| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Welfare Plans Edition |  |
April 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.
Survey Finds Healthcare Managers Want Privacy Rule Maintained
Excerpt: "Most healthcare managers and professionals support a controversial medical records privacy rule and want to see it implemented as written, a new survey finds. The finding flies in the face of claims by large healthcare organizations like the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association that the rule is burdensome, unaffordable and unrealistic, according to survey sponsor Phoenix Health Systems, a healthcare information system consulting firm." (Medscape; free registration required)
American Hospital Association: Parts of HIPAA Privacy Regs Need Changing
Excerpt: "AHA is concerned that having patients fill out a consent form of 10 pages or longer before hospitals can use their medical information would create more paperwork and inconvenience for patients. Until a patient has read and signed the form, a hospital cannot schedule surgery ordered by a doctor, it says. Instead, hospitals should be permitted to decide whether and how to obtain patient consent, the AHA argues." (Medscape; free registration required)
Consumers Union Urges Bush Administration Not To Postpone or Weaken Medical Privacy Rules
Excerpt: "Medical records should be kept confidential, yet they routinely wind up in the hands of marketing firms, employers, and others without the patient's permission. If people can't go to the doctor and be confident that their privacy will be protected, they may withhold information from their doctor or they may not seek treatment at all." (Consumers Union press release)
Plan Administrator's Interpretation of Breast Reduction Exclusion Found to be Unreasonable
Excerpt: "This case involved an ERISA plan's refusal to pre-certify bilateral breast reduction to alleviate a plan participant's neck and back pain and headaches. The denial was based on plan language that specifically excluded surgery for breast augmentation or reduction not associated with breast cancer." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
Disability: Global Trends and International Perspectives (PDF)
29 pages. Excerpt: "This paper shows that global disability levels are higher than most people imagine and are set to grow higher still as a result of an aging population. Estimates of disability are presented from three different standpoints based on impairment, medical, and functional definitions of disability. The paper shows how most people in developed countries can expect something like 8-9 years of disability throughout their lives, much of [it] concentrated in the last few years." (Professor Les Mayhew, Birkbeck College University of London, published by Pensions-Research.org)
Some Businesses Still Pile on the Perks to Snare New Hires
Excerpt: "bonuses. Job fairs. Cash for employee referrals. Those may sound like perks of the go-go economy, but such tactics are still being adopted by a number of employers now struggling to hire workers despite an environment of hiring freezes and layoffs." (USA Today)
If All Else Fails, Say You're Sorry
Excerpt: "A law recently was passed in California that 'legalized' the act of apologizing. It sounds like a crazy Left Coast idea, but it makes a lot of sense.... Only time will tell, but I'm betting that this new legislation will turn out to be a reduction of litigation act, one that will work just as well for drivers involved in accidents as it will for employers who have gotten into tangles with employees ..." (Workforce)
Tennessee Lawmakers Postpone Voting, Plan More Talks on HMO Liability
Excerpt: "The battle over HMO liability - giving patients the right to sue an HMO when they're harmed by the denial of doctor-prescribed care - got pushed behind closed doors Wednesday as all sides proposed to 'work things out' on the controversial measure next week." (The [Memphis, TN] Commercial Appeal)
Medical Fees Are Often Higher for Patients Without Insurance
Excerpt: "'It's horribly ironic,' said Paul Menzel, a professor of philosophy at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. The care of the poor once was supported by the wealthy and the insured, but now the opposite is happening, he said." (New York Times; free registration required)
Health Insurance No Sure Thing For Retirees
Excerpt: "Individual health insurance policies have never been cheap, but for Americans in their 40s and 50s, they are increasingly expensive and hard to obtain. The problem likely will worsen as more baby boomers approach retirement." (Chicago Sun-Times)
The Relationship Between HMO Financial Performance and Quality of Care
Excerpt: "This paper matches health plans financial performance with informatio o quality ratings as measured by 1997 Health Pla Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) 3.0 data. We address three policy questions: (1) Is the quality of care delivered by a plan influenced by the plan s financial performance? (2) Do for-profit plans behave differently than nonprofits do? (3) What other factors are associated with variation in plan performance?" (Medscape; free registration required)
Rhode Island Lawmakers to Study Medical Savings Account
Excerpt: "A state General Assembly committee formed to examine a little-known alternative health-care plan known as a medical savings account will meet for the first time tonight. Medical savings accounts, or MSAs, pair a bank account with a high- deductible insurance policy. Participants dip into their account each time they go to the doctor or fill a prescription." (The Providence Journal)
Welcome to new BenefitsLink advertiser the Origin Group, LLC
'We specialize in the Employee Benefits, Actuarial, Human Resource and HRIS industries nationally."
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| Daily Valuation Administrator | for WESPAC Plan Services, Inc. in CA |
| Health & Welfare Team Leader | for USI Consulting Group, (USICG) in CT |
| 401(k) Plan Consultant | for USI Consulting Group (USICG) in CT |
| Diversity Specialist | for Nextlink Communications in VA |
| 401(k) Administrator | for Polycomp Administrative Services, Inc. in CA |
| Inside Wholesaler (Web Based Retirement Plan Administration) | for ExpertPlan in NJ |
| Account Consultant | for Manulife Financial in CA |
| Director, Communications | for The ERISA Industry Committee in DC |
| Director, Membership Development | for The ERISA Industry Committee in DC |
| Policy Advocate, Health Care | for The ERISA Industry Committee in DC |
Newly Posted Conferences (Post Yours!)
| HIPAA'S IMPACT ON "E-HEALTH CARE" - ELECTRONIC HEALTH CARE TRANSITIONS | in NY on April 25, 2001 presented by NYC CHAPTER OF WEB |
Newly Posted Press Releases
| LEADING EXECUTIVE COMP. PARTNER JOINS BROBECK'S IRVINE OFFICE (Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP) |
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