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December 6, 2004
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Financial Counseling Improves Retirement Planning by Employees
Excerpt: "More than 47 percent of employers that provide telephone counseling as part of their financial-education programs found that 401(k) participation rates went up more than 5 percent. Most employers track the results of their financial-counseling programs--and the early returns indicate that those programs are paying off. When employers add personalized services such as telephone counseling to their financial-education programs, employees seem to do better at managing their money, ...." (Workforce Management)
Working 9-to-5 No Longer -- Flexible Work Schedules Expand and More Businesses Cater to Trend
Excerpt: "The 5 a.m. commuter is no longer an oddity. The workday is starting at an increasingly early hour as more employees adopt non-traditional work schedules, a fast-growing trend that's transforming the 9-to-5 workday. Employees are getting to work earlier than ever to avoid rush-hour commutes and handle work-family demands, and many employers are simply demanding earlier start times to service clients across the USA and around the globe." (USA TODAY)
Lost Time: Vacation Days Go Unused Despite More Liberal Time-Off Policies
Excerpt: "As the year ends and last-minute vacation requests and sick calls surge, the companies that have paid-time-off plans can congratulate themselves for having gone to a more flexible and manageable system. But even the best plans aren't a remedy for another malady: American workers don't take all the vacation days they have coming." (Workforce Management)
Nationwide Financial Partners Say Contingent Commissions Small Part of Base Commissions
Excerpt: "Preliminary results of an NFP review suggest that contingent commissions amount to only 5% to 8% of NFP group benefits base commissions, .... Contingent commissions, which reward a broker for the performance of an entire block of business, have come under fire by some state attorneys general in recent months because of concerns that customers may be unaware of contingent commissions' influence. The UBS report also covers NFP's view of demand for benefits brokers." (National Underwriter)
Opinion: Employers Should Give Employees the Gift of Financial Education
Excerpt: "Each day, more companies and organizations are implementing financial education programs in the workplace. A growing number of employers have begun to view the concept of care for employee financial health as essential as physical care. While one could argue that financial know-how is valuable for a number of reasons, people weren't required to have the same level of financial knowledge to get through life in the pension era." (The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal via bizjournals.com; one-time registration required)
The Baylor Butler Did It: Health Care System's Concierge Is Especially Popular at Holiday Time
Excerpt: "Baylor Health Care System of Dallas doesn't actually employ elves – it just seems that way to the thousands of Baylor employees who get help from their employer with holiday errands. The health care system offers concierge services to its 12,000 full-time employees to help with everything from buying gifts to planning holiday parties. Though it's available year-round, the Baylor Butler service becomes especially popular at this time of year, ...." (The Dallas Morning News; one-time registration required)
Click & Choose: New Online Tools Help Employees Budget Health Care Dollars
Excerpt: "With working Americans' health-related finances growing increasingly costly and complex, advisers and insurers are fashioning a new generation of online tools to help them make the most of health care dollars. Employers, too, can tap these resources to show employees how to get greater value out of their health benefits. Health care has long been a neglected aspect of financial planning, says Elizabeth Jetton, president of the Financial Planning Association, ...." (Employee Benefit News)
Medical Costs Likely to Slow, But Not Soon
Excerpt: "Double-digit annual increases in the cost of health care cannot go on much longer, industry specia.lists say, but American consumers will have to wait at least a couple of more years before the increases start to slow. Many health plan members, meanwhile, will again face higher costs in the form of rising deductibles, co-payments and monthly premiums. The insurance companies will continue to thrive, even though they have begun to compete more on prices to gain market share in ...." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Electronic Medical Records: High Hopes Meet Harsh Reality
Excerpt: "For years, advocates of a comprehensive system of electronic medical records (EMRs) have had to settle for the moral high ground in the U.S., cheering on individual initiatives of the best and brightest institutions, confident that their case would achieve eventual victory, often ignored while lamenting the glacial pace of overall progress. But for two days in July, it was their time to bask under the sun of top-level approval." (Managed Care Magazine)
New Pres.cription Drug Plan Materials for Which CMS Invites Public Comment
Excerpt: "The strategy document describes the draft framework for CMS' review of Medicare pres.cription drug plan formularies. It also provides a strategy for drug benefit review that promotes appropriate operation of beneficiary protections and formulary oversight that includes access to all Part D covered drugs, while providing flexibility in plan design as expected under the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA). Comments should be sent to drugbenefitimpl@cms.hhs.gov by Dec. 30, 2004." (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
Tiered Formularies Open the Potential for Lack of Access to Needed Drugs
Excerpt: "'Previously there had been the belief that a tiered copayment arrangement affected only whether medications were given at the generic level or brand level. But this paper showed that even among brand-name drugs, when the higher cost brands are pushed to the third level, patients don't have access to them,' says Becky Briesacher, PhD, the lead investigator of the study." (Managed Care Magazine)
American Management Association's Survey Reports Corporate Wellness Programs on the Rise
Excerpt: "The number of companies offering educational programs on self-care topics is up in all seven categories covered by the (AMA) 2004 survey on corporate health and wellness programs. Twenty-seven percent of the survey's respondents said that they were offering more programs than last year, according to an AMA press release. .... The survey, the 2004 Survey on Corporate Health and Wellness Programs, surveyed the members and customers at 211 companies." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)
Definity-UnitedHealth Combination Could Spark Revolution in U.S. Health Care
Excerpt: "While Definity's $100 million in revenue is just a trickle within UnitedHealth's projected $45 billion revenue surge next year, the access and discounts it will get from UnitedHealth's provider network will offer huge opportunities for growth. In addition, Definity can piggyback on UnitedHealth's Exante bank, which handles the financial transactions associated with medical accounts. The Definity acquisition will strengthen UnitedHealth's appeal to a significant set of customers --...." (Star Tribune)
Consumer-Driven Health Care: Eight Directions for 2005
Excerpt: "Consumer-driven healthcare may be the 'next big thing' after managed care. Indeed, it may change healthcare as profoundly as managed care did 20 years ago. Consumerism drivers include double-digit premium hikes, employers desperate to cover employees yet to lower costs to remain competitive, and 45 million uninsured. The latter, increasingly unable to pay, could undermine investments in our healthcare infrastructure, causing a cascade of personal bankruptcies, bad debts, ...." (HealthLeaders News)
Accrediting Agencies Turn Attention to Consumer-Directed Health Plans
Excerpt: "When health plan accreditation organizations began taking note of emerging consumer-directed health plans in early 2003, the evolving insurance products were difficult to define. Today, as two major accrediting bodies work on standards that begin to address the features of CDHPs, and as another refines its program with an eye toward beefing up existing standards most relevant to the new plan designs, that's still the case." (Managed Care Magazine)
American Health Line Features Medical Malpractice Insurance Developments in Four States
Excerpt: "American Health Line examines recent developments related to medical malpractice insurance in four states. Summaries of the developments [in Maryland, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming are summarized].' (The National Journal Group, Limited via BlueCross BlueShield Association)
Highlights from the 2004 Florida Health Insurance Study Telephone Survey (PDF)
15 pages. Excerpt: "In 1998, the Florida legislature created the Florida Health Insurance Study (FHIS) to provide reliable estimates of the percentage and number of Floridians without health insurance--statewide, for various parts of the state, and for key demographic groups (Hispanics, Blacks, children, and low-income). .... Findings are available at http://www.fdhc.state.fl.us/Publications/Technical_Reports/index.shtml" (Florida Health Insurance Study)
The Disparate Consensus on Health Care for All
Excerpt: "In Washington, the phrase 'universal coverage' is rarely mentioned as the way to provide health insurance for the 45 million uninsured Americans. It evokes memories of the Clinton administration's sobering failure to forge a national health care plan. Yet among health care experts there is a surprising consensus that the United States must inevitably adopt some kind of universal coverage." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Death of Community Rating in the Health Care Insurance Market Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
Excerpt: "The potential demise of community rating concerns people who think the health care insurance market is moving toward adverse risk selection. They say community rating is the bedrock of our employer-based health care system. Their concerns focus on four market factors: an aging population, an apparent growth in self-selected consumer-driven health care plans, the increasing number of low income and unemployed people who can't afford individual insurance, and changes in information ...." (Managed Care Magazine)
A Wait-and-See Approach to Offering Health Savings Accounts by Business
Excerpt: "Industry watchers expect most businesses to spend the coming months evaluating high-deductible plans and, if they opt to offer HSAs, drafting education programs so employees are prepared for open enrollment for 2006 or 2007. As major insurers work on building product awareness, banks, mutual fund companies and stockbrokers will soon join the financial institutions that have started offering HSA investment products." (Workforce Management)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
US Airways Retirees Fighting Mad Over Plan to Cut Benefits
Excerpt: "[R]etirees are upset about the bankrupt airline's decision to seek termination of retiree medical and dental benefits on Jan. 1 and its pension-plan obligations in early 2005. The Virginia-based airline filed for Chapter 11 bankrup.tcy protection on Sept. 12, the second time that it has done so in two years. A bankrup.tcy court judge said Thursday that he doesn't expect to make a ruling on the benefits request until early January." (AP via The Miami Herald; one-time registration required)
Horizon Miners' Woes Show Problems with Contracts –- Bankrup.tcy Led to Loss of Benefits
Excerpt: "Cooper says he is not worried, but many miners who worked for Horizon Natural Resources Co. -- which was sold this fall -- are scared and angry. The health insurance they thought was a sure thing vanished when a bankrup.tcy judge recently released the company from having to pay the benefits for 3,800 active miners and retirees along with their families." (AP via The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Overview: New York City Requires Contractors to Provide Equal Domestic Partner Benefits
Excerpt: "Businesses that contract with the City of New York should be aware of the City's recently adopted 'Equal Benefits Law.' The law requires that businesses with contracts for $100,000 or more provide domestic partner benefits to their employees that are equal to the benefits the employer provides to married employees and their spouses." (Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP)
Opinion: Spin Over Same-Sex Benefits in Michigan Is Dizzying
Excerpt: "Let's start with a chronology. October 2004: New contracts negotiated between the administration of Gov. Jennifer Granholm and state employee unions include, for the first time, health care benefits for the domestic partners of g.ay and les.bian workers. Nov. 2: Michigan voters approve Proposal 2, a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and prohibiting government recognition of same-sex relationships. Dec. 1: The administration, under ...." (Detroit Free Press)
Preparing for Amendments to Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans
Excerpt: "The following article discussing new rules governing nonqualified deferred compensation plans will be published in the Greater Valley Forge Human Resource Association upcoming newsletter. (I serve as Legislative Chair for the association.) I am publishing the article here as well, since by the time it is published in the newsletter, it will likely need a rewrite due to soon-to-be-released IRS guidance expected in December." (Attorney B. Janell Grenier via BenefitsBlog.com)
In the Timing of Options, Many, Um, Coincidences -- Securities and Exchange Commission Notices
Excerpt: "Ever notice how huge stock option awards are often given to executives just ahead of bullish company news? The Securities and Exchange Commission apparently has. Last Tuesday, Analog Devices, a maker of integrated circuits, disclosed that the S.E.C. had requested information about the timing of option grants given to company executives and directors during the last five years. In its disclosure, the company noted that its grants in some years 'occurred shortly before our issuance ...." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Text of Hay Benefits Advisor, Fall 2004 Edition (PDF)
12 pages. Excerpt: "In this issue our benefits experts provide practical advice and useful insight about the latest benefits developments and their impact on your organization, including: 1. New Rules for Deferred Compensation Arrangements Require Immediate Employer Action; 2. New COBRA Notice Rules Take Effect; 3. Proposed Medicare Part D Pres.cription Drug Benefit Rules Offer New Choices for Employers; 4. New Rules for Retirement Plans." (The Hay Group)
General Electric Plans Benefit Cuts for New Hires
Excerpt: "General Electric Co. is cutting benefits for new hires, a policy change that may eventually threaten all employees at one of the world's largest and most valuable companies, union officials say. The cuts, which affect salaried employees hired after Jan. 1, 2005, eliminates company-paid medical coverage for early retires and those older than 65. They also eliminate early retirement with a full pension at age 60, according to union and company officials. Other planned cuts will ...." (AP via The New York Times via The Boston Globe)
Full Text of McAdams v. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (1st Cir., 12/1/04)
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Massachusetts law did not preclude Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company from deducting a tax charge of approximately 30% from the accounts of general agents participating in its nonqualified deferred compensation plan. (FindLaw)
Newly Posted Press Releases
PBGC Announces Maximum Insurance Benefit For 2005
(Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC))
Repko Elected 2005 President of the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists
(International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (ISCEBS))
CalPERS Asks Drug Companies to Restore Market Confidence and Questions Health Partners about Prescription Drug Safety
(CalPERS (California Public Employees' Retirement System))
Mortgage Benefits Corp. and Unisource Information Services to offer Bundled Discounts on Settlement Services
(Mortgage Benefits Corporation)
HealthEquity Announces "The Complete HSA Guidebook"
(HealthEquity)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Pension Analyst
for Long Island Employee Benefits Group, Ltd.
in NY
Defined Contribution Plan Administrator
for Midwest Benefit Consultants, Ltd.
in IL
Pension Administrator
for The Nolan Company
in KS
Pension Administrator
for PennRock Financial Advisors, N.A.
in PA
Institutional Trust System Analyst
for Branch Banking & Trust (BB&T)
in NC
Relationship Manager (Retirement Plans) - multiple positions
for Emjay Corporation, A Great-West Company in Milwaukee, WI
in WI
Executive Benefits Attorney
for Retirement Capital Group, Inc.
in CA
Senior Compensation and Benefits Analyst
for Main Street America Group
in FL
Benefits Administrator
for National company located in South Jersey
in NJ
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