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April 25, 2007
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The Full Tests of the Massachusetts Universal Health Insurance Law Are Yet to Come
Excerpt: "Massachusetts has made a strong start toward ensuring that all state residents have health insurance, but it faces major obstacles as it seeks to achieve the full promise of landmark legislation signed into law a year ago, according to more than a dozen analysts, policy makers, and advocates." (The Boston Globe)

A Comparative Analysis of Claims-Based Tools for Health Risk Assessment
Excerpt: "[This report] evaluates the predictive accuracy of commercially available claims-based risk assessment tools. The report builds on the findings from previous related SOA studies completed in 1996 and 2002. The study was motivated by the continued growth and advancement in the use of health care predictive modeling since the 2002 study was completed. The report . . . provides a resource for organizations desiring to evaluate the appropriateness of the software tools for their needs." (Society of Actuaries)

Female Parental Caregivers May Need Work Leave Suddenly
Excerpt: "Approximately 22% of women with two living parents said in a recent poll that they will need time off from work to care for aging parents. A news release from the Securian Financial Group about its survey said just over half (52%) the female respondents said they had no plans for time off because of parental care responsibilities." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

University of Kentucky Passes Domestic Partnership Benefits
Excerpt: "The University of Kentucky's board of trustees expanded employee benefits Tuesday to include domestic partners. The vote makes the school Kentucky's second public university to offer domestic partner benefits. The University of Louisville began offering them earlier this year." (AP via Lexington Herald-Leader)

State of Washington Passes Paid Family Leave Bill
Excerpt: "Washington State Gov. Christine Gregoire is expected to sign legislation soon that would require employers to offer employees up to five weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child, according to the governor's office." (Business Insurance)

Opinion: Direct-to-Consumer Ads Increasing Health Plan Liabilities? Introducing Direct-to-Dogs
Eli Lilly has found a new use for Prozac and has received government approval to market it as Reconcile (tm). Its new application: anxiety relief for dogs. (Dave Baker of BenefitsLink.com)

Can.ada, France, Britain, Germany, and U.S. Veterans Health Administration Tops in Health Coverage
Excerpt: "Medicine may be hard, but health insurance is simple. The rest of the world's industrialized nations have already figured it out, and done so without leaving 45 million of their countrymen uninsured and 16 million or so underinsured, and without letting costs spiral into the stratosphere and severely threaten their national economies." (American Prospect via California Nurses Association / National Nurses Organizing Committee.)

Opinion: Health Care Reform: The Best Option Won't Be the Easiest to Implement
Excerpt: "As we've discussed, 'Medicare for All' may seem the simplest and most logical path to universal health care. But the nation's conservative traditions and the entrenched multizillion-dollar for-profit health care establishment will be formidable obstacles on that path." (Newsday Inc. via Physicians for a National Health Program)

Opinion: Incremental Health Reform: Whose Life Doesn't Count?
Excerpt: "Listening to the purveyors of conventional wisdom, you might think only an incremental approach on healthcare reform is possible. The most comprehensive reform, HR 676 in Congress, (and its state versions, such as SB 840 in California), providing guaranteed healthcare as an expanded and improved Medicare for all, is not politically feasible. So, the pundits insist, settle for what we can get." (The Huffington Post via Physicians for a National Health Program)

New Flexibility in Health Savings Account Rules Gives Them Much More Potential
Excerpt: "Under the old rules, consumers could set aside in their HSAs only the equivalent of their insurance deductibles. The new rules have raised those limits so that an individual can put $2,850 into an HSA this year, while a family can put in $5,650. People 55 and older can add $800 as a ''catch-up'' contribution." (Chicago Sun-Times)


Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

Overview: Guidance on Application of Code Sec. 409A to Split-Dollar Life Insurance Arrangements
Excerpt: "Generally, split-dollar life insurance arrangements that provide for deferred compensation under Reg. §1.409A-1(b) are subject to the requirements of Code Sec. 409A. Code Sec. 409A provides that amounts deferred under a nonqualified deferred compensation plan for all taxable years may be currently includible in gross income, unless certain requirements are met." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)

Overview: Final Deferred Compensation Regulations (PDF)
12 pages. Excerpt: "Virtually all deferred compensation arrangements must be amended by December 31, 2007 to comply with the new rules. Failure to comply will cause all deferred compensation under the plan (and, because of aggregation rules, under all plans of the same type) to be taxed to the affected individual when it is earned and vested, at normal income tax rates, plus an additional 20% penalty tax . . . ." (Seyfarth Shaw LLP)

Delaware Court Considers Fiduciary Duty Issues in Stock Option Backdating and Spring-Loading (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "While most of the attention and controversy regarding stock option grant practices has focused on potential accounting misstatements and related securities law violations, a pair of recent decisions of the Delaware Chancery Court demonstrates that corporate law fiduciary duty issues are presented as well." (Powell Goldstein LLP)

The Continuing Controversy Over Standing To Sue Under ERISA
Excerpt: "The standing concept has been refined as an effective defense to ERISA claims and may be rightfully regarded as one of the current hot topics in the ERISA field. The notion of standing is so fundamental that it can be overlooked, and its contours sufficiently vague to allow for a division of judicial opinion as to its application." (Health Plan Law blog by Attorney Roy F. Harmon III)


Newly Posted Events

401(k) Plan Workshop
Nationwide on May 1, 2007
presented by SunGard Relius

Backdated and Misdated Stock Options: What a Difference a Date Makes
Nationwide on May 22, 2007
presented by ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits

Pension Protection Act of 2006 - Regional Workshops
in Missouri on May 10, 2007
presented by College of Pension Actuaries

Pension Protection Act of 2006 - Regional Workshops
in Georgia on June 11, 2007
presented by College of Pension Actuaries


Newly Posted Press Releases

Boyd Gaming Selects CitiStreet As 401(k) Administrator
CitiStreet

Prudent Investor Advisors, LLC Selected by ARUP Laboratories to Manage Its Retirement Plan
Prudent Investor Advisors, LLC

Internet Guide to Health & Healing Resources on New Natural Health Website
C&D Natural Health Healing Resources


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Retirement Plan Administrator- Defined Contribution/Daily Valuation
for Schloss & Co., a BenefitStreet co.
in NY

Compliance Specialist/Plan Administrator
for Independent Pension Consultants, Ltd.
in MN

Pension Analyst
for Benefit Plans Plus, L.L.C. (An equal opportunity employer)
in MO

Plan Manager
for ING Insurance Americas
in CT

Plan Administrator
for The Newport Group
in WI

Recordkeeper
for Guidant Financial Group, Inc
in WA, WI

Plan Sponsor Desk Team Manager
for Transamerica Retirement Services
in IA

Defined Contribution Conversions Manager
for New York Life Retirement Plans Services
in MA

Relationship Manager
for New York Life Retirement Plans Services
in MA

Retirement Compliance Advisor
for NRECA
in VA




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