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July 14, 2004
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(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Trade Pact Might Undercut Inexpensive Drug Imports
Excerpt: "Congress is poised to approve an international trade agreement that could have the effect of thwarting a goal pursued by many lawmakers of both parties: the import of inexpensive prescription drugs to help millions of Americans without health insurance." (New York Times; one-time registration required)

House Votes to Allow Canada Drug Imports
Excerpt: "The House voted Tuesday to allow Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada and other countries at prices lower than found in the United States, but the provision's prospects are dim to become law this year." (AP via Yahoo! News)

Text of Conference Report on U.S.-Australia Trade Bill (PDF)
Excerpt (at page 25 of 26; a dissenting view): 'When Congress is in the midst of serious discussions about a change in current law, USTR should not negotiate a specific provision in a FTA that could create a violation of that provision if the pending congressional consideration leads to a change in the law. This is especially so where there is no specific mandate by Congress in trade negotiating authority to include such provisions in the FTA." (U.S. Government Printing Office)

Predicting Return to Work with Data Mining (PDF)
Excerpt: "With the increasing importance of mental health as a factor in long-term disability, and the increasing number and complexity of diagnoses, early intervention is becoming more and more important to claims management. Early intervention can offer claimants the attention and assistance they need ... to make a successful return to work. It can also prevent the slide into the disability mind-set-- the claimant's feeling that staying away from work is inevitable ..." (Contingencies Magazine)

The Dawning Age of 'Silver Tech'
Excerpt: "Networked devices that keep tabs on at-risk elderly patients living at home could soon provide better care -- and cut costs." (BusinessWeek)

Alcon Captive Benefits Plan Gets Tentative OK
Excerpt: "A Swiss pharmaceutical company has received tentative Labor Department authorization to fund benefits risks related to its U.S. employees through its Vermont-domiciled captive." (Business Insurance)

Does a High-Deductible Plan Lead to Good Purchasing Decisions? (PDF)
Excerpt: "There appears to be some evidence that the plans save money for employers, but as with any other plan that allows individual selection on the part of employees, it's difficult to determine whether the employer saves money overall. Economic theory says that properly designed products should save money. However, two key features need to be included to ensure the plans generate the right clinical and financial results: ..." (Contingencies Magazine)

Is There an Actuary in the House? Assessing Disease Management (PDF)
Excerpt: "Escalating health care costs are causing employers and insurers to reassess the value and effectiveness of their medical management procedures. Many of them are looking at disease management programs to prevent major diseases and thus reduce the need for and the costs of medical care. What's the value of these programs? It depends on whom you ask." (Contingencies Magazine)

Paying For Health Care In Retirement: Workers' Knowledge of Benefits and Expenses
Excerpt: "We present findings from a survey of workers ages forty-five to sixty-four concerning their attitudes toward and plans for health care coverage and expenses during retirement. We find a mismatch between workers' expectations about the benefits that are likely to be available to them and their planning as to how they will pay for health care in retirement." (Health Affairs)

Positive Results Put Insurers Behind Consumer-Driven Health Plans
Excerpt: "Consumer-driven health (CDH) vendors Definity Health and Lumenos have long touted the positive effects that their plans have had on consumers. Now Aetna, Inc., and UnitedHealth Group -- two mega health insurers that once saw little value in the CDH concept -- are hyping the results their clients have had with the products." (Inside Consumer-Directed Care via AISHealth.com)

Medicare Law Predicted to Cause Cuts in Drug Benefits for Retirees
Excerpt: "New government estimates suggest that employers will reduce or eliminate prescription drug benefits for 3.8 million retirees when Medicare offers such coverage in 2006." (New York Times; one-time registration required)

Are We Approaching the Threshold of Nationalized Health Care? (PDF)
5 pages. Excerpt: "Health care in America is regarded as a fundamental right. When providing it becomes more expensive and less profitable for the private sector, can nationalized health care be far behind?" (Contingencies Magazine)

With Health Insurance Out of Reach, a Generation Braces Itself for the Worst
Excerpt: "[T]here they are, these latest inheritors of the American dream, lined up in emergency rooms for toothaches and the flu, not because they're having emergencies, but because they don't have health insurance, and emergency rooms, unlike private doctors, are obliged to give them care. Since 1987, the number of uninsured young adults has grown at twice the rate of older adults ..." (The Village Voice)

Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

TIR 04-17: Massachusetts Tax Issues Associated with Same-Sex Marriages
Excerpt: "Where elements of Massachusetts taxation derive from federal law, such as the definition of gross income, or state deductions that are based on a federal counterpart, same-sex spouses may need to perform special calculations to arrive at the proper Massachusetts tax figure. This technical information release discusses these tax issues." (Massachusetts Department of Revenue)

CEOs Getting Deferred Compensation Perks
Excerpt: "While many corporations allow top executives to defer part of their multimillion dollar pay for tax purposes, some companies give those executives interest on that deferred compensation which is far more generous than an ordinary person can get through a money market fund or a bank CD. Some companies go even further, paying a guaranteed interest rate on par with the return an average investor might hope for from stocks, but with none of the risk." (AP via the New York Times; one-time registration required)

Washington Wrap-Up, as of July 12, 2004 (PDF)
Excerpt: "Federal Legislative and Regulatory Proposals of Interest to NCTR Members" (National Council on Teacher Retirement)

Newly Posted Events

ERISA Intact: The Holding and Implications of the Supreme Court's Decision in Aetna v. Davila
Nationwide on July 20, 2004
presented by HMOs and Health Plans Practice Group

New Medicare Prescription Drug Act--What does it mean for your plan?
Nationwide on July 22, 2004
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans

Newly Posted Press Releases

California Casualty Gets Relief With Ceridian Human Resource Solutions
(Ceridian)

U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao Launches Wi$e Up Financial Education Program at the University of Texas at Dallas
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.)

Mortgage Benefits Corp. Announces Agreement to Provide Group Mortgage Benefit to Gray Cary Law Firm
(Mortgage Benefits Corporation)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
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