nationwide on March 11, 2004
presented by West LegalEdcenter
Newly Posted Press Releases
One of the Nation's Only Discretionary Trustees Announces the Unified Success Pathway
(Unified Trust Company, NA)
AAHP-HIAA Proposes Plan to Fight Unlicensed Insurance Scams
(AAHP-HIAA)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Pension Administrator
for Actuaries Unlimited, Inc.
in CA
Pension Administrator/Consultant
for Compensation Systems Northwest, Inc.
in OR
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