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December 7, 2004
Today's sponsor: IQPC
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
Conference on Curbing Obesity through Workplace Wellness Programs Utilizing Wellness Programs to Decrease Costs, Increase Productivity, and Combat Obesity December 14 - 15th, 2004 * InterContinental Hotel * New Orleans, LA - Recognize how introducing wellness programs results in healthier employees and a healthier bottom line - Reduce abstenteeism and increase productivity through wellness programs including weight management/loss plans - Integrate wellness programs into health plans for your employees - Get lower health insurance rates for your company by helping employees lose weight and maintain a healthier lifestyle - Investigate the current and future obesity issues faced by the healthcare industry and hear best practices on how your organization can most cost effectively react
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Supreme Court Leaves Retiree Health Insurance Benefit Issue Unresolved
Excerpt: "The Supreme Court today declined to clarify standards for suing employers who rescind health benefits they initially promised in early retirement packages. At issue was whether CNA Financial Corp. could be held liable for not fully revealing that the benefits could be eliminated. Several federal courts have ruled yes, but the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said only if the employer deliberately intended to deceive workers." (AP via The Houston Chronicle)
Congress Passes Legislation Enhancing Dental and Vision Benefits for Federal Employees
Excerpt: "Legislation that would enhance dental and vision benefits for federal employees gained House approval yesterday and was sent to President Bush. The bill would authorize the Office of Personnel Management to set up a program to provide dental and vision coverage to federal employees and retirees. The program would be voluntary, and enrollees would pay the entire cost. Under the bill, OPM next year would solicit bids from health insurance companies and give them wide leeway in ...." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Overview: Flexible Spending Accounts-- Making a Good Deal Better
Excerpt: "As the year ends, hundreds of thousands of American workers are scrambling to spend down their flexible spending accounts (FSAs). Some buy designer eyeglasses. Others schedule a last minute appointment for teeth cleaning. Some plan a doctor visit or diagnostic test of questionable value. In almost all cases, this year-end spending goes for items and services that are probably worth less than their cost. Why do so many people going on medical shopping sprees?" (National Center for Policy Analysis)
What Is a Cafeteria Plan?
Excerpt: "A Cafeteria Plan is a tax-qualified employee benefit under Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code. It permits employees to select the benefits that are most relevant to their personal situation from a 'menu' of cash and noncash benefits and decide how they will be paid for. Benefits commonly include allowing employees to use pretax compensation to pay employee-paid group insurance premiums, establish flexible spending accounts for medical and dependent care expense ...." (McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)
Overview: 2004 IRS Publication 969 Is Expanded to Cover HSAs, MSAs, HRAs, and Health FSAs
Excerpt: "The IRS has released Publication 969 for use in preparing 2004 tax returns. This publication formerly covered only medical savings accounts (MSAs), but it has now been renamed and expanded to include information about health savings accounts (HSAs), health FSAs, and health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). The information provided on each tax-favored vehicle includes a summary of the benefits associated with that particular arrangement and a brief discussion of the applicable ...." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc.)
Overview: 2004 Publication 503 (Child and Dependent Care Expenses) Issued with Few Changes
Excerpt: "The IRS has just released a revised version of Publication 503 for use in preparing 2004 tax returns. Publication 503 explains the tests that a taxpayer must pass in order to claim the dependent care tax credit (DCTC) under Code Section 21 for child and dependent care expenses. (Similar tests must also be met for expenses to be reimbursable under a dependent care assistance program (DCAP).) The 2004 version of Publication 503 is very similar to the 2003 version." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc.)
Overview: HHS Issues First of Seven Papers Providing Guidance on HIPAA Security Rule
Excerpt: "HHS recently posted on its website the first in a series of seven papers intended to assist health plans and other covered entities with implementing HIPAA security standards. The paper provides a general overview of the HIPAA security rule and its overlap with the HIPAA privacy rule's 'safeguard' provision (which requires 'appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect the privacy of protected health information')." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc.)
Information Technologies: When Will They make it Into Physicians' Black Bags?
Excerpt: "In 'Information Technologies: When Will They Make It into Physicians' Black Bags?' (Medscape General Medicine, Dec. 7, 2004) a research team led by Common-wealth Fund assistant vice president Anne-Marie Audet, M.D., discuss results of the Commonwealth Fund National Survey of Physicians and Quality of Care with regard to physicians' use of IT, their future plans to use IT, and perceived barriers to adoption.' Full text of the paper is at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/493210. (The Commonwealth Fund)
Health Insurance Coverage Is No Guarantee That Patients Won't Receive Large Emergency Room Bill
Excerpt: "Health insurance doesn't always offer the protection consumers think it does for emergencies. Frequent battles in recent years among doctors and insurers have left holes in many carriers' provider networks. Wake County in particular is a wasteland for emergency room coverage. All three of the emergency medicine practices in the county participate with no more than one or two major insurance carriers. Not a single one accepts Blue Cross, the most widely held plan." (News & Observer)
A New Level for Tiered Health Care: Lower Co-Pays for Patients Who Use Certain Hospitals or Doctors
Excerpt: "In the battle to trim health-care spending over the last several years, so-called tiering of pres.cription drug benefits has become a standard strategy. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, adoption by employers of three-tier drug-benefit plans jumped from 27% to 63% between 2000 and 2003. Under the system, a patient is charged a co-payment of, say, $10 for a generic drug, vs. around $20 for a brand-name drug on the insurer's approved list and $30 or more for a drug not ...." (BusinessWeek Online)
Health Cost Rise During First Half of 2004 Keeps Pace With 2003
Excerpt: "Health care costs per privately insured American rose 7.5% in the first half of 2004, according to a study released by the Center for Studying Health System Change and the Employee Benefit Research Institute. The study, Tracking Health Care Costs: Spending Growth Slowdown Stalls in First Half of 2004, found that this increase was statistically unchanged from the 7.6% increase in 2003. Health care spending growth had been slowing in both 2002 and 2003, after peaking at 10% in 2001." (Spencer Benefits Reports)
An Analysis of the Perceptions and Attitudes of Medicare Rx Discount Card Holders
Excerpt: "Given the complexity and confusion reported in the press about the Medicare Rx discount card program, cardholders surveyed during October 2004 expressed a positive impression of their cards. For this second in a series of AARP surveys about the Medicare Rx discount card, 4,001 age 65+ individuals - 60 percent of whom were AARP members - were surveyed by mail." (AARP)
Depression in the Workplace: Prevalence, Cost and Productivity Impact
Excerpt: "The costs of depression, a condition affecting nearly 9% of the U.S. population, are borne disproportionately by businesses. Employers pay almost two-thirds of the $80 billion price tag for depressive disorders each year. Symptoms such as reduced concentration and motivation, fatigue and pain add substantial productivity losses to the direct medical treatment costs of the disease." (Employee Benefit News)
Health Savings Accounts' Investment Options Widened by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
Excerpt: "Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota on Wednesday announced new features in its health savings accounts that allow consumers the option of channeling some of their account funds into self-directed investments with Charles Schwab or into a range of mutual funds. Blue Cross said the new features offer people with health savings accounts (HSAs) a broader choice of investment options for the funds they've accumulated for health care." (Star Tribune; one-time registration required)
Interest in HSAs Booms Among Brokers; Employers Are Slower to Jump on Board
Excerpt: "Insurance agents and brokers who spoke with ICDC say they're seeing enormous interest in health savings account (HSA)-based plans among their clients, particularly small employers. Adoption of the plans, however, is slow albeit steady. Small employers that typically offer just one health plan seem to favor the HSA model over consumer-directed health (CDH) plans that include a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA), ...." (INSIDE CONSUMER-DIRECTED CARE via AISHealth.com)
Establishing Regional Medicare PPOs and PDPs Under the Medicare Modernization Act
Excerpt: "The Medicare Modernization Act requires a number of changes to the Medicare program, including the addition of Medicare pres.cription drug plans (PDPs), as well as the addition of regional Medicare Advantage (MA) plans under the new Medicare Advantage program. .... On December 6, 2004, CMS announced the establishment of 26 MA regions and 34 PDP regions. [Target site contains] links to maps and fact sheets on the regions." (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
Health Plans Cautious on New Medicare PPO Regions
Excerpt: "Health plans around the country today began sorting out what the newly defined Medicare PPO regions will mean for them, with some praising the new configurations and others expressing disappointment. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced there will be 26 regions for Medicare Advantage PPOs and 34 regions for pres.cription drug plans." (HealthLeaders News)
U.S. Settles on Regions for Dispensing Medicare Drug Benefits
Excerpt: "In the first big step to make pres.cription drug benefits available to the elderly, the Bush administration announced Monday that it would carve the nation into 34 regions to administer the new Medicare program, which begins in January 2006. Medicare will rely on private insurers, subsidized by the government, to deliver drug benefits. Premiums for each drug plan will be uniform throughout its region, but they could vary widely between neighboring states in different regions." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Overview: Impact of WFTRA on the Definition of Dependent for Employee Benefit Plan Purposes (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "This Mintz Levin publication reviews the [Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004] rewrite of Code §152 to define the term 'dependent' to mean either a 'qualifying child' or a 'qualifying relative.' It also reviews consequences of the Acts' provisions regarding dependents including: Group Health Plans, Dependent Care Assistance Plans, 401(k) Plan Hardship Distributions, 457 Plan Unforeseeable Emergencies, [and] Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation Plans." (Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo P.C.)
What Is a Dependent? Under the New Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004, That Is!
Excerpt: "Perhaps it's time that George Orwell's book '1984' should be re-titled '2004'. The fact that in 2004 we have seen the need to define who is a child and who is a spouse is truly Orwellian, and Bob Dylan's song, The Times They Are a Changin' is even more meaningful to us now! The new Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004 (WFTRA '04) has given us a new uniform definition of 'dependent', who shall from this day forth be known as a 'Qualifying Child' or as a 'Qualifying Relative.'" (McKay Hochman Co., Inc.)
Supreme Court Rules That Same-Sex Benefits for Philadelphia City Workers Ok
Excerpt: "The city acted within its powers six years ago when it extended benefits to the same-sex 'life partners' of its employees, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The Supreme Court overturned a two-year-old Commonwealth Court decision that held that the city had overstepped its authority in the 1998 ordinance that awarded same-sex couples employee benefits." (The Philadelphia Inquirer; one-time registration required)
New Form 8-K Rules Increase Scope/Accelerate Filing Deadline of Executive Compensation Disclosures (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "In March 2004, the Securities and Exchange Commission ... revised the Current Report on Form 8-K (effective August 23, 2004), to broaden the scope of required disclosures and to accelerate the filing deadline to four business days after a triggering event. (SEC Release Nos. 33-8400; 34-49424; March 16, 2004) The SEC's renewed interest in material contracts with executives and the hiring and termination of employment of principal corporate officers is expected to translate...." (Pillsbury Winthrop LLP)
Full Text: Executive Compensation Reform and the Limits of Tax Policy (PDF)
24 pages. Excerpt: "Congress recently enacted its most significant effort in decades to reform executive deferred compensation. The new legislation rewrites the tax rules for billions of dollars that corporate managers defer outside the tax-qualified pension, 401(k), and other retirement plans that cover rank-and-file employees. But the legislation misses the mark for effective reform.' A summary of the report is at http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=311113. (Urban Institute)
Home Depot Dangles a Broad Benefits Package to Woo Older Workers
Excerpt: "More Americans over 50 are working today than at any time in decades. Their numbers have risen seven percentage points in the past decade, reaching 46% last year. Home Depot wants these older workers to staff its 1,700-plus stores in North America and Puerto Rico. Earlier this year, the Atlanta-based chain formed a national hiring partnership with AARP to help fill 35,000 jobs it plans to add in 2004. That accounts for a big chunk of the 100,000 new workers the company expects to ...." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)
The 5th Circuit Rules on Rogers v. San Antonio (5th Cir., 12/2/04) (PDF)
36 pages. The 5th Circuit Court ruled that USERRA grants military reservists the right to equal, but not preferential treatment with respect to job upgrade benefits. (Findlaw)
Newly Posted Events
2004 Form 5500 - Review and Current Issues
in Illinois on March 10, 2005
presented by ASPPA Benefits Council of Chicago
Leadership Summit on Disease Management and Chronic Care
in District of Columbia on April 4, 2005
presented by World Congress
Online Course - Retirement Plan Services: Investments
Nationwide on January 3, 2005
presented by American Bankers Association
Online Course - Retirement Plan Services: Investments
Nationwide on June 20, 2005
presented by American Bankers Association
Online Course - Retirement Plan Services: Laws & Regulations
Nationwide on May 2, 2005
presented by American Bankers Association
Online Course - Retirement Plan Services: Plan Type and Design
Nationwide on March 14, 2005
presented by American Bankers Association
Outsourcing Employee Benefits Functions
Nationwide on December 8, 2004
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)
Newly Posted Press Releases
Dietrich Launches ‘DietrichDirectQuote’ Online Fixed Annuity Quotes
(Dietrich & Associates, Inc.)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Connections Quality Assurance Manager
for Hewitt Associates
in IL
Benefits Implementation Manager
for Hewitt Associates
in IL
Leaves Administration Consultant
for Hewitt Associates
in IL
Benefits Service Manager
for Hewitt Associates
in IL
Defined Contribution Project Manager
for Hewitt Associates
in NJ
DB Benefits Operations Manager
for Hewitt Associates
in CA
YSA Requirements Analyst
for Hewitt Associates
in FL
New Business Installation Administrator
for Transamerica
in CA
Institutional Trust & Custody Relationship Manager
for U.S. Bank
in MN
Financial Analyst
for Kindred Healthcare
in KY
Wellness Coordinator
for Kindred Healthcare
in KY
Project Manager
for Dickerson Employee Benefits
in CA
Health Benefits Program Administrator
for City of Bellevue
in WA
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