| BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter |   |
May 17, 2005
Today's sponsor: ASPPA • Working for America's Retirement™
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| Meeting Midway Conference |
| July 24-27, 2005 * San Diego, CA
Health and welfare issues * 401(k) plans Employee compensation * Actuarial pension issues Health Savings Accounts * Legal & fiduciary issues You don't want to miss this one! Register online today. Brought to you by WP&BC and ASPPA. |
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Workers' Unhealthy Habits Could Cost Them As Companies Look to Save on Health Insurance Costs
Excerpt: "At Jackson-based manufacturer Orbitform, for example, workers can have their health insurance premiums cut in half if they take a health-risk appraisal and agree to meet with a health coach twice a year on company time to work on monitoring and improving their health. 'They can chose not to take' the appraisal, 'but then they pay 100% of their health care benefit,' Orbitform President Mike Shirkey said. 'There's no one telling you [that] you have to do this. ... We have 100% participation.'" (Detroit Free Press)
Are California's Large Employers Moving to Catastrophic Health Insurance Coverage?
Excerpt: "Large employers in California are experimenting with new health benefit and insurance options as premium rates continue to escalate. This study examines the offer and penetration rates of catastrophic coverage insurance products, including high-deductible PPO and consumer-driven health plans, among large California employers before the Medicare Pres.cription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 was passed." (Health Affairs)
Study Shows Employee Health Care Decisions Driven by Fear and Anxiety
Excerpt: "When employees make decisions about their health care options, they are influenced by fear and insecurity to a far greater extent than by the rational examination of marketplace choices that employers count on to help manage benefit plan costs, according to a new Towers Perrin study. .... The results demonstrate that employees' health care decisions are more a product of emotion than rational thought." (Towers Perrin)
Overview: A New Tax on Fringe Benefits in India
Excerpt: "India's Finance Act 2005 introduces a new tax on employers for the financial year commencing 1 April 2005. This will: increase employment costs, impose additional administration, [and] cause some employers to rethink the benefits they choose to provide." (Watson Wyatt Worldwide)
New Hampshire: Many Workers Receive Subsidized Health Coverage
Excerpt: "The state shares a dubious distinction with retailers - being high on a list of employers whose lowest-paid workers are on Medicaid. Perhaps just as surprising is the number of health-care workers also on Medicaid, the state-federal subsidized health insurance program for the poor. And many other higher-paid state, retail and health-care workers in New Hampshire are receiving taxpayer-subsidized insurance for their children through a companion program to Medicaid called Healthy ...." (AP via Seacoast Online)
Overview: HIPAA Portability Final Regulations (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "[HIPAA] includes various 'portability' requirements intended to limit preexisting condition exclusion periods for group health plans and group health insurance issuers and permit participant special enrollment rights when a participant loses other health coverage or experiences certain life events. The federal agencies (IRS, DOL and HHS) enforcing HIPAA's portability requirements issued new regulations concerning those requirements on December 30, 2004." (Powell Goldstein LLP)
Overview: HHS Proposes Rules for Imposing Civil Monetary Penalties Under HIPAA (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued proposed regulations for implementing the enforcement provisions of HIPAA's administrative simplification rules. Along with reorganizing and supplementing earlier enforcement provisions, the regulations include a new subpart D that deals with the civil monetary penalties that may be imposed for violations of the administrative simplification provisions." (Mellon Financial Corporation)
Federal Government to Request Proposals for Health Information Technology System Model
Excerpt: "The federal government will request proposals for the creation of a prototype for a national health information network, Healthcare IT News reports. HHS will award as many as six one-year contracts to vendors to develop and evaluate a model." (California HealthCare Foundation)
West Virginia Mandates Contraceptive Coverage by Health Insurers
Excerpt: "Health insurers would have to cover pres.cription contraceptive drugs or devices approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration on the same basis as they cover other pres.criptions under legislation signed into law by West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III." (Business Insurance)
Health Savings Account Rules Are Solid, but Some Trouble Spots Remain, Experts Say
Excerpt: "While some areas of the Treasury Dept.'s HSA guidance are still in need of clarification, health plans and employers 'now have the rules upon which rational decisions can be made,' .... [Reported in the target article are eight] HSA-related trouble spots and compliance traps that employers and health plans have stumbled into." (INSIDE CONSUMER-DIRECTED CARE via AISHealth.com)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Overview: SEC and PCAOB Internal Control Reporting under Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Guidance
Excerpt: "On May 16, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) issued additional guidance relating to their respective rules on internal control reporting under Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404. [Target page contains links to the relevant documents]" (Financial Executives International)
Accounting Regulators Suggest Potential SOX Streamlining Procedures
Excerpt: "Responding to complaints that implementing Sarbanes-Oxley is proving too onerous and expensive, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCOAB) has issued recommendations on how the process can be better streamlined. PCOAB Chairman William McDonough said the guidance is intended to help public companies and their auditors comply with internal-controls requirements through 56 questions and answers and a 14-page policy statement from the oversight board." (PLANSPONSOR.com; one-time registration required)
Washington State Firms Can No Longer Take Out 'Dead Peasant' Insurance on Workers
Excerpt: "Companies statewide will no longer be allowed to secretly take out corporate life insurance policies on their rank-and-file employees under a law signed this week by Gov. Christine Gregoire. Through a practice critics call 'dead peasant insurance,' many companies, particularly large ones, had bought life insurance policies on workers without telling them. The companies then collected the death benefits, often long after the employee had retired or left the company." (Settle Post-Intelligencer Reporter)
Summary of Survey on Benefit Programs for Domestic Partners and Same-Sex Spouses
Excerpt: "In a survey on Benefit Programs for Domestic Partners and Same-Sex Spouses conducted by Hewitt Associates, 56% of responding organizations indicated they offer domestic partner benefits to some or all of their employees. This reflects a 34 percentage point increase in the past five years of organizations offering benefits to domestic partners. This is just one of the findings of the survey of 281 U.S. employers." (Hewitt Associates)
Connecticut to Permit Civil Unions Between Same-Sex Partners Effective October 1, 2005 (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "Connecticut has passed a law legalizing civil unions between same-sex couples eighteen years of age and older. Effective October 1, 2005, same-sex couples entering into a civil union will have the same legal benefits, protections and responsibilities afforded married couples in Connecticut. The new law does not require private employers to provide any new benefits, but could have implications under the state family leave law and for state and local employers." (Mellon Financial Corporation)
Regulators Seek to Trim Cost of Rules on Auditing
Excerpt: "Facing complaints from businesses about the expense of complying with a new law on internal financial controls, auditing regulators in the United States moved yesterday to ease the costs. But they also said that the rule had greatly benefited investors and that there was no need for Congress to revise the law." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Newly Posted Events
The 2nd Creating, Designing & Marketing Health Savings Accounts
in District of Columbia on September 12, 2005
presented by International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC)
The ABCs of Cross-Tested Plans - A Special Two-Part Event
Nationwide on June 7, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel
USERRA's Impact on Health Benefits and 401(k) Plans: What to Do When Employees Leave for & Return From Service
Nationwide on May 25, 2005
presented by Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Senior Project Manager
for The Paragon Consulting Group, Inc.
in IN
Retirement Plan Analyst/TPA
for Fifty year old firm specializing in the healthcare industry
in NC
AVP of Retirement Programs
for UnumProvident Corporation
in ME
AVP, Health Management & Insurance Programs
for UnumProvident Corporation
in ME
Manager, Retirement Plans
for A Fortune 500 Company
in AZ
Account Coordinator
for Benefits Planning & Insurance Agency
in CA
Pension Administrator
for Pension Performance, Inc.
in IL
Pension Administrators/Calculation
for The Rosen Group, leader in placement of Benefits Professionals
in DE, NJ, PA
Defined Contribution Administrator
for Blue Chip Retirement Plans, Inc.
in WI
Retirement Benefits Administrator
for BPB America
in FL
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