| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Welfare Plans Edition |  |
September 4, 2001 - 6,288 subscribers
Today's sponsor: In Plain English
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
ERISA requires new SPDs by January 22, 2003. Will you be ready? Let In Plain English® write and produce your SPDs for print and the Web. Compliant, Correct, Easy-to-Read... Guaranteed! For more information on how we can help you, visit http://www.InPlainEnglish.com or email Ron Wohl at rwohl@InPlainEnglish.Com. To receive our FREE SPD ALERT Newsletter, subscribe at http://www.InPlainEnglish.com/welcome.htm
(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)
The 2001 Travel & Entertainment Expense Special Report
Excerpt: "Travel & Entertainment, one of the bigger discretionary expenses in a corporate budget, is an obvious target for increased scrutiny. While there are a number of ways to curb T&E expenses -- from negotiated rates to expense management software to virtual purchasing -- all require some sort of financial oversight. The 2001 Travel and Entertainment Expense Special Report looks at what CFOs can do to help keep T&E costs in check." (CFO.com)
Studies Question Success of Family and Medical Leave Act
Excerpt: "[A DOL] Jan. 9, 2001, survey of the FMLA found that an excess of 80% of employers reported that the FMLA had a positive effect, or no noticeable effect, on business productivity, profitability and growth. However, the majority of that 80% would lean toward having no noticeable effect, with a smaller percentage indicating that implementation of FMLA had a positive effect, says David Cantor, Westat Associate Director and Study Director of the Labor Department's survey on FMLA." (Employee Benefit News via CareerJournal.com)
Survey: Commuter Assistance Benefits in the Workplace
Excerpt: "Specific topics include: How the average American employee typically commutes to work; Commuting preferences by age, gender and family status; [and] Access to and attitude toward commuter assistance provided by employers." (Xylo)
Opinion: Cost Spike Begins To Alter Health Care System
Excerpt: "A combination of forces, led by a double-digit surge in health care premiums, is beginning to threaten the fundamentals of the employer-based health care system ... With the corporate sector's once-fond hopes for cost containment through managed care virtually destroyed, many companies are looking for a way out, and the [defined contribution] model they're eyeing comes with consequences that range from beneficial to ominous, depending on its implementation." (USA Today)
Opinion: Curing the Patients' Bill of Rights
Excerpt: "During their month-long recess back home, members of Congress have no doubt been hearing from constituents about the need for a strong patients' bill of rights and from state officials about the need for a bill that does not thwart state efforts to protect those wronged by their health care plans. As they reconvene in Washington this week, they should take the message to heart." (New York Times; free registration required)
Self-employed Group Together To Get Health Insurance
Excerpt: "Many new business people often make a big mistake by sticking with their former employer's health coverage, says Loretta Collins, senior sales representative for Richmond Hills, Texas-based National Association for the Self-Employed.... NASE handles the health coverage of more than 350,000 business people nationwide, offering PPOs and indemnity policies, which don't require authorization for health care. The group does not offer HMOs, Collins says." (Washington Business Journal)
Employees Kept In the Dark Are Dissatisfied with Health Insurance
Excerpt: "Research by Watson Wyatt Worldwide found that only slightly more than two out of five employees are satisfied with the overall performance of their employer-sponsored health plan, and less than half trust their employers to design a health plan that will meet their needs. At the same time, according to the ... study, almost two-thirds of employees underestimate the total cost of group health insurance premiums and nearly 70 percent overestimate their share of health plan payments." (insure.com)
N.J. Debuts Managed Care Help Line Over Phone, Web
Excerpt: "A program sponsored by the state Department of Health and Senior Services has opened a telephone help line and set up an interactive Web site to give consumers information about their rights under commercial and government-sponsored managed care plans. The new service is called the Managed Health Care Consumer Assistance Program." (The [Bergen County, N.J.] Record)
Higher Wages Add Up to Better Health: Study
Excerpt: "Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, assessed the health benefits San Francisco city contract workers would gain if a proposed $11.00 per hour 'living wage' was enacted. Currently, these workers make an average of $8.66 per hour.... The salary increase would result in a 5% drop in deaths for all causes among workers, Bhatia and Katz write in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health: Journal of the American Public Health Association." (Reuters Health via Excite News)
Dissatisfaction With HMOs Increasing, Survey Says
Excerpt: "Lawyers, pharmaceutical companies and the U.S. Postal Service do a better job serving their consumers than managed-care plans, according to a survey of health insurance customers. In this summer of high gasoline prices, only oil companies received lower marks, the report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health said." (Washington Post)
Kaiser Permanente HMO Made It Hard to See an MD, Critics Say
Excerpt: "The papers, obtained by The Times from a union and a consumer group, provide a rare glimpse into the inner workings of an HMO as it struggles to attract and retain customers in one of the most competitive health care marketplaces in the country. One of the most striking of the documents describes the Northern California operation's long-standing practice of making patients wait for doctors' appointments to save money and 'control demand.'" (Los Angeles Times)
Fed-Up Employees Revolt Against Open-Office Floor Plans
Excerpt: "Incessant phone-ringing, very personal conversations, chitchat about weekend exploits, laughing at bad jokes -- day in and day out, office employees hear it all. The modern workplace got so loud in part after the New Economy's forward thinkers surmised that open-office designs would foster creativity, communication and collaboration among workers." (CareerJournal.com)
Desk Dining Hardly a Break for Workers
Excerpt: "According to a nationwide study of 700 employed people by OfficeTeam, an international staffing firm based in Menlo Park, Calif., 19 percent of those surveyed work through lunch every day; 43 percent do so at least once a week. 'Eating at your desk is on the rise because there's more pressure from employers to get work done and people also have much more work to do,' said Diane F. Domeyer, OfficeTeam executive director." (Chicago Tribune)
Compensating the International Executive: Using Stock Options and Other Equity Interests
Excerpt: "The first installment of this article focuses primarily on nonqualified stock options that are granted to employees who reside temporarily in the U.S. and then exercise their options after returning to their country of permanent residence." (World Trade Executive Global Tax Advisory)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| Employee Benefits Tax Manager | for PricewaterhouseCoopers in CA, MA, PA |
| Retirement Plan Administrator | for Charter One Bank in OH |
| INVESTMENT OFFICER | for MBM Advisors Inc. in TX |
| Executive Compensation Consultant | for National Leader in Executive Compensation in CA |
| Sr. DB Manager | for Prestigious, Privately Held, Full-Service Consulting Firm in CA |
| 401(k) Plan Administrator | for Stephen H. Rosen & Associates, Inc. in NJ |
| Pension Account Executive | for Diversified Investment Advisors in IL |
Newly Posted Webcasts (Post Yours!)
| Hearing: Genetics | on September 13, 2001 presented by KaiserNetwork.org |
Subscribe to the Retirement Plans Edition, too (click)
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.
- How to Sponsor an Issue: reach 6,288 benefits professionals!
- How to Subscribe
- Privacy Policy
- Archive of Prior Issues