| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Welfare Plans Edition |  |
June 18, 2001
Today's sponsor: The International Quality & Productivity Center (click)
The International Quality & Productivity Center presents a powerful conference on "Winning Strategies for Measuring & Improving Work/Life Initiatives," July 30-August 1, 2001 at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, CA. By attending, you will from over 12 leading organizations on how to improve your workforce and become an "employer of choice," including: Texas Instruments, Inc., Fannie Mae, Eddie Bauer, Inc., DuPont, Wachovia Bank, WFD Consulting, Boston College Center for Work & Family and many more! For more information, please call 1-800-882-8684 or visit: http://www.iqpc.com/G067worklife160701
A Snail's Pace For Pay Draws Ire From Doctors
Excerpt: "Is it a slow adoption of available new technology or deliberate foot dragging causing problems between doctors and insurers? The answer may have to be decided in one or more court rooms. The battle between health maintenance organizations and doctors over slow payment of claims has intensified almost to full scale war proportions." (Austin Business Journal)
HIPAA and Electronic Transmission of Health Data (PDF)
Client Action Bulletin, June 15, 2001. Excerpt: "Sponsors of health benefit plans, particularly those that self-insure and/or self-administer their plans, must ensure compliance with new standards applicable to the electronic transmission of health care information by October 16, 2002 if they transmit or plan to transmit health data electronically. Health plans with less than $5 million in revenues have an additional 12 months to comply; and plans with fewer than 50 participants are exempt ..." (Milliman USA)
Broker Offers First Liability Policy For Web-Based Managed Care
Excerpt: "Healthcare First, a unit of insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., announced that it is rolling out the first professional liability insurance policy in the United States developed specifically for Internet and Web-enabled managed care transactions." (Medscape; free registration required)
Court Ruling Threatens Employer-Sponsored Retiree Medical Benefits
June 2001 issue of the Insider. Excerpt: "Without much fanfare--but with potentially significant implications for retiree medical plans--the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania ruled in Erie County Retirees Assoc. v. County of Erie, Pennsylvania, that the county's retiree medical plan failed the equal benefit/equal cost safe harbor under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). This is the first court to apply the equal benefit/equal cost safe harbor under the ADEA." (Watson Wyatt)
FMLA Concerns Prompt New Legislation
June 2001 issue of the Insider. Excerpt: "In oversight hearings on Capitol Hill and in various surveys, employers have cited problems with several provisions of the FMLA, including the definition of 'serious health condition,' difficulties administering and tracking intermittent periods of leave, and problems with planning for employee absences. According to surveys ... employers believe FMLA administration and compliance are becoming more complicated, not less." (Watson Wyatt)
Depression Takes a Toll On Employees and Firms
Excerpt: "In a typical office of 20 people, chances are that four will suffer from a mental illness this year. Depression, one of the most common, primarily hits workers in their most productive years: the 20s through 40s. Its annual toll on U.S. businesses amounts to about $70 billion in medical expenditures, lost productivity and other costs. And yet most employers don't have a clue." (CareerJournal.com)
AMA Smells Victory on Patients Bill of Rights but Faces Internal Quarrel
Excerpt: "When the American Medical Association opens its House of Delegates meeting Sunday it may be just days away from declaring victory in its hard-fought campaign for Congressional passage of the so-called patients' bill of rights." (Reuters via Medscape; free registration required)
Opinion: California Right-to-Sue Law Should be Adopted Nationally
Excerpt: "A federal patients' bill of rights, which President Bush announced he would veto, deserves a second look, especially a look in the direction of California, which has the strongest patients' rights laws in the nation." (Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights)
Senate Considers Patients' Rights in Test With Bush
Excerpt: "The Senate opens debate this week on the regulation of health maintenance organizations, putting protections for more than 170 million Americans with private health insurance at the center of the first test of strength between President Bush and the newly ascendant Senate Democrats." (New York Times; free registration required)
Battle Brews Over Suits Against HMOs
Excerpt: "After more than four years of struggle, Congress is closer than ever to passing a law that regulates health-care plans. But first, lawmakers and President Bush have to figure out how to regulate lawsuits against those plans." (Boston Globe)
Coalition Comes Together To Oppose Democratic HMO Bill
Excerpt: "Health insurers and businesses big and small have banded together to oppose Senate passage of a bill that would give patients broad rights to sue health maintenance organizations (HMOs)." (StarTribune.com)
Shop Talk: LTV Retirees Bank On Help From Congress
Excerpt: "LTV Steel retirees frightened over the threatened loss of health benefits because of the company's bankruptcy filing are seeing signs of potential relief from lawmakers in Washington." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Lott Says He Could Support Patients' Right To Sue
Excerpt: "The Senate's top Republican said Sunday he could support giving patients the right to sue an HMO or insurance company in state court, as sought by Democrats who now control the Senate and opposed by the Bush administration." (USA Today)
Opinion: But Will the Bill Cover Backstab Wounds?
Excerpt: "Getting a patient's bill of rights he prefers just became tougher for President Bush because he strung along his friend, G.O.P. Congressman Charlie Norwood." (Time.com)
AMA Intensifies Advertising/Grassroots Campaign Aimed at Passing a Strong Patients' Bill of Rights
Press release. Excerpt: "The American Medical Association (AMA) today announced an intensified advertising and grassroots campaign aimed at swift passage of a strong patients' bill of rights." (PR Newswire, via Excite News)
Patients' Rights Bill Changed to Shield Doctors
Excerpt: "Ahead of next week's Senate showdown over patients' rights, the bill's sponsors have agreed to a series of last-minute changes that would shield doctors and insurance agents from lawsuits and could make it harder for some patients to take disputes against health plans to court." (Reuters via Excite News)
Daschle's 'Intensive Care Unit' to Attend to Patients' Rights
Excerpt: "... as the Senate takes up legislation aimed at protecting patients in managed-care plans, a priority for the newly installed majority leader, Daschle has mobilized an 'intensive care unit' to coordinate media efforts on behalf of the so-called patients' bill of rights." (Washington Post)
Drug Firms Push Pills, Perks
Excerpt: "In the past few months, Dr. Joseph Gerstein could have enjoyed a Broadway show, a Texas Rangers baseball game, golf outings and a stay at an Austin resort -- all paid for by the prescription drug industry. He refuses such offers. But such pitches -- he says he gets one free travel offer a week -- raise a growing concern: the role such marketing efforts play in what doctors prescribe for patients and how much the United States spends on drugs." (The Detroit News)
Doctors Debate Ban on Drug Ads
Excerpt: "The American Medical Association would urge the government to ban prescription drug ads from television, newspapers and magazines under a proposal many doctors say is needed to keep patients from being misinformed." (Associated Press via Excite News)
Excerpts from ERISA Insights: Voices from the Early Days
Excerpt: "Not many of us have had the opportunity to be present at the inception of a law that, like Social Security, Fair Labor Standards or the National Labor Relations Act, is a transforming statute, one that truly changes our society in some way. ERISA is such a law. In a myriad of ways--not all of which can be known--it has defined how retirement and welfare benefits are provided in the United States." (Edited by Steven E. Schanes)
IRS Releases 2001 Guidance Priority List
June 2001 issue of the Insider. Excerpt: "The 2001 Guidance Priority List is out, reflecting the IRS's regulatory intentions for the current year (although the agency may release other guidance as well). Several trends have been consistent enough over recent years to be considered IRS traditions. The number of guidance projects on the list has increased again this year, with the total number now at 299. Employee benefit guidance projects are up to 66--still the largest number of any area." (Watson Wyatt)
Joint Committee on Taxation Suggests Changes to Benefit Regulations
June 2001 issue of the Insider. Excerpt: "The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) recently studied the U.S. tax system and issued a report recommending wide-ranging changes to simplify the Internal Revenue Code, tax compliance and administration. The JCT identified many sources of complexity in the Code, including lack of clarity and readability, frequent changes in the law, use of the tax code to advance social and economic policies, increased complexity in the economy ..." (Watson Wyatt)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| ERISA Specialist | for Transamerica Life Companies in CA |
| Regional Compliance Manager | for Transamerica Life Companies in CA |
| Compliance Department Manager | for The 401(k) Company in TX |
| Operations Manager-Pension & 401-k Consulting | for Pension and 401-k consulting firm in IL |
Newly Posted Conferences (Post Yours!)
| HR Outsourcing Summit 2001 | in IL on September 19, 2001 presented by IQPC |
Newly Posted Press Releases
| Employer Sponsored Pet ID & Registration (PetDex.com) |
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