If you'd like to STOP this newsletter, just click on this link: STOP sending this newsletter to me
BenefitsLink
Welfare Plans
Newsletter		To BenefitsLink home page Fill your job openings fast by advertising on BenefitsLink

December 30, 2004
Today's sponsor: World Congress

(Click on company name or banner to learn more.) 

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)
Overview: HHS Sets Final Regs on Access to Health Insurance Coverage
Excerpt: "HHS announced final regulations setting limits on the pre-existing condition exclusions that can be imposed by group health plans on workers who lose their jobs or change jobs. The regulations ... implement provisions set forth by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Under the final provisions, to be published [December 30] in the Federal Register, health plans will be required to offer an immediate 'special enrollment' to some individuals who lose ...." (modernhealthcare.com)

Text of Final HIPAA Portability Regulations (PDF)
81 pages. (Internal Revenue Service, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)

Text of Proposed HIPAA Portability Regulation Modifying Break in Coverage, Special Enrollment Period (PDF)
26 pages. Excerpt: "Under the proposed rules, the beginning of the period that is used for determining whether a significant break in coverage has occurred (generally 63 days) is tolled in cases in which a certificate of creditable coverage is not provided on or before the day coverage ceases. In those cases, the significant break- in-coverage period is tolled until a certificate is provided but not beyond 44 days after the coverage ceases." (Internal Revenue Service, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)

Text of Agencies' Request for Comments on Effect of Benefit-Specific Waiting Period (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "The Departments invite comments about benefit-specific waiting periods. This solicitation is to ensure that the public can provide input into any criteria used to determine whether a benefit-specific waiting period utilized by a group health plan or issuer is a preexisting condition exclusion under HIPAA. The Departments are requesting this information to help decide whether to issue any guidance on this question, and the content of any such guidance." (Internal Revenue Service, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)

Some Employers in Massachusetts Drop Health Benefits for Same-Sex Domestic Partners
Excerpt: "With g.ay marriage now legal in Massachusetts, many companies are cutting domestic benefits for g.ay couples, unless they wed. Others in the private sector are refusing to recognize same-sex marriage. NPR's Chris Arnold reports." (Morning Edition via National Public Radio)

FTC Enforcement Activity Foreshadows Future for HIPAA Entities
Excerpt: "The Federal Trade Commission's first two enforcement actions for violations of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB) are a cautionary tale for covered entities (CEs) under HIPAA. They underscore the risk of an enforcement action if organizations have a compliance program that is window dressing and fails with the 'meat and potatoes' of assessing privacy risks and adopting safeguards." (REPORT ON PATIENT PRIVACY via AISHealth.com)

Ruling Makes Medical Insurance Appeals More Difficult in Hawaii
Excerpt: "A recent court ruling will make it more difficult and costly for most Hawaii residents to appeal a health insurer's decision when they are denied medical coverage. Residents denied medical coverage now can represent themselves before a review panel at the state Insurance Division. But a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling last month requires them to take their disputes to court." (AP via Hawaii News)

Medical Group Pay Plans Keep Emphasis on Individual Production
Excerpt: "The most widely used national physician pay surveys -- MGMA, AMGA and Sullivan, Cotter & Associates (SCA) -- indicate that medical group compensation calculation plans are maintaining and even increasing the emphasis on individual production, measured most commonly by collections, work relative value units (wRVUs) or gross charges, with the last of those falling in popularity." (PHYSICIAN COMPENSATION REPORT via AISHealth.com)

Oregon-Based Health Plans Taking Measures to Switch Members to Generic Pres.cription Drugs
Excerpt: "Oregon health insurers will try to increase acceptance of generic medicines by providing free samples and incentives." (The Oregonian)

Consumer-Driven Health Plans Gain Traction in Kansas City
Excerpt: "Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City is teaming up with the Wells Fargo financial services company to launch BlueSaver, a high-deductible health plan that can be used with a health savings account." (The Kansas City Star; one-time registration required)

More Companies Go the Self-Insurance Route for Health Care Benefits Provision
Excerpt: "More than half of all U.S. workers currently insured have their coverage through self-insured or partially self-insured plans, according to the latest figures compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. And those numbers have risen over the past three years as companies turn to self-insurance to avoid the skyrocketing premiums charged by large insurers.' (The Record (Bergen County, N.J.))

Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

U.S. Executives Get a Year to Alter Deferred Compensation Plans
Excerpt: "U.S. corporate executives will face tighter restrictions and tougher penalties on their deferred compensation plans, but they have a full year to get prepared for it, tax attorneys said. Benefit plan designers and corporate lawyers praised the U.S. Treasury Department's decision to give companies all of 2005 to redesign their compensation plans and implement new rules designed to stem executives' ability to grab cash before jumping off a sinking corporate ship." (Reuters via The Boston Globe)

Perspective on the New Accounting Standard for Stock-Based Compensation
Excerpt: "On 16 December 2004, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued its long-awaited accounting standard for stock-based compensation: Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123 (revised 2004): Share-Based Payment. For most public companies, this new standard requires expensing of employee stock options for annual and quarterly periods beginning after 15 June 2005." (Mercer Human Resource Consulting LLC and Mercer Investment Consulting, Inc.)

Opinion: The Unreported Costs of Stock Options
Excerpt: "Traditional stock option accounting practices lead companies to overstate their net income. We take a look at how significant these overstatements are, who's responsible for fixing the problem, and what they're doing about it." (The Motley Fool)

Newly Posted Events

401(k) Plans
in California on April 12, 2005
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)

Cafeteria Plans
in California on April 13, 2004
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)

Cafeteria Plans
in California on April 13, 2005
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)

COBRA Compliance for Group Health Plans
in California on April 15, 2005
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)

ERISA Compliance for Health & Welfare Plans
in California on April 14, 2005
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)

HIPAA Portability, Privacy & Security
in California on April 15, 2005
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)

HSAs, HRAs & Consumer-Driven Health Care
in California on April 14, 2005
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)

Newly Posted Press Releases

PBGC To Assume Responsibility For Pilots Pension Plan At UAL
(Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC))

Bush Administration Announces Final Rules on Portability of Health Coverage
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.)

Americans Will See A Mixed Bag Of Changes In Their Paychecks In January
(Symmetry Software)

Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Post a Help Wanted Ad

Plan Administrator
for Valley Forge Asset Management
in PA



Handy Links:
Copyright 2004 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you may reprint this newsletter in full (including this sentence) without obtaining our permission.

Published by:

BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
https://benefitslink.com/about.html
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park FL 32789
(407) 644-4146
Fax: (407) 644-2151

Editor and Publisher: David Rhett Baker, J.D.

Housekeeping: