| BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter |   |
April 2, 2007
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| Celebrate National Employee Benefits Day Today! |
| Make sure you celebrate National Employee Benefits Day today! Tune in to www.ifebp.org for a free web cast titled "Are Your Participants Financially Savvy? How Proactive Plan Sponsors Can Make a Difference." This presentation will be of interest to those who help shape educational efforts for plan participants. It will also have tips for your own personal financial planning. For more on National Employee Benefits Day, visit www.ifebp.org/benefitsday |
A Look at What the Washington State Family Leave Bill Would Do
Excerpt: "If a proposal to offer paid family leave becomes law, Washington would be the second state, behind California, to have these benefits available for all workers. The measure, creating the Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program, would . . . ." (AP via The Seattle Times)
Professional Employer Organization Must Pay Penalties & Medical Costs to Disabled Employee & Spouse
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: Because the Eighth Circuit specifically ruled that there was no basis for COBRA penalties, the lower court instead relied on ERISA's penalties for failure to provide requested documents to compensate this couple for the PEO's behavior, which it said was 'egregious.' Added to an award of medical expenses and attorneys' fees, this PEO paid a significant price for its administrative failings." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc.)
Personal Health Records Will Advance Healthcare IT Adoption
Excerpt: "Personal health records may be the fastest way to grow healthcare IT, said Interim National Coordinator of Health Information Technology Robert Kolodner at a summit held . . . in the nation's capital." (Healthcare IT News)
Taking the Initiative on Curbing Health Cost
Excerpt: "Over the next few weeks, as the healthcare debate heats up in Sacramento and passions start to boil over, expect to hear one four-letter word uttered an awful lot: cost. Actually, make that cost containment. The Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights is bent on bringing loads of attention to the issue." (Los Angeles Times via The Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights)
Awareness of Health Care Trends Important in Retirement
Excerpt: "Workers thinking ahead to their retirement appear to be picking up on the ominous signals about future health-care expenses. A recent study by investment company Edward Jones found that nearly a third of Americans say not having enough to pay for health care in retirement is one of the biggest concerns facing the nation." (The Washington Post; free registration required)
Rail Unions Act to Avoid Health Care Charges
Excerpt: "When city subway and bus workers went on strike 15 months ago, their leaders refused to accept changes to pension benefits for newly hired workers but ultimately agreed to have members pay a portion of health insurance premiums. A group of Metro-North Railroad unions . . . took the opposite tack yesterday, agreeing to raise the age at which pension benefits would kick in as a way to spare their members from having to contribute to the health insurance plan." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Brand-Name Medicare Participants' Drug Needs Are Going Unmet
Excerpt: "From the day the new Medicare drug plan was introduced, critics warned that it had a big loophole -- the 'doughnut hole' -- a coverage gap that leaves some recipients with $3,000 in costs to pick up themselves. The private sector was supposed to help." (Los Angeles Times; free registration required)
Letter Offers Recommendations to Improve Part D Program Overall Operation/Administration (PDF)
13 pages. Excerpt: "Specifically, some of the areas needing additional refinement include the bidding process, management of eligibility, and coordination with Medicaid and with the Social Security Administration." (American Academy of Actuaries)
United Healthcare Narrows Network of Specialty Pharmacy Providers
Excerpt: "When the UnitedHealthcare (UHC) unit of UnitedHealth Group wanted to narrow its network of specialty pharmacy providers in early 2005, it began looking into the issue by performing a rigorous assessment of their capabilities." (SPECIALTY PHARMACY NEWS via AISHealth.com)
Opinion: Patents for Drugs and Cancer Patients
Excerpt: "We could make faster progress against cancer by changing the way drugs are developed. In the current system, if a promising compound can't be patented, it is highly unlikely ever to make it to market -- no matter how well it performs in the laboratory. The development of new cancer drugs is crippled as a result." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Overview: 8th Circuit Holds That PDA Doesn't Encompass Contraception; Revives Coverage Exclusion
Excerpt: "In a 2-1 decision, the Eighth Circuit has concluded that the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) 'does not encompass contraception,' reversing a trial court decision . . . . The employer in this case provided health benefits that excluded both male and female contraceptive methods when used for the sole purpose of contraception." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc.)
Can Consumer-Directed Health and Universal Coverage Coexist?
Excerpt: "Now that the Democrats have a majority in both houses of Congress, some industry observers predict they will use their new power to push harder for some form of universal health coverage. But industry observers say consumer-directed health (CDH) and universal coverage are two philosophies that can work together." (INSIDE CONSUMER-DIRECTED CARE via AISHealth.com)
States Try to Lead Way in Reshaping Health Care
Excerpt: "In one of the most far-reaching attempts at the state level to make health care more accessible and affordable to everyone, Gov. Ed Rendell is seeking to lower barriers in Pennsylvania laws and regulations that prevent a wide range of nonphysician health professionals from providing basic types of care." (AP via Houston Chronicle)
Third House Committee Approves Genetic Nondiscrimination Bill
Excerpt: "from Spencer's Benefits Reports: The House of Representatives moved closer to approving H.R. 493, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2007, when the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved its version on March 23." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
Universal Health Care - The One Thing Big Business and the Left Have in Common
Excerpt: "As health care has become more expensive and even middle-class Americans have become anxious that their hold on employer-sponsored coverage is precarious, politicians have been talking seriously again about making health insurance a birthright, just as it is in every other developed nation." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Audio and Text: Massachusetts Moves Toward Mandatory Insurance
Excerpt: "Health care reform is back on the U.S. agenda. On the national level, it's all talk. But things are already happening in some states. No state is farther along than Massachusetts, which passed a landmark health reform law last year -- with bipartisan support." (Morning Edition via National Public Radio)
Law Firm Partners Cannot Sue Under ERISA for Lost Retiree Health Benefits
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: This case is a good reminder of a simple ERISA rule: Partners (and self-employed individuals) are not considered employees under ERISA and therefore a benefit plan that covers only partners (or self-employed individuals) is not an ERISA-covered plan. Note, however, that if the partnership or business owner's plan covers at least one employee, then the benefit plan could be an ERISA-covered plan . . . ." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc.)
U.S. Workers Saddled with Houses That Won't Sell
Excerpt: "Many Fortune 1000 companies typically pay closing costs . . . as well as giving employees payment for money they lost by selling their house quickly. But small firms often cannot afford that. 'It's greatly affecting the ability of smaller companies to recruit top talent out of higher-priced markets,' . . . ." (The Christian Science Monitor)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
New Approach Emerges for Valuing Stock Options
Excerpt: "For years, critics of the Black-Scholes model and other formula-based methods for valuing stock options have argued that these theoretical approaches overstate the value of employee awards, leading companies to record too much cost in their financial statements. But that may be changing." (Towers Perrin)
Boomers Are Aging -- and Companies Must Rethink Jobs
Excerpt: "The oldest boomers will qualify for Social Security's early retirement benefits in less than a year, but a large part of corporate America isn't prepared for the tens of millions of employees who will quit their jobs or scale back their hours over the next decade." (The Dallas Morning News; free registration required)
First Circuit Address Structural Conflicts of Interest in ERISA Denial of Benefits Claims
Excerpt: "Of course, ERISA is full of vexing areas of law, preemption and the scope of civil enforcement under Section 502(a)(3) to name just two. But right up there at the top of the list is the appropriate standard of review when a court reviews a plan administrator's decision to deny an individual's claim for benefits under the plan AND the plan is operating under a structural conflict of interest." (Workplace Prof Blog)
Bill to Mandate Shareholder Advisory Vote on Executive Compensation Gathers Momentum (PDF)
1 page. Excerpt: "On March 28 the House Financial Services Committee approved the 'Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act' (H.R. 1257) by a narrow vote of 37-29, largely along party lines. The bill is expected to go to the full House after Congress returns from Easter recess in April. Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), the proponent of the bill, expects full House approval." (Frederic W. Cook & Co., Inc.)
409A Deferred Compensation Regulations Likely to Be Issued Soon, Officials Say
Excerpt: "Issuance of the regulations is 'pretty close,' according to Dan Hogans and Bill Schmidt of the IRS, who predicted the regulations would have a January 1, 2008 effective date." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
Work -- The End of the Line as Detroit Workers Know It
Excerpt: "'The question is, Are we seeing a final end to what we have called blue-collar aristocracy?' asks Sheldon H. Danziger, a public policy researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 'Big Steel is gone, coal is gone, shipbuilding is gone -- all the big industrial unions are gone or going, except the auto workers. These are the people who had the strongest ability to fight, and now they seem to be giving up the struggle.'" (The New York Times; free registration required)
Listing of IRS Published Guidance for January-March 2007
The target page links to guidance published by the Service relating to retirement plans: Treasury Regulations; Revenue Rulings; Revenue Procedures; Notices; and, Announcements. (Internal Revenue Service)
Changing Benefit Practices Challenge Companies
Excerpt: "According to a major new Towers Perrin study, there's a lot of misunderstanding -- and concern -- on both sides. Neither employers nor employees believe that current benefit programs are fully meeting their needs." (Towers Perrin)
Newly Posted Events
Benefits Buffet -- All You Can Learn For $195*
in California on May 2, 2007
presented by Western Pension & Benefits Conference - Los Angeles Chapter
Newly Posted Press Releases
Making Every Day 401(k) Day
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
U.S. Labor Department Obtains Court Order Requiring Harris N.A. To Pay $274,600 For Unpaid Health Claims
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Retirement Sales Consultant/Sales Executive
for BenefitStreet, Inc.
in NY
Actuary
for Westchester NY Consulting Firm
in NY
Defined Benefit Conversions Project Leader
for New York Life Retirement Plans Services
in MA
Marketing Associate, 401 (k) Products
for Citigroup - Smith Barney
in NY
Retirement Plan Consultant
for Alan Nahoum Incorporated
in NY
Defined Contribution/401(K) Plan Administrator
for Pension Actuarial Consulting Firm in Northport, L.I., NY
in NY
Retirement Sales Executive
for Benefitstreet, Inc.
in IL, MA
In-House ERISA Attorney
for Walgren & Associates
in TX
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
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