| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Welfare Plans Edition |  |
August 30, 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)
Federal Tax Incentives for Long-Term Care Insurance: Actuarial Issues and Public Policy Implications (PDF)
8 pages. Excerpt: "This issue brief discusses the actuarial and public policy implications of using federal tax incentives to encourage the purchase of private long-term care insurance." (American Academy of Actuaries)
Florida Medical Association Joins Federal Lawsuit Against Health Maintenance Organizations
Press release. Excerpt: "[T]he Florida Medical Association ... announced that the FMA is joining the California, Georgia and Texas Medical Associations in a federal lawsuit against health plans. The for-profit HMOs named as defendants include Humana, Inc., Aetna Inc., Cigna, United Health Care, and Prudential Insurance Company of America. The suit charges the plans with ... violating federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) laws to defraud physicians ..." (Business Wire via Excite News)
New Jersey Insurers Must Cover All Pap Smear Test Costs
Excerpt: "Health insurance companies in New Jersey must now cover all costs when a doctor orders a Pap smear or other similar test. A bill signed Monday by acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco requires health insurers to pay for the screening tests, lab costs, and follow-up tests." (The [Bergen County, N.J.] Record)
From Watson Wyatt: 2001 Report on Best Practices in Health Care Vendor Management
Excerpt: "This report explores a number of strategies for improving [the key objectives of cost management and improved employee satisfaction]: Improving communications to change employee perceptions ... Offering more choice ... [D]efined contribution approaches ... [and] Focusing internal resources on functions most critical to cost and satisfaction, while considering cosourcing or outsourcing for less critical functions." (Watson Wyatt)
Opinion: Health Insurance Coverage Being Put on Back Burner
Excerpt: "An estimated 44 million Americans, or 18% of the population, lack health insurance. In California, 23% of the population is uninsured, and in Los Angeles County, 31%. According to surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent national health care philanthropy, three-quarters of the uninsured are not, as stereotype has it, unemployed but in families with at least one family member working full-time." (Los Angeles Times)
California Governor Backs Proposal to Provide Additional Rights to HMO Participants
Excerpt: "Gov. Gray Davis threw his support Wednesday behind legislation that would bring relief to patients caught in the middle of contract squabbles between health plans and hospital and medical groups. Hospitals and medical groups would be required to keep seeing their patients--even after an HMO contract terminates--until patients can choose a new plan through their employer's once-a-year open enrollment process." (Los Angeles Times)
Tax Relief's Broad Effects For Benefit Plans: Part II
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!)
| Operations Administrator | for Ceridian in CA |
| System Support Assistant | for Benefit Plan Services, Inc. (BPSI) in GA |
| 401(k) Enroller/Contractor - Bilingual | for Transamerica in ALL STATES |
| 401(k) Enroller/Contractor | for Transamerica in ALL STATES |
| Daily Valuation Relius Conversion Administrator | for Ingham Group in Miami in FL |
| Qualified Plan Administrator | for Lane Gorman Trubitt, L.L.P. in TX |
| Operations and Implementation Manager | for Ceridian in CA, CO, FL, VA, WI |
| Benefits Analyst II | for Raley's in CA |
| Benefits Advisor | for U.S. Department of Labor/Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration in DC |
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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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