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July 10, 2003 - 8,367 subscribers
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Bill to Cap Certain Damages in Medical Malpractice Suits Dies in U.S. Senate
Excerpt: "Senate Democrats yesterday blocked White House-supported legislation to limit damage awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, probably dooming the initiative in the 108th Congress but ensuring it a prominent role in next year's campaigns." (Washington Post)
The ABCs of LTCs
Excerpt: "That Americans are aging and requiring more help in their later years isn't news; it's the numbers that are staggering. By 2030, when the last of the Baby Boomers turn 65, there will be 70 million seniors -- 20 percent of the U.S. population -- with close to 9 million individuals over the age of 85.... With demand for long-term care seemingly poised to explode, one would assume that the sales of insurance to cover this expense also would be booming. But that's not the case." (OnWallStreet.com)
Can Our DCAP Reimburse a Fee to 'Hold the Spot' With a Day Care Provider?
Excerpt: "There is no formal guidance on this issue, but we think that there is a reasonable argument that your DCAP can reimburse the fee, so long as certain conditions are met. Your scenario raises two issues. First, is a 'hold-the-spot' fee an employment-related expense? Second, if so, when can reimbursement be made? These issues are discussed below." (EBIA Weekly (Question of the Week))
'Premium Conversion' Proposal for Federal Government Retirees Gets a Hearing
Excerpt: "Since 2000, federal employees have paid their health insurance premiums with pretax dollars through a program called 'premium conversion.' But the tax code does not allow the perk to be extended to retirees." (Washington Post)
ERISA Does Not Require HMOs To Disclose Information About Physician Financial Incentives
ERISA does not require HMOs to disclose to their members information regarding the HMOs' financial incentives for physicians. This was the ruling of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Horvath v. Keystone Health Plan East, Inc. (No. 02-1731). (Spencer Benefits Reports)
Humana Rolls Out New Drug Benefit Design
Excerpt: "Humana Inc. on [July 2, 2003] launched a radically new pharmacy benefit option that ties employees' out-of-pocket payments to a prescription medication's ability to prevent illness or help the patient avoid further medical care. It's a sharp departure from popular 'tiered' benefit designs, which rank drugs by cost and base co-payments on those categories." (Reuters via Medscape; one-time registration required)
Aon, Marsh Forecast Health Cost Increases Above 16%
Excerpt: "More consultants have joined the chorus of analysts predicting a fifth year of double-digit health care cost increases." (BenefitNews.com)
Harris Survey on Health Benefit Trends in California
Excerpt: "[A]s unemployment has grown and corporate profits fallen, employers across the nation and in California are shifting a greater share of health care expenses to employees.... [One report,] Health Benefit Costs: Employers Share the Pain, focuses on how employers are altering their health benefits to deal with these escalating costs." (California Health Care Foundation)
Women's Access to Care: a State-Level Analysis of Key Health Policies
Excerpt: "Women's Access to Care: A State-Level Review of Key Health Policies, prepared by the National Women's Law Center and Kaiser Family Foundation, details state activity on a range of policies that influence women's access to care, with an emphasis on private insurance, Medicaid, and reproductive health." (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)
Opinion: 'Big Food' Gets the Obesity Message
Excerpt: "Whatever the motivation behind Kraft Foods' promise to develop healthier products, it is nonetheless encouraging news in the fight against obesity." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
What Do People Buy If They Don't Buy Health Insurance? What Does that Say About Being Uninsured?
Working paper. Excerpt: "Using data from the 1994 through 1998 Consumer Expenditure Surveys, we compare household spending on 16 different goods ... [The] results are consistent with the idea that poor uninsured households face higher housing prices than do poor insured households. Further research is necessary to determine whether high housing prices can help explain why some households do not have insurance." (Helen Levy and Thomas DeLeire, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research)
Insurance and the Utilization of Medical Services
Working paper. Excerpt: "Most data sets indicate a positive correlation between having health insurance and utilizing health care services. Yet the direction of causality is not at all clear." (Jonathan Meer and Harvey S. Rosen, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research)
Opinion: Medicare Reform and the Missouri Compromise
Excerpt: "[T]he House and Senate conferees assembling this week to negotiate a prescription drug benefit and Medicare reform bill do in fact come up with a final product, the only thing certain is that they will have built a house divided against itself. The bills that the House and Senate have sent to the conference committee would legislate two irreconcilable visions of health insurance and the roles of the state and the market." (Washington Post)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Full Text of ERIC Amicus Brief in 'Reverse Discrimination' Case Pending in Supreme Court
General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc. v. Cline. Excerpt: "Many [employee pension and welfare] plans condition eligibility on a minimum age older than 40 or otherwise favor older workers who have achieved a certain age beyond 40.... The Sixth Circuit ... erred in concluding that the ADEA permits younger workers [who are at least age 40] ... to sue for discrimination on the grounds that older workers ... received more or better benefits." (ERISA Industry Committee)
DaimlerChrysler Might Scrap Stock Options
Excerpt: "The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a major daily newspaper, said DaimlerChrysler is contemplating other forms of rewards, such as bonuses based on an index tied to the company stock." (UPI via NewsAlert.com)
Executive Compensation as an Agency Problem
Working paper. Excerpt: "This paper provides an overview of the main theoretical elements and empirical underpinnings of a managerial power' approach to executive compensation.... Boards of publicly traded companies with dispersed ownership, we argue, cannot be expected to bargain at arm's length with managers. As a result, managers wield substantial influence over their own pay arrangements ..." (Lucian Arye Bebchuk and Jesse M. Fried, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research)
Fiduciary Group Buys Aon's Fiduciary Counselors in Management-Led Buyout
Excerpt: "Fiduciary Counselors is a registered investment adviser that acts as an independent fiduciary for pension plans in the United States. Nell Hennessy ... [who is] former deputy executive director and chief negotiator of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), will continue to head the company ..." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)
For Newer Microsoft Employees, a Sense of Redress
Excerpt: "[F]or the new generation of employees-- that is, anyone who joined Microsoft after the dot-com boom turned into a bust and the stock market began to plunge-- becoming a Microsoft millionaire has seemed like an impossible goal. And that cannot be a pleasant thought for the newer employee who knows a veteran, sometimes seated at the next cubicle, who has already made millions." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Other Tech Companies Snub Microsoft's Stock Options Move
Excerpt: "A day after Microsoft Corp. said it was abandoning its practice of awarding employee stock options and said that it will expense the ones already awarded, other technology companies said they would not follow suit." (Reuters via the Washington Post)
Microsoft's Zero-Option Option: What Effect on Other Companies?
Excerpt: "Microsoft's decision to break ranks with the broader technology sector on the issue of stock options is likely to have a ripple effect, boosting reformers' efforts to force companies to factor options into their accounting statements and nudging Corporate America in general to restructure how they compensate workers." (Washington Post)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Senior Pension Consultant
for The 412i Company
in WA
Experienced Trust Accountant
for Mand Marblestone & Danziger, P.C.
in PA
Institutional Trust Consultant
for BB&T (Branch Banking and Trust)
in KY
Disbursement Associate
for ICMA Retirement Corporation
in DC
FDIC Trust Compliance Manager - Employee Benefits
for Leading Trust Bank
in CA
Director, Employee Benefit Plans
for Jockey International, Inc.
in WI
Benefits Administrator
for Weaver and Tidwell, LLP
in TX
Newly Posted Webcasts
(Post Yours!)
Prosecuting and Defending the ERISA Disability Case After Black & Decker v. Nord
on July 28, 2003
presented by ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
HIPAA Privacy Compliance Workshop
in PA
August 8, 2003
SunGard Corbel
HIPAA Privacy Compliance Workshop
in TX
August 11, 2003
SunGard Corbel
How To Help Employees Regain Lost 401(k) Ground
in ALL STATES
July 23, 2003
Hewitt Associates
"HIPAA Compliance for Employers - Shared Strategies and Common Challenges"
in LA
July 29, 2003
The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
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