| BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter |   |
January 28, 2005
Today's sponsor: World Congress
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
Innovation in the Cost-Appropriateness of Behavioral Health & Wellness The Leadership Summit on Innovation in the Cost-Appropriateness of Behavioral Health & Wellness explores the costs of behavioral health to the Nation and the workplace. Stakeholders will discuss economic incentives and present successful cost-effective initiatives to provide quality, cost-appropriate behavioral health and wellness services. Featuring employer and government driven cost-reduction demands with health plan and provider collaboration the Summit showcases innovative behavioral health, pharma and wellness interventions and how to combine the best of both.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Text of Medicare Pres.cription Drug Benefit Reg as Published in Today's Federal Register
Large (3 MB) HTML file; for a pdf version (2 MB), see https://benefitslink.com/federalregister/05-1321.pdf (393 pages). (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
Overview: Pres.cription Drug Coverage under Retiree Health Plans (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued final rules on the new pres.cription drug benefits that will be available under Medicare Part D beginning in 2006." (Milliman)
Should Companies Reimburse Work-Related Expenses for Being Connected 24/7?
Excerpt: "Employees increasingly are expected to be available to bosses, customers, even colleagues or team members 24/7. Yet many wonder if their companies will frown upon a request for supplies and devices they use while working outside the office. Companies generally are failing to convey or develop policies. Some only provide reimbursement to higher-level managers. Others offer the tools as a perk or recruiting enticement." (The Miami Herald; one-time registration required)
President Bush Promotes Switching to Electronic Medical Records to Cut Costs and Improve Care
Excerpt: "President Bush called on doctors and hospitals Thursday to move their medical records from paper to electronic files, a change that he said would improve medical care while shaving significant sums from the nation's spiraling health care bill. Speaking at the Cleveland Clinic, Bush quoted health analysts who said that the efficiencies wrought by electronic medical records could reduce medical costs as much as 20 percent." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Wall Street Journal Examines Concerns about Medical Evidence Used for Best-Practice Guidelines
Excerpt: "The Wall Street Journal ... examined concerns about the medical evidence used to develop best-practice guidelines, which health insurers often use to make coverage decisions about pres.cription drugs. Supporters maintain that 'following guidelines based on scientific studies is the best way to fix the health care system and ensure that treatments are backed up by solid scientific proof that they are effective from both a cost and quality standpoint,' but critics warn that for ...." (The National Journal Group, Limited via The BlueCross BlueShield Association)
Abstract of WP: Wage and Benefit Changes in Response to Rising Health Insurance Costs
Excerpt: "This paper examines employee compensation decisions during a three-year period when health insurance premiums were rising rapidly. The data come from a single large firm with a flexible benefits plan wherein employees explicitly choose how to allocate compensation between cash wages and other benefits. .... You may purchase this paper on-line in .pdf format from SSRN.com ($5) for electronic delivery [at http://hq.ssrn.com/Pub_Login.cfm?type=detquan; registration required.]" (National Bureau of Economic Research)
Medicaid Preferred Drug List Bill Passes Colorado Senate Committee
Excerpt: "The Senate Health and Human Services committee passed a bill Thursday to create a preferred drug list (PDL) for the Medicaid program." (The Denver Business Journal via bizjournals.com; one-time registration required)
Opinion: Risks and Benefits: Health Savings Accounts and Employee Ability to Handle Risk and Costs
Excerpt: "Health-savings accounts, yoked to high-deductible insurance policies, are being touted as the next big thing .... But employees might think twice before taking on so much financial risk when it comes to their health care. .... While inserting a large element of employee financial risk into benefit plans might help cool down medical spending, the promoters of the new plans may be asking a bit much of most employees in tying health benefits to the fate of a 401(k)-like account." (CFO.com)
Half of Insured Adults with High-Deductible Health Plans Experience Medical Bill or Debt Problems
Excerpt: "About half of insured adults with a high-deductible health plan have medical bill problems or debts, compared with less than one-third (31%) of those with lower-deductible plans, according to new research from The Commonwealth Fund. Individuals with high-deductible plans are also more likely than those with lower-deductible plans to experience access problems such as not filling a pres.cription, or skipping a medical test, treatment, or follow-up when needed, due to cost." (The Commonwealth Fund)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Should Executive Bonuses Based on Earnings before Earnings Restatements Be Recalculated?
Excerpt: "With restatements of financial earnings reaching record levels in 2004, the question arises whether executive bonuses based on incorrect earnings statements should be recalculated. .... The issue seems relatively straightforward: incentive-based executive compensation typically ties bonuses to earnings performance, so when errors are discovered that necessitate earnings restatements, bonuses should be recalculated to retain their correlation to actual earnings." (SocialFunds.com)
Newly Posted Events
403(b)Plan Workshop
Nationwide on March 17, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel
Instructor-Led COBRA seminar
Nationwide on February 9, 2005
presented by HRTrainingCenter.com
Nonqualified Deferred Comp. Plan Workshop With 457 Update
Nationwide on March 18, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel
Newly Posted Press Releases
U. S. Labor Department Extends Annual Reports Deadline After Severe Winter Storms Hit Indiana
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Compensation, Benefits and Compliance Manager, North America
for Atos Origin Inc.
in TX
Prospect Project Manager - PA
for The Vanguard Group
in PA
Employee Benefits Consultant
for Wachovia Corporation
in PA
401(k) Plan Administrator
for Matthews Benefit Group, Inc
in FL
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
Copyright 2005 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you may reprint this newsletter in full (including this sentence) without obtaining our permission.
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Editor and Publisher: David Rhett Baker, J.D.
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