If the headlines in this newsletter aren't clickable for you,
please use the online, clickable version at:
https://benefitslink.com/2003/2003_10_30_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

October 30, 2003 - 8,609 subscribers
Today's sponsor: EBIA's Tax Savings Calculator

(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)

Announcing EBIA's Tax Savings Calculator!

EBIA's new Tax Savings Calculator is the first of its kind--a
"must have" tool for every employer that sponsors a cafeteria
plan or transportation plan and for anyone else that designs or
administers plans. This powerful, easy-to-use tool allows
employees to estimate their federal tax savings that arise from
making a wide variety of pre-tax salary reductions, and it also
compares DCAP vs. DCTC savings.

For details, please click above! 

(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Deal In Works To Form Largest U.S. Health Insurer
Excerpt: "Anthem Inc. announced plans Monday to buy WellPoint Health Networks Inc., a move that would create the largest health plan in the country-- one big enough, perhaps, to force a drop in drug, doctor and hospital costs in many regions." (Sacramento Bee via Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights)

Medicare Bill Won't Include Co-Payment for Home Care
Excerpt: "After intense lobbying by Medicare beneficiaries and by former Senator Bob Dole, Congress has discarded the idea of imposing a co-payment on home health care services provided to the elderly and the disabled, lawmakers said on Wednesday." (New York Times; one-time registration required)

Tough Talks Remain on Medicare Bill
Excerpt: "Officials said that in talks lasting until mid-evening, negotiators for the House and Senate had yet to broach the most contentious remaining stumbling block, a Republican demand to place traditional Medicare in direct competition with new private health care plans envisioned under the bill." (AP via Washington Post)

Drug Makers' New Intensity in Defense of U.S. Borders
Excerpt: "On Capitol Hill, pharmaceutical executives say that legalizing drug imports would endanger American patients and sap profits that pay for research. But their message to Wall Street has been more reassuring - that the problem of drug imports, at least for now, is well in hand." (New York Times; one-time registration required)

Study: Prescription Drug Prices Generally Are Relative to National Income
Excerpt: "In Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Canada and the United States, the price differences roughly reflected variations in per capita income, the researchers said." (Reuters via Yahoo! News)

Updated 'Chartpack'-- Medicare's Future (PDF)
60 pages; updated 10/23/03. Excerpt: "As congressional leaders continue to work through some of the knottier issues in the proposed Medicare prescription drug legislation, we've updated our Medicare chartpack to include the latest Commonwealth Fund-supported research on this and related topics.... [It] now has new information on how the proposed legislation would affect Medicare beneficiaries, particularly those with chronic illnesses or low incomes." (The Commonwealth Fund)

Worker Settles Weight-Bias Suit against McDonald's
Excerpt: "A 420-pound man has agreed to an undisclosed settlement of a lawsuit in which he alleged that McDonald's discriminated against him on the basis of his weight in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the New Haven Register reports." (HRNext)


Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

FASB Picks 2005 to Begin Mandatory Expensing of Stock Options
Excerpt: "Accounting rule makers voted to begin requiring companies in 2005 to charge stock-option costs against earnings, among a slew of decisions that are putting into shape a closely watched bookkeeping change. The new standard, which would mandate expensing stock-option awards just like any other form of compensation, is to be proposed for public comment by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in February. A final rule is expected to be formally issued in the second half of 2004." (Dow Jones Business News via Yahoo! News)

Export Tax Subsidy Repeal Bill Would Impact Retiree Health and Executive Compensation
Excerpt: "[T]he proposed mark by Ways and Committee Chairman William Thomas (R-CA) to The American Jobs Creation Bill of 2003 (H.R. 2896) would: extend for 5 years the ability of an employer to transfer excess defined benefit plan assets to retiree health accounts ... [and] clarify that a stock option is not subject to payroll tax when the option is exercised ... [and more]." (CCH News & Information Library)

Text of Joint Committee on Taxation's Description of H.R. 2896, 'American Jobs Creation Act of 2003' (PDF)
159 pages. Excerpt: "Treatment of nonqualified deferred compensation plans [sec. 1061 of the bill]; Exclusion of incentive stock options and employee stock purchase plan stock options from wages [sec. 1062]; Extension of provision permitting qualified transfers of excess pension assets to retiree health accounts [sec. 1063] ..." (U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Taxation)

Text of H.R. 2896 Approved by Ways and Means Committee, Affecting Nonqualified Deferred Comp Plans (PDF)
245 pages. Summary by the American Benefits Council (http://www.americanbenefitscouncil.org): 'The Ways and Means Committee has approved ... a corporate and international tax reform bill (H.R. 2896) that includes amendments to the rules governing nonqualified deferred compensation plans (Section 1061 of H.R. 2896). The provisions also similar to those contained in the National Employee Savings and Trust Equity Guarantee (NESTEG) Act approved by the Senate Finance Committee on September 17." (U.S. House of Representatives)


Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Post a Help Wanted Ad

Account Executive - Client Relationship Management
for Diversified Investment Advisors
in CA

Sales Director-401(k)
for BenefitStreet
in CA

Plan Compliance Manager
for Transamerica-The Winning Organization
in CA

Processor
for Hand Benefits & Trust Company
in TX

Assistant Manager Of Administration
for Retirement Alliance, Inc.
in NH

Senior Counsel
for Asset Management and Retirement Services Company
in FL

ERISA Attorney
for Stevenson Keppelman Associates
in MI
Newly Posted Conferences
(Post Yours!)

Qualified Retirement Plan Seminar
in ALL STATES
November 14, 2003
Global Benefit Advisors and Gray, Harris & Robinson, P.A.
Newly Posted Press Releases
(Post Yours!)

Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America Votes In New Board Of Directors
(Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America (PSCA))

Federal Pension Insurer Assumes Responsibility for Pillowtex Pensions
(Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation)

The SPARK Institute Meets With SEC To Discuss Market Timing And Late Trading
(RG Wuelfing & Assoc.)

Labor Department Sues Executives of Indiana Marketing Firm For Failure to Prudently Manage Health Plan
(U.S. Department of Labor)


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: