| The BenefitsLink Newsletter - Welfare Plans Edition |  |
November 2, 2001 - 6,532 subscribers
Today's sponsor: RetireGuard - MassMutual
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
RetireGuard - An excellent benefit at an affordable cost! You understand how important it is for your employees to save for retirement, but what about protecting their contributions? MassMutual has a way to protect retirement dollars in the event of disability. While RetireGuardSM is not a pension program, nor a substitute for one, it helps ensure continuance of retirement savings contributions. Click on the banner above or visit our site at: http://www.massmutual.com/MMFinancial/Disability/0,4893,DI_RETIREGUARD,00.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)
House-Passed Stimulus Bill Adds Exception to 10% Penalty for Funds to Buy Health Insurance
Excerpt: "The package includes a provision that would expand the exemption from the 10% early withdrawal tax for distributions from qualified plans and IRAs used to pay health insurance expenses for unemployed individuals." (CCH)
Wal-Mart Airs TV Commercial As Part of ADA Settlement Over Hearing-Impaired Applicants
For a three-week period beginning the week of October 22, the three major network affiliates in Arizona will air a 60-second commercial in Phoenix and Tucson featuring two hearing-impaired men describing their experience filing a lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In the advertisement, Jeremy Fass and William Darnell talk about their experience using American Sign Language with a voice-over in English. (Spencernet)
Salvation Army to Provide Domestic Partner Health Benefits
Excerpt: "The Western Corp. of the Salvation Army announced Thursday it will start providing domestic partners benefits." (Los Angeles Times)
Study Finds Some Workers Willing to Pay for Family-Oriented Benefits They Won't Use
Excerpt: "Employees may be willing to help fund employment benefits that they will never use, in much the same way as citizens are willing to help fund environmental resources such as national parks that they will never visit, according to a team of labor studies researchers.... The researchers explored seven different work/family policies asking in each case if workers would be willing to fund the policy with a weekly payroll deduction." (AScribe News via IFEBP)
How Education Benefits Create a Win-Win Situation
Excerpt: "[T]he available evidence suggests that making it easy for workers to go to school makes them both more mobile and more loyal. About three-quarters of big U.S. companies offer aid to employees who take college courses, according to surveys by Hewitt Associates, a consulting firm." (CareerJournal.com)
Health Insurers Cover Necessary Anthrax Testing
Excerpt: "Americans concerned about bioterrorism now have one less thing to worry about: Most health insurers say that if your doctor orders anthrax tests for you, they'll pay for them." (insure.com)
Thousands of Boston Area Employers Contemplating Direct Contracts with Hospitals, Bypassing HMOs
Excerpt: "Frustrated with climbing health insurance premiums, more than 6,000 Massachusetts employers are exploring the possibility of bypassing HMOs and contracting directly with hospitals and doctors. Two large employer trade organizations have hired Patient Choice Healthcare, the group that organized direct contracting in Minnesota, Oregon, and Colorado, to evaluate whether a similar program would work in Massachusetts." (Boston Globe)
ERIC Says Senate-Passed Mental Health Parity Amendment Will Lead to Decline in Health Care Coverage
Excerpt: "The amendment bars employers from using cost-sharing levels or treatment limitations for those mental health services that are not comparable to those applied to medical and surgical services under their health plans, particularly where mental health services are far more prone to overuse and abuse than most medical and surgical services." (ERISA Industry Committee)
Private-Sector Coalitions to Help Small Businesses Purchase Health Insurance Show 'Marginal Success'
Excerpt: "Small businesses need assistance from the public sector-- including expertise, seed money and regulatory reform-- in order to improve employees' access to health care coverage, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund." (KaiserNetwork.org)
Opinion: Unemployed Workers Need Help With Health Insurance; COBRA Subsidy Not Enough
Excerpt: "As policymakers consider how to help newly unemployed workers and the overall economy through a stimulus package, it is important that temporary policies be put in place to ensure that workers do not lose their health insurance as well as their jobs." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
Employers to Accelerate Use of Internet in Providing Health Benefits
Press release. Excerpt: "Employer interest in e-health initiatives is expected to surge over the next few years as companies look to the Internet and web-based technology to help control rising costs, make employees better health care consumers and facilitate the annual benefits enrollment season currently underway, according to Cathy Tripp, a senior consultant who specializes in e-health care benefit programs at Watson Wyatt Worldwide." (PR Newswire via Excite News)
Genomic Data May Be Dangerous in Wrong Hands
Excerpt: "Despite genomics' tremendous potential for good, experts are now beginning to see the potential harm that could be caused if terrorists master the techniques of molecular biology." (Medscape; free registration required)
Supreme Court Denies Certiorari in Several Employee Benefit Cases
Excerpt: "On the first day of its new session, the Supreme Court denied review of a number of employee benefit-related cases. Among others, the high court denied review of cases involving fiduciary breach claims, ERISA preemption issues, and standard of review questions." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Managing Ownership Complexity
Excerpt: "[L]eaders in employee owned companies are constantly called upon to define this strange new organizational arrangement from both economic and moral angles. What follows are some helpful hints for beleaguered leaders." (Foundation for Enterprise Development)
Stock Incentives From a Shareholder's Perspective
Excerpt: "With the recent record gain from the exercise of stock options by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, we thought we would take a look at the changing trends of executive compensation and the potential impacts on companies and shareholders. There has always been a tug-of-war between management and shareholders, officially known as 'agency costs' in business school texts." (Foundation for Enterprise Development)
Equity Compensation in Troubled Times
Excerpt: "This article focuses on a particular type of equity compensation plan that is well suited to be a substitute for or a supplement to stock options, and that works effectively both in good markets and bad. Performance award plans have been around for many years, and have been used to great effect by many companies in lieu of or in combination with stock options." (Foundation for Enterprise Development)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings (Post Yours!)
| Pension Account Executive | for Diversified Investment Advisors in IL |
| Retirement Plan Administrator | for San Diego Pension Consultants, Inc. in CA |
| Employee Benefits Relationship Manager | for BB&T Branch Banking and Trust in GA |
| Institutional Trust Sales Manager | for BB&T Branch Banking and Trust in NC |
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 6,532 benefits professionals!
- How to Subscribe
- Privacy Policy
- Archive of Prior Issues