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October 4, 2002 - 7,276 subscribers
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(Help BenefitsLink to provide this newsletter at no charge to you -- our sponsors pay your way. Remember to visit them periodically; we try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Professionals Find Ways to Counter Office Stress
Excerpt: "Workers' calls for help dealing with stress are up more than 40% from a year ago, says Ceridian, a provider of employee-assistance and other human-resource services ... This is no small matter. Studies link stress to ailments from heart disease to immune-system disorders. And new research ... suggests your job may even be killing you: People who lack control over their work have a 43% greater risk of dying prematurely than other employees." (CareerJournal.com)
Group Coordination of Benefits Model Regulation Proposed by Insurance Commissioners (PDF)
Excerpt: "The NAIC solicits comments on this draft by close of business 11/1/02." (National Association of Insurance Commissioners)
Battling Rapidly Advancing Health Care Costs on Three Fronts: Custom Management Strategies (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "Now more than ever, successful health care cost management depends on a combination of customized strategies. This Executive Letter presents a broad overview of strategies that some employers are adopting, grouped into three categories: vendor management; plan management, and individual health management." (The Segal Company)
Opinion: The Coming Crash in Health Care
Excerpt: "A weird but true fact about modern medical insurance: The healthiest way to deal with a managed-care company is to own stock in it.... [I]f you've invested in managed-care giants like UnitedHealth, Wellpoint, or Aetna, you've got to be feeling pretty good.... The big reason for the health insurers' robustness is pricing power--an extraordinary five-year run of it, the best in a generation.... Thus it may come as a surprise to learn that the managed-care industry is dying." (Fortune.com)
GM's Healthcare Costs Could Spiral
Excerpt: "If General Motors has a black hole in its pension fund, its healthcare obligations look like a bottomless pit. The company paid out $3.2 billion last year for the medical and life insurance costs of its pensioners, and estimates the cost in today's money of its future obligations at $52.5 billion -- more than double its market capitalisation." (Financial Times via Yahoo! Finance)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Trading Cash for Stock Options Is Popular at Silicon Valley Firm
Excerpt: "Nearly 3,400 Siebel Systems workers have voted with their pocketbooks. They gave up long-shot stock-option payoffs for a sure thing: trading in nearly 90 percent of their eligible ``underwater'' options for $1.85 a share in cash or stock. Siebel's offer to buy back its options will trigger an estimated $56 million charge to the software company's third-quarter earnings ..." (The [San Jose] Mercury News)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings -
Trust Accounting Administrator
for Associated Pension Consultants-TPA Firm
in CA
Premium Only Plan Compliance Specialist
for ADP
in NJ
Employee Benefits Paralegal
for Hunton & Williams
in VA
Retirement Plan Administrator
for Retirement Plan Services, Inc.
in NC
Newly Posted Conferences (Post Yours!)
Retiree Medical Plans Revisited
in NY
October 17, 2002
New York Metropolitan Area Chapter - ISCEBS
Hot Topics Update Seminar
in FL
June 11, 2003
SunGard Corbel
Advanced Pension Conference
in FL
February 18, 2004
SunGard Corbel
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Editor and Publisher: David Rhett Baker, J.D.
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