| BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter |   |
April 6, 2007
Sponsored by: BeneCom Associates, LLC
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
| Benefits statements are terrific education tools. Now, they’re budget-friendly, too. |
| If you’re looking for a low-cost approach to communicating the value of your benefits, BeneCom Associates, LLC can help. Our "preformatted," customized and online approaches to benefit statement are attractive, very reasonably priced and used by employers across the country who thought benefits statements were financially out of reach.
To find out how little benefits statements can cost and how they can help your organization, call (860) 674-2626 or visit us at benecomassociates.com. |
Big Company Executives Speaking Out on Health Insurance Reform
Excerpt: "[W]ith their medical costs ballooning, top executives of large companies are starting to speak up again -- and many are calling for a national approach to fixing health care. Few advocate a wholesale shift to government-directed medicine, but most are seeking broad changes in the employer-subsidized health system, which they regard as unsustainable in its current form." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Insurance Plans with High Deductibles Are Unfair to Women, Who Need More Routine Tests, Study Says
Excerpt: "The median expense for men under 45 in these plans was less than $500, but for women it was more than $1,200, according to a study by Harvard Medical School researchers." (The Detroit News)
Disability Insurer Says More Cancer Patients Return to Work
Excerpt: "A major group disability insurance provider says its data supports the notion that medical treatment advances are helping more people return to work." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Disability Programs: SSA is Addressing Conflicting Court Decisions, but Needs to Manage Data Better
Excerpt: "GAO was asked to examine: (1) trends over the past decade in the number of appeals reviewed by the courts and their decisions, (2) reasons for court remands and factors contributing to them, and (3) SSA's process for responding to court decisions that conflict with agency policy. GAO reviewed SSA data and documents [Highlights of the report are at http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07331high.pdf.]" (U.S. Government Accountability Office)
Health Benefit Parity Bill Introduced in Congress
Excerpt: "Legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would end the federal tax on health benefits paid to the unmarried partners of public and private sector employees." (G.ayCityNews)
Ex-Army Soldier Loses USERRA Holiday Pay Battle
Excerpt: "A federal Bureau of Prisons employee who has been waging his own legal battle over whether the U.S. government owes him holiday pay during his active military service has lost another round in front of a federal appellate court." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Opinion: Steps to a More Efficient System Health Care System
Excerpt: "I propose several ideas that would get more for our healthcare dollar and expand access to care. To be clear, I am talking about reducing the burden on those who now pay for healthcare -- companies, taxpayers and governments -- and improving the social value of healthcare spending." (Financial Planning via The Century Foundation)
Foundation Pledges $500M to Fight Childhood Obesity
Excerpt: "The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has pledged $500 million over the next five years to fund efforts to curb childhood obesity, the New York Times reports." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Vermont Employer Launches Free Lunch As Wellness and Productivity Benefit
Excerpt: "The old saying that 'there is no free lunch' may be true in a technical sense. But one Vermont employer is finding that offering lunch to its employees makes good business sense." (WorldNow and WCAX)
U.S. Health Care System Should Focus on Preventive Health, According to Report
Excerpt: "The U.S. health care system should focus on disease prevention, according to a report released . . . at the Johns Hopkins/Healthways 6th Annual Outcomes Summit . . . ." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Rhode Island to Debut Small Business Health Plan
Excerpt: "Two new health plans available to employees of small businesses this fall will offer discounted coverage to people who agree to keep fit and quit smoking." (Forex TV)
Maine Governor Proposes Health Care Reforms
Excerpt: "Among changes Gov. Baldacci will propose are imposing a fee on employers that don't offer coverage to employees and requiring individuals with incomes of at least 400% of the federal poverty level to have health insurance coverage." (Business Insurance)
Quebec Legislation May Open Door for Private Health Care
Excerpt: "The province of Quebec is implementing a new law that will allow limited use of private health care as part of an effort to improve health and social services. The law (Bill 33) is seen as a potential harbinger of change for the province's and possibly the country's public health care system." (Watson Wyatt Worldwide)
Opinion: Why Universal Health Insurance Is Not the Answer
Excerpt: "As they tack left and right state by state, the Democratic presidential contenders can't agree on much. But one cause they all support -- along with Republicans such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and California's own Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- is universal health coverage. And all of them are wrong." (Los Angeles Times via Cato Institute)
Opinion: Benefits with Risks -- Bush's Tax-Based Health Care Proposals
Excerpt: "Although the President's proposals are unlikely to gain much traction in Congress, they could start a long-overdue discussion of the extent to which tax preferences should be used to encourage the purchase of health insurance and the forms that such encouragement should take. Any effort to make the tax treatment more rational, however, will come up against the entrenched interests of those who stand to lose." (Robert D. Reischauer via The New England Journal of Medicine)
Chart: Health Savings Accounts
Excerpt: "The chart shows that, in 2006, 9 percent of employees who worked in establishments with 100 or more employees had access to health savings accounts, while 3 percent of employees who worked in establishments with 1 to 99 workers had access to such accounts." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Verizon Had Discretion in Determining Employee Benefit Level, According to Court
Excerpt: "The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia ruled that Verizon Communications Inc.'s decision to deny enhanced severance benefits to two consultants was not capricious, but was the 'product of deliberate and principled reasoning.'" (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Working Paper Abstract: Is the U.S. Population Behaving Healthier?
Excerpt: "In the future . . . increased obesity may play a larger role than continued reductions in smoking. We estimate that a continuation of trends over the past three decades to the next three decades might offset about a third of the behavioral improvements witnessed in recent years." (National Bureau of Economic Research; paid subscription or individual purchase required to retrieve fulltext)
Sponsored by: World Congress
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
| The 4th Annual World Health Care Congress |
| April 22 - 24, 2007 | Washington Convention Center | Washington, DC
The 4th Annual World Health Care Congress, co-sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, is the most prestigious meeting of chief and senior executives from all sectors of health care. The conference will convene over 1,800 CEOs, senior executives and government officials from the nation's largest employers, hospitals, health systems, health plans, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and leading government agencies. Join other senior executives in creating a new healthcare model based on value, quality and consumer choice. www.whcc2007.com – 800-817-8601 – wcreg@worldcongress.com |
| (Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor) |
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Corporate CEO Bonuses and Equity Compensation has Strong Growth, According to Watson Wyatt
Excerpt: "The nation's largest company chief executives saw their annual bonuses jump 13% and the value of their equity-based compensation holdings increase by almost 50% in 2006, a new study has found." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Many Fired Corporate Executives Retain Health Benefits Under COBRA for Remainder of Their Contracts
Excerpt: "Documents filed this year with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that many U.S. companies continue to provide health insurance for CEOs and other executives who lose their jobs because of conditions in their contracts, 'sometimes for years to follow,' the Wall Street Journal reports." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Young Taxpayers in the Dark on 401(k)s, FSAs, and Other Tax-Related Benefits
Excerpt: "Young taxpayers are significantly less likely to take advantage of tax-related benefits, are most likely not to know whether they are eligible to participate in benefit plans, and nearly one in five rate their employers as terrible in providing information about tax-advantaged planning, according to findings from a nationwide CCH CompleteTax survey." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
Newly Posted Events
IRA Elements 2007 -- Essential Elements of Periodic Training - Advanced
in Illinois on May 9, 2007
presented by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services
IRA Elements 2007 -- Essential Elements of Periodic Training - Advanced
in Georgia on May 9, 2007
presented by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services
IRA Elements 2007 -- Essential Elements of Periodic Training - Advanced
in Missouri on May 9, 2007
presented by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services
IRA Elements 2007 -- Essential Elements of Periodic Training - Advanced
in Mississippi on May 10, 2007
presented by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services
IRA Elements 2007 -- Essential Elements of Periodic Training - Beginner
in Illinois on May 10, 2007
presented by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services
IRA Elements 2007 -- Essential Elements of Periodic Training - Beginner
in Missouri on May 10, 2007
presented by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services
Newly Posted Press Releases
Ceridian’s New Online Reference System Simplifies Employee Benefit Management
Ceridian
Unum Says Cancer Still No. 1 Cause of Disability, but Survival and Return-to-Work Rates Are Increasing
Unum
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Retirement Specialist (part-time)
for RubinBrown LLP
in MO
Actuarial Specialist
for Kravitz - Louis Kravitz & Associates
in CA
401(k) Administrator
for Iron Administration, LLC
in IL
Actuarial Pension Analyst
for Libman, Kadavy & Co., Inc.
in OH
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
This newsletter is sent to you each workday except federal holidays.
This email has been published by:
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park FL 32789
(407) 644-4146
Fax: (407) 644-2151
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor
Copyright 2007 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you can forward this email in full (including this boilerplate part) or otherwise reprint this email in full (including this boilerplate part) without obtaining our permission.
Anyone can receive these emails; just have them sign up at this web page: https://benefitslink.com/newsletter/
Other useful links: