| BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter |   |
August 29, 2005
Today's sponsor: World Congress
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
| Consumer-Centric Healthcare Strategies for Employers, Payers and Providers |
| 1st Annual World Congress Leadership Summit on Consumer-Centric Healthcare Strategies for Employers, Payers and Providers, November 2 - 3, 2005- Marriott Fisherman's Wharf Hotel- San Francisco, CA.
The Summit will address the major opportunities and challenges in the growing consumer-centric marketplace. For more information, please visit: www.worldcongress.com/consumer, call 800-817-8601 or email e.musto@worldcongress.com. |
| (Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor) |
For Some Small Companies, Offering a Salary Raise Instead of a Medical Plan Benefits Bottom Line
Excerpt: "Encouraging employees not to participate in the company's healthcare plan may be a growing trend among small businesses, says Richard J. Cellini, the head of research at Salary.com Inc. in Needham, Mass., which helps companies manage employee expenditures." (The Christian Science Monitor)
Medicare Drug Coverage Delivers Subsidy to Employers with Retiree Plans
Excerpt: "To be eligible for the subsidy, employers must provide a drug benefit program for their retirees that is at least as good as the one offered by Medicare. Companies may also choose to discontinue their drug benefit, but a recent national survey by Stamford Conn.-based Towers Perrin found that 66.5 percent of employers plan to continue their benefit next year and accept the federal subsidy to offset expenses." (Pittsburgh Business Times via bizjournals.com; one-time registration required)
Opinion: From the Auto Factory to the Health Factory
Excerpt: "It may seem a stretch to compare a carmaker's, aluminum refiner's, or mutual fund company's operations with a hospital's. But all these companies manage complex processes that require a great deal of problem solving - and they have something important to teach health care." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
UAW President Wants General Motors to Cut Executives' Pay to Get Union Help with Health Care Costs
Excerpt: "United Auto Workers union President Ron Gettelfinger is demanding General Motors Corp. cut executives and salaried workers' pay if it wants union help in trimming the automaker's $5.6 billion annual health care bill." (MLive.com)
Commentary: Have a Strategy for Negotiating with Unions Over Health Care Benefits
Excerpt: "Here are some strategies that a manufacturer's negotiators should consider when faced with attempting to negotiate changes in health care benefits and greater employee participation in the costs of these benefits: ...." (Pittsburgh Business Times via bizjournals.com; one-time registration required)
A Healthy Bottom Line: Companies Push Wellness Programs
Excerpt: "Desperate to find something -- anything -- to control rising health-care costs, companies in Pittsburgh and across the country are dusting off a tool that's been around for more than two decades but always raised some doubts: wellness programs." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Tool Company Switches Health Plans and Saves Thousands in Costs
Excerpt: "Like most companies, Perfection Tool and Mold Corp. was shelling out more money every year for employee health benefits. .... By changing the way it funded employee benefits, Perfection was able to save money without passing on more of the cost to its 15 employees and without cutting its benefit package, said Chris Ross, vice president of engineering." (Dayton Business Journal via bizjournals.com; one-time registration required)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Employer Hit with $2,500 Fine for Plan Information Disclosure Delay
Excerpt: "A federal judge has slapped a Puerto Rican company with a $2,500 fine for delaying its response to an employee's inquiry about the firm's long-term disability plan for 25 days after the 30-day response deadline." (PLANSPONSOR.com: one-time registration required)
Suit for Fiduciary Breach Proceeds Even Though Only Subset of Plan Participants Affected
Excerpt: "As noted in the opinion, the Sixth and Eighth Circuits also have ruled that a subset of participants can sue an ERISA plan for breach of fiduciary duty under ERISA Section 502(a)(2). And as the court points out in a footnote, the Fifth Circuit has granted a rehearing in the Milofsky case, effectively vacating that opinion." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc.)
Recovering Losses for Individual Participants Is Recovery for the Plan, Says Appeals Court
Excerpt: "The US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit has disagreed with a lower court decision that an ERISA case be dismissed because it was seeking financial recovery of losses on behalf of some plan participants and not the plan as a whole." (PLANSPONSOR.com: one-time registration required)
Newly Posted Events
2005 PenServ Fall Seminar Series
Nationwide on October 4, 2005
presented by PenServ, Inc.
Membership 2005-2006: Join Now for Discounts on Upcoming Educational Events and Seminars
in Arizona on August 30, 2005
presented by Western Pension & Benefits Conference - Phoenix Chapter
Newly Posted Press Releases
Treasury Releases Final Regulations Shutting Down Abusive Valuation Of Life Insurance Contracts
(U.S. Department of Treasury)
NEW Employee Wellness Benefit: The "Managing My Life" Online Library Series
(Planning For Life)
COBRA Outsourcing Company hires Deloitte & Touche for SAS 70 Review
(COBRA Outsourcing Company)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Accounting Administrator in Trust Department
for Associated Pension Consultants
in CA
Supervisor, Service
for BISYS Retirement Services
in PA
401(k) / Defined Contribution Administrator
for Pension Investors Corporation
in FL
Employee Benefits Product Manager
for Wachovia
in NC
Product Manager II
for Wachovia
in NC
Retirement Services Project Leader
for State Bank & Trust
in ND
Administrative Assistant
for Milliman, Inc.
in WA
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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