June 12, 2003 - 8,276 subscribers Today's sponsor: EBIA's COBRA: The Developing Law (Click on company name or banner to learn more.) Bring Your Group Health Plans into COBRA Compliance COBRA: The Developing Law is the authoritative resource for employers, administrators and advisors who handle COBRA compliance issues. Written by three leading employee benefits attorneys, this manual (over 850 pages) has all the information you need to bring your group health plans into compliance with COBRA. Click above for details. (Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor) Key Senate Panel to Take Up Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage Bill Excerpt: "A key U.S. Senate panel on Thursday takes up a historic, bipartisan bill that would help all senior citizens pay for prescription medicines for the first time since Medicare's creation in 1965." (Reuters via the Washington Post) Generic Drugs Get Boost From Senate Panel Excerpt: "Legislation designed to get generic drugs to store shelves more quickly and save consumers billions of dollars won unanimous approval of the Senate health committee Wednesday." (Washington Post) Bush to Back Measures on Generic Drugs Excerpt: "President Bush plans to announce measures today intended to speed the introduction of generic versions of brand-name drugs, according to people who have been briefed on the proposals, which are similar to ones endorsed by a Senate panel yesterday." (New York Times; one-time registration required) Technical Explanation of the Relief for Working Families Tax Act of 2003 (PDF) 17 pages; the bill was passed by the Senate on June 5, 2003. Excerpt: "The present-law requirement that a taxpayer maintain a household in order to claim the dependent care credit is eliminated. Thus, if other applicable requirements are satisfied, a taxpayer may claim the dependent care credit with respect to a child who lives with the taxpayer for more than one half the year, even if the taxpayer does not provide more than one half of the cost of maintaining the household." (U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Taxation) Internal HIPAA Privacy Audits Should Continue, Experts Say Excerpt: "Auditing for compliance with HIPAA's privacy rules needs to continue even after the April 14 compliance deadline, according to experts who spoke at a recent conference. They described a HIPAA privacy audit performed at a health plan and the plan's process for complying with the privacy rules." (Thompson Publishing Group) Health Care Spending Pace in 2002 Slowed Slightly but Remained High Excerpt: "Health care spending per privately insured American jumped 9.6 percent in 2002, growing nearly four times faster than the overall U.S. economy, according to a study by [the Center for Studying Health System Change] published [June 11, 2003] as a Web-exclusive article in the journal Health Affairs." (Center for Studying Health System Change) Opinion: To Contain Health Care Costs, U.S. Must Reduce Error and Waste, Modernize Administration Press release. Excerpt: "In her testimony, 'American Health Care: Why So Costly?,' [Commonwealth Fund President Karen] Davis detailed reasons for the upward spiral of health care costs ... Among the multiple reasons for higher costs in the U.S. are higher prices for care, growth in specialized procedures, and high administrative costs resulting from the complex, fragmented nature of the U.S. health care system." (The Commonwealth Fund) Workers Paying a Larger Share of Drug Costs Excerpt: "After a decade of soaring spending on prescription drugs, employers and health plans are forcing their workers to pay more for most drugs and refusing payment entirely for certain medicines that they reject as not essential." (New York Times; one-time registration required) GE Union Rejects Proposal on Healthcare Costs, Strike Looms Excerpt: "The largest union at General Electric Co. has rejected the conglomerate's initial proposal for sharing increases in health-care costs, a sticking point that could trigger a national strike, people familiar with the negotiations said on Wednesday." (New York Times; one-time registration required) Maine Healthcare Reform Bill Close to Passage Excerpt: "As other cash-strapped states make piecemeal attempts at health-care reform, Maine has surprised policy analysts with broad-ranging support for Gov. John Baldacci's bill to address health-care costs, quality and access. After weeks of volatile negotiations with Baldacci's office over cost-containment measures, insurance carriers, hospitals and doctors now express optimism that Maine's health-care system will improve." (Kennebec [Me.] Journal via the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans) Impact of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising on Prescription Drug Spending Excerpt: " A new study by researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology looks at the effect of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising on spending for prescription drugs.... [T]he study found that every $1 the pharmaceutical industry spent on DTC advertising in that year yielded an additional $4.20 in drug sales. DTC advertising was responsible for 12% of the increase in prescription drugs sales." (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation) Opinion: Face It, We're Rationing Health Excerpt: "There are really two issues here, and they tend to get blurred. The first is how we contain costs. The second is how we cover everybody. Seemingly, the two goals are at odds with each other." (Robert Kuttner in the Boston Globe) The Next-Generation Health Plan: Building Operational Competence Excerpt: "The emerging next-generation health plan will be focused on the consumer and enabled by [information technology]. How are plans getting there?" (Healthplan via Medscape; one-time registration required) Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General IRS Official Speaks on Abusive Tax Shelters, Disclosure Duty Despite Claimed 'Identity Privilege' (PDF) Speech by Emily Parker, Deputy Chief Counsel (Operations). Excerpt: "Over the last year, the IRS has continued to take actions to identify, discourage and audit abusive tax avoidance transactions. Today, I will summarize some of our actions and, in particular, our response to claims of attorney-client and tax practitioner privilege that have been asserted by promoters and their customers in the course of promoter audits." (Internal Revenue Service) Siebel Shareholders Reject Stock Option Expensing Proposal Excerpt: "Shareholders of business software maker Siebel Systems Inc. on Wednesday defeated a proposal urging management to expense stock options, overcoming critics who attacked the company as the epitome of corporate excess." (Washington Post) Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings Senior Pension Administrator for Retirement Alliance, Inc. in NH Senior 5500 Accountant for Wachovia Corporation in NC Tax and Regulatory Northeast Practice Leader - New York City for PricewaterhouseCoopers in NY Newly Posted Webcasts (Post Yours!) Tracking Health Care Costs in 2002 on June 11, 2003 presented by KaiserNetwork.org Protecting Yourself and Your Board from ERISA Fiduciary Liability and Litigation in the Post-Enron World on June 26, 2003 presented by Financial Executives Institute Do's and Don'ts of Pension Obligation Bonds on June 26, 2003 presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Newly Posted Conferences (Post Yours!) New COBRA Notice Rules: Their Problems and How to Solve Them in ALL STATES July 16, 2003 Thompson Publishing Group Newly Posted Press Releases (Post Yours!) Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao Applauds Passage of Association Health Plans Legislation (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration) ARAG Group Hosting ID Theft Seminars (ARAG Group) As Employers Work To Understand New HIPAA Regulations, GE Financial Offers Valuable Expertise (GE Financial Employer Services Group) Key Concepts for Employers and Employees to Understand With the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); GE Financial Employer Services Group Educates Employers And Employees (GE Financial Employer Services Group) Labor Department Obtains Court Order Restoring Assets To Wisconsin Company’s Simple IRA Plan (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration) Mutual of Omaha Offers New Defined Benefit Solutions to Small- and Mid-size Employers (Mutual of Omaha) HIPAA and Other Health Laws: Utah Compliance Assistance Seminar to be Held July 17-18 (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration) Handy Links:
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