| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Welfare Plans Edition |  |
August 29, 2001 - 6,288 subscribers
Today's sponsor: ERISA Compliance for Health & Welfare Plans, by EBIA
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ERISA Compliance for Health & Welfare Plans is an authoritative resource for employers, administrators and advisors. Written by leading employee benefits attorneys, this manual has all the information you need to bring your welfare benefit plans into compliance with ERISA. Always kept current through periodic updates!
(Help BenefitsLink to provide this newsletter at no charge to you -- our sponsors pay our way. Remember to visit them periodically; we try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Companies Coming Under Pressure to Provide Domestic Partner Benefits
Excerpt: "More than half of Fortune 500 companies include sexual orientation in non-discrimination policies, according to Washington-based Human Rights Campaign. Critics, however, say companies are being coerced into amending their policies. Says Robert Knight, at Washington-based public policy group Concerned Women for America: 'It's a way to shut down dissent about homosexuality itself. It will destroy religious freedom if it's codified into law.'" (USA Today)
Gannett Co. to Offer Benefits to Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Couples
Excerpt: "Gannett Co., the nation's largest newspaper publisher, will soon offer full medical benefits to same-sex partners who live together, the company announced Tuesday. The company also will offer benefits to unmarried domestic partners of the opposite sex. The benefits for partners will become available in January 2002. To be eligible, partners must first have had a 12-month relationship. They must also sign an affidavit that declares there is financial dependence between them." (Associated Press via Excite News)
Governors Ask Congress to Amend HIPAA
Excerpt: "Governors called on Congress [in a letter on August 22, 2001] to give states more time to enact complicated regulations intended to simplify and standardize the way hospitals, health insurance companies, the Medicaid program, and others in the nation's health care system collect and process patients' information." (HIPAAdvisory.com)
Lack of Health Insurance for 20-Something Kids Can Ruin You
Excerpt: "A tragic event earlier this summer reminded me of why [health] insurance needs can never be overlooked [for children who are too old to be covered as dependents on group health insurance plans]. I learned of a family whose daughter, a high school graduate, was in an accident that left her severely paralyzed. She was not covered by health insurance. This turned a physical and emotional tragedy into a financial disaster as well. Imagine what this means for the family's retirement plans." (Contra Costa [Calif.] Times)
Study Says HIPAA and Other Factors Likely to Change Managed Care
Excerpt: "Managed care companies and HMOs, under siege by regulators, legislators, physicians and patients, are likely to implement some substantial changes in the near future, a new study by Conning & Company reports. Class action suits and the enormous publicity surrounding physician control of patient-care decisions have already had tremendous impact, and pressure is mounting to pay providers faster." (HIPAAdvisory.com)
Florida's HMO Citizen Oversight Committees Fall Short of Expectations
Excerpt: "A 1996 Florida law that created 'statewide citizen committees to investigate patient complaints' against managed care companies is 'barely working,' due in part to inadequate funding and what patient advocates says is a lack of support from Gov. Jeb Bush's administration, the Orlando Sentinel reports." (KaiserNetwork.org)
HMOs Hailed For Easing the Rules
Excerpt: "Managed-care plans have responded to growing political and consumer pressure by loosening their restrictions for everything from elective surgeries to lengthy hospital stays. In Massachusetts, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care over the past year stopped requiring patients to seek prior approval for about 20 procedures, including hysterectomies and cataract surgery." (Boston Globe)
The Challenge of Managed Care Regulation: Making Markets Work? (PDF)
16 pages. Excerpt: "The purpose of this report is to provide a framework for thinking about the implications of managed care regulations and legislation under consideration in the states and in Congress. It highlights research projects that have helped fill information gaps about managed care regulation and policies and examines current projects that seek to further this cause. Finally, the report identifies questions for which policymakers seek answers ..." (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
EEOC Rescinds Guidance On Application of the ADEA To Retiree Health Benefits
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has announced that it has begun a review of its policy concerning the application of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) to employer-sponsored retiree health benefit plans, such as those offering extended health care coverage in the form of a Medicare bridge benefit. The EEOC's policy had provided that retiree health plans that are reduced or eliminated on the basis of age or Medicare-eligibility violate the ADEA. (Spencernet)
Online Video Featuring IRS Asst. Chief Council Mary Oppenheimer: Is That Worker An Employee?
Real Player format. Excerpt: "The employee versus independent contractor debate rages on. In the meantime, clients continually pose questions about how workers should be classified and what impact the classification has on employee benefit plans, fringe benefits and countless other aspects of running their businesses. This program will add the perspective of IRS and tax practitioners ..." (Tax Talk Today; free registration required)
Tax Relief's Broad Effects For Benefit Plans: Part I
Passed with little fanfare in the popular press, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA, P. L. 107-16) will impact all pension and profit sharing plans and changes several welfare plan requirements in educational assistance and dependent care. (Spencernet)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| Retirement services (outside) sales representative- selling direct | for National Retirement Services Financial Institution in CA, MA, OH, TX |
| Tax Specialist-5500 Reporting | for Fidelity Investments in TX |
| 401(k) DC Administrator | for T. Charles & Associates, Inc. in CA |
| Actuarial Assistant - Pension Administrator | for Leggette Actuaries, Inc. in TX |
| Benefits Compliance Paralegal | for Aon Consulting in GA |
Newly Posted Conferences (Post Yours!)
| EGTRRAs & GUSTy Timing - Qualified Plan Amendments and Determination Letters | in MO on October 3, 2001 presented by The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis |
| PRACTICAL STEPS IN IMPLEMENTING RETIREMENT BENEFITS IN RESPONSE TO THE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND TAX RELIEF RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2001 (EGTRRA) | in NY on September 20, 2001 presented by NEW YORK CHAPTER OF WEB |
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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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