| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Welfare Plans Edition |  |
March 2, 2001
Today's sponsor: The ERISA Health and Welfare Handbook: Questions and Answers on ERISA Compliance (click)
Offers guidance on more than 30 key issues involving ERISA and employee welfare plans, including benefits entitlement, HIPAA, plan document language, discrimination issues and employer obligations under managed care plans. 2d edition; 350 pages; written by veteran benefits consultant Terry Humo, Esq., of Intermountain Administrators. $102.50.
Pre-tax Contributions for Transportation Fringe Benefits Now Part of 'Compensation' For 415 Purposes
Excerpt: "The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2001 (Public Law 106-554) included what was mostly minor technical corrections to some of the pension provisions in the tax code. But one change has an important effect on the computation of compensation under IRC §415. As amended, IRC §415(c)(3)(D) now includes salary reduction contributions to purchase qualified transportation fringe benefits, as described in IRC §132(f)(4), in the definition of compensation used to compute the §415 limits ..." (TRI Pension Services)
IRS Publication on Tax Benefits of Adoption, Including Adoption Assistance Programs (PDF)
4 pages; Publication 968. Excerpt: "For Employers: If you have an adoption assistance program, your employees may be able to exclude from gross income payments or reimbursements you make for their expenses to adopt a child. Your employees cannot exclude payments or reimbursements for adoption expenses that were incurred before the adoption assistance program was in effect." (Internal Revenue Service)
Adoption Benefits: Employers as Partners in Family Building
Excerpt: "Campbell Soup is one of a growing number of companies in this country that offers some kind of adoption benefit to its employees. In some cases, it is a financial stipend to cover some or all adoption costs. In others, it is a policy that allows for adoption leave (similar to maternity or paternity leave) so that the child and parents can have time to adjust to each other." (National Adoption Information Clearinghouse)
Rhode Island Municipality Studies Use of Medical Savings Accounts (Archer MSAs)
Excerpt: "A largely unknown alternative health-insurance plan being considered here would be among the first municipally sponsored plans of its kind in the country. For the last year, a local committee has been studying medical savings accounts, or MSAs, which combine bank accounts with insurance policies. The goal is to offer the plan to the town's employees in addition to the Blue Cross plan currently provided." (The Providence Journal )
Lawmakers Press for Deal on Patients' Rights
Excerpt: "Key U.S. lawmakers expressed new hope on Thursday of reaching a compromise with the White House on a patients' bill of rights giving Americans unprecedented power to sue their health plans." (Reuters via Excite! News)
Most Americans Say The Sick Can't Get Adequate Health Insurance
Excerpt: "A majority of Americans (89 percent) say it's difficult for people with chronic illnesses to find adequate health insurance." (insure.com)
Study: U.S. Health Care Delivery System Needs Major Overhaul To Improve Quality and Safety
Excerpt: "The nation's health care industry has foundered in its ability to provide safe, high-quality care consistently to all Americans, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Reorganization and reform are urgently needed to fix what is now a disjointed and inefficient system." (National Academy of Sciences)
Senators Spar Over Patients' Rights Bill
Excerpt: "Senators from both parties on Thursday lashed out at a new bipartisan patients' right bill its sponsors had hoped would find a consensus." (Medscape; free registration required)
Do You Have Enough Long-Term-Care Coverage?
Excerpt: "People have been buying policies for years to protect against nursing-home and other long-term-care costs. But until recently few policyholders had reached the point of needing the services for which the policies pay, so no one really knew how well the insurance would work." (Kiplinger)
Graef Crystal: Treasury's O'Neill Has Finance Lessons to Learn
Excerpt: "I assigned a value to not only [U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's] regular annual option grant [while he was an executive with Alcoa Inc.] but also eight 'reload' grants, related to options he received in past years. To O'Neill, the reload grants were simply a continuation of his original grants, and therefore were implicitly worth nothing. To understand why I disagreed, consider how reloads work." (Graef Crystal, on Bloomberg.com)
Strategic Issues in Implementing Performance-Based Equity Plans
Interview with Brett Pollak, Consultant, Foundation for Enterprise Development. Excerpt: "I have heard that performance-based plans can result in a charge to earnings. Could you expand on this issue? POLLAK: One of the most significant issues a company must consider when implementing a performance-based equity plan is the potential charge to earnings from an accounting perspective." (fed.org - The Foundation for Enterprise Development)
Market Volatility and its Effect on Your Stock Compensation Plan: Dealing With Underwater Options
Excerpt: "This article will focus on the problems that stock price volatility can create in the context of stock option plans. We will focus especially on the implications of the new accounting rules for stock options in a falling market and what companies are doing to respond to these problems." (fed.org - The Foundation for Enterprise Development)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| 401(k) Administrator | for Northeast Consulting Group in NJ, NY |
| 401k Compliance Testing Analyst | for Automatic Data Processing- Retirement Services in NJ |
| EMPLOYEE BENEFITS ADMINISTRATOR | for Teamvest Retirement Plan Services in NC |
| Plan Administrator | for Benefit Resources, Inc. in CA |
Newly Posted Conferences (Post Yours!)
| ICI Retirement Plans Conference | in DC on March 28, 2001 presented by Investment Company Institute |
Newly Posted Press Releases
| New Web Site - Check Out Our Dental Benefit Plans (American Association of Orthodontists) |
| American Pension Services, Inc. Celebrates First Anniversary, Announces Major Expansion (American Pension Services, Inc.) |
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