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June 5, 2003 - 8,276 subscribers
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Our Bookstore now carries books published by the NCEO! The National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), a nonprofit membership and research organization that provides information on broad-based employee stock plans, now has over a dozen of its most popular publications available for purchase in the BenefitsLink bookstore. Topics range from employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) to stock options to employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs).
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New Rules for COBRA Notices May Require Immediate Attention (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "Beginning upon the May 28, 2003 publication of the proposed rules, the agency will no longer consider use of the model notice that had been published as ERISA Technical Release 86-2 (June 26, 1986) to constitute good-faith compliance with the statutory requirement to provide a notice of COBRA rights upon an employee's commencement of health care coverage. Presumably, the model notice provided in the new proposed rules satisfies the good-faith standard." (Milliman USA)
Covering the Uninsured: How Much Would It Cost?
Excerpt: "To provide benchmarks for evaluating the costs of alternative proposals to provide insurance coverage for the uninsured, this study presents two sets of cost estimates derived from medical spending patterns of lower- or middle-income people with private insurance plans and those of people with public insurance coverage during 1996–1998." (Jack Hadley and John Holahan, published by Health Affairs)
Opinion: the Right and the Wrong Ways To Address the Child Tax Credit Issue
Excerpt: "In the next day or two, the Senate is likely to vote on two competing approaches to resurrecting a Senate provision that was dropped in the conference on the recently enacted tax-cut bill and that would assist children in low-income working families. While both approaches would revive the low-income children's provision, they are starkly different." (Center on Budget Policies and Priorities)
Supreme Court Rejects "Treating Physician" Rule In Challenges To Denial of LTD Benefits
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a plan administrator need not accord deference to the opinion of a beneficiary's treating physician in determining whether the beneficiary is entitled to long term disability benefits. The case is Black & Decker Disability Plan v. Nord (Docket No. 02-469). (Spencer Benefits Reports)
Analysis: Second Circuit Allows Medical Malpractice Claims Against HMOs
Excerpt: "For many years, very few cases were successfully brought against third-party payors or HMOs for injuries due to their failure to authorize required medical treatment, perhaps because of the difficulty in clearly establishing proximate cause. In many cases, courts ruled that such actions were pre-empted by federal law, ERISA." (Attorney Richard L. Bush, published by BenefitNews.com)
Is Employee Authorization Needed by Employer to Get PHI for FMLA or ADA Compliance?
Excerpt: "Our company sometimes requests individually-identifiable health information in connection with our obligations under federal laws other than HIPAA. For example, we may request a medical certification of a serious health condition under the FMLA or we may seek information from an employee's health care provider in connection with a request for reasonable accommodation under the ADA. Does HIPAA require our company to obtain an individual authorization in these circumstances?" (EBIA Weekly (Question of the Week))
Prime Therapeutics Designs Consumer-Directed Rx Carve-Out
Excerpt: "The PBM expects to launch Prime CDRx July 1, 2003, and it expects it to be the first stand-alone pharmacy benefit offering of a consumer-directed nature.... Prime Therapeutics' new product can be sold to employers separately as a carve-out, or as an integrated component of a managed care plan." (Drug Cost Management Report via AISHealth.com)
Opinion: Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Will Be Costly Freebie
Excerpt: "Just about every American politician, regardless of party, favors adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. It's a bad idea." (Robert J. Samuelson in the Washington Post)
Hillary Rodham Clinton Takes Some Blame for Failed Effort at Healthcare Reform
Excerpt: "The senator writes that, 'on bad days, I faulted myself for botching health care, coming on too strong and galvanizing our opponents.' The administration gave critics too long to mobilize, she now says, and a working group of some 600 health policy experts became unwieldy and ineffective. Republicans took control of Congress in the midterm elections that followed." (AP via the Bradenton [Fla.] Herald)
Generic Drug Bill Gains Support in Senate
Excerpt: "Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) yesterday reached an agreement with conservative Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) giving a major boost to a bill aimed at getting cheaper generic drugs on the market more quickly and limiting the patent protection for drug companies." (Newsday.com)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Retirement Plan Coordinator
for American Funds
in VA
Retirement Plan Documentation Associate II
for Glens Falls National Bank & Trust Company
in NY
401(k)/ DC Plan Administrator
for National Associates Metro, Inc.
in NJ
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
Qualified Retirement Plans - A Full Day Seminar by Sal Tripodi, J.D., LL.M.
in IN
June 17, 2003
Central Indiana Chapter ISCEBS
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
Assist America Names Christopher Gibbs Director of Operations
(Assist America)
IRS Helps Small Business Retirement Plans Stay Compliant
(Internal Revenue Service)
(Initail Release 9/15/02) PHS, Inc. Introduces Stand Alone Consumer Driven Pharmacy Carve Out
(Proweh Health Systems, Inc.)
Ceridian Adds Dreyfus To Its Tier One List Of Mutual Funds
(Ceridian)
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