The BenefitsLink Newsletter -
Welfare Plans Edition November 17, 2000 Today's sponsor is UltraLink (click on banner for more information) HMOs Unveil National Connectivity Venture Excerpt: "Seven of the nation's largest managed care companies on Tuesday unveiled plans to provide a real-time transaction system aimed at streamlining medical claims processing and other administrative functions that pose huge frustrations for physicians and health plans alike." (Medscape; free registration required) U.S. District Judge Dismisses Hmo Class Action Excerpt: "In another major victory for HMOs, a federal judge has dismissed a proposed class action suit that accused an insurer of violating ERISA by failing to tell its members about the financial rewards it pays to doctors who limit the care they provide. In his 17-page opinion in Peterson v. Connecticut General Life Insurance Co...." (Law.com) Boston-Area HMO Executives Announce Self-Inflicted Pay Cuts (Knight Ridder/Tribune) Election Bodes Well For Passage Of Federal Patients' Bill Of Rights Excerpt: "The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) said today that the results of the November 2000 election make it far more likely that bi-partisan HMO patients' rights legislation will make it to the next U.S. president's desk in 2001." (Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights) Top Companies Aim To Use Their Clout To Cut Costly Medical Errors Excerpt: "Coors Brewing Co. has joined a consortium of 60 Fortune 500 companies that plan to leverage their health care purchasing power to demand hospitals take preventive steps to reduce medical errors." (Denver Rocky Mountain News) Evolution of a Policy Disallowing the Use of Alternative Therapies in a Health System (Medscape; free registration required) Summary of Comments on the DOL's 1998 Proposed ERISA Claims Procedure Regs (MS Word format) Press release with details at http://www.americanbenefitscouncil.org/newsroom/pr0047.htm (American Benefits Council) AAHP Poll: Most Voters Want Scaled-Back HMO Reform if Right to Sue Won't Fly (Modern Healthcare) Impact of Labor Market Trends on Health Care Coverage Excerpt: "For the period 1979 through 1998, this study examined the overall trend in employers� provision of health benefits to their own workers, measuring the impact on workers, in general, and on workers in specific industries and occupations, in particular. It also estimated the extent to which structural change in the economy has been responsible for the observed trends." (Center for National Policy) Does Managed Care Cause Doctors To Skimp? (DrKoop.com) (Following also appears in Retirement Plans Edition) Introducing BenefitsWiki! Collaboration Tool for Plan Sponsors, Service-Providers and Participants Excerpt: "BenefitsWiki is a free, online tool-- called a "wiki"-- for collaboration among employee benefits practitioners and others who are interested in employee benefits compliance, policy or management. It enables you to easily create your own pages using any Web browser, or actually contribute content to existing pages on the site. Who knows what we'll come up with! Checklists, procedures, forms, you name it-- in fact, you draft it, too!" (BenefitsLink) Welcome to new BenefitsLink advertiser Balser Companies Balser Companies specializes in the design, administration and funding of nonqualified executive benefit plans. For more information contact Ron Richard with Balser Companies at (404) 504-3800 or visit www.balser.com Welcome to new BenefitsLink advertiser Benefit Insights, Inc. Benefit Insights, Inc. has introduced TPAsites, a personalized web site design, hosting and maintenance package developed specifically for third party administrators. It is now fast, easy and affordable for even the smallest TPA firm to be on the web. For additional information and to see samples of TPAsites, the online (HTML) or printed Benefit Insights newsletters, and the Recordkeeping Handbook, please visit the Benefit Insights, Inc. at www.benefit-insights.com Graef Crystal: Honeywell's Bonsignore Gets Paid Well to Leave Excerpt: "Instead of waiting for the board to fire him -- and the stock's poor performance during his tenure surely pointed in that direction -- Bonsignore agreed to sell his company for the second time in a year. The decision will enable him to collect much more than he would have received in severance pay." (Graef Crystal, on Bloomberg.com)
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