| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Welfare Plans Edition |  |
August 3, 2001 - 6,168 subscribers
Today's sponsor: Glasser LegalWorks (click)
You are invited to attend the nation's leading seminar on
how recent cases affect claims, plan design and operations. Highlights of this year's program include:
- Health Care Plan Litigation
- Fiduciary Litigation
- Preemption after Egelhoff
- Aftermath of Pegram
- Managed Care Litigation
More details are available now in an online brochure:
http://www.legalwks.com/conferences/erisa_lit/home.htm (click)
House Recasts HMO Bill to Bush's Liking, Approves Norwood-Bush Compromise
Excerpt: "In a decisive victory for President Bush, the House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly approved a hotly contested plan to limit lawsuits against health plans, clearing the way for passage of a White House-backed patients' bill of rights. The 218-213 vote recast the managed-care legislation to Bush's liking by imposing federal standards on state courts and setting strict caps on damage awards." (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
New York Times Coverage of House-Passed Patients' Rights Bill
Excerpt: "Under the legislation, health insurance plans must provide patients prompt access to medical specialists, must allow women to visit obstetricians and gynecologists without a referral and must permit patients to obtain emergency care at the nearest hospital, even if it is not affiliated with a specific health plan." (New York Times; free registration required)
Washington Post Coverage of House-Passed Patients' Rights Bill
Excerpt: "House members passed the legislation after narrowly adopting on a near party-line vote a deal the White House struck a day earlier with Rep. Charles Whitlow Norwood Jr. (Ga.), a conservative Republican who has led a six-year crusade for patients' rights.... The 226 to 203 vote, without a single GOP defection, reflected a deft political victory for Bush ..." (Washington Post)
Opinion: How the Norwood Amendment Weakens Accountability Provisions of Patients' Bill
Excerpt: "The Norwood amendment continues the ERISA preemption of state law, both common law developed over 200 years and the new statutes passed by legislatures over the past few years, by creating a new federal cause of action for all suits. It imposes caps on non-economic and punitive damages. It guts laws in those states that hold accountable medical decisionmakers.... The Norwood amendment bans recovery of punitive damages for unreasonable denials or delays of care." (Public Citizen)
Opinion: Norwood-Bush Amendments To Patients' Rights Erases More Generous CA Laws
Excerpt: "California patients who today have a right to recover unlimited damages against an HMO under a state liability law would be limited to recovering $1.5 million for their pain and suffering and in punitive damages under the Norwood amendment to be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives today." (Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights)
U.S. Government Is Unable to Use Coordination of Benefits Statute to Go After Negligent Third Party
Excerpt: "[T]he government's claim was based on a determination that [the maker of phen-fen diet drugs] qualified as a self-insured plan subject to the MSP under the definition of 'self-insured plan' found in regulations issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (formerly the Health Care Financing Administration). The court rejected this argument for three reasons." (Thompson Publishing Group)
City of Milwaukee Approves Domestic Partner Benefits
Excerpt: "The Milwaukee Common Council voted Thursday to extend health and dental insurance benefits in a two-year contract it approved for city union workers, despite opposition by silent protesters.... The contract includes benefits for domestic partners of the same and opposite sex." (WISN via Yahoo! News)
Unusual Benefit Allows Trade of Time tor Money
Excerpt: "[H]ere's how she got the several hundred dollars she needed for the down payment on a sporty, black four-door Honda 2001 CR-V: She 'sold' back to her company four days of her annual paid time off." (Chicago Tribune)
The Contingent Workforce: An Employee Benefits Perspective
Excerpt: "Claims by Contingent Workers -- The following summaries provide a brief overview of the worker identification issues and potential exposure facing employers today in the benefits arena." (Kilpatrick Stockton LLP)
Benefits Cost Increases Moderate Slightly, BLS Reports
The most recent Employment Cost Index released by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed that benefits costs in private industry continue to rise. According to the BLS's Employment Cost Index-June 2001, benefits costs for private industry workers increased 4.8% for the year ended June. 30, 2001. (Spencernet)
Burned Optionees May Get Some Relief
Excerpt: "Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who represents areas in the Silicon Valley ... [has] introduced a bill that would give those who exercised options in 2000 relief from paying AMT. Instead, the workers would owe taxes only on the difference between their strike price and the price of their shares on April 15, 2001, or--if they exercised shares before then--the amount of actual capital gains on the stock on the day the shares were sold." (CNET.com)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| 401(k) Investment Educator | for ADP, Inc. in GA |
| Employee Benefits Consultant and Sales Specialist | for RSM McGladrey, Inc. in IA, IL |
| Manager | for Lincoln Trust Company in CO |
| Conversion Specialist | for Paragon Consulting Group in CA |
| BENEFITS/PENSION SPECIALIST | for UJA-Federation of New York in NY |
| Account Executive/Client Services | for Diversified Investment Advisors in CA |
| Counsel | for Large, established and growing corporation based in New Orleans in LA |
| ERISA/Securities Attorney | for Diversified Investment Advisors in NY |
Newly Posted Conferences (Post Yours!)
| ABC Meeting: Non-Discrimination Testing - A Practical Discussion of the Basics | in FL on August 15, 2001 presented by ASPA Benefits Council - North Florida |
| ABC Meeting: Practical Aspects of the New Legislation (EGTRRA) and Other Current Developments | in GA on August 16, 2001 presented by ASPA Benefits Council - Atlanta |
| ABC Meeting: GUST Restatement Workshop | in FL on August 16, 2001 presented by ASPA Benefits Council - Central Florida |
| ABC Meeting: The New Tax Law, EGTRRA | in NY on September 5, 2001 presented by ASPA Benefits Council - New York |
| ABC Meeting: The New Pension Legislation - Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 | in NY on September 11, 2001 presented by ASPA Benefits Council - Delaware Valley |
| ABC Meeting: Atlanta ABC Annual Meeting | in GA on September 13, 2001 presented by ASPA Benefits Council - Atlanta |
| ABC Meeting: EGTRRA and GUST Restatement | in IL on September 13, 2001 presented by ASPA Benefits Council - Chicago |
| ABC Meeting: New Tax Law | in FL on September 25, 2001 presented by ASPA Benefits Council - Central Florida |
| ABC Meeting: EGTRRA Update | in FL on October 18, 2001 presented by ASPA Benefits Council - North Florida |
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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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