| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Welfare Plans Edition |  |
June 21, 2001
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Advocacy Web Page by Senate Republicans on the Patients' Bill of Rights
Excerpt: "This legislation will help Americans get the care they need and deserve, without unnecessarily driving up consumers' health care costs, threatening employers with expensive and unnecessary lawsuits, or adding significant bureaucratic red-tape to the private health care system." (Sen. Bill Frist, M.D.)
Advocacy Web Page by Senate Democrats on the Patients' Bill of Rights
Excerpt: "Pass it now! Americans have waited too long for a strong, enforceable, Patients' Bill of Rights." (democrats.senate.gov)
Opinion: Tracking the Payback on the Patients' Bill of Rights
Excerpt: "The health services and HMOs industry gave more than $7.8 million in PAC, soft money and individual contributions to federal candidates and committees in 1999-2000, 61 percent to the GOP. President Bush was the industry's top recipient, receiving nearly $260,000 in contributions during his presidential campaign." (OpenSecrets.org)
Opinion: So Much for Bipartisanship
Excerpt: "It didn't take long for the Senate's new Democratic leadership to clash with President Bush on an issue important to millions of Americans. The president today re-emphasized his opposition to a Democratic-supported patients' right bill, even as Democrats vowed to cancel the Senate's July recess if that's what it takes to pass the measure." (Washington Post)
Targeting High-Cost Patients May Trim Drug Spending
Excerpt: "A very small percentage of people receiving prescription drug benefits are responsible for a significant proportion of drug spending, a new study shows." (Reuters via Medscape; free registration required)
House Likely to Postpone Patients' Rights Debate
Excerpt: "As the Senate prepares to enter the amendment stage of its debate over legislation to provide protections to patients in managed care and other health plans, the House appears to be pulling back from plans to pass a patients' rights bill first." (Reuters via Medscape; free registration required)
Continuing Editorial Comment on Patients' Rights Bills
Excerpt: "Today's editorial reactions -- all of which either endorse the Frist bill or call for a compromise -- are summarized below." (KaiserNetwork.org)
House Republicans Release Draft of Their Version of Patients' Rights Bill, Would Allow Limited Suits
Excerpt: "[P]atients could sue health plans in state courts, a provision backed by Democrats, when the plans refused to abide by decisions made by outside appeals panels. The bill would also allow state courts to decide lawsuits for damages from personal injury, for wrongful death resulting from denial of claims and in some cases of 'malpractice under group health plans'." (KaiserNetwork.org)
Texas Democrats Ask Bush to Rethink Position on Patients' Rights
Excerpt: "Federal HMO reform legislation supported by President Bush would undermine key consumer protections that became law when he was governor, several Texas Democrats said Wednesday.... [White House spokesman] Scott McClellan said the president continues to support the 1997 Texas law, which allows patients to sue their HMOs in state court for providing poor quality care. Both sides say the other is misinterpreting the landmark state law, the first of its kind nationally." (Knight Ridder / Tribune)
Opinion: Time to End HMO Horrors
Excerpt: "The debate over the U.S. Senate's two patients' rights proposals reflects the most American of attitudes: Folks hate lawyers, until they're in an accident. Or end up in a bad HMO. Having an unresponsive low-level bureaucrat uphold a bonehead decision that is harmful to your health is, well, harmful to your health." (San Francisco Chronicle)
Bush Says He Wants a Patients' Rights Bill
Excerpt: "President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to pass a patients' rights bill before the end of the year, but said he will fight proposals that open the door to unnecessary lawsuits against HMOs. 'The idea is to serve more patients, not to create more lawsuits in America,' he said." (Associated Press)
Opinion: Patients' Rights Can't Come at Employers' Expense
Excerpt: "Sen. Trent Lott, the Senate's leading Republican, found a landing place on the issue of giving patients a right to sue managed health- care systems -- landing right in the laps of Democrats.... There's little disagreement, generically, about giving patients the right to sue for faulty actions. So Lott's comments are not so revolutionary. The issue that needs to be addressed in anything that comes out of Congress is the extent of employer liability." (The Idaho Statesman)
Opinion: Health Legislation About More Than Suing HMOs
Excerpt: "[W]hat's really at stake isn't the self-interest of the legal profession or the health-insurance industry, but rather how best to motivate HMOs to behave responsibly ... going to court will remain a last resort. In the first five months under California's new statewide HMO-reform legislation, not a single legal suit was filed. Litigation has also been rare in the roughly 30 other states that have their own versions of patients'-bill-of-rights laws." (USA Today)
Daschle Assails HMO Industry Tactics
Excerpt: "Health insurers hypocritically worry about the extra costs associated with a patient's bill of rights law, while promising to 'spend whatever it takes' to defeat the bill, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Wednesday." (United Press International)
Both Sides Claim Partial Victory In Consumer Lawsuit Against HMOs
Excerpt: "Both sides are claiming partial triumph in the latest skirmish in a war being waged by consumers and doctors in a Florida courtroom against several of the nation's top HMOs." (insure.com)
Another Question is Answered in the Eldercare: the Work/Life Issue Q&A Column
I have a company with 100 employees and I'm considering providing some kind of eldercare support or caregiver assistance. What will this cost me? Will I pay a fee per employee? (BenefitsLink.com)
EEOC Wins Judgment Against Company Regarding Waivers That Violated the ADEA
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has granted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's motion for summary judgment against Bull HN Information Systems in a suit charging the company with discriminating against older workers in connection with a series of work-force reductions by requiring them to sign unlawful waivers of claims in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) (SpencerNet)
DOL Issues Advisory Opinion on Domestic Partner Benefits Provided by Welfare Fund
Excerpt: "[Y]ou ask whether it is permissible under such provisions for the board of trustees to choose to amend the Fund to provide for the payment of (1) certain federal tax obligations that arise as a result of the Fund's provision of domestic partner coverage, and (2) an additional gross-up benefit to participants who elect domestic partner coverage.... it is the Department's view that the Fund's decision to pay the employee portion of the FICA tax ... would not violate ERISA ..." (U.S. Department of Labor, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration)
DOL Issues Advisory Opinion on QDRO Rules Applicable to Child Support Notices from State Agency
Excerpt: "[Y]ou ask whether an income withholding notice issued by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE), or a county child support enforcement agency operating under DCSE guidelines, is a 'judgment, decree, or order' within the meaning of section 206(d)(3)(B)(ii) of ERISA.... It is the view of the Department that an income withholding notice ... is a 'domestic relations order' as defined in ... ERISA." (U.S. Department of Labor, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration)
HMO Execs Rake in Cash
Excerpt: "Many of the top executives in the managed care industry were paid huge compensation packages last year according to a consumer report obtained by ABCNEWS, and the 10 highest paid executives raked in an average of $11.7 million apiece." (ABCNews.com)
Stage is Set for Debate On Paid Family Leave
Excerpt: "Paid-leave bills are pending in more than 20 state capitols, up 15 from last year. This year's crop of paid-leave proposals [in state legislatures] covers a wider range of needs. While those in the past covered only childbirth or adoption, several states' pending bills would widen uses to such needs as caring for ailing family members or attending parent-teacher conferences." (CareerJournal.com)
How to Make Downsizing a Last Resort
Excerpt: "Some analysts suggest that a substantial majority of organizations that downsize do so poorly and fail to accomplish their long term goals.... The purpose of this article is to summarize some of these alternative strategies and tools that employers can use to manage the size of their workforce and its cost through goods times and bad." (Faegre & Benson LLP)
Managing the Risks of Reductions in Force
Excerpt: "... companies considering RIFs need to plan carefully to avoid the various legal landmines associated with layoff programs. If not done right, it's easy to find your cost savings erased by the time and expense of litigation." (Faegre & Benson LLP)
Discounted Long-Term Care Coverage is Coming for Government Employees
Excerpt: "Discounted long-term care insurance rates for 9 million federal employees, military personnel and civilian and military retirees and their families are one step closer to becoming a reality. On Wednesday, the Office of Personnel Management solicited companies willing to offer long-term care insurance to federal workers at reduced prices." (GovExec.com)
Texas Prompt Pay Medical Claim Bill Is Vetoed by Governor
Excerpt: "A bill beefing up state requirements that health insurance plans pay medical claims on time was one of more than a dozen health care- related bills erased by Gov. Rick Perry's veto pen Sunday.... the veto of the 'prompt pay' bill was the most frustrating to doctors, who made passing the measure their No. 1 priority during the past session." (The Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Health Industry Coalition Urges Congress To Focus On the Uninsured, Rather Than Patients' Rights
Excerpt: "A coalition of health care industry executives has introduced a campaign to 'persuade' Congress to provide health coverage for the 43 million uninsured Americans -- an issue coalition members see as 'more important' than patients' rights, according to the Denver Business Journal." (KaiserNetwork.org)
An Employer's Guide to Employee Benefits
Bravo! 157-page Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF) document now online. (Third edition, November 2000.) Excerpt: "Designed as a guide for new employers and small businesses, this publication presents a nontechnical discussion of how to select an appropriate plan for the workforce, put it in place, select appropriate advisors, and communicate it to employees." (Briggs and Morgan, P.A. and the Minnesota Small Business Assistance Office)
Another Question is Answered in the ERISA Benefit Claims Q&A Column
A pension plan says it overpaid a participant over the past several years. It reduced the participant's monthly benefit to the correct amount, but now wants to recoup the overpayment by reducing the monthly benefit even more. If the overpayment was due to a mistake by the pension plan, can it recover the overpayment? (BenefitsLink.com)
Supreme Court Decision Emphasizes Need To Check Plan Records
Summary of the Egelhoff case from the U.S. Supreme Court. Excerpt: "For employers with plan participants in multiple states, this decision is good news. Plan administrators need not look beyond their plan documents and records to determine whom to pay benefits." (BenefitNews.com)
Firms Were Entitled To Jury Trial Under LMRA Regarding Unpaid Contributions To Funds
he Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that a group of family-owned companies was entitled to a jury trial under the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) on the issue of whether the companies were liable for more than $7.5 million in unpaid contributions to union benefit funds. (SpencerNet)
Opinion: Ford CEO's Pay Is Rising as Performance Falters
Excerpt: "Ford Motor Co.'s sagging earnings -- and the public disputes over the safety of its best- selling sport-utility vehicle and F-150 line of pickup trucks -- suggest CEO Jacques Nasser may soon be taking a one-way ride." (Graef Crystal, on Bloomberg.com)
Final IRS Regs Cover Transfer of Surplus Pension Assets For Retiree Health
Final Internal Revenue Service regulations provide that an employer that significantly reduces retiree health coverage during a five-year cost maintenance period does not satisfy the minimum cost requirement of IRC Sec. 420(c)(3). The final regulations were published in the June 19, 2001, Federal Register. These regulations clarify and amend proposed rules issued in January 2001. (SpencerNet)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| Pension Administrator | for The Benefits Consulting Group in IL |
| Client Director | for CitiStreet in FL |
Newly Posted Press Releases
| Revamped CNA Trust Website Permits Account Access for Participants, Employers and Partners (CNA Trust) |
| NextElevation Partners with RightNow Technologies to Offer Online Customer Service Tools for Health Insurance Consultant and Broker Websites (NextElevation Software Systems, Inc.) |
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