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July 14, 2005
Today's sponsor: Financial Research Associates

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PHARMACY BENEFIT COST CONTROL STRATEGIES

September 26 - 27, 2005 * Hyatt Dulles * Washington D.C.
To register: 800-280-8440

Advanced Industry Symposium on Drug Utilization & Formulary Design

Immediate Impact Cost Control Strategies for Employers, Health Plans and Pharmacy Benefit Managers


(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Text of Final Regulation on Source of Compensation for Labor or Personal Services (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt: "This document contains final regulations that describe the proper basis for determining the source of compensation for labor or personal services performed partly within and partly without the United States.... The fringe benefits to which [the] general basis applies are housing, education, local transportation, tax reimbursement, hazardous or hardship duty pay, and moving expense reimbursement fringe benefits." (Internal Revenue Service)

Report Says Employers Offering Starbucks and Even Higher-End Coffee to Employees As a Perk
Excerpt: "The Washington Post reports that a growing number of offices, particularly in the biotech industry, are now providing gourmet coffee brewed on high-end professional coffee machines. For offices that don't provide such quality caffeine for its workers, a growing number of coffee clubs split the costs between employees who care about such fine coffee." (CNN Money)

Opinion: The Uninsured in California: Single-Payer Health Care
Excerpt: "Serious ailments afflict California's health care system. The 'single-payer' model is seen by many as one possible cure. Advocates say such a system would provide universal coverage at less cost. But while single-payer has been much debated in California, it never has been enacted. Why? What are the obstacles it has failed to overcome?" (Project California)

Health Insurance Company Offers Online Personal Health Records to Members
Excerpt: "Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield is offering online personal health records to its members. The New York-based Blues plan is using personal health records software from WebMD Corp., Elmwood Park, N.Y. Members can access the software from a secure Web site to enter and maintain such records as medical histories, health risks and allergies." (Health Data Management)

Prices Drive Up Health Costs in U.S., According to Study
Excerpt: "Higher prices and not lawsuits or other factors have driven up health care costs in the United States, according to a study published on Tuesday [in the journal Health Affairs]." (Reuters)

Health Insurers Slice Member and Employer Pharmacy Costs by Pill Splitting
Excerpt: "Despite initial safety concerns expressed by pharmaceutical manufacturers, more and more insurers are encouraging 'pill splitting.' By dispensing higher doses of pres.criptions that patients can split to meet their regular dose, the practice is intended to save patients a copayment and save plan sponsors pres.cription costs." (DRUG BENEFIT NEWS via AISHealth.com)

Health Insurance Can Be More Affordable with New Plan and a Tax-Sheltered Health Savings Account
Excerpt: "More than 1 million Americans have made a similar choice, signing up for high-deductible health insurance policies and associated HSAs since the program was introduced in late 2003, according to the Washington-based industry group America's Health Insurance Plans. The new plans are a bit complex, but a growing number of insurers offer them." (AP via The New York Times; one-time registration required)

Wall Street Analysts Discuss Health Care Issues During Forum
Excerpt: "Wall Street analysts at a forum sponsored by the Center for Studying Health System Change on Wednesday offered 'insights into what Washington should expect from health care marketplace changes,' CQ HealthBeat reports. At the forum, called 'Wall Street Comes to Washington,' analysts discussed the 2003 Medicare law, health savings accounts, health insurance industry consolidation and other topics." (Kaiser Family Foundation)

Employer-Sponsored Health Plans May Be Targeted for Taxation
Excerpt: "For 60 years, American workers have received job-sponsored health-care benefits that are excluded from income and payroll taxes, but now they're in danger of taxation. An odd coalition of groups from both the right and left wants to tax those benefits, and a special presidential commission is weighing whether to recommend ending their tax exemption when issuing its report Sept. 30 on how to overhaul the tax system." (Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services via SanLuisObispo.com)

Opinion: Bargaining for A Health Care System Reform Breakthrough
Excerpt: "When John Breaux retired from the Senate last year, many assumed that the let's-make-a-deal approach he had perfected in his 18 years of service had vanished with him. .... In retirement to a Washington consultant's role, Breaux has resurfaced as the spark plug of a 'Ceasefire on Health Care' campaign that already has achieved a few small successes and is aiming for much bigger breakthroughs in the effort to rescue America's dysfunctional medical delivery system." (The Washington Post; one-time registration required)

Real Life Examples of HSA Hospitalization Riders (PDF)
Page 9 of 9. Excerpt: "By attachment of this rider, the Policy/Certificate is amended for 15 months to add a schedule of hospital indemnity payments. Should you or another covered person be hospitalized for more than two days during your first 15 months of coverage, we will make an indemnity payment to you of a fixed amount for the third day of hospitalization." (HSA Insider)

Interview: The Teamsters and Delta Health Systems Talk About Their Self-Funded HSAs (PDF)
Pages 1, 3-6 of 9 pages. Excerpt: "This interview will provide some insight into unionized companies with self-funded plans that have adopted HSAs for their employees. In this case, the impetus for converting to HSAs came from the union, not the employers." (HSA Insider)

The Origins of the Health Savings Account Hospital Indemnity Rider (PDF)
Pages 1, 7-9 of 9 pages. Excerpt: "The hospitalization rider as modified to fit HSAs is an essential sales tool to reduce anxiety among those considering switching to an HSA. This rider will also even out the HSA sales cycle, and allows employers and individuals to switch to an HSAregardless of the time of the year." (HSA Insider)

Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

Audio: The Health Benefits of Working for a Lifetime
Excerpt: "Many Americans are working well past the age of retirement. Dr. Robert Butler, founding director of the National Institute on Aging and CEO of the International Longevity Center, talks about why people choose to keep working. Butler says work gives older people's lives meaning, control and an income." (Morning Edition via National Public Radio)

Benefits Briefs: Legal Developments Affecting Employee Benefits, June 2005 (PDF)
6 pages. In this issue: Errors and Remedies -- Here's a case with a satisfactory outcome arrived at through dubious reasoning. Schaffer v. Westinghouse Savannah River Company, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 4164 (4th Cir. 3/11/05); QDRO Dispute -- Blame the Lawyer?; No Fiduciary Obligations for Accrued But Unpaid Benefit Plan Contributions?; IRS Allows More Flex in Flex Plans' Use-It-Or-Lose-It Requirement; Can Corporate Restructuring Lead to a Benefits Interference Claim? (Nixon Peabody LLP)

Comments on IRS Proposed Regulations for Electronic Transmission of Employee Benefits Information
Excerpt: "According to the preamble, the standards set forth in these proposed regulations would apply to any 'notice, election, or similar communication' made to or by a participant or beneficiary under the following types of plans: a qualified plan; a 403(b) plan; a SEP; a simple IRA plan under section 408(p); an eligible governmental plan under section 457(b); an accident and health plan under section 104(a)(3) or 105; a cafeteria plan ...." (Attorney B. Janell Grenier via BenefitsBlog.com)

Commentary: Employee Benefits & Executive Comp: Another ERISA Fiduciary Duty Wake-Up Call
Excerpt: "Does your company use a retirement plan consultant to help plan how best to invest the company's pension or 401(k) plan money? If so, you need to take note of, and respond to, concerns raised by the government about conflicts of interest and potential bias in the retirement plan consultant and money management industry. ERISA plan fiduciaries who fail to act could be faced with questions about whether they are doing their jobs properly." (Jones Day)

New Jersey Law Entitles Union Employees and Elected Officials to State Benefits
Excerpt: "Acting New Jersey Governor Richard Codey signed legislation last week that extends generous state benefits to union employees and elected officials despite appointing a benefits review task force in June to assess his state's health and pension requirements." (BenefitNews Connect)

Overview: DOL to Enforce Disclosure of Payments, Gifts and Entertainment Involving Union Officials (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "In recent guidance issued June 22, 2005, the Department of Labor ... has indicated an intent to expand its enforcement of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act .... Disclosure may now be required of virtually all service providers to unions, including investment managers, brokerage firms, accounting firms, consulting firms and other 'employers,' who provide entertainment or give gifts or other things with a value of $25 or more to union affiliated individuals." (Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP)

Commentary: ERISA Section 510 Claim Survives Summary Judgment
Excerpt: "ERISA Section 510 prohibits employers from firing employees to prevent them from attaining a benefit. A recent decision from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recognized that even employees fired allegedly 'for cause' can make use of Section 510. In Leszczuk v. Lucent Technologies, Inc., three Lucent employees claimed that their employer fired them 'for cause' to prevent them from receiving severance benefits." (Michael H. Rosenthal on For Your Benefit Blog)

Newly Posted Events

Cafeteria Plan Smorgasbord: Fair and Current
Nationwide on August 2, 2005
presented by SunGard Corbel

HIPAA and Other Health Laws: Mississippi Compliance Assistance Seminar
in Mississippi on August 17, 2005
presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration

LM-10/LM-30 Filings - Now in the Eleventh Hour
in Illinois on August 10, 2005
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans

LM-10/LM-30 Filings - Now in the Eleventh Hour
in District of Columbia on August 11, 2005
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans

Practical Application Of The Retirement Distribution Rules Including Analysis Of The New Bankruptcy Act
Nationwide on July 19, 2005
presented by West LegalEdcenter

Newly Posted Press Releases

Preserving Social Security Disability Payments Would Force Far Deeper Cuts in Retirement Benefits, Study Finds
(Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI))

Treasury and IRS Issue Proposed Regulations for Electronic Transmission of Employee Benefit Information
(U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service)

New Location for the 52nd Annual Employee Benefits Conference
(International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans)

Pension (Asset/Liability) Management Redefined
(Dietrich & Associates, Inc.)

Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
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Pension Professionals
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Retirement Plan Administrator
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in GA

Reconciliation Specialist
for Administaff
in TX



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