| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Welfare Plans Edition |  |
May 2, 2001
Today's sponsor: Reish Luftman McDaniel & Reicher (click)
Have questions about ... qualification failures, when and how to correct, a plan's right to participate in EPCRS? You'll want The Plan Correction Answer Book. It's a comprehensive guide to the IRS remedial programs, written by attorneys Fred Reish and Bruce Ashton, of Reish Luftman McDaniel & Reicher. Click on the link to order!
San Francisco OKs Sex Change Health Expense Coverage for City Workers
Excerpt: "San Francisco, famed as a liberal bastion, broke new ground on Monday as officials voted to make it the first city in the country to finance sex changes for municipal employees. The governing Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 to approve the proposal, which allows city workers to claim up to $50,000 of the cost of a sex change, including psychotherapy, hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery." (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
Japan's Health Insurance Program Shaky
Excerpt: "Japan' s government-run health insurance program is on the verge of collapse, with a record $4.9 billion deficit expected this year, officials said Tuesday. ' Unless there is drastic reform, the whole system will fall apart, ' Hirotsugu Shinkawa, a Finance Ministry official in charge of the program, said. ' In order to get it going next year, our health care system must be changed.'" (Associated Press via StarTribune.com)
HIPAA Could Be Deadly for Pharmaceutical Companies
Excerpt: " 'HIPAA absolutely imposes new restrictions on data aggregation ... designed to prevent drug companies from doing sophisticated link analysis to attach names and addresses with otherwise de-identified information,' says John Bentivoglio, former chief privacy officer at the U.S. Department of Justice and now partner and Internet health care law specialist at the Washington law firm Arnold and Porter." (Marketing News)
Supreme Court to Rule to Health Benefits for Retired Miners
Excerpt: "The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether certain firms have an obligation to pay lifetime health benefits to retired coal miners and their dependents. The decision centers upon a fund established as a result of the 1992 Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act, which was passed through Congress in response to changes in the coal industry that threatened to end health benefits for some 100,000 coal miners and their family members." (Wall Street Journal via Financial Times)
Sell Disability Insurance To Protect Savings In Retirement Plans
Excerpt: "The recent stock market volatility seems to underscore the importance to consumers of income earned and invested for retirement, whether in 401(k)s, IRAs, or other vehicles. If a person's ability to earn an income is interrupted by prolonged illness or injury, the regular deferral of income he or she makes into the retirement vehicle generally stops. The result could be a retirement nest egg that falls short of the money that was 'planned for' at age 65." (The National Underwriter Company)
Minnesota Senate Shifts Position On Domestic Partner Benefits
Excerpt: "The Senate softened its position Tuesday against offering health benefits to same-sex partners of state employees, a restriction that had surfaced the previous day. The benefit ban was meant to keep Gov. Jesse Ventura from extending the insurance to domestic partners of employees.... The new language allows Ventura's administration to put the health benefits on the table during contract negotiations now underway with employee unions." (StarTribune.com)
Trend Evolves On Providing Benefits For Unmarried Couples
Excerpt: "[New Hampshire] State Rep. Sheila T. Francoeur, R-Hampton, chaired a commerce study committee last year that looked at a proposed measure to extend medical and surgical benefits to the domestic partners of state employees. The committee voted 12-5 not to recommend the bill for legislation this year. Francoeur said it came down to uncertainties about the potential costs and how to define a domestic partner." (The Union Leader via MSNBC.com)
Don't Forget to Negotiate a Departure Deal Up Front
Excerpt: "CONGRATULATIONS! You just landed a fantastic job offer. Terrific title. Terrific salary. Terrific boss. But you're probably missing something: terrific severance in case things don't work out. Bad move. The best time to win the best departure deal is before you even accept a position, employment specialists advise." (CareerJournal.com)
10 Questions to Lead Health Care Vendors To Improve Quality
Excerpt: "The solution to your double-digit health-care cost increases isn't increased employee contributions or three-tiered prescription benefits, says J. Magda Polenz, M.D.... Itīs reduced spending on preventable conditions. Whatīs your role in this process? To influence your health-care providers to address quality and patient education, Polenz told benefits professionals ..." (IOMA's Managing Benefits Plans)
Online Book Directed at Consumers and Managed Care Policymakers: Making a Killing
Excerpt: "American medicine has been taken over by the mores of the corporate marketplace. The doctor-patient relationship and its concomitant social values of trust and confidentiality has been eroded by the search for profits. This development threatens not only the health of our citizens but also the foundations of our democracy and civil society." (Jamie Court and Francis Smith)
Worksite Long-Term Care Coverage Is Good Value For Boomers
Excerpt: "The baby boomers are aging, and so are their parents. One way insurance agents and brokers can help workers--and their employers--is to set up voluntary, employee-paid long-term care insurance programs at the worksite. Unfortunately, many employers and employees still think that private health coverage will pay for their parents' long-term care, or that Medicare will cover the costs. In reality, Medicare pays only a small percentage of overall long-term care costs." (The National Underwriter Company)
Helping Employees Deal With Eldercare
Excerpt: "According to the Families and Work Institute, about 42% of workers will provide some form of care for older relatives by 2002. While this figure is soothing on some levels, another reality is that Americans charged with eldercare will pay huge prices for their devotion--both financially and in rungs missed up the career ladder." (HRone.com)
Many Execs Pocket Perks Aplenty
Excerpt: "... based on a USA TODAY database analysis of corporate statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, executive perks are more pervasive, costlier and weirder than ever." (USA Today)
Reductions in Force: Doing the RIF Right
Excerpt: "The executives of a company considering a broad-based reduction in force (RIF) should begin by identifying the business objectives that the RIF is designed to accomplish. They must decide issues such as ..." (Mark Poerio of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| Operations Manager | for Invesmart in TX |
| Benefits Administrator | for Ogilvy & Mather in NY |
Newly Posted Conferences (Post Yours!)
| Web-Based Employee Benefits Administration | in MA on June 5, 2001 presented by Greater Boston Chapter of ISCEBS |
Newly Posted Press Releases
| iTango Builds Momentum with Newest Vertical Channel Partner (iTango Software, Inc.) |
| Benefit Software Announces New Statistical Reporting Capability in Fringe Facts Online Benefits Enrollment and Communication Service (Benefit Software Inc.) |
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