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July 23, 2001 - 6,231 subscribers
Today's sponsor: EBIA's HIPAA & Other Federal Mandates for Group Health Plans (click)
Written by two leading employee benefits attorneys, HIPAA & Other Federal Mandates for Group Health Plans is the authoritative HIPAA resource for employers, administrators and advisors. In addition to HIPAA, this 772-page manual covers a wide array of other federal mandates that group health plans must worry about. HIPAA & Other Federal Mandates has all the information you need to bring your group health plans into compliance with HIPAA and other federal mandates. Click to order!
Swing Republicans Key in Patients' Rights Fight
Excerpt: "The Bush administration and its allies in the fight against a far-reaching patients' bill of rights are targeting a small group of undecided Republicans who hold the key to [this] week's vote in the House." (Reuters via Excite News)
Employers Exploring Their Options As House Takes Up McCain-Kennedy Patients' Rights Bill
Excerpt: "If the bill becomes law, employer groups said that employers would likely be left with three choices: (1) absorb the cost increases; (2) pass them on to employees in the form of higher premiums and increased copayments and deductibles; and (3) eliminate health coverage altogether." (Thompson Publishing Group)
Opinion: Look Out! That's the Wrong Way To Patients' Rights
Excerpt: "Consumer advocates have been slow to recognize that the legal status quo has changed dramatically and now favors the patient's right to sue. Advocates now have the upper hand, but most don't seem to realize it, in part because of the Byzantine complexity of the legal issues. Not only that, they're wasting precious political capital on things that aren't very important." (Washington Post)
Competing Patients' Rights Bills Previewed
Excerpt: "[S]ponsors of competing House patients' rights bills previewed their arguments at dueling news conferences on Thursday, with those on each side claiming their opponents' bills are deficient and each predicting their forces would prevail." (Medscape; free registration required)
Opinion: For Bush, Losing the Initiative on Patients' Rights
Excerpt: "There may be no better lens through which to view the workings of Washington halfway through the first year of a new presidency than the patients' bill of rights." (Washington Post)
Consumers Versus Managed Care: the New Class Actions
Excerpt: "Although earlier judicial actions may suggest that courts are unlikely to declare HMOs' basic cost control methods fraudulent or otherwise illegal, noted legal expert Clark Havighurst observes in this article that at least the consumer class actions -- those brought on behalf of subscribers -- raise serious and provocative questions about the accuracy, candor,and completeness of health plans' disclosures concerning their business practices." (Medscape; free registration required)
Analysis: EGTRRA Affects Welfare Benefits
Excerpt: "EGTRRA has a significant impact on benefits related to child care. Not only does it affect existing benefits such as the adoption tax credit and the dependent care credit, it also creates a new tax credit for employers that establish day care centers ..." (Thompson Publishing Group)
States' Actions on Prescription Drugs Met By Industry Opposition
Excerpt: "National Journal this week examines the recent steps that states have taken to lower prescription drug prices and states' increased efforts to challenge drug makers' pricing practices in court, activities that have led the pharmaceutical industry to raise its profile on the state level." (KaiserNetwork.org)
Employers Push Health Care Industry to Make Leaps in Improvements
Excerpt: "When a coalition of large businesses unveiled a project last year aimed at improving the health care system by reducing medical errors, many observers viewed it as a well-intentioned but simplistic effort. But rather than being dismissed, the project has gathered steam and is continuing to push its goals on a sometimes reluctant health care industry." (Medscape; free registration required)
Some States May Require Insurers to Pay Elderly Clinical Trial Expenses
Excerpt: "State legislatures in Maryland, New York, and New Jersey, among others, are close to approving laws that will require health insurers to pay for the expenses of clinical trial participants. The first such law has already been approved in Arizona and will go into effect in this year." (Medscape; free registration required)
In Shadow of HIPAA Privacy Rules, Compliance Looms Under GLB Privacy Law
Excerpt: "State financial privacy laws spawned by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLB) also protect health information.... [S]tate insurance licensees, such as insurers, brokers and agents, must provide disclosures of their privacy policies and practices.... [P]lan sponsors will receive privacy notices and possibly disclosure authorization notices from insurers and brokers.... Plan sponsors then must distribute the notices to participants." (Thompson Publishing Group)
Links to Online Videos of Recent Press Conferences on Patients' Rights Bills
Available in Real Audio format from KaiserNetwork.org: July 19 press conference by Norwood, Dingell and Ganske; July 19 roundtable discussion by Tauzin and Fletcher; July 19 press conference by Fletcher, Cooksey and Bachus. (KaiserNetwork.org)
Washington State Will Mandate Contraceptive Coverage
Excerpt: "All Washington state health insurers that pay for prescription drugs will soon also be required to pay for prescription contraceptives, according to the state's Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC)." (insure.com)
Minnesota's Grand Health Care Experiment Goes Awry
Excerpt: "Minnesota has been the site of a unique national experiment for most of the past 10 years, one built around the idea that when it comes to controlling health care costs, bigger is best. Now that experiment -- in which a few nonprofit health care companies were allowed, even encouraged, to evolve into sprawling conglomerates -- has begun to unravel." (MSNBC.com)
IRS Wants To Tax Company Stock-purchase Plans
Excerpt: "The Internal Revenue Service is considering applying the 7.65 percent wage tax to many stock-purchase plans. More than 15 million people participate in company stock-purchase plans that permit them to buy shares in their company at a discount --- usually 15 percent --- below market price. The IRS proposes to impose the wage tax on the difference between the stock's market price and the discount plan's purchase price." (The Macon [Ga.] Telegraph)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| Pension Investigator | for U.S. DOL, Pension & Welfare Benefits Administration in IL |
| Service Consultant | for Transamerica in IL |
| SENIOR INVESTMENT CONSULTANT | for Alan D. Biller & Associates in CA |
| Actuarial Assistant | for Employee Benefit, Actuarial, and HR Consulting Firm in IL |
Newly Posted Conferences (Post Yours!)
| 401(k) Plans | in OR on October 2, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| Cafeteria Plans | in OR on October 3, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| ERISA Compliance for Health & Welfare Plans | in OR on October 4, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| HIPAA & Other Federal Mandates for Group Health Plans | in OR on October 4, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| COBRA Compliance for Group Health Plans | in OR on October 5, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| 401(k) Plans | in OH on October 9, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| Cafeteria Plans | in OH on October 10, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| ERISA Compliance for Health & Welfare Plans | in OH on October 11, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| HIPAA & Other Federal Mandates for Group Health Plans | in OH on October 11, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| COBRA Compliance for Group Health Plans | in OH on October 12, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| 401(k) Plans | in MD on October 23, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| Cafeteria Plans | in MD on October 24, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| ERISA Compliance for Health & Welfare Plans | in MD on October 25, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| HIPAA & Other Federal Mandates for Group Health Plans | in MD on October 25, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| COBRA Compliance for Group Health Plans | in MD on October 26, 2001 presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA) |
| Human Resource Contact Centers | in CA on September 24, 2001 presented by International Quality and Productivity Center |
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Copyright 2001 BenefitsLink.com, Inc., but you may freely distribute this email newsletter in whole. This newsletter is edited by David Rhett Baker, J.D.
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