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February 7, 2003 - 7,947 subscribers
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Sick Days Might Hurt Your Bottom Line
Excerpt: "Workers with perfect attendance are receiving thousands of dollars in bonuses. Absences can even affect raises: Some companies are changing job reviews to include attendance ratings. Employee absences have become such an epidemic that companies are going on the defensive." (USA Today)
Companies Desperate to Shave Health Costs
Excerpt: "Last year, the world's biggest automaker, General Motors, shelled out $4.5 billion on health care for its workers-- more than it spent on steel. Many U.S. companies, already squeezed in a tight pricing environment, are facing a growing burden from soaring healthcare costs that have catapulted far beyond inflation and are digging into profits." (Reuters via New York Times; one-time registration required)
Online Work Balances Play, Survey Finds
Excerpt: "Employees with Internet access at home spend more time there doing work for their companies than they spend online for personal reasons at their offices, a survey released [February 4, 2003] found." (Washington Post)
IRS Issues Latest Version of Publication 968 (Tax Benefits for Adoption)
Excerpt: "Publication 968 ... explains two tax benefits available to offset the expenses of adopting a child. First, individuals can claim an adoption assistance tax credit under Code Section 23. And second, employers can provide adoption assistance benefits that are excludable from income under Code Section 137; such benefits may be funded by the employer or by the employee with salary reduction dollars under a cafeteria plan." (EBIA Weekly)
Commentary: Plan Did Not Violate ERISA by Imposing Fixed-Dollar Co-Payments Greater Than Drug's Cost
Alves v. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc. (1st Cir. 2003). Excerpt: "Is it proper for an ERISA health plan to charge fixed-dollar co-payments, which, in individual cases, might exceed the actual cost of the prescription due to discounting arrangements between the plan and dispensing pharmacies? That was the issue in this class-action lawsuit brought by plan participants against several HMOs." (EBIA Weekly)
Traffic Violations Caused Accident and Constituted Excluded "Illegal Acts" Under Health Plan
Excerpt: "The group health plan participant in this case drove an uninsured, unregistered, and uninspected Corvette into a tree after crossing a solid, double-yellow line ... [He also] was cited for putting dealer license plates on the Corvette and for driving with four bald tires. The [claim denial was] based on an exclusion in the plan for medical expenses resulting from 'participation in or in consequence of having participated in an illegal act.'" (EBIA Weekly)
Commentary: Another Circuit Adopts Treating Physician Rule for Disability Cases
Darland v. Fortis Benefits Ins. Co. (6th Cir. 2003). Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: The treating physician rule makes it more difficult for disability plan administrators to support a termination decision if the treating physician has found the claimant to be disabled. To have a better chance of prevailing in a circuit that has adopted the rule, disability plan administrators should make sure [that ...]" (EBIA Weekly)
Insurer Was Only Required To Pay Medicare-Allowable Charges Under Medigap Policy: Court
An insurance company was only required to pay a hospital the Medicare-allowable charges for beneficiaries' medical care under a Medigap policy, and not the entire balance of the hospital's charges. This was the ruling of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Vencor, Inc., et al. v. Standard Life and Accident Insurance Company (No. 01-5435). (SpencerNet)
Employers Prepare For Military Call-Ups
Excerpt: "All companies, from small firms to large corporations, are required to follow the same employment rules pertaining to workers who have been mobilized and who will have to leave civilian jobs in order to fulfill their military obligations. The rules are spelled out in the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, a law that covers military leaves of absence and re-employment of eligible workers when they return from mandated military service." (Daily Nonpariel)
Director Seeks 'Just the Facts' To Improve Medical Care
Excerpt: "It is an embarrassing but no longer well-kept secret that despite health care spending of about $1.3 trillion a year -- including about $25 billion in federally funded research -- many Americans receive medical care that is not terribly good." (Washington Post)
Opinion: Fix Healthcare Costs Before They Bankrupt Firms and Workers
Excerpt: "These increases are so devastating that many small businesses believe they may no longer be able to afford to provide any health insurance benefits.... Rising costs also mean that employers of all sizes are attempting to cut or restrict benefits, and eliminate many health insurance choices." (Leo W. Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America, and Jeffrey R. Lewis, president of the Heinz Family Philanthropies, in the Detroit Free Press)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Top Five Benefit Priorities for 2003 (PDF)
16 pages. Sneek peek: controlling costs, HIPAA privacy rule compliance, employee self-service technology, using the Internet and intranets, and providing financial planning tools and information. (International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists and Deloitte & Touche LLP)
Wealthy Suing Accountants Over Rejected Tax Shelters
Excerpt: "Although only a few lawsuits have been filed, tax experts and lawyers handling these cases said they expected a flood of similar cases as the I.R.S. stepped up its hunt for tax cheating by hundreds and perhaps thousands of executives, business owners, athletes and entertainers with big incomes." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Tax Shelters for Executives Turning Into Millstones
Excerpt: "The Internal Revenue Service's campaign against abusive tax shelters is driving a wedge between shelter marketers and their clients and a growing number of unhappy taxpayers are seeking damages from the accounting and law firms that have devised these strategies." (Washington Post)
Ruling Could Break Departing Sprint Execs
Excerpt: "The chief executive of Sprint Corp., William T. Esrey, said Wednesday night that he could lose his entire fortune if the Internal Revenue Service decides that a tax shelter that he and the company's No. 2 executive bought from the company's auditors is improper." (New York Times New Service via Las Vegas Sun)
Federal Lawmakers Revisit Debate On Options
Excerpt: "More than 70 House and Senate members have signed letters to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which has said it will decide by the end of March whether to take up the controversial options issue again." (Washington Post)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
401(k) / Pension Administrator
for Ingham Group
in FL
Senior Actuarial Analyst
for Watson Wyatt Worldwide
in MA
Actuarial Consultant
for Watson Wyatt Worldwide
in MA
401(k) Compliance Manager - Vice President
for CitiStreet
in MA
Account Specialist/ Plan Administrator
for INVESCO Retirement, Inc.
in GA
401K Service Specialist
for Principal Financial Group
in NY
Senior Pension Administrator
for Pension TPA/Accounting Firm
in MD
Newly Posted Webcasts
(Post Yours!)
Complying with Military Leave Obligations under USERRA
on February 15, 2003
presented by Technical Answer Group and Inside Benefits
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
WorldatWork 48th Annual Conference & Exhibition
in CA
May 11, 2003
WorldatWork
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
New Arrival in the Retirement Plan Community
(Mand Marblestone & Danziger, P.C.)
Agilent Employee Brings ERISA Class Action On Behalf Of 1,500 Participants Against Agilent Technologies and Hewlett-Packard
(Alfred H. Sigman Law Offices)
NCQA's HEDIS® 2004 Draft Includes 11 New Measures; Additions Focus on Key Clinical, Service Issues
(National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA))
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