| BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter |   |
September 10, 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)
IRS Grants Tax, Form 5500 Relief for Florida Hurricane Victims
(Internal Revenue Service (IRS))
Overview: 3rd Circuit Boots Theory Allowing Bad-Faith ERISA Litigation
Excerpt: "News spread quickly among Pennsylvania plaintiffs lawyers in June 2002 when Senior U.S. District Judge Clarence C. Newcomer broke ranks with his colleagues and held that plaintiffs suing an HMO under ERISA were entitled to add a claim under Pennsylvania's bad-faith statute.... But now the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Newcomer and Munley were wrong ..." (Law.com)
University of Pittsburgh Offers Same-Sex Benefits to Employees
Excerpt: "The University of Pittsburgh became the first state-related university in Pennsylvania to offer health care benefits to its employees' same-sex domestic partners last week." (The Digital Collegian)
Employment-Based Group Life Insurance Provides Majority of Coverage
Excerpt: "More than half the population has life insurance coverage through their employer, reports life insurer Allstate. But a sizable number say they need more." (BenefitNews Connect)
City of Philadelphia Asks State to Reconsider Insurer Blue Cross Surpluses
Excerpt: "The City of Philadelphia, in an attempt to trim rising health-care costs, has asked the state to reconsider how much money the region's largest health insurer ought to be able to set aside for possible future use." (The Philadelphia Inquirer; one-time registration required)
Lower Health Plan Cost Trends Expected In 2005 (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "The 2005 Segal Health Plan Cost Trend Survey predicts cost increases at slightly lower levels than 2004 for almost all coverage categories surveyed. Cost increases for pres.cription drug coverage are projected to decelerate most noticeably in 2005, yet still remain significantly above general inflation and wage increases." (The Segal Company)
Synopsis of Results of 2004 Deloitte Consulting's Consumer-Driven Health Care Survey (PDF)
5 pages. Of those who are in the second year of offering CDHC, 80% saw an increase in enrollment in the plan. The rest reported enrollment about the same as in 2003 and no one experienced a decline in enrollment. 76% of plan sponsors agreed that CDHC plans change employee purchasing behavior. About half believe the plans can reduce the long-term cost increases and result in immediate savings to the employer. Almost 1/3 disagreed with this conclusion and the rest were neutral. (Deloitte Consulting)
Opinion: Overblown Obesity Scare
Excerpt: "It is virtually official U.S. policy that obesity kills 300,000 people yearly. But a new analysis by brave federal researchers exposes this factoid for what it is: junk science." (Steven Milloy in the Washington Times)
Health Cost Control Depends on Managing the Site of Care and Considering Alternative Sites
Excerpt: "Most employers recognize that if they want to reduce their health care expenses, they must control hospital expenditures. To accomplish this, they must not only increase their negotiating leverage with providers, but also identify alternatives to using hospitals as the major site of care." (Employee Benefit News)
Health Insurance Costs Keep Rising; Premiums for Employer-Sponsored Plans Grew by 11.2%
Excerpt: "Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums rose 11.2 percent this year, registering the fourth consecutive double-digit annual increase and pushing the cost of family coverage under the most common type of plan past $10,000, according to a new nationwide survey." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Overview of September 9 Wall Street Journal Article on Use of Health Savings Accounts
Excerpt: "There is an informative article in the Wall Street Journal … summarizing how health savings accounts are being utilized: 'Health Savings Accounts Gain Momentum.' The article reports that about '20 financial institutions, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Mellon Financial Corp., are marketing HSAs' ....'" (Attorney B. Janell Grenier on BenefitsBlog)
Capitol Hill Watch: Senate Unlikely To Vote on Pres.cription Drug Reimportation Legislation This Year
Excerpt: "Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday said that he likely will not hold a vote on legislation to allow the reimport of lower-cost pres.cription drugs from Canada before the November election because of a lack of time and concerns about the safety of the practice, the AP/Detroit Free Press reports." (Kaisernetwork.org)
Would Heritage Foundation Support an Equitable Individual Health Insurance Mandate?
The PNHP comments on the Los Angeles Times editorial of September 4, 2004, '‘Ownership' Isn't the Cure,' which dealt with Bush's health care reform proposals. (Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP))
Kerry Pitching Health Care Solutions
Excerpt: "John Kerry is spending two days in a row talking about health care with Midwestern voters, a sign the Democratic candidate thinks he can use rising medical and pres.cription drug costs to sway undecided voters as much as joblessness and the economy." (AP via The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Poll: Americans See Themselves As Healthy
Excerpt: "Most Americans are careful about what they eat, believe they will live a long time, go to their doctor regularly and support biotechnology and medical research, particularly stem cell research, according to a poll commissioned by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston." (AP via USA Today)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Choice Is Overrated; Easy to Have Too Much of a Good Thing
Excerpt: "[U]p to a point, choice does enhance efficiency and consumer welfare. But at some point, there get to be so many options about what to buy or what career to go into or which mutual fund to invest in that many people make worse decisions than they would if they had fewer choices -- or simply put off making a decision at all." (Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Filling in the Blanks on Section 404 Compliance with a November Deadline Looming and Costs in Mind
Excerpt: "Any way you slice it, U.S. companies and their compliance teams are being pushed to the max. One quarter remains until the first batch of companies, and their auditors, must attest to their internal controls as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Controls are being rethought and remade as internal tests reveal weaknesses, and for many the last leg of the process--external auditors showing up at your door--is finally within sight." (Treasury & Risk Management)
Hewitt Federal Legislation Quick Guide - Sept. 8, 2004
Excerpt: "Hewitt's Federal Legislation Quick Guide provides short updates on federal legislation that is currently under active consideration by Congress or has recently been enacted into law, regarding health and welfare benefit plans, retirement plans, and human resources and employment law." (Hewitt Associates)
House Opposes New Overtime Rules: Democrats Prevail in 223 to 193 Vote
Excerpt: "The House voted 223 to 193 yesterday to block the Bush administration's sweeping new eligibility rules for overtime pay, giving Democrats a significant victory that they hope will boost the party's standing among middle-class voters in key battleground states in the fall election." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Newly Posted Events
Drug Importation Legislation: The Debate Over Drug Pricing, Cross-Border Purchases, and Government Regulation
Nationwide on September 10, 2004
presented by Food and Drug Law Institute
Obesity: Science, Policy and Regulation Focus on a Growing Consumer Problem
Nationwide on September 10, 2004
presented by Food and Drug Law Institute
Understanding Part D: The Voluntary Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
Nationwide on September 10, 2004
presented by Food and Drug Law Institute
Newly Posted Press Releases
McHenry Surveys Launched - TPA and Investment Advisors To Be Polled
(McHenry Consulting Group)
Benefit Advisors Network Adds DiMartino Associates, Inc.
(Benefit Advisors Network)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Benefits Specialist
for Milliman, Inc.
in WA
Actuarial Analyst
for Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Company
in FL
Paralegal
for ExpertPlan, Inc.
in NJ
Director, Client Services
for BISYS Retirement Services
in PA
Compliance Consultant
for The Vanguard Group
in PA
Compliance Testing Manager - PA
for The Vanguard Group
in PA
Plan Conversion Manager - PA
for The Vanguard Group
in PA
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