The BenefitsLink Newsletter -
Welfare Plans Edition January 23, 2001 Today's sponsor is EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com (click on banner for more information) DOL Officials Comment on HIPAA Nondiscrimination Regulations Excerpt: "On January 17, 2001, the American Benefits Council sponsored a telephone conference for its members at which two DOL officials key to developing the interim final HIPAA nondiscrimination regulations ... provided their insights on the new rules." (EBIA Weekly) HIPAA Privacy Regs to Be Suspended? Excerpt: "Although it wasn't clear if the [White House] memo would affect a recently published medical-records privacy regulation, provider group sources named the privacy regulation as a top candidate for suspension. Published Dec. 28, the regulation is scheduled to take effect Feb. 26. The privacy rules were the last part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to be published." (Modern Healthcare) Deducting Expenses of Traveling Afar to Cut Costs of Surgical Procedure Excerpt: "A taxpayer seeking reimbursement from a health FSA asked the IRS to rule on whether the costs of transportation to another country for corrective eye surgery known as 'Lasik' were deductible under Code Section 213. Since the request did not satisfy the requirements for obtaining a private letter ruling, the IRS responded only with general guidance in the form of a non-binding information letter." (EBIA Weekly) IRS Confirms, Explains Deductibility of Christian Science Practitioner Expenses as Medical Care Excerpt: "The IRS responded to the constituent's objection by reiterating guidance last provided between 1949 and 1963. It noted that factors relevant to determining whether an expense constitutes medical care included the taxpayer's purpose or motive, the effect of the purchased services on the illness, and the origin of the expense." (EBIA Weekly) Language of Self-insured Plan's Subrogation Clause Precluded Reduction for Attorney Fees Excerpt: "The issue in the case was whether the plan's recovery should be reduced by one-third to reflect its portion of the attorneys' fees incurred to obtain the settlement. Following a prior Sixth Circuit case construing the same language in the Wal-Mart plan, the court found that because the language required full payment by the plan participant, there could be no reduction for attorneys' fees." (EBIA Weekly) Denial Of Separation Benefits To Employees Who Left Under Prior Plan Not A Breach Of Duty Excerpt: "An employer did not breach its fiduciary duties under ERISA when it denied benefits under a separation pay plan to a number of former employees who had received benefits under a less generous plan four years previously. This was the decision of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in McCall, et al. v. Burlington Northern/Santa Fe Company (No. 99-11147)." (Spencernet) Justice Dept. Finds Success Chasing Health Care Fraud Excerpt: "Emboldened by new laws and flush with money for lawyers and investigators, United States attorneys throughout the country more than quadrupled the rate of convictions for criminal health care fraud from 1992 to 1999, from one a week to roughly one a weekday, according to Justice Department figures." (New York Times; free registration required) Supreme Court Takes California Case; Health Plan Sues Participant for Reimbursement Excerpt: "The Supreme Court agreed Monday to use the case of a woman severely injured in a car accident to clarify whether health-care plans can sue to enforce some plan requirements. The court said it will hear a California health-care plan's argument that federal law allows it to sue to recover benefits from people who later get additional payments from another source." (New York Times; free registration required) Supreme Court Stays Out of Pregnancy Case Involving Seniority and Pension Credits Before ERISA Excerpt: "The Supreme Court on Monday stayed out of a dispute over whether women who were denied job seniority credit when they took pregnancy leave during the 1960s and 1970s can, as a result, be given less retirement benefits today." (New York Times; free registration required) Firms Throw Out Some Perks in Fear of Decline Excerpt: "Employers concerned about an economic downturn are starting to take away the perks long showered on workers. Say goodbye to signing bonuses, office back rubs and free gourmet lunches. Some perks are expected to remain around as long as the labor market stays tight, but the cutbacks that have arrived are a marked shift from the profligate spending of just a few months ago." (USA Today) Pressure for Higher Salaries is Down, but Benefits Costs Are Up Excerpt: "With the dotcom gold rush over and suspicions abounding that the economy is slipping, the pressure is off on employers to outbid each other in hiring and retaining workers, say compensation consultants. But, benefit costs are still rising-- boosted by medical insurance increases not seen since the pre-HMO '80s-- offsetting some of the savings to employers, they say." (Market News International ) Pets as Perks: Animals Can Serve Beneficial Roles in The Workplace Excerpt: "While giant retailers can offer deep discounts and lots of square footage, most don't allow a four-footed sales pitch, which many small-business owners believe gives them a competitive edge. Some employers use pets in the workplace as a perk for employees, a way to relieve stress, lower blood pressure or simply as a tool to lure customers." (The [Memphis, TN] Commercial Appeal) Elder Care: A Growing Concern Excerpt: "Workplace experts have been saying for years that elder care would eventually step out of the shadow of child care to become a key work-and-family issue in corporations. At DuPont, that moment may have arrived." (Business Week, free registration required) Have Small-Group Health Insurance Purchasing Alliances Increased Coverage? Excerpt: "We use data from 1993 and 1997 employer surveys to assess whether the three largest statewide small-group health insurance purchasing alliances in California, Connecticut, and Florida increased coverage in small business. They did not. Specifically, they did not reduce small-group market health insurance premiums, and they did not raise small-business health insurance offer rates." (Medscape; free registration required) Opinion: Make Patient Arbitration Voluntary Excerpt: "SAY THIS for Kaiser Permanente. It may be about the only California health plan decent enough to heed a new state law requiring disclosure of the results of patient arbitrations. OpiThe apparent no-shows, scores of other brand-name plans, either didn't face a single patient in arbitration or blew off the law like a San Francisco driver at a stop sign." (San Francisco Chronicle) Some Web Sites Make It All Too Easy To Get Medicine Without Getting Appropriate Medical Advice Excerpt: "In a follow-up investigation to The ABCs of drugstores (October 1999; available to site subscribers only), we found that despite claims of increased scrutiny by government regulators and medical and pharmacy-industry trade groups, suspect web sites that sell prescription drugs are flourishing." (Consumer Reports) The Impact of the Proposed HIPAA Privacy Rule on the Hospital Industry Excerpt: "In order to meet the requirements of 'minimum necessary use,' organizations will need to: convene a steering committee to agree upon the overall organizational approach to information access; designate a person or team to execute such an approach ...; train staff in appropriate uses of patient information; and employ after-the-fact audit mechanisms ('audit trails') to monitor actual record access." (Report prepared for the American Hospital Association) Bush Puts Clinton's Medicaid Patient Protection Rules on Hold Excerpt: "Hours after taking office, President George W. Bush put on hold a set of rules that the Clinton administration had maintained would strengthen existing patient protections for people enrolled in state Medicaid programs." (Medscape; free registration required) (Following also appears in Retirement Plans Edition) Printer-Friendly Version is Available for Most BenefitsLink Pages; Click on the Printer Icon at Left You'll notice a new "Printer-Friendly Version" icon in the left-hand "menu bar" on most pages on the BenefitsLink web site. Just click on that icon if you'd like to see a version of the page that should print more effectively for you. That version will have only the "contents" of the page, not the left-hand menu bar. Some printers don't print the menu bar correctly, or lose some of the content due to the menu bar; the "Printer-Friendly Version" of any particular page should avoid those problems. (BenefitsLink) Freeerisa.Com Unveils New Online Database: Employer Identification Numbers Excerpt: "The first new resource is the EIN FINDER, a searchable database of the employer identification numbers (EIN) for over 1.3 million U.S. employers. Many groups have multiple EINs; the EIN FINDER displays all legal entities associated with a particular group." (PRNewswire) ERISA Section 510 Claim Takes More Than an Inference of Employer Misconduct Winkel v. Kennecott Holdings Corporation (10th Cir. 2001). Excerpt: "Shortly after Winkel retired, his employer, Kennecott, adopted a severance plan. Participation in the severance plan was by designation of Kennecott. Upon learning of the severance plan, Winkel attempted to rescind his retirement, but Kennecott refused.... Winkel alleged that Kennecott's refusal to allow him to rescind his retirement decision violated Section 510 of ERISA." (EBIA Weekly) ERISA Section 510 Does Not Apply to Re-Hire Situations Williams v. Mack Trucks, Inc. (E.D. Pa. 2000). Excerpt: "After Mack Trucks, the employer in this case, closed a facility, a number of employees lost their jobs. Later, when production needs increased and Mack sought to rehire displaced employees, it adopted a 'pension liability avoidance policy' that basically excluded former employees with credited service under the pension plan." (EBIA Weekly) DOL Provides New Guidance on Payment of Expenses from Plan Assets Excerpt: "On January 18, 2001, the Department of Labor issued a new advisory opinion (DOL Letter 2001-01A) and additional guidance, in the form of six hypothetical case studies, which clarify what expenses can be properly charged to a plan. This guidance is extremely critical and timely given the announced audit initiative in many regional Department of Labor offices to apply a stricter standard in determining the propriety of expenses paid for with plan assets." (Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy LLP ) ERISA Advisory Council Leadership Named For 2001 Excerpt: "Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman today named new leadership for 2001 for the Advisory Committee on Employee Welfare and Pension Plans, known more commonly as the ERISA Advisory Council. Michael J. Stapley of Bountiful, Utah, will be the chair and Rebecca J. Miller of Rochester, Minn., the vice chair." (Way to go, Becky! -- Editor.) (U.S. Department of Labor) IRS Updates Decades-old Guidance on Split-dollar Life Insurance Arrangements This link probably available only for a very limited time; no archive. Excerpt: "For the first time in decades, the IRS has issued guidance that (1) clarifies prior rulings on the taxation of split-dollar arrangements, (2) provides taxpayers with interim guidance on the tax treatment of split-dollar arrangements pending publication of further guidance, and (3) requests taxpayer comments on the interim guidance and a number of unresolved issues (Notice 2001-10, 2001-5 IRB)." (Practitioners Publishing Company) DOL Extends Comment Period on Need for Additional Disclosure by Fiduciaries Excerpt: "This document reopens and extends the period for submitting information on the disclosure obligation of fiduciaries of employee benefit plans governed by ERISA. Comments were originally requested in a notice of request for information published in the Federal Register on September 14, 2000 (65 FR 55858). Under that notice, written comments from the public were requested to be submitted to the Department of Labor on or before January 12, 2001." (U.S. Department of Labor)
Subscribe to the Retirement Plans Edition, too (click) Copyright 2001 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. Feel free to forward this email to friends, colleagues or clients, if no fee is paid to you and the email is forwarded in its entirety. Thanks! BenefitsLink is a trademark of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., published by Dave Baker with much help from Mary Hall and lots of friends. To subscribe (free): visit https://benefitslink.com/newsletter - or the person desiring to subscribe can send an email to BLwelfare@add.mb00.net We have an online archive of prior issues at https://benefitslink.com/newsletters/ |
|