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The BenefitsLink Newsletter -
Welfare Plans Edition


February 12, 2001
You may freely distribute this email newsletter in whole

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Medical Industry Lobbies to Rein In New Patients Privacy Rules
Excerpt: "Just weeks before far-reaching new rules to protect the privacy of people's medical records go into force, the health care industry is lobbying the Bush administration to delay, change or kill the regulations. Hospitals, insurance companies, health maintenance organizations and medical researchers said the rules, issued in the final weeks of the Clinton administration, would impose costly burdens." (New York Times; free registration required)

Health Care Group Asks Government Agency To Reopen HIPAA Privacy Rules
Excerpt: "As confusion mounts for agencies and businesses required to comply with the security and privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a key health care industry group is asking the federal government to revisit the regulations." (eWEEK)

HIPAA Regs To Keep Coming in 2001
Excerpt: "Final rules anticipated during the first half of 2001 will cover data security, electronic claims attachments and standard identification of employers, health plans and providers." (Modern Healthcare)

EEOC Sues to Halt Worker Gene Tests
Excerpt: "The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [on February 9, 2001] went to court for the first time to stop a company from testing its employees for genetic defects, setting up an unprecedented legal battle over medical privacy in the workplace." (Washington Post)

Analysis: Final Health Privacy Rules Released
Excerpt: "The resulting final HIPAA health privacy rules ... fashioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after Congress defaulted on its attempts to write such rules, require health care providers, health plans, and health care clearinghouses to preserve the confidentiality of individually identifiable health care information and to use this information only to carry out health care treatment, payment, or operations." (Deloitte & Touche)

Value Health's Patricelli Starts Employee Benefits Company
Excerpt: "The founder of what became the nation's largest provider of specialty benefit programs is spearheading a new venture designed to help employees exercise control over their health benefits.... Initially, Evolution Health plans to offer a healthcare flexible spending account (FSA) that employees will access using stored-value-card technology." (Medscape; free registration required)

Analysis of the Marketing Provisions of the HIPAA Privacy Rules
Excerpt: "Included in the rule is Section 164.514(e), which addresses the use of patient information for marketing.... In debates over health privacy proposals, it was often said that video rental records had better privacy protection than medical records. Unfortunately, now that the final HIPAA privacy rules have been issued, it is still true that video rental records have better protection from marketing uses and disclosures than medical records do." (Medscape; free registration required)

EEOC Sues Railroad Over Genetic Test Demand
Excerpt: "The government sued Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad on Friday for requiring genetic testing of employees who file claims for certain work-related hand injuries. The policy violates workers' civil rights, according to the suit. It is believed to be the first federal case of its kind." (Chicago Tribune)

MCRA, MSP Provisions Do Not Support Federal Government's Lawsuit Against Tobacco Industry
Excerpt: "A federal district court ruled that neither the Medicare secondary payer rules nor the Medical Care Recovery Act could be used as the basis for a lawsuit by the federal government against the tobacco industry." (Thompson Publishing Group)

Formalized Flextime: The Perk That Brings Productivity
Excerpt: "The popularity of flextime means that more companies are creating formal guidelines to ensure success." (Workforce)

Are Defined Contribution Health Spending Accounts Right for Your Firm?
Excerpt: "What is the philosophical approach to employee benefits? Do employees expect and want their plan sponsor to take care of all their healthcare needs, or are they looking for more flexibility and control? Who will pay for the cost of employee benefits now and in the future? Is the organization's objective benefit enhancement or cost control?" (Benefits Canada)

Drug Plans? Exclusion of Contraceptive May Violate Equal Employment Laws
Excerpt: "An employer health care plan that covers prescription drugs and preventive care, but does not cover birth control prescriptions violates equal employment rights under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), according to a recent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) decision." (Deloitte & Touche)

Fed. Ct.: Military Retirees Entitled to Rely on Recruiters' Promise of Free Lifetime Health Care
Schism v. United States (Ct. App. Fed. Cir. 2001). Excerpt: "Schism and Reinlie are retired veterans over 65 years of age, who each had more than twenty years of active military service. They began their service in 1943 and 1942 and retired in 1979 and 1968, respectively. The retirees contend that the government induced service in the military with the promise that, upon retirement, service members and their dependents would be entitled to free, lifetime health care." (FindLaw.com)

Prescription Drug Prices: Still Hard to Swallow
Excerpt: "What's new about prescription drug pricing is the attention that it's been getting in Congress, thanks partly to bus loads of elderly Americans going to Canada and Mexico to buy their medicines at sharply lower costs. What's relatively new is direct-to-consumer television and print advertising of drugs, on which pharmaceutical manufacturers are spending billions of dollars. What's surprisingly old is the problem of excessively high drug pricing." (Washington Post)

Key Health Issues Competing With Tax Cut
Excerpt: "But to become law, health-care proposals must compete for money with Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut plan, survive attacks by a bevy of interest groups and triumph over partisan gridlock. 'There is essentially a one-year window of opportunity to get together on some of these issues,' said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy research group." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Getting Tough With HMOs
Transcript of webcast held on March 23, 1999. Excerpt: "Even more than the legal profession, even more than I daresay, the media, the avatar of professional slime for the public on the eve of the 21st century seems to be the HMO. At least in the United States. This is OnHealth Live, I'm Brooke Gladstone.... We are suspicious of HMOs because they literally hold over us, the power of life and death." (WebMD)

(Following items also appear in Retirement Plans Edition)


Not Providing Arbitration Notice Beyond SPD Content May Be a Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Court Notes
Excerpt: "The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a plan administrator may have breached its fiduciary duty by not discussing a plan participant's right to arbitration in an claims appeals denial letter, even though those rights were explained in the plan's summary plan description." (Thompson Publishing Group)

Rewarding Employees North of the Border
Excerpt: "Salaries and rewards are two of the most important tools for organizations to use in the competition for employees. A recent report on reward practices in North America sheds some light on the different practices between domestic employers and those south of the border." (Benefits Canada)

The Canadian Tire Way: The Benefits Program at Canada's Best Company to Work For
Excerpt: "The company agreed to take part in a Best Companies to Work For in Canada survey being conducted by Toronto-based Hewitt Associates and Report on Business magazine ... After a rigorous competition with 61 other major corporations across [Canada], Canadian Tire ranked No. 1, beating out companies like Nortel Networks Corp. and Alberta Energy Co. Ltd." (Benefits Canada)

Plan Sponsors Stand Out By Offering Housing Assistance Benefits to Employees
Excerpt: "Since the mid-'90s, in fact, the Xerox Corporation, with 50,000-plus employees, has offered its first-time home buyers with at least five years of service a maximum $2,000 benefit, or 2% of the price of a home, whichever is less." (Plan Sponsor magazine; free registration required)

How Much Should Shareholders Know About Employee Stock Option Plans?
Excerpt: "A proposal involving the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the major stock exchanges could tie compensation professionals' hands when it comes to extending stock options to key talent. At the same time, however, it could result in shareholders having better information about dilution of shares outstanding resulting from broad-based employee stock programs." (Salary.com)




Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
Payroll Project Manager for Fidelity Investments
in TX
Tax Specialist 5500 for Fidelity Investments
in TX
Managing Pension Account Executive for Diversified Investment Advisors
in CA
Employee Benefits Tax Consultant / Detroit for Deloitte & Touche, Leading Professional Services Firm
in MI
Interim Benefits Supervisor for Major Manufacturer & Distributor of Gas
in NJ



Newly Posted Press Releases
Benefit Software Inc. Announces Expanded Online Employee Benefits Enrollment and Communication Service (Benefit Software Inc.)

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