If the headlines in this newsletter aren't clickable for you,
please use the online, clickable version at:
https://benefitslink.com/2003/2003_06_12_welfare.html
(click or copy-and-paste the above address into your web browser)


BenefitsLink
Welfare Plans
Newsletter
To BenefitsLink home page Fill your job openings fast by advertising on BenefitsLink

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
Post a Help Wanted Ad

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:

Copyright 2003 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you can forward this email in full (including this boilerplate part) or otherwise reprint this email in full (including this boilerplate part) without obtaining our permission.

Published by:

BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
https://benefitslink.com/about.html
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park FL 32789
(407) 644-4146
Fax: (407) 644-2151

Editor and Publisher: David Rhett Baker, J.D.

Housekeeping: