| BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter |   |
December 31, 2003 - 8,783 subscribers
Today's sponsor: EBIA's HIPAA Portability & Privacy
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
New HIPAA Privacy Rules! Are Your Health Plans in Compliance? New laws and regulations impose far-reaching requirements on group health plans, employers, plan administrators, and insurers-- and EBIA is here to help! Our HIPAA Portability & Privacy manual is the best resource available. Written and edited by top employee benefits attorneys, HIPAA Portability & Privacy has over 900 pages packed with the information you need to bring your group health plans into compliance with all of HIPAA's rules. Click above for details.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Under HIPAA's Privacy Rules, What Must Be Included in an Accounting of Disclosures?
Excerpt: "Our company's self-funded health plan is subject to HIPAA's privacy rules. We know that the plan must provide individuals with an accounting of certain disclosures of their protected health information upon request. What types of disclosures have to be included in the accounting and what information about the disclosures must be provided?" (Employee Benefits Institute of America (EBIA))
An Operation to Ease Back Pain Bolsters the Bottom Line, Too, At Least for Payees
Excerpt: "In the absence of better data, critics in the field point to a different reason for the fusion operation's fast rise: money. Medicare can pay a surgeon as much as four times more for a spinal fusion, some doctors say, as for a laminectomy ... Doctors and hospitals are not the only players with a financial stake in fusion operations. Critics blame the companies that make the hardware ..." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Bookmark: BenefitsRestoration@IBM
Excerpt: "We are an organization of IBM retirees growing in size, possessing a significant IBM share voting strength and representing IBM retirees nationwide. We are united in our belief that over the years IBM has committed lifetime medical benefits to employees who stayed with them until retirement." (BenefitsRestoration@IBM)
Opinion: the Medicare Drug Bill's Hidden Costs
Excerpt: "Contrary to myth, private insurers add to the cost of Medicare. Steering seniors into the private plans just hastens the day Medicare goes broke." (Jane Bryant Quinn on MSNBC)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Text of Final Class Exemption on Release of Claims and Extension of Credit as Part of Litigation (PDF)
9 pages; Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2003-39. Excerpt: "The exemption permits transactions engaged in by a plan, in connection with the settlement of litigation. This exemption was proposed in response to concerns raised by the pension community regarding the impact of ERISA's prohibited transaction provisions on the settlement of litigation by employee benefit plans with parties in interest." (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration)
Opinion: FASB Keeps Getting It Wrong
Excerpt: "[T]he viability of our country's young startup companies is being compromised by recent actions taken by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). While we recognize the pressure placed on the FASB to issue standards more quickly, we have a grave concern that their 'rush to regulate' has needlessly burdened young companies in several ways." (Venture Capital Journal via Hoover's Online)
Dispute Over Expensing Stock Options Is Pitting FASB Against Congress
Excerpt: "FASB seems determined to force public companies to treat their employee stock options as an expense. But many members of Congress want to table the change or enact less stringent rules. The private accounting board hasn't clashed with Congress since 1994, when they fought over the same issue." (Investor's Business Daily via Yahoo! News)
Newly Posted Events
How to Reduce Your Healthcare Costs: Consumer Driven Health Delivery
in California on January 15, 2004
presented by Western Pension & Benefits Conference - Orange County Chapter
Discover2004: Solutions for Peak Performance
in Colorado on February 21, 2004
presented by DATAlynx and TRUSTlynx
Newly Posted Press Releases
The 412i Company presents "Legal and Illegal 412i Plans" in Miami Beach Jan 6-7 2004. 5 hrs. of CLE available
(The 412(i) Company)
Treasury and IRS Issue Guidance on Roth IRA Abuses
(U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service)
EmployeeMall Offers New Voluntary Benefit for Employers
(EmployeeMall)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Compliance Analyst
for Transamerica-The Winning Organization
in CA
Lead Project Manager
for Transamerica-The Winning Organization
in CA
Director of Sales
for Florida 1st Service Administrators, Inc.
in FL
Actuarial Assistant
for The Heintzberger Company
in OR
Project Manager-NBI
for Transamerica
in CA
Retirement Plan Installation Manager
for Simpkins & Associates (a regional admin firm with a Dallas opening)
in TX
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
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: