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June 16, 2004 - 8906 subscribers
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Overview: Final COBRA Notice Rules Published by DOL
Excerpt: "Two (2) new notice requirements for plan administrators were retained in the final COBRA rule. The notice of unavailability requires plan administrators to provide this notice within 14 days after receiving any notice from a covered employee or qualified beneficiary that is a notice of qualifying event, second qualifying event, or determination of disability, if the plan decides to either deny COBRA coverage or deny an extension of the maximum COBRA coverage period." (SunGard Corbel)

Paid Family Leave Benefits Available to California Employees July 1, 2004
Excerpt: "Paid Family Leave provides employees with paid time off to care for a seriously ill family member or a new child. However, an employer is not required to grant Paid Family Leave unless the employee is also legally entitled to take, and does take, that time off as FMLA or CFRA leave." (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP)

Sens. Kennedy, DeLauro Propose Legislation Requiring Companies to Provide 7 Paid Sick Days per Year
Excerpt: "The legislation would allow employees of companies with more than 15 workers to take as many as seven paid sick days each year for physician visits or to provide care for ill family members." (KaiserNetwork.org)

Multi-Tier Pres.cription Plans: Look Before You Leap
Excerpt: "[F]or two employers who implemented multi- tier plan designs, this change in benefit design led a significant proportion of patients who were on brand-name drugs with the highest co-payment to choose more cost-effective alternatives.... But, the survey also found that an aggressive approach to plan changes can have the unintended result of causing some patients to stop taking their medications altogether." (Workspan via BlueCross BlueShield Association)

CalPERS to Raise HMO Rates by 11.4%
Excerpt: "The California Public Employees' Retirement System today is expected to adopt its smallest rate increase for health insurance payments in three years, as a result of the giant pension fund's hardball tactics with pricey hospitals and HMOs." (Los Angeles Times; one-time registration required)

Florida Widens Access To Health Insurance
Excerpt: "The Affordable HealthCare for Floridians Act, signed Monday by the governor at a town hall meeting in St. Petersburg, is designed to encourage insurers to offer to small employers health plans linked to health savings accounts and health reimbursement accounts." (Business Insurance)

Updated Women's Health Insurance Coverage Fact Sheet
Excerpt: "Health insurance coverage makes health care accessible for millions of women in the United States. This updated fact sheet titled, 'Women's Health Insurance Coverage,' describes the major sources of coverage for women, including employer-sponsored insurance and Medicaid. It also provides information on the nearly 16 million women who are uninsured and summarizes the major policy challenges facing women in the health insurance sector." (Kaiser Family Foundation)

What is the Controversy over Drug Importation?
Excerpt: "At the moment, it is illegal to import pres.cription medications from pharmacies in other countries, but policymakers in Washington are debating whether to change the law. Here is what some of the bills would do ... Supporters of drug importation say: ... Opponents of drug importation say: ..." (HealthCareCoach.org)

Opinion: Free Market is Answer to Problem of the Uninsured
Excerpt: "The last thing patients need is for the government to inject more socialism into their health care in the name of expanding coverage. To borrow a phrase from President Reagan, government is not the solution to U.S. health care problems. It is the problem." (Michael F. Cannon in USA Today)

Opinion: the Uninsured Deserve Better
Excerpt: "[I]n the presidential race, the plight of the uninsured gets little attention." (USA Today)

AARP to Back U.S. Drug Import Bill
Excerpt: "The influential AARP senior citizens group said Tuesday it will endorse a bipartisan bill that would allow Americans to import cheaper drugs from Canada and other foreign countries." (AP via Yahoo! News)

Opinion: Health Insurance Over the Internet-- It Could Happen
Excerpt: "Using the Internet, we can tear down the barriers to expensive red tape and regulation and open the door to affordable health insurance for millions of Americans.... U.S. Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., has a bill that would allow us to purchase health insurance online; it's called the CHOICE Act." (Karen Karrigan in the Union Leader)

Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

Update on Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Proposals in Congress
2 pages; June 11, 2004. Excerpt: "Both Houses of Congress are working, or have worked, on legislation that would change the options available to participants in employer sponsored nonqualified deferred compensation plans." (Financial Executives International)

FASB Options Expensing Limit Bill Gets Committee OK
Excerpt: "The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee approved 45-13 a bill to restrict any option expensing standard from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to options granted to the top five officers of a company, Reuters reported. The bill would also delay implementing any standard for a year, until completion of an economic impact study by the federal departments of Labor and Commerce. Headed next for a vote in the full House ..." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)

Stock Option Accounting: Defying the Usual Answers
Excerpt: "The theoretical argument against expensing stock options hinges on the entity concept. This argument is presented in more detail below. Regardless of one's conclusions about stock option expenses, the debate points up a problem in applying the entity concept in its purest form: The transactions of the entity should be accounted for separately from its owners'." (The CPA Journal)

Newly Posted Events

Complete COBRA Compliance Under The New Notification Rules
Nationwide on July 14, 2004
presented by Alexander Hamilton Institute
Newly Posted Press Releases

Council Urges Congress to Validate Cash Balance Plans Following Treasury Department Regulation Withdrawal
(American Benefits Council)

U. S. Labor Department Sponsors Seminar To Help Plan Professionals Comply With Federal Pension Law
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Boston)

MyBizBenefits.com Adds Health Savings Account Information
(MyBizBenefits)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
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Associate Manager Healthcare Sales Training
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in ANY STATE

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in PA

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