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February 16, 2007
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Overview: IRS Releases HSA Rollover Guidance
Excerpt: "Federal regulators have issued detailed guidance on how workers can have their employers roll over their health Flexible Spending Arrangements (health FSAs) and Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Health Savings Accounts: Choosing the Right Bank
Excerpt: "With the rapid growth of health savings accounts (HSAs), a number of employers and employees now find themselves facing a new challenge -- choosing the most suitable bank custodian." (Towers Perrin)
More Working Parents Seeking Backup Care
Excerpt: "More American households are turning to 'drop-in' childcare providers to solve emergency childcare problems, according to a survey from ComPsych, an employee assistance program provider." (BenefitNews Connect)
Opinion: State-Based Health Care Reform: Getting Out from Under Preemption
Excerpt: "I write to suggest that there are other ways to skin this cat [health care reform]. The outlines of one approach can be found in a proposal that was before the Wisconsin Legislature last year. See www.wisaflcio.org which contains a summary and text of the bill." (Pension & Benefits Blog)
Lower Health Plan Rates for Most State and County Workers in Hawaii
Excerpt: "The Hawaii Employers-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund, which manages health care plans for 53,000 state and county employees and 36,000 retirees, has announced lower rates for most active enrollees, especially police officers." (bizjournals.com via MSN.Money)
Doctors Fear New UnitedHealth Policy - Article and Comments
Excerpt: "Except for single payer (Medicare for All), most of the leading proposals for reform would require individuals and/or employers to contract with this uncaring, wasteful, middleman insurance industry in order to gain access to health care. Isn't it long past time for us to take our health care system out of the insurers' sandbox? How much sand in your face can you tolerate?" (Houston Chronicle via Physicians for a National Health Program)
Top-Rated Hospitals Have Lower Mortality Rates
Excerpt: "Disparities in hospital quality persist, as patients treated at top-quality hospitals are nearly one-third less likely to die than those admitted to all other hospitals, reports HealthGrades, a health care ratings company. Poor-quality care in a hospital deals a blow to employers through higher medical costs, longer leaves of absence and even the loss of employees." (BenefitNews Connect)
An Evaluation of the President's Proposed Standard Deduction for Health Insurance (PDF)
25 pages. Excerpt: "The paper describes the new standard deduction for health insurance, proposed in the FY2008 Budget, and evaluates the extent to which it would meet its stated goals of expanding health insurance coverage and restraining healthcare spending, and its effects on the distribution of tax burdens in the short and long terms." (Tax Policy Center, Urban Institute and Brookings Institution)
GAO Testimony: Health Care Spending: Public Payers Face Burden of Entitlement Program Growth (PDF)
14 pages. 'Health Care Spending: Public Payers Face Burden of Entitlement Program Growth, While All Payers Face Rising Prices and Increasing Use of Services' is testimony by A. Bruce Steinwald, director, health care, before the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, House Committee on Appropriations. (U.S. Government Accountability Office)
Accounting for the Cost of Health Care in the United States
Excerpt: "MGI found that the overriding cause of high U.S. health care costs is the failure of the intermediation system -- payors, employers, and government -- to provide sufficient incentives to patients and consumers to be value-conscious in their demand decisions, and to regulate the necessary incentives to promote rational use by providers and suppliers." (McKinsey & Company; free registration required)
Chrysler Plans to Eliminate Jobs and Seeks Health Care Concessions
Excerpt: "Automaker Chrysler and parent company DaimlerChrysler [yesterday] announced plans to eliminate 13,000 jobs and close two manufacturing facilities as part of a restructuring plan, in part because of high health care costs for employees and retirees, the AP/San Jose Mercury News reports." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Health Care Industry Groups Lobby Presidential Candidates
Excerpt: "Roll Call . . . examined how health care is 'quickly becoming a cornerstone' of 2008 presidential candidates' domestic proposals and how 'health industry groups and their lobbyists already are trying to make sure candidates in both parties keep their interests in mind along the campaign trail.'" (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Kaiser Permanente Launches Long-Term Project To Collect Genetic Data on Members
Excerpt: "California-based HMO Kaiser Permanente . . . announced the creation of a decades-long research project that will collect and analyze genetic information from hundreds of thousands of adult members, the San Jose Mercury News reports." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Testimony at Hearing on Health Care Access and the Aging of America, February 15, 2007
Invited Testimony by M. J. Koren titled: Caring for an Aging America, before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Hearing on Health Care Access and the Aging of America, February 15, 2007. (The Commonwealth Fund)
Opinion: Saving Employer Health Plans
Excerpt: "Most Americans get their health insurance through employer-sponsored plans, even though the system is a bit of a relic in today's rapidly changing, highly mobile work force. So when policymakers talk about helping more families afford private health insurance, some people naturally worry the approach might weaken the employer-based system or drive up costs for those who need care the most." (The Washington Times)
Patient Choice Passes in Senate: Utahns May Gain the Right to See Out-Of-Network Doctors
Excerpt: "Senate Bill 66 would require insurance companies to offer employers an option in which patients pay extra for the privilege of choosing their own providers. That way, they wouldn't have to switch doctors in the middle of a pregnancy or illness just because their employer changes insurance companies." (The Salt Lake Tribune)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
February 28 Deadline Nears for 409A Compliance Resolution Program
Excerpt: "On February 8, 2007, the IRS released Announcement 2007-18 . . . , which provides a compliance resolution program . . . for employers that want to pay the IRC § 409A-related taxes for employees who exercised misdated options in 2006. Prompt attention is required because employers that intend to participate must notify the IRS of that intent no later than February 28, 2007." (Deloitte)
Overview: Allowing Employers to Pay Section 409A Penalties on Stock Rights Exercised in 2006
Excerpt: "On February 8, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Announcement 2007-18, establishing a compliance program that allows employers to pay the taxes and interest imposed by Internal Revenue Code Section 409A on discounted stock options or stock appreciation rights (SARs) that were exercised by certain employees in 2006." (Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP)
Executive Pay Summaries Conceal: New Proxy Tables Don't Include All Options Data
Excerpt: "Due to an accounting loophole for stock options and an eleventh-hour rule change made by securities regulators just before Christmas, some of the biggest names in technology, health care and financial services will be able to cloud what their top executives make." (The Washington Post; free registration required)
Deferred Compensation Payroll Tax Scenario Clarified
Excerpt: "Changing its prior holdings, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) [yesterday] said that an accrual basis taxpayer-employer may treat its payroll tax liability as incurred in the first tax year – even if the related compensation is deferred under §404 that is deductible in the second year." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Overview: Bush Admin Releases FY'08 Budget Proposals, Including HSA and Simplified Pensions
Excerpt: "Next to the addition of the standard health insurance deduction proposal, some of the biggest benefits-related differences between this year's and last year's proposed budgets relate to health savings accounts (HSAs). Some of the HSA proposals from last year's proposed budget were enacted as part of the Health Opportunity and Patient Empowerment Act of 2006. As a result, the Administration has replaced those proposals with a series of new proposals to enhance HSAs." (Deloitte)
Companies Continue to Scale Back Use of Stock for Equity Incentive Programs
Excerpt: "According to a recent Towers Perrin review of equity incentive trends and practices at Fortune 500 companies, share utilization fell for the fourth straight year in 2005. The decline reflects ongoing concerns about shareholder dilution, accounting costs and disclosure rules that make it ever more difficult to hide the cumulative weight of equity grants." (Towers Perrin)
Newly Posted Events
401(k) Plan Workshop
Nationwide on April 19, 2007
presented by SunGard Relius
Form 5500 Workshop
Nationwide on April 18, 2007
presented by SunGard Relius
Inherited IRAs Webinar
Nationwide on February 22, 2007
presented by Convergent Retirement Plan Solutions, LLC
Inherited IRAs Webinar
Nationwide on February 27, 2007
presented by Convergent Retirement Plan Solutions, LLC
Newly Posted Press Releases
Talent Management Threatens 13-year Reign of Health Care Costs as the Top Benefit Concern for 2007: Deloitte Consulting LLP/ISCEBS Survey
Deloitte
The Standard Opens New Retirement Plans Office in Phoenix
Standard Insurance Company
The Standard Opens New Retirement Plans Office in Charlotte
Standard Insurance Company
Former General Counsel Of Monster Pleads Guilty To Securities Fraud In Connection With Backdating Of Stock Options
U.S. Department of Justice
NNA Selects SunGard’s Signix Identity Authentication Technology
SunGard Relius
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Service Specialist
for Principal Financial Group
in CA
Senior Employee Benefits Daily Administrator
for BB&T (Branch Banking and Trust)
in ANY STATE
HRIS Benefits Specialist
for Affiliated Computer Services (ACS)
in NJ
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
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