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October 7, 2003 - 8,548 subscribers
Today's sponsor: EBIA
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Keep Up With the New Rules for OTC Drugs! A replay of EBIA's recent 90-minute tele-web seminar on Health FSAs and OTC Drugs is now available online. Get a detailed analysis of IRS Revenue Ruling 2003-102, along with extremely helpful commentary and recommendations. Registration fee is $185 per web connection, which includes a 59-page handout of slides and other material. More information and a registration form are available at http://www.ebia.com/seminars/030930replayBL
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Employers Expected To Fight New California Worker Health Insurance Law
Excerpt: "While small businesses are exempt, some believe the bill -- known as SB2 -- could cost California companies as much as $14.2 billion and thousands of jobs. Opponents plan to file paperwork in the next couple of days to start a referendum that would block the law." (SFGate.com)
California Health Insurance Law Revives National Debate
Excerpt: "When the California Legislature passed SB2 on the last day of its session, lawmakers put the state center stage in a simmering national debate over how to deal with the growing numbers of people without health insurance." (SFGate.com)
Text of California 'Pay or Play' Law
Excerpt: "BILL NUMBER: SB 2." (State of California)
Final Regulations on Premium Conversion for Federal Employees
Excerpt: "The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued final regulations on premium conversion of health benefits for federal employees who participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program. (Premium conversion enables these employees to pay for health insurance premiums with pre-tax dollars under a cafeteria plan.) Interim OPM regulations were issued on July 19, 2000." (EBIA)
IRS Rules on Tax Consequences of Providing Medical and Dental Benefits to Domestic Partners
Priv. Ltr. Rul. 200339001 (June 13, 2003). Excerpt: "In this private letter ruling, the IRS addresses the federal income and employment tax treatment of medical and dental benefits provided to employees' domestic partners. It focused on two issues in particular: (1) the validity of a certification procedure; and (2) the treatment of same-gender domestic partners." (EBIA)
Federal Telework Programs Slow To Catch On, Despite Agency Efforts
Excerpt: "Despite a mandate from Congress and more attention from the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, telework programs continue to grow slowly in the federal workplace, an OPM official says." (GovExec.com)
In Twist on Employee Benefits, Companies Offer Up Chaplains
Excerpt: "Several Tampa Bay area companies are among those making the service available. Some critics question why ministers are exclusively Christian." (St. Petersburg Times)
Census Report on Uninsured Generates Slew of Editorials
Excerpt: "The Census Bureau report ... resulted in several editorials throughout the country this week, zeroing in on the lack of employer coverage as the cause for the increase in the uninsured. The Louisville Courier-Journal [said]: 'More and more are cutting off the insurance of workers when they become disabled, for instance, and some smaller companies are coming under pressure to eliminate, somehow, their sickest employees from group coverage in order to hold down the premiums of others.'" (HR Policy Association)
United Auto Workers Ratifies Contract With GM, Delphi
Excerpt: "United Auto Workers officials on Monday announced that the union has ratified a contract with General Motors and auto parts supplier Delphi under which the companies will be unable to shift the cost of health insurance premiums to union members, the AP/New York Times reports." (KaiserNetwork.org)
USA Today Examines Increasing Instances of People Reimporting U.S.-Made Drugs From Canada
Excerpt: "People in the United States spent 'just a few million dollars' in 2000 on reimporting prescription drugs from Canada, but just a few years later, about one million people in the United States are doing so and are expected to spend about $800 million in 2003 on the practice, which shows 'no signs of letting up,' USA Today reports." (KaiserNetwork.org)
Opinion: Paying Dearly for Free Prescription Drugs
Excerpt: "As Congress finalizes plans to expand Medicare, more and more seniors are beginning to understand that 'free' prescription drugs from the government will carry a very high price tag. The tragedy is that our society is allowing the pharmaceutical industry, phony senior lobbies, and vote-hungry politicians to force millions of older Americans into a government-run Medicare ghetto." (U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. on LewRockwell.com)
Opinion: How HMOs Improved Healthcare
Excerpt: "As another year of double-digit premium increases approaches, it is worthwhile to reflect on the 30th birthday of managed care, how it has changed health care, and what the future holds." (Marylou Buyse in the Boston Globe)
Political Will Wanes on Drug Coverage for Seniors
Excerpt: "[J]ust four months after deals were reached amid fanfare in the House and Senate, plans for drug coverage are nearly doomed. And while lawmakers say they still hope to reach a compromise, they acknowledge that the grand plans of last spring ran into trouble in a classic Washington fashion ..." (Boston Globe)
Several Complex Issues Remain Before Medicare Negotiators
Excerpt: "Although negotiators charged with reconciling the House and Senate Medicare bills (HR 1 and S 1) have addressed a number of 'central' issues, including the design of a new drug benefit and drug coverage for those dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, they have yet to resolve some of the 'most difficult' issues, CongressDaily/AM reports." (KaiserNetwork.org)
Do You Need Long-Term Care Insurance?
Excerpt: "Right now, the average rate for a private room in a nursing home is $181 a day, or about $66,000 a year, according to a 2003 survey by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. If the room rates reflect current annual increases in nursing-home costs, then by 2021, when today's 60-year-olds might need such care, the average rate will have risen to about $480 a day, or $175,200 annually." (Consumer Reports)
Rising Health Costs Take Bite Out of Small Biz
Excerpt: "Among small companies that posted lower earnings in August vs. a year ago, 18% blamed higher insurance costs, says a survey of 544 firms by the National Federation of Independent Business trade group. In a similar survey a year ago, 11% blamed health insurance costs for their earnings dip." (USA Today)
Health Care Organizations Face Unique Challenges In Providing Health Benefits
Health care organizations will need to adopt new strategies to provide health care benefits to their employees while containing costs, according to the Keenan HealthCare 2003 Health Care Benefits Strategy Survey. Ballooning health care costs for their own employees are threatening health care organizations' bottom lines, said Steve Richter, senior vice president of Keenan HealthCare. (Spencer Benefits Reports)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Overview: Golden Parachute Rules Applied To Payments Under Post-Change-in-Control Agreement
Excerpt: "The Tax Court has held that lump-sum payments to corporate executives under agreements entered into after a change in control of their employer were nondeductible golden parachute payments to the extent that total payments to each executive exceeded reasonable compensation for him. (Square D Company, (2003) 121 TC No. 11)" (RIA Tax News)
Sen. Nickles (R-Okla.) Announces Retirement
Excerpt: "Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., who carved out a solidly conservative record across four terms in the Senate, announced Tuesday that he will retire rather than seek re-election next year." (Washington Post)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Pension Administrator
for Pension Resources, Inc.
in PA
Pension Analyst (Retirement Plans)
for Mutual of Omaha
in NE
ERISA Attorney
for O'Neil, Cannon & Hollman, S.C.
in WI
Actuarial Assistant
for New York Life Investment Management LLC
in MA
Retirement Software Solutions Sales Rep
for Levi, Ray & Shoup, Inc.
in IL
Defined Contribution Plan Administrator
for Iron Administration, LLC located in North Suburban Chicago, IL
in IL
Group Health Insurance Sales/Account Management
for Great-West Healthcare
in GA, NC, NJ, NY, OH, TX, WA
Newly Posted Webcasts
(Post Yours!)
Open Enrollment 2004: Compliance Issues for Cafeteria Plans and ERISA Health & Welfare Plans
on October 28, 2003
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America, LLC (EBIA)
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)
WorldatWork Certification Course B3, HealthCare and Insurance Plans, Design and Management
in KY
October 20, 2003
Greater Cincinnati Compensation and Benefits Association
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