| BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter |   |
February 22, 2005
Today's sponsor: BeneCom Associates, LLC
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
BeneCom Associates, LLC, for one-stop benefit communications Since 1992, BeneCom has produced benefit communications, including enrollment materials, SPDs, benefit statements, newsletters and more, for companies large and small, nationwide. So if you've been looking for an independent benefit communications specialist, look no further. Click above for more information, or give us a call at (860) 674-2626, Ext. 11. We're here to help.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Overview: DOL Posts Spanish-Language Versions of Two Model COBRA Notices on Its Website
Excerpt: "COBRA does not require that notices be provided in any language other than English. The DOL's SPD regulations, however, require an offer of foreign language assistance in a plan's SPD if a certain minimum number (or percentage) of participants are literate only in the same non-English language. This assistance 'need not involve written materials.' Non-English translations of COBRA notices are therefore not strictly necessary, ...." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc.)
Health Industry under Pressure from Government to Computerize
Excerpt: "Dr. David J. Brailer, the federal official who is trying to prod the nation's health care system into the computer age, has delivered a warning to the health care industry: take steps soon to make it happen or the government will probably impose a solution." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Senate Approves Legislation Preventing Insurers and Employers from Discriminating Based on Genetics
Excerpt: "The Senate ... voted 98-0 in favor of a bill (S 306) that would establish protections against genetic discrimination, CQ Today reports (Swindell, CQ Today, 2/17). Under the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), employers could not use genetic information in employment decisions, and insurance companies could not deny coverage or establish premium rates based on such information (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 2/11)." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
More Pres.cription Drug Plans Try Coinsurance
Excerpt: "As more Americans turn to medications to manage everything from heart disease to hair loss, employers are gazing anew at drug benefit designs in search of better ways to control costs." (Employee Benefit News)
Proceed Cautiously Before Covering Imported Pres.cription Drugs under Your Health Plan
Excerpt: "With employees making health plan elections for next year, and with the deadline for most health flexible spending arrangement reimbursements approaching, employers may be faced with requests to cover or reimburse the cost of imported pres.cription drugs under their health plans. Some employers may also be considering covering imported pres.cription drugs as a way to lower their health plan costs." (Employee Benefit News)
Companies Fight to Ensure Medicare Coverage for Erectile Drugs
Excerpt: "Drug companies are strenuously resisting bipartisan efforts in Congress to prohibit Medicare from paying for Via.gra and other drugs for erectile dysfunction. The issue of whether Medicare's new pres.cription drug benefit should cover such treatments is raising broader questions of ethics, economics, politics and health policy." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Firms Make Healthy Lifestyles Their Business: Incentives and Monitoring Aimed at Cutting Costs
Excerpt: "The monetary incentives are part of unconventional new programs being rolled out by PacifiCare and other corporations around the country to try to coax, push -- or even force -- workers to become healthier. The move is driven, the companies say, by soaring health insurance costs. They say that the fitter their workers are, the fewer claims they are likely to file. But some workers rights groups worry that these programs, while well intentioned, set a precedent for allowing ...." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Employee Health Plan Consumerism May Suffer from Communication Breakdown
Excerpt: "Employees are open to assuming more responsibility for their own and their families' health care, but they are woefully unprepared for the role, according to two new surveys. The findings suggest that employers need to be much more involved in health care education and perhaps utilize some new approaches. A Hewitt Associates survey of more than 39,000 employees nationally reveals that even though 93% are comfortable with greater responsibility for health care decisions, most are ...." (Employee Benefit News)
HSA Marketplace
Excerpt: "Since the Jan. 1, 2004, effective date for health savings accounts (HSAs), health insurers have flooded the HSA marketplace with different products and partnerships. Click here for a spotlight of the latest news." (Spencer Benefits Reports)
Treasury Expands and Reorganizes Its Website's Frequently Asked Questions about HSAs
Excerpt: "In its ongoing commitment to promote the widespread use of HSAs, the Treasury Department has reorganized and expanded the frequently asked questions (FAQs) that appear in the HSA section of its website. The number of FAQs has grown from 58 to 85 and they are now organized under eight topic headings, making it easier to locate information on a particular HSA issue." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc.)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Perspective: Update: Practical Effects of 'Real Time' Disclosure on Executive Compensation
Excerpt: "As companies scramble to adapt to last year's revisions to the Securities and Exchange Commission's Form 8-K filing requirements, they are learning that the real-time disclosure the revisions mandate affects a larger number of management compensation decisions than originally thought. So now, at the outset of 2005, Form 8-K disclosure has become the latest hot corporate governance concern." (Mercer Human Resource Consulting; one-time registration required)
Article: Sponsors Have Some Time to Comply with New Deferred Compensation Law
Excerpt: "The federal government's recently released deferred compensation plan guidance cuts plan sponsors some slack in meeting deadlines to comply with a new law, and it spells out some -- but only some -- of what they need to do to comply. In late December, the US Treasury Department released guidance on the deferred compensation portions of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 ...." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)
A Chart Showing the Percentage of Part-Time & Full-Time Employees Who Have Access to Benefits
Excerpt: "There are nearly 25 million part-time workers in the United States, and they lag behind full-time employees in benefit coverage. But at Starbucks, where 64 percent of the staff is part-time, all employees working at least 20 hours per week have equal access to benefits." (Workforce Management)
Maryland State Workers See Some Benefits Erode As Governor Tries to Rein in Spending
Excerpt: "Employment experts say Ehrlich's decisions to increase employee contributions to health insurance and to cut other benefits mirror those of other chief executives - public and private - in an economy that has struggled over the past three years." (The Baltimore Sun; one-time registration required)
Letter to Chairman Mike Enzi on The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2005 (S. 306) (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "We write on behalf of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination in Employment (GINE) Coalition to express our concerns with the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2005 (S. 306) .... The GINE Coalition is a group of employers, national trade associations, and professional organizations formed to address concerns about workplace discrimination based on employees' genetic information as well as the confidentiality of that information." (Genetic Information Nondiscrimination in Employment Coalition via American Benefits Council)
Overview: The Employer's Obligations to Employees Called to Active Duty (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1996 is the most recent in a series of federal statutes enacted over the last 60 years. The Act includes all military personnel and federal reserve services (Army Reserve, Naval Reserve, etc.) and the National Guard and is applicable to all employers in both the public and private sector. All employees, whether full-time or part-time, are protected by the Act." (Snell & Wilmer L.L.P.)
Time Warner Stops Granting Stock Options to Most of Staff
Excerpt: "Time Warner said ... that it would no longer grant stock options to most employees, citing new accounting rules. The decision comes at a time when a number of companies that happily doled out options to employees during the last market boom are reining in their use. With the stock market weak, options no longer have much of a cachet for many employees. Some companies - most notably Microsoft - have sought other ways to link equity pay with performance." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Newly Posted Events
3rd Annual Orlando ERISA Update Seminar
in Florida on April 20, 2005
presented by TRI Pension Services/GrayRobinson, P.A.
ALI-ABA Course: Annual Spring Employee Benefits Law and Practice Update
Nationwide on April 7, 2005
presented by ALI-ABA (American Law Institute-American Bar Association)
The 412i SUMMIT
in Washington on July 21, 2005
presented by 412i Company
Newly Posted Press Releases
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao Statement on American Benefits Council Pension Reform Report
(U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA))
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao Commends Senate for Introducing Association Health Plan Legislation
(U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA))
US Treasury Warshawsky Remarks on Social Security at SIA Savings & Retirement Symposium
(U.S. Department of Treasury)
New Advent Product Provides Custom Newsletter Service That Is User Friendly And Low Cost
(Advent Information Services)
Millennium Trust Company Announces an Automatic Rollover Solution at no Cost to the Plan Sponsor
(Millennium Trust Company, LLC)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Employee Benefits Tax Manager
for Deloitte Tax LLP
in OH
Defined Contribution Plan Administrator
for Benefit Consulting Associates, Inc.
in PA
ML Connect Manager
for Merrill Lynch
in NJ
Employee Benefits Marketing and Service Associate
for WESPAC
in CA
Benefits Manager
for Grand Victoria Casino & Resort
in IN
Director, Product Development
for BISYS Retirement Services
in PA
VP-Operations
for ADP Retirement Services
in NJ
Document Compliance Manager
for ADP Retirement Services
in NJ
Health & Welfare Consultant - Part Time (Health & Welfare Tools)
for Towers Perrin
in DC, VA
Compliance Analyst
for Mayo Clinic
in MN
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.
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: