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August 16, 2004
Today's sponsor: IBF
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7th Annual Pensions&Investments Defined Contribution West Coast Conference The 7th Annual Pensions&Investments Defined Contribution West Coast Conference will be held October 24-26, 2004 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA. With increased liability exposure and reform initiatives, plan sponsors need solutions. This program is dedicated entirely to educating and training plan sponsors to incorporate superior risk management and control practices into their existing DC plan programs. To register or for more information click above or call 516-765-9005.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Health Care Becomes Key Campaign Issue
Excerpt: "In Iowa and other battleground states in the presidential race, health care for seniors and everyone else is shaping up as a key issue, say pollsters, politicians, consultants and campaign officials.' (Des Moines Register via Council for Affordable Health Insurance)
Chronic Overeating Called an Addiction
Excerpt: "Just as federal health officials defined obesity as an illness, researchers at the University of Florida say mounting evidence suggests chronic overeating may be a substance abuse disorder and should be considered an addiction." (Washington Times)
Broker Investigation Shifts To Benefits
Excerpt: "New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has put the spotlight on employee benefit insurers and sparked questions about possible conflicts of interest over fees collected by insurance brokers." (BenefitNews.com)
More HIPAA Q&As Issued by CMS
Excerpt: "Does the HIPAA Security Rule allow for sending electronic PHI in an email or over the Internet? What does the HIPAA Security Rule mean by physical safeguards? Does the HIPAA Security Rule apply to written and oral communications? Are we required to 'certify' our organization's compliance with the HIPAA security standards? [More]" (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
When Are Benefits Provided in Kind Subject to ERISA?
Excerpt: "In addition to holding that the [grocery] voucher program [for retired grocery store employees] constituted a benefit plan subject to ERISA, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the lower court's decision that the CEO and other defendants were fiduciaries of the 'plan' or voucher program, stating that the term 'fiduciary' was to be 'liberally construed in keeping with the remedial purposes of ERISA' ..." (Attorney B. Janell Grenier on BenefitsBlog.com)
Homeownership Benefits Provide Staffing Ammunition
Excerpt: "About 12% of companies gave workers mortgage assistance in 2003, compared to 7% in 2002." (BenefitNews.com)
Making Health Care Consumerism Work -- Aligning Employer and Employee Interests (PDF)
Excerpt: "[C]onsumerism … is generally used to describe a new kind of partnership between employers and employees with regard to how employees use and pay for needed health care services.' (Towers Perrin)
New Healthplans Offer More Choice, at a Cost
Excerpt: "Learning what a treatment or procedure costs -- then deciding whether to pay for it -- is a new step for most Americans with health insurance. Even traditional fee-for-service plans, in which consumers pay 20% of a bill, don't prompt most people to analyze a procedure's cost or their actual need for it, experts say. But when consumers are held solely responsible for a medical bill, they tend to think twice." (Los Angeles Times; one-time registration required)
Issue Brief: a Brief History of Health Savings Accounts
Excerpt: "Health Savings Accounts is truly an idea whose time has come. HSAs promise to revolutionize the American medical marketplace. However, Congress should allow insurance companies and employers more flexibility to experiment and innovate, so that the market can discover what works best." (National Center for Policy Analysis)
Study Finds That States Impose Over 1,800 Mandates on Health Insurance Plans
Excerpt: "The Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI) has released a report showing that the various states collectively impose more than 1,800 health insurance mandates.... While the mandates are politically popular, CAHI urged state legislators and Congress to undertake a cost-benefit analysis before adding new mandates." (HR Policy Association)
Proposed California Government Reorganization Would Kill HMO Regulatory Agency
Excerpt: "The California Performance Review proposal to restructure state government would pull the plug on the first -- and only -- state agency in the country that solely oversees HMOs." (Sacramento Business Journal via bizjournals.com; one-time registration required)
Opinion: the Missing Rivalry in Healthcare
Excerpt: "Rising health care costs are a major concern for virtually every American company. Michael E. Porter, an expert on competitive strategy and the Bishop William Lawrence University professor at Harvard, argues that the heart of the problem is a health care system that needs less competition in some areas and more in others. Following are excerpts from a conversation with him: ..." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Opinion: Health Cost Control Depends on Managing the Site of Care
Excerpt: "The redirection of members to appropriate, lower cost settings is receiving renewed attention from managed care companies and will define the battleground for health care cost management over the next few years." (BenefitNews.com)
Compliance Assistance for Group Health Plans HIPAA and Other Recent Health Care Laws (October 2002)
Excerpt: "15 key compliance considerations for group health plans." (U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration)
Opinion: Transforming Our Health Sector By Empowering Consumers
Excerpt: "For too many people, private and public sector bureaucracies still are in charge of choices and spending decisions. Tax policy that ties health insurance to the workplace has left many Americans with job-based coverage only one choice of health plan – the one that their employer has picked for them." (Galen Institute)
California Nonprofits Leery About Mandatory Health Insurance
Excerpt: "Proposition 72 doesn't seem like a good proposition at all to some nonprofits, who are worried that being forced to pay for part-time workers' health insurance could drive them under." (San Francisco Business Times via bizjournals)
Opinion: Bizarre Alliances Form Opposition to Mandatory Health Insurance Coverage in California
Excerpt: "[T]he [California Chamber of Commerce] raises other issues in a highly misleading way. It continues to portray SB 2 as a threat to almost all businesses in the state, although by its own estimate more than 99% of the state's big companies and 94% of mid-size firms already provide workers with health coverage." (Los Angeles Times; one-time registration required)
Parent Care Weighs on Boomers' Finances, Plans
Excerpt: "Paying for parents' old age is weighing heavily on Baby Boomers' minds, according to ComPsych, a company that manages benefits services for employers. 'We've noticed over the last two quarters a significant increase in calls related to elder-care issues,' said Richard Chaifetz, ComPsych's chairman." (Chicago Tribune; one-time registration required)
Opinion: It's No Bed of Roses in the Mines for Bankrupt Employer's Workers
Excerpt: "[M]ore than 3,000 unionized miners who will lose their health care and retirement benefits under a federal judge's ruling that it is not necessary for their troubled employer to honor its contract guarantees ... The union is vowing an appeal, but the law clearly needs humane revision.' (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
FASB Making Changes to Stock Options Draft; Effective Date Decision Delayed Until Fall
Excerpt: "FASB has begun to make important decisions in key technical areas, such as reconfirming its definition of grant date. Throughout the fall, it expects to consider key topics such as income tax effects, inclusion of employee stock purchase plans, and measurement of the fair value of stock options." (HR Policy Association)
Windfalls and Pratfalls in Exercising Stock Options
Excerpt: "Thanks to stock options, many Google employees will become fabulously wealthy, at least on paper, after their company goes public. But unless they understand how their options work and manage them carefully, they could face nasty surprises, as so many technology employees before them did." (San Francisco Chronicle)
Without a Plan for Replacing Stock Options, Companies Could Lose Their Best People
Excerpt: "Mellon's Ted Buyniski talks about what companies are doing in response to stock-option accounting proposals, and who's really paying the price." (Workforce.com)
New SEC Rules, Effective August 23, Require Form 8-K Disclosure of Certain Exec Comp Agreements
Excerpt: "Public companies will have to file Form 8-K more often and more quickly under new SEC rules scheduled to take effect on August 23, 2004. The new rules, which the SEC issued on March 16, 2004, add 8 new items to the list of events that trigger a Form 8-K disclosure requirement (called 'triggering events') and shorten the filing deadline for most items to four business days after a triggering event occurs." (Deloitte's Washington Bulletin)
Small Business May Lag in OT Compliance
Excerpt: "Aug. 23. That's the date by which all U.S. employers need to comply with new wage rules established by the Department of Labor earlier this year. The new rules are expected to result in overtime wages for an additional 1.3 million low-income, white-collar workers." (AP via The Boston Globe)
Newly Posted Events
Passing Participant-Driven Expenses Through to the Participants Webcast
Nationwide on October 20, 2004
presented by ASPA (American Society of Pension Actuaries)
The Final Word on HSAs – Overview of Recent IRS Guidance
Nationwide on August 26, 2004
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Newly Posted Press Releases
The Principal Financial Group Unveils New Fiduciary Guide
(Principal Financial Group)
Torrid Technologies Releases Latest Version of Retirement Planning Software
(Metrics Partners)
Mortgage Benefits Corp. Announces Agreements with Four Benefit Brokers
(Mortgage Benefits Corporation)
Stull, Stull & Brody Announces 401(k) Breach of Fiduciary Class Action against Cardinal Health, Inc. and Others
(Stull, Stull & Brody)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
COMPLIANCE SERVICE ADMINISTRATOR
for AIG VALIC
in TX
Experienced Pension Administrator
for Matthews, Gold, Kennedy & Snow, Inc.
in AZ
Pension Supervisor
for Zenith Administrators
in CO
Pension Administrator
for Coble Pension Group, LLC
in AZ
Pension Analyst
for National Pension Services, a company of the Chittenden Corporation
in VT
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