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July 9, 2003 - 8,367 subscribers
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Medicare Bill Hurdle: Private Health Insurance Subsidies
Excerpt: "The House's version of the legislation calls for federal benefits to Medicare recipients who buy private health insurance policies that include drug coverage. The Senate version would provide drug benefits without such subsidies. Negotiators must resolve the two bills before President Bush can sign the prescription drug proposal into law." (Washington Post)
Domestic Partner Coverage and Canada's Changing Law
Excerpt: "Traditionally, the United States has recognized Canadian marriages. But in 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act gave the US a federal definition of marriage that is now at odds with the Ontario definition." (SunGard Corbel)
House Passes Bill to Shield Federal Retirees from Future Drug Cost-Cutting by Government
Excerpt: "The House yesterday approved legislation sponsored by Washington area lawmakers to ensure that federal retirees, including members of Congress, keep prescription drug benefits far more generous than those included in Medicare legislation passed last month." (Washington Post)
Health Care Costs Force Benefit Changes
Excerpt: "Small and midsize employers are scrambling to change health benefits, with rapidly rising costs leading some to return to charging employees a percentage of medical costs and drug bills." (USA TODAY)
Prescription Drug Prices Can Vary Greatly by Pharmacy Location, Miami Herald Survey Indicates
Excerpt: "According to the survey, prices were as much as 10 times higher at some sources than at others. Costco had the lowest prices for the cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin, the blood-pressure medication enalapril and the anti depressant fluoxetine, the generic version of Prozac, the Herald reports. In comparison, Walmart's prices for lovastatin and fluoxetine were about 50% higher." (KaiserNetwork.org)
Many Doctors Say They Deliver Treatment Information Based on Patients' Insurance Coverage
Excerpt: "Physicians often withhold information about treatments from their patients when the health insurance that their patients have does not cover the treatments, according to a survey in the current issue of Health Affairs, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports." (KaiserNetwork.org)
Claims Management Emerges as Top Employee Issue After First Year in Consumer-Directed Plan
Excerpt: "After one year in a consumer-directed health (CDH) plan, ensuring accurate claims data has emerged as the top concern among employees at a large East Coast manufacturing firm that piloted a plan from Minneapolis-based Definity Health in early 2002." (Inside Consumer-Directed Care via AISHealth.com)
Opinion: Drug Co-pays and Formularies Should Get the Boot
Excerpt: "The formularies are determined by committees, and therein lies the problem.... this overemphasis on price, far from controlling drug costs, tends to increase them." (Modern Healthcare)
Opinion: Health Savings Accounts Could Reduce State Revenues By $30 Billion Over Next 10 Years
Excerpt: "The legislation ... would expand current-law Medical Savings Accounts (renamed Health Savings Accounts) and Flexible Spending Arrangements for medical expenses. This package of new tax breaks is slated to receive serious consideration, because the House attached the provisions to its version of the Medicare prescription drug legislation ..." (Center on Budget Policies and Priorities)
Opinion: Bush Needs Broader Healthcare Proposals as Part of Reelection Bid
Excerpt: "President Bush may think he will have secured himself on the health care front for 2004 if he signs a bill providing seniors with a Medicare prescription drug benefit. But he'd be wrong." (Morton Kondracke in the Naples [Fla.] Daily News)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Overview: IRS Supplements 2002 Split Dollar Regulations
Target page includes link to 3-page document. Excerpt: "Latest proposed rules dash any remaining hope that IRS will permit an executive who has a split dollar arrangement, in which he shares ownership of a life insurance policy with his or her employer, to avoid tax each year on that year's increase in the policy's value." (Hay Group)
Microsoft to Award Stock, Not Options, to Employees
Excerpt: "The announcement is the clearest sign yet that stock options have lost some of the cachet they held a few years ago. Microsoft's move also comes as some big investors are putting pressure on companies to award fewer options, calling them a prime example of corporate excess in the 1990's." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Corporate Director of Benefits & Compensation
for Multi Billion-Dollar Food & Beverage Manufacturer
in CA
Regulatory Support Officer
for American Express
in MN
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
CEBS Course 2 - Employee Benefits: Design, Administration and Other Welfare Benefits
in ALL STATES
September 8, 2003
IFEBP/CEBS Program
CEBS Course 4 - Retirement Plans: Defined Benefit Approaches and Plan Administration
in ALL STATES
September 8, 2003
IFEBP/CEBS Program
CEBS Course 9 - Health Economics
in ALL STATES
September 8, 2003
IFEBP/CEBS Program
Advanced Health Insurance Underwriting & Rate Negotiations Seminar
in CA
September 30, 2003
J. Madison-Bentley Health Insurance Pricing Experts
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)
BART Renews Plan Administration Contracts with ICMA Retirement Corporation
(ICMA Retirement Corporation)
Dex Media Deploys Workscape’s Compensation Planner With Superior Results
(Workscape)
Handy Links:
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- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
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