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December 1, 2003 - 8,712 subscribers
Today's sponsor: Financial Research Associates
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“Made in America (sm) 2004, the Inaugural Taft-Hartley Benefits Summit" Financial Research Associates’ is proud to present "Made in America (sm) 2004, the Inaugural Taft-Hartley Benefits Summit," scheduled for February 18-21, 2004 at The Caesar’s Palace in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada. We have been receiving an excellent response from the industry so far and we would love for you to be a part of this no-nonsense event! For more information or to register call 800-280-8440 or visit www.frallc.com.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
HSAs Might Alter Group Health Coverage
Excerpt: "A provision of the Medicare bill Congress passed this week would allow workers to turn a health insurance feature they normally dislike -- a high deductible -- into tax-free savings that could grow to large sums over a lifetime.... The provision could have a profound effect on employer-base medical insurance plans, some experts said." (Washington Post)
Key Implications of Medicare Reform Bill for Sponsors of Health and Retiree Health Plans (PDF)
5 pages. Excerpt: "Milliman Information Bulletin examines the law's key provisions as they relate to health benefit plans sponsored by employers for their workers.... Under the new Medicare law, Part D pr*scription drug coverage will be the primary payor for pr*scription drugs for Medicare-eligible individuals that are no longer employed, which will reduce retiree drug costs for employer plans if the participant enrolls in the new Part D." (Milliman USA)
Health Reform Losers, Winners
Excerpt: "The $400 billion drug benefit Congress voted to add to Medicare is a brand-new entitlement for 40 million elderly and disabled people. But while some will do better with the new coverage, others will not. And some will likely do worse." (The Baltimore Sun)
Medicare Plan for Competition Faces Hurdles
Excerpt: "The most politically charged feature of the Medicare legislation passed by Congress-- its attempt to make the federal Medicare program compete with private managed-care plans-- is also the least likely to come to fruition on the seven-year schedule set in the bill, according to health policy experts." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
For GOP Leaders, Battles and Bruises Produced Medicare Bill
Excerpt: "Passage of the $400 billion Medicare legislation, regarded a few weeks ago as improbable by many longtime policy experts, attests to the leverage that top Republican leaders can exert through their party's control of the White House, Senate and U.S. House. But they had to overcome intraparty divisions, most notably involving conservatives ..." (Washington Post)
AARP Faces Revolt Over Medicare Bill
Excerpt: "Senior citizens angry over the AARP's endorsement of the Medicare bill are ripping up or burning their AARP membership cards and flooding the lobbying group's Internet message board with complaints in what could be the biggest revolt in its ranks since the 1980s." (AP via Yahoo! News)
Opinion: GOP Grows Fat in the Promised Land
Excerpt: "[T]he rule of exodus tales is that the chiefs who lead in the wilderness and storm the citadels do not get to govern once their troops have occupied the city. Renegades are too combative to govern well.... [N]ow, as the governing party, they have to betray some of the principles that first animated them." (David Brooks in the New York Times; one-time registration required)
Opinion: Corporateering of the Year Award Goes to Medicare Profiteering Protections
Excerpt: "Constructive debate about Medicare's costs ... is hampered by a flawed assumption that both helps and is reinforced by the health care industry: that more care -- and more expensive care -- is better care." (Elliott S. Fisher in the New York Times; one-time registration required)
Opinion: Medicare Bill Was Master Electoral Move . . . Or Big Miss?
Excerpt: "Republicans think they are so clever, having rammed through a massive expansion of the welfare state by giving drug benefits to the elderly." (Washington Times)
New Medicare Plan 'Fails' Half of Elderly In 2006
Excerpt: "Despite it being touted as a boon to seniors, the new Medicare drug benefit is likely to help only half of the elderly population in 2006. An analysis of the bill shows that 50% of the over-65 population would face pharmaceutical expenses too low to reap any benefits from Part D in 2006, the first year of the new program." (Economic Policy Institute)
Opinion: a $400 Billion Purchase, All on Credit
Excerpt: "The rate of poverty used to be higher than average among the elderly, but over the past four decades it has been reduced by two-thirds and is now lower than the national average. Meanwhile, the number of younger adults without health coverage has been increasing ... Yet younger workers, far from begrudging the elderly universal insurance, have repeatedly told pollsters that they favor adding new drug benefits to Medicare." (John Tierney in the New York Times; one-time registration required)
State-Law Tort Claims Allowed for Insurer's Error In Terminating COBRA Coverage
Excerpt: "A group health insurer that prematurely terminated COBRA coverage due to an administrative error can be sued for monetary damages under state law because its action involved how it handled its insurance business -- not ERISA plan administration, a federal district court in Louisiana ruled. However, the court did find that state-law claims alleging breach of contract and bad faith were preempted." (Thompson Publishing Group)
Leaving Message on Employer's Voice Mail Was Not Sufficient Notice of Need for FMLA Leave
Excerpt: "Using an employer's automated answering system to call in sick did not provide the employer with sufficient notice that an employee was ill and required a leave of absence under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a federal district recently ruled." (Thompson Publishing Group)
California Employers Prepare for Mandatory Healthcare Insurance Coverage
Excerpt: "Despite expected legal challenges and delayed effective dates, California employers should get ready for the new 'pay-or-play' mandatory health coverage law (S.B. 2) that will require those with 50 or more employees either to provide health insurance to employees or pay a per-capita fee into a state fund that would provide the coverage. Employers in California will need to study the impact of the new requirements on their current health plans ..." (Thompson Publishing Group)
85 Million People Were Without Health Care Coverage Sometime From 1996 To 1999
Eighty-five million individuals, or 38% of the population younger than age 65, were uninsured for at least one month from 1996 through 1999, based on findings from a Commonwealth Fund survey that followed individuals' health care coverage for four years. The survey found that 68% of those with low incomes were uninsured for some period of time during these four years. These figures are more than twice the number who were uninsured at any one point in time or any one year during 1996 to 1999. (Spencer Benefits Reports)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Text of Advisory Opinion 2003-15A on Real Estate Investments via Limited Partnerships
Excerpt: "Whether a limited partnership in which employee benefit plans invest would be deemed a party in interest with respect to the plans under section 3(14)(G) of ERISA where the plan trustee would hold more than fifty percent of the interests in the limited partnership on behalf of the plans." (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration)
Executive Compensation Legislation Still Pending
Excerpt: "The current session of the 108th Congress is quickly drawing to a close, and finishing work on executive compensation legislation this year does not appear to be a priority for House and Senate leaders. But executive compensation still will be on the agenda when Congress returns to work in January, and there appears to be a very good chance it will enact some changes next year-- perhaps as part of an international tax bill." (Deloitte's Human Capital Advisory Services)
A Workers' Lobby to Provide Portable Benefits (PDF)
37 pages; working paper, 10/30/03 version. Excerpt: "Sara Horowitz founded an employees' lobby she called Working Today ... Working Today has shifted from seeking to represent all workers ... to providing private services to independent workers, with the primary emphasis on provision of portable benefits.... Section VII [of this paper] evaluates the accomplishments and prospects of Working Today. I conclude with an evaluation of the prospects of a broadbased workers' lobby." (Joni Hersch, Harvard Law School, via National Bureau of Economic Research)
Older Germans Being Pressured on Benefits
Excerpt: "[A]s Germany struggles to reduce public spending, generous retirement benefits long taken for granted are being openly debated -- even crudely when a member of the Christian Democrat youth organization this summer publicly said taxpayers should not have to pay for hip replacements for the elderly.... The suggestion to sacrifice again ... is particularly distasteful to those whose hard work in the decades after the Nazi defeat helped ensure Germany's generous welfare state." (AP via Newsday)
The End of Incentive Compensation for Employees in California?
Excerpt: "In this case, decided in October 2003, the court held that Ralphs's incentive compensation plan violated the [California] Labor Code because the calculation of employee bonuses was based on a formula that considered the store's profits and certain losses, including cash shortages, merchandise shortages, shrinkage, and workers' compensation costs." (Littler Mendelson)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Consulting Actuary
for New York Life Investment Management LLC
in MA
Administrative Assistant
for 401(k) Advisors
in CA
Associate - Employee Solutions
for Black Mountain Management, Inc.
in NY
Administrator - Recordkeeping and Administration
for Black Mountain Management, Inc.
in NY
Employee Benefits Paralegal
for Reinhart Boerner VanDeuren s.c.
in WI
Newly Posted Events
Health FSAs and Over-the-Counter Drugs: How IRS Revenue Ruling 2003-102 Changes the Rules
Nationwide on September 3, 2003
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America LLC (EBIA)
Medicare Reform and the New Prescription Drug Benefit: Overview of the New Legislation with a Focus on the Prescription Drug Benefit
Nationwide on December 16, 2003
presented by American Bar Association (ABA)
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