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June 23, 2003 - 8,352 subscribers
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Senate Votes to Allow Importing of Prescription Drugs From Canada
Excerpt: "The Senate voted overwhelmingly [on Friday, June 20, 2003] to let pharmacists import prescription drugs from Canada and resell them in the United States, so consumers here could benefit from lower Canadian prices." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Hillary Rodham Clinton Inspires Deja Vu Moment By Ripping GOP Health Plan Charts
Excerpt: "Invoking some of the arguments that killed her attempt to overhaul the national health care system a decade ago, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said a new Republican-favored bill could create a Medicare maze of confusing bureaucracy." (Washington Times)
Opinion: What's Wrong with the Senate Medicare Drug Bill
Excerpt: "The Congressional Budget Office reports that 37 percent of all retirees with employer-based drug coverage would lose it under the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003, the Medicare bill recently adopted by the Senate Finance Committee. This remarkable, if unintended, consequence emphasizes that the expansion of bureaucratic control over the financing and delivery of health care services is not reform." (The Heritage Foundation)
Opinion: Fix the Medicare Drug Compromise
Excerpt: "Congress must not compound this problem by passing a prescription drug benefit that promises too much to too many. Rather than give a new benefit to affluent seniors, many of whom already have some drug coverage, the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) believes that the priorities for a Medicare drug benefit should be low-income beneficiaries ..." (Progressive Policy Institute)
Prescription Drug Coverage for Medicare Beneficiaries: Comparison of Selected Proposals
Excerpt: "This document, prepared by Health Policy Alternatives, Inc., provides a side-by-side comparison of two leading proposals to provide outpatient prescription drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries, introduced as of June 19, 2003: H.R. 2473, The Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Act of 2003 (passed by the House Ways and Means Committee ...) and S. 1, The Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003 (passed by the Senate Finance Committee ...)." (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)
Criticism of Drug Benefit Is Simple: It's Bewildering
Excerpt: "With both houses of Congress poised to pass a Medicare drug bill next week, lawmakers are increasingly anxious about the complexity of the legislation and its reliance on new and largely untested arrangements to deliver drug benefits to the elderly. This complexity, they say, may be daunting and confusing to beneficiaries, and even to insurance companies, which are supposed to manage the new benefits." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Overview: Final HIPAA EDI Rules (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has adopted as final the changes to the electronic data interchange (EDI) and medical data code set rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) that it proposed in May 2002. The rules go into effect for all health plans on October 16, 2003." (The Segal Company)
Uncovered: Small Employers Taken by Employers Mutual
Excerpt: "To many small business owners, Employers Mutual looked like the ideal health-care provider, charging premiums far below its competitors'. But in the end it turned out to be a shady operation, leaving behind millions of dollars in unpaid claims. Could your company be hit next?" (Fortune)
Next HIPAA Hurdle Could Cause Disruptions
June 23, 2003 issue. Excerpt: "Just as health care organizations are contending with implementing the medical privacy aspects of HIPAA, along comes another deadline that some industry experts have characterized as a train wreck waiting to happen. On October 16, the health care industry will ostensibly begin using standardized electronic claims under the HIPAA rule governing transactions and code sets." (Health Currents, from the California Health Care Foundation)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Group Health Insurance Sales/Account Management
for Great West Life & Annuity
in GA, OH, PA, TX, WA
Pension Sales Design Specialist
for American National Insurance Company
in TX
Qualified Plan Administrator
for High End Small Plan TPA
in FL
Senior Benefits Adminstrator - DC Project Coordinator
for Milliman USA - Seattle
in WA
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
Financial Executives International to Host ERISA Fiduciary Liability Webcast - "How to Protect Yourself and Your Board from ERISA Liability and Litigation in the Post-Enron World"
(Independent Retirement Plan Services, LLC)
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