| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Welfare Plans Edition |  |
April 5, 2001
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More Calls to Delay HIPAA Privacy Rule
Excerpt: "Among the most recent to chime in, six Republican senators, including James Jeffords of Vermont and William Frist of Tennessee, sided with the American Hospital Association ..." (Modern Healthcare)
ERIC Comments on Final Rule Regarding Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Info
Excerpt: "Employers have an obvious interest in protecting the privacy of employees' health-related information. Even in the absence of legal liability, however, there are many reasons why employers would wish to preserve the privacy of such information.... [But] unreasonably restricting access to and use of health-related information could severely hamper, if not render impossible, employers' ability to operate health, disability and life insurance benefit programs ..." (ERISA Industry Committee)
Gm Launches Online Education Program
Excerpt: "Starting in the third quarter, GM will pay for 88,000 salaried workers to get master of business administration degrees and take other management-oriented courses online through one of the largest e-learning initiatives of its kind, the company announced Wednesday." (CNET.com)
Employer May Have To Treat COBRA Qualified Beneficiaries as Unsecured Creditors in Bankruptcy Proceeding
Excerpt: "An employer that went bankrupt after an asset sale may have to treat COBRA qualified beneficiaries as unsecured creditors with priority status." (Thompson Publishing Group)
HIPAA and Other Health Laws: Compliance Assistance Seminar in Baton Rouge LA Sponsored by DOL's PWBA
Excerpt: "Scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. [on April 17], the program is part of a series of seminars sponsored by the Labor Department under its Health Benefit Education Campaign (HBEC). The Campaign was launched ... to help workers and employers, especially small businesses, understand their rights and obligations under various health laws." (U.S. Department of Labor press release)
Full Text of American Benefits Council's Amicus Brief in ERISA Cost Containment Fiduciary Lawsuit (PDF)
Peterson v. Connecticut General Life Insurance Co. (3d Cir. No. 00-4297). Excerpt: "[The interest of American Benefits Council members] includes, but is not limited to, the precise question at issue in this case, viz., whether ERISA fiduciaries to health benefit plans administered by managed care entities have an ongoing, mandatory duty to disclose information about financial incentive arrangements such entities reach with physicians who provide care to plan beneficiaries." (American Benefits Council)
News Item: American Benefits Council Files Amicus Brief in ERISA Cost Containment Fiduciary Lawsuit
Excerpt: "The plaintiff in this case has charged that the health plan fiduciaries violated ERISA when they failed to disclose financial incentives to plan physicians. The Council's brief to the Third Circuit Court argues that neither ERISA nor the Department of Labor's existing regulations require the fiduciary to disclose such cost-containment measures. ERISA and its regulations set forth the specific items that must be disclosed to plan participants." (American Benefits Council)
NCR Retirees Sue Over Pensions; Reduction of Health Benefits At Issue
Excerpt: "NCR Corp. faces two lawsuits by retirees claiming the company improperly reduced pension benefits after they retired.... About 750 hourly workers agreed to enhanced benefits under an early retirement program NCR offered in early 1993, but in 1998 NCR reduced the promised health benefits, the lawsuit said.... The second case addresses salaried workers who [allegedly] were promised enhanced pension benefits if the company were sold." (Dayton Daily News)
External Review Programs: Business Is Slow All Over
April 2001 issue. Excerpt: "... one of the few provisions winning bipartisan support is the right to an external review-- whereby consumers who disagree with a health plan's denial of care may appeal the decision to an independent panel of health professionals. Riding a national wave of anti-HMO sentiment, scores of states implemented external review in the mid-to-late 1990s. Today 37 states offer the programs.... [but] consumers aren't using them very much." (Healthcare Business)
In Tennessee, HMO Liability Tests Art of Legislating
Excerpt: "There's a certain art to the Byzantine process of making public policy, catering to special interests and ensuring re-election all at the same time.... And nowhere will the artfulness of Tennessee's General Assembly be tested more thoroughly than on the issue of health maintenance organization liability - the extremely popular notion that HMOs should be held legally responsible when they deny doctor-prescribed medical care and a patient is harmed or dies as a result." (The [Memphis, TN] Commercial Appeal)
Managed Care in Transition
April 5, 2001 issue. Excerpt: "Managed care now dominates health care in the United States. By 1999, only 8 percent of persons with employer-sponsored health insurance coverage had traditional indemnity insurance. This reflects a sea change in the past two decades -- not just in the financing of health insurance but also in the way medicine is practiced. The rapid growth of managed care is not primarily due to enthusiasm for this approach on the part of patients or providers." (New England Journal of Medicine)
The Kindest Cut: Crafting a Severance Plan
Excerpt: "Even if your company isn't at risk of laying off workers, revisiting your severance pay policy will help you keep up with changes in your workforce, industry and corporate culture, compensation experts say." (HR Magazine)
Intel Issues Workers New Stock-Option Grant
Excerpt: "Intel, seeking to reward employees whose stock options are currently worthless, is issuing a special one-time stock-option grant to most of its 87,000 employees." (SiliconValley.com)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| Pensions Benefit Manager | for Pentec, Inc. in CT |
| Associate Pension Consultant | for Pentec, Inc. in CT |
| Director of 401(k) Rollover Activity | for Retained Search Firm in NY |
| Company Sponsored Benefits Associate | for Winged Keel Group in NY |
| Account Service Leader/Plan Administrator | for INVESCO Retirement, Inc. in GA |
| Defined Benefits Actuarial Specialist | for Arnold S. Ross & Associates, Ltd. in NY |
| Assistant Manager of the Pension Benefits Department | for Producer-Writers Guild of America Pension Plan in CA |
Newly Posted Press Releases
| 401kExchange.com Celebrates 5th Anniversary with Gold (401kExchange.com) |
| Venture Capitalists Seeing Gold in 401(k) Plans-Invest Additional $3.6 Million in 401kExchange! (401kExchange.com) |
| HIPAA and Other Health Laws: Compliance Assistance Seminar (United States Department of Labor, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration) |
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