| BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter |   |
August 24, 2004
Today's sponsor: IQPC
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
Conference on Healthcare Cost Containment Strategies for Employers Proven Strategies for Reducing your Healthcare Costs, Maintaining Healthy Employees and Sustaining a Competitive Benefits Package October 25 - 27th, 2004 * Chateau Sonesta Hotel * New Orleans, LA This must-attend event will provide you with real-time strategies and solutions in lowering your healthcare costs. Hear first-hand case studies on how to implement innovative techniques to ensure healthy employees while maintaining a competitive benefits package, and walk away with practical knowledge enabling your company to become a market leader in healthcare cost containment.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Grassley Urges End to 'Use It Or Lose It' for FSAs
Excerpt: "The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee is urging the Treasury Department to re-examine a decades-old rule that requires employees with flexible spending accounts to forfeit any unused FSA funds at the end of each year." (Business Insurance)
Unionized Employees at Seattle HMO Strike Over Proposed Increase in Health Insurance Premiums
Excerpt: "About 1,700 unionized employees of Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative on Monday began a five-day strike to protest a proposed increase in employees' health insurance premiums, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports." (KaiserNetwork.org)
FDA Frets Over Illinois Drug Import Plan
Excerpt: "The pres.cription bottle may say 'Made in England,' but the Food and Drug Administration worries that Illinois' plan to help residents buy drugs from the United Kingdom may also allow counterfeit drugs from other countries." (AP via Washington Post; one-time registration required)
HIPAA Security Rules: Coming Soon to a Health Plan Near You
Excerpt: "Employers sponsoring group health plans have a broad new set of federal regulations that will require appropriate compliance measures in the months ahead. By acting now, employers can start doing what's required to assure that employees' electronic protected health information (ePHI) stored in company computers and transmitted over networks is secure, and that HR units are taking the appropriate steps to safeguard the data on an ongoing basis." (Towers Perrin)
Overview: Patients' Right to Sue Loses Steam
Excerpt: "The U.S. Supreme Court's late-June decision rejecting an employee's right to sue a health plan under a state statute and reaffirming the primacy of federal law in the matter, returned to Congress an issue that had caused a serious political clash over the past few years." (Health Care News, The Heartland Institute)
Overview: Employer-Provided Education Benefits
Excerpt: "Employers have several tax-free options available to encourage workers to take advantage of education opportunities. The two most common are scholarships and grants under IRC section 117 and education-assistance programs under section 127.... [B]oth plans bring administrative burdens on employers. A third alternative, part of the 'working condition fringe benefit' of IRC section 132(d), receives little fanfare but provides the most flexibility ..." (Journal of Accountancy)
Worker Benefits Under Review: Local Firms Strive to Keep Leverage
Excerpt: "Anticipating an economic upswing, local companies are sweetening their salary and benefits packages hoping to prevent their employees from taking new jobs." (Daily News Transcript)
Tough Choices for Employers on Retiree Drug Coverage
Excerpt: "Thousands of American businesses that help their retirees pay for rising pres.cription drug costs are faced with a financial and moral dilemma as they begin decoding the new Medicare drug law that takes effect in January 2006. Do businesses take a federal subsidy, expected to average $611 per covered retiree, so they can offer the same or better coverage than Medicare will offer with its new Part D drug benefit? Or do they reduce or eliminate retiree drug benefits ..." (StarTribune.com; one-time registration required)
States Want Say on Drugs: Pharmacy Managers Extending Control
Excerpt: "Lawmakers in more than half the states, including Connecticut, have pushed in the last two years to impose greater regulation over the private companies that control the benefits of virtually all Americans who have coverage for pres.cription drugs." (The Hartford Courant; one-time registration required)
Evaluating Health Savings Accounts
Excerpt: "Michael Pasternack, 36, still worries about the rising cost of health insurance, and is always looking for a better alternative. The newest concept in medical coverage, called Health Savings Accounts, is one such possibility for some families. Introduced as part of last year's Medicare reform, the program allows employees under 65 to put away money tax-free for medical expenses. The catch is that these accounts are linked to high-deductible health insurance plans." (Newsday.com)
Opinion: the False Promise of 'Consumer-Driven' Healthcare
Excerpt: "The Bush Administration's policy of promoting high deductible plans (including the proposal for a new tax deduction for individual high-deductible policies) will weaken the employer based health care system by providing employers with financial incentives to 'cash-out' health benefits, sending employees to the individual market." (Consumers Union)
Letters: Fitness Benefit Comes in From the Fringe
Excerpt: "'Fitness on the Job' (Aug. 17) discussed the challenges of demonstrating the economic benefits of work site health promotion." (The Washington Post)
No Quick Fixes for the Spiraling Costs of Pres.cription Drugs
Excerpt: "Increases of 14.4 percent in the cost of pres.cription-drug benefits are likely this year. A key to reining in costs lies with education for both patients and doctors on the value of generics and the pernicious effects of direct-to-consumer advertising." (Workforce Management)
Spotlight on Specialty Pharmaceuticals (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "[Health plan sponsors] should prepare to take on another challenge: the soaring costs of specialty drugs." (The Segal Company)
Pending Legislation Would Mark Major Changes in Association Health Plan Oversight
Excerpt: "One of the most confusing areas of health insurance reform has to do with legal treatment of association group insurance (AGI) and association health plans (AHPs). These are two types of insurance offered by private associations. There are similarities between the two, but there are also distinct and important differences." (Health Care News, The Heartland Institute)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
USERRA Update: Employment-Related Rights for Called Up Military Reservists and Returning Vets
Excerpt: "According to published reports, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-SD) recently has requested Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to begin a formal Labor Department investigation of complaints from returning military forces who say they have lost jobs or benefits after returning.... Given current circumstances, an update on USERRA requirements is appropriate." (Deloitte's Washington Bulletin)
IRS Provides Form 5500 Relief for Plan Sponsors in Florida Counties Affected by Hurricane
Excerpt: "IRS has announced special tax relief for taxpayers residing in 25 Florida counties that were hit by Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley and declared Presidential Disaster Areas. These counties are listed in IR 2004-108." (RIA Tax News)
Debate Over Benefits for Same-Sex Couples Heats Up
Excerpt: "Providing benefits to same-sex couples is on CEOs' radar: A study by the Washington, DC-based Human Rights Campaign found there was an 18 percent increase last year in private employers, colleges and universities offering domestic partnership benefits." (Entrepreneur magazine)
Long-Term Incentive Practices for CEOs Undergoing Change
Excerpt: "Large corporations are changing how they pay their CEOs by scaling back the use of stock options and stepping up use of restricted stock and long-term performance awards. A Towers Perrin analysis of proxy statements filed by publicly traded Fortune 250 companies confirms that the days of awarding CEOs extraordinary long-term incentive packages composed primarily of stock options are gone." (Towers Perrin)
Overview: Additional Form 8-K Disclosure Requirements and Acceleration of Filing Date (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "[C]ompanies will now have to promptly report on Form 8 K changes in top management and directors (i.e., elections, resignations, departures) as well as the adoption of or amendment to employment contracts and other material executive compensation or benefits arrangements. Filing deadlines have been shortened to four business days after the occurrence of the event in most cases." (Frederic W. Cook & Co., Inc.)
Roadmap for FLSA Final Reg Compliance
Excerpt: "Michael Fox has found [a Q&A flowchart] for understanding the new regulations. Congrats to Ogletree Deakins for attempting to simplify something that appears so complicated." (Attorney B. Janell Grenier on BenefitsBlog.com)
Overview: the Final FLSA Regulations (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The key changes in the final regulation are ..." (The Segal Company)
New Overtime Work Rules Clock In
Excerpt: "The first overhaul of overtime work rules in more than 50 years will punch in Monday, and up to 20 percent of companies are not expected to be in compliance.' (The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer)
Newly Posted Events
Basics of Employee Retirement Plans
in Massachusetts on October 14, 2004
presented by New England Employee Benefits Council
Compensation Fundamentals
in Massachusetts on November 2, 2004
presented by New England Employee Benefits Council
How To Form Partnerships With Health Care Service Providers
in Massachusetts on September 15, 2004
presented by New England Employee Benefits Council
How To Understand and Assess Retirement Plan Fiduciary Responsibility in the New Environment
in Massachusetts on October 7, 2004
presented by New England Employee Benefits Council
The New Retirement "Deal"
in Massachusetts on October 22, 2004
presented by New England Employee Benefits Council
Newly Posted Press Releases
Bruce Ruud & Associates, LLC now offers investment advisory services to plan fiduciaries and participants
(Bruce Ruud & Associates, LLC)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Defined Benefits Consultant/Project Manager
for Lynchval Systems Worldwide, Inc.
in VA
Senior Retirement Consultant
for Charles W. Cammack Associates, Inc.
in NJ, NY
Internal Sales Representative
for Merrill Lynch
in NJ
Account Manager
for Great-West Healthcare
in GA
Chief Operating Officer
for A South Florida based TPA
in FL
Client Relations Manager
for ING U. S. Financial Services
in PA
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