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August 18, 2004
Today's sponsor: World Congress
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The 2nd Annual WORLD HEALTH CARE CONGRESS January 30 – February 1, 2005 ~ Washington DC ~ Marriott Wardman Park Hotel The 2nd Annual 2005 World Health Care Congress is the most progressive forum to achieve an affordable, accountable U.S. health care system. Co-sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and CNBC, the 2004 executive conference initiated a dialog of national significance. The 2005 conference achieves significant strides in implementing actionable solutions as it will convene all stakeholders - over 1500 CEOs, senior executives and government officials from the nation’s largest employers, hospitals, health systems, health plans, pharmaceutical and leading government officials.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
California Senate-Passed Bill Mandates Maternity Coverage
Excerpt: "[T]he bill, which has passed the Senate and is expected to come up for a vote in the Assembly this week, is the center of a battle that pits women's groups and consumer, labor and medical organizations against business and insurance lobbyists. It's also splitting the healthcare industry." (Los Angeles Times; one-time registration required)
Wisconsin Opinion Calls for Contraceptive Coverage
Excerpt: "Wisconsin employers and state colleges and universities are prohibited from excluding pres.cription contraceptives from health care plans that provide pres.cription drug coverage, according to a legal opinion by state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager." (Business Insurance)
IRS: Coverage Under COBRA Settlement Was Qualified Health Coverage for Purposes of HCTC
Excerpt: "In a private letter ruling ... the IRS concluded that health coverage that does not meet COBRA's requirements can constitute 'coverage under a COBRA continuation provision' for purposes of the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC). The health benefits at issue covered a group of retirees ... receiving health coverage pursuant to a court-approved arrangement negotiated between their former employer and a committee representing the retirees in the former employer's bankrup.tcy." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA))
Overview: Coal Miners Lose Health Benefits in Bankrup.tcy
Excerpt: "The nation's fourth-largest coal company is in bankrup.tcy court, leaving thousands of mines without health insurance. The judge in the case has ruled that the company isn't liable for health care benefits for 1,000 active miners and more than 2,000 retirees. Horizon Natural Resources filed for bankrup.tcy two years ago. NPR's Brian Naylor reports." (National Public Radio)
CVS Smoothes Way for Consumers Using Healthcare Reimbursement Accounts
Excerpt: "CVS customers who use the company's ExtraCare card when buying over-the-counter remedies may now obtain a detailed list of all such purchases. The customers can then submit the list to their employers for reimbursement, instead of keeping track of individual receipts. The list can also help customers plan ahead so they can better estimate how much money to set aside in their health-spending accounts at work ..." (Providence [RI] Journal; one-time registration required)
Drug Savings In New York State Just a Click Away
Excerpt: "A new state Web site will help consumers faced with high pres.cription costs to compare prices and save up to $100 on a drug purchase while driving down the market price. State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched the site yesterday." (AP via Newsday)
Court: Covered Dependents Do Not Require Separate COBRA Notice
Excerpt: "US District Judge Joan Ericksen of the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, in denying the former employee's request for summary judgment, found no provisions in COBRA requiring an employer to send individualized notice to covered dependents. '[T]he Court concludes under the facts of this case that there is no COBRA requirement entitling (daughter Gabrielle) Cotton – a minor child living in the same household as her father – to a separate COBRA notice,' said Ericksen." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)
Today's Coffee Breaks Don't Always Involve Coffee
Excerpt: "[S]ome companies are providing more creative ways to get employees' adrenaline flowing. 'We're seeing some very interesting breaks now that are attempts at team building,' says Nancy F. Koehn, a professor at Harvard Business School." (Wall Street Journal via SFGate.com)
Firms Do Not Track Absence Costs
Excerpt: "Firms often underestimate absence costs and fail to track utilization of leave benefits, a recent survey from Hewitt Associates reveals.' (BenefitNews Connect, BenefitNews.com)
Overview: GASB Issues Final Statements on Accounting for 'Other Postemployment Benefits' (PDF)
11 pages. Excerpt: "These statements establish standards of accounting and financial reporting for other postemployment benefits (OPEBs) expenditures/expense and certain other related amounts in the financial reports of state and local governmental employers and OPEB plans. This For Your Information discusses the key provisions of the two statements. For most plan sponsors, the statements will require a significant increase in current expense for OPEBs." (Mellon's Human Resources & Investor Solutions)
17 Public Entities Have Quit CalPERS
Excerpt: "Faced with paying up to 24 percent more for health insurance and losing HMO coverage at four area hospitals, some local governments in the Sacramento region have done what once was unthinkable by dropping out of the CalPERS health program." (Sacramento Bee)
HHS Addresses Delegating Privacy Duties and Designation of Privacy Officer, Participant Assistance
Excerpt: "The Joint Committee on Employee Benefits (JCEB) of the American Bar Association (ABA) has posted on its website a report of the May 2004 informal question and answer session between JCEB representatives and officials from HHS. These question and answer sessions occur each year and are based on questions that the JCEB submits to HHS in advance. Here is a summary of the two questions on HIPAA privacy that we found most interesting:" (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA))
Overview: IRS Issues Revised and Corrected Version of Recent HSA Guidance
Excerpt: "The portion of the guidance that addresses what type of insurance company may serve as an HSA trustee or custodian has been revised to state: 'Any insurance company or bank (including a similar financial institution as defined in Code Section 408(n)) can be an HSA trustee or custodian.' In addition, entities already approved by the IRS to be trustees or custodians of IRAs or Archer MSAs are automatically approved ..." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA))
Overview: CMS Issues Guidance on Medicare Pres.cription Drug Benefit-- the Employer Subsidy (PDF)
6 pages. (Mellon's Human Resources & Investor Solutions)
HSAs: a Health-Care Windfall
Excerpt: "Rich Phillips … discovered Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), a new type of low-cost, high-deductible, big-benefit health-insurance policy. Now he pays $350 a month in premiums and tucks away $300 a month into a tax- deductible savings account. 'This is a great plan, the future of health care,' says Phillips." (Newsweek via MSNBC.com)
W.Va. Could Set Precedent With Drug Price Controls
Excerpt: "Struggling with skyrocketing drug costs, West Virginia lawmakers are poised to go head to head with the powerful pharmaceutical industry, potentially becoming the first state to impose price controls on pres.cription drugs." (Newsday)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Recent Trends in Executive Compensation
Excerpt: "As suggested by the survey results, most companies need to re-think their compensation strategies. Major companies, such as IBM, Microsoft, Intel, and General Electric, have recently established new compensation policies and protocols. Companies need to consider not only whether the pay levels are excessive for top executives, but they also need to consider the more holistic approach to total rewards." (Aon)
Overview: IRS Finalizes Reg Used to Combat Shelter Involving Compensatory Option Transfers
Excerpt: "Without change, IRS has finalized a temporary reg that it added last summer as part of its arsenal to go after (1) employees who attempt to defer income and employment taxes by transferring their nonstatutory compensatory stock options to related parties, and (2) the promoters of those schemes." (RIA Tax News)
CalPERS Trustees Target Executive Compensation Paid During Corporate Mergers or Acquisitions
Excerpt: "The California Public Employees' Retirement System is taking steps to rein in large executive compensation packages related to mergers and acquisitions, such as those included in the proposed merger of Anthem Inc. and WellPoint Health Networks Inc." (Business Insurance)
Why is Life Expectancy So Low in the United States? (PDF)
12 pages, by Alicia H. Munnell, Robert E. Hatch and James G. Lee. Excerpt: "The United States is the richest major country in the world in terms of per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Since longevity is clearly associated with income, America's older citizens must live longer than their counterparts in other large industrial nations. Right? Wrong!" (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)
Financial Firms Hasten Their Move to Outsourcing
Excerpt: "Deloitte said the unexpectedly rapid growth rate for offshore outsourcing showed no signs of abating, despite negative publicity about job losses. Although information technology remains the dominant service, financial firms are expanding into other areas like insurance claims processing, mortgage applications, equity research and accounting." (New York Times; one-time registration required)
Why the California Supreme Court Repudiated San Francisco's Issuance of Same-Sex Marriage Licenses
Excerpt: "Overall, the court's opinion was an unusual mixture of cautious disinclination to decide certain disputed legal questions on the one hand, and broad rhetoric, reasoning and action on the other. Let us first analyze the careful aspects of the ruling." (FindLaw.com)
How Lawyers Helped Drive the Boom In Tax Shelters
Excerpt: "The proliferation of tax shelters during the 1990s boom cost the U.S. Treasury tens of billions of dollars. Much of the blame has fallen on accounting and tax-advice firms.... [L]awyers also helped drive the tax-shelter boom amid the big-money ventures that defined the decade." (Wall Street Journal via SFGate.com)
House Rpt.108-548 - Part 1 - AMERICAN JOBS CREATION ACT OF 2004
Excerpt: "Committee on Ways and Means files the report to accompany H.R. 4520, the 'American Jobs Creation Act of 2004,' on June 16, 2004" (U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means)
Tips for Plan Participants, from Prominent Plaintiffs' Law Firm
Excerpt: "It is important that you submit all possible evidence in support of your position during the plan's claim and review procedure. There are two main reasons for this. First, evidence may be difficult to obtain if it is no longer fresh (this is especially true of medical evidence supporting disability claims). Second, certain courts may refuse to look at any evidence which was not presented to the plan during the claim and review procedure. This is not always the case ..." (Lewis & Feinberg, P.C.)
Newly Posted Events
7th Annual Defined Contribution/401(k) West Coast Conference
in California on October 24, 2004
presented by Pensions & Investments and IBF*International Business Forum
Annual Fall Employee Benefits Law and Practice Update
Nationwide on November 10, 2004
presented by ALI-ABA (American Law Institute-American Bar Association)
Dealing with Fiduciary Liability & Provider Benchmarking
Nationwide on August 24, 2004
presented by PLANSPONSOR
Newly Posted Press Releases
New Hay Group Study Finds that Medical Premiums Continue Double-Digit Rise for Fifth Consecutive Year
(Hay Group)
U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao Announces Agreement with United Airlines to Appoint Independent Fiduciary To Manage Pension Plans
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.)
Allied Pilots Association Releases Statement Regarding United Airlines Pension Deferrals
(Allied Pilots Association (APA))
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Compliance Testing Consultant
for Diversified Investment Advisors
in NY
401(k) Plan Administrator
for Northeast Planning Services, Inc.
in MA
Daily Valuation Processor/Recordkeeper
for Third Party Administrator located in the Galleria Towers in Dallas, TX
in TX
Sr. Benefits Compliance Specialist
for NRECA
in VA
Plan Administrator (Assistant)
for Small Daily Val shop in San Marco section of Jacksonville, FL
in FL
Assistant for Sales and Pension Administration
for The Senex Group
in CA
Pension Administrator
for Clark, Schaefer, Hackett & Co.
in OH
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