BenefitsLink |   |
| June 4, 2007 |
Sponsored by: The Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits at The John Marshall Law School
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
| Enhance Your Employee Benefits Career |
| The John Marshall Law School Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits invites you to improve your marketability by earning an advanced degree in Employee Benefits in the heart of Chicago. We offer an M.S. degree in Employee Benefits for non-attorney benefits professionals and an LL.M. degree in Employee Benefits for attorneys. Attend an Information Session Monday, June 11 at noon or 5 p.m. Visit www.jmls.edu/employee.html for more information. |
High-Deductible Health Plans Often Create Debt for Those Insured
Excerpt: "The plans, with annual deductibles of $1,000 or higher and monthly premiums that can be less than $100, are a good fit for relatively healthy people with some financial means, most experts agree. The median annual income of those using high-deductible plans is about $75,000, according to a recent federal report." (Los Angeles Times; free registration required)
Lower Costs and Flexibility Key As Health Savings Accounts Gain Traction
Excerpt: "It's a new wave in health care -- consumer-driven health plans where users have high deductibles, low monthly premiums and use much of their own money to cover health costs." (Baltimore Business Journal via bizjournals.com; free registration required)
Kentucky Universities' Domestic Partner Benefits Unconstitutional
Excerpt: "Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo has issued a formal opinion that programs at the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville that would offer health insurance to domestic partners of unmarried employees are unconstitutional." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
House Subcommittee Weighs Exceptions to ERISA Preemption for State, Local Health Care Reforms
Excerpt: "Last week, the House HELP Subcommittee held a hearing on the impact of ERISA preemption on state and local efforts to expand health insurance coverage." (HR Policy Association)
Workers Opt for Long Weekends Over Big Vacations
Excerpt: "Three- and four-day vacations are replacing the once-a-year, two-week vacation for U.S. workers, according to Chicago-based outplacement consultant firm Challenger, Gray& Christmas Inc., which offered up a forecast of vacation habits based on workplace and family trends." (Society for Human Resource Management)
Poll Shows 1 in 5 Brought Laptops on Vacation, Stayed in Touch with Work
Excerpt: "One in five people toted laptop computers on their most recent vacations, an AP-Ipsos poll released Friday said. Along with the 80 percent who said they brought along their cell phones, the survey shows going on vacation no longer means being out of the electronic loop." (AP via San Diego Union-Tribune)
Overview; HIPAA Policy and Provisions As an Element of Private Causes of Action
Excerpt: "Strategic Planning - Whether from the claimant's perspective or that of risk management, HIPAA cannot be dismissed as an innocuous privacy regulation. The policy and provisions of HIPAA are finding their way into substantive causes of action that affect legal liability and have financial consequences." (Health Plan Law blog by Attorney Roy F. Harmon III)
Overview: IRS Issues More Proposed Guidance on HSA Comparable Contribution Rules
Excerpt: "First, the proposed regulations would provide a way for employers to comply with the comparable contribution requirements with respect to employees who are eligible individuals but who have not established an HSA by December 31, as well as with respect to employees who may have established HSAs but have not notified the employer. Second, the proposed regulations would clarify how employers can accelerate contributions to certain employees in need . . . ." (Deloitte)
Small Businesses Comply with a Complex New World of Workplace Regulations
Excerpt: "Almost nine of 10 [of the owners and managers of small businesses surveyed recently] said local, state and federal employment regulations have proliferated in the last decade; more than half said these regulations had grown faster than other types of rules; and more than half said they are spending at least 10 percent more time complying with these workplace regulations than they did a decade ago." (National Association of Professional Employer Organizations)
Personal Health Record Data Overload, Legal Liability Concern Doctors
Excerpt: "Like a recurring dream about having to take a test they didn't study for, some physicians view the idea of patients with electronic personal-health records as their own personal nightmare." (Modern Healthcare; free registration required)
Overview: Vermont Agency Issues Final Rules on Employer Health Care Fund Contributions (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "Employers in the State of Vermont that do not offer health coverage or that employ individuals who are not covered under their health plan are now required to make employer health care fund contributions to help fund the new Catamount Health program. The Vermont Department of Labor (Vermont DOL) recently issued final rules on the administration and collection of the employer health care fund contributions." (Buck Consultants)
Setting a Standard of Affordability for Health Insurance Coverage
Excerpt: "The definition of affordability for individuals and families of different incomes or circumstances is a critical decision in implementation and is relevant to any state or federal reform requiring individual premium or cost-sharing contributions, or both. This analysis was done to assist the policy design process in Massachusetts and delineates an empirically based approach to setting affordability standards." (Health Affairs)
Opinion: A Route to Better Health Care
Excerpt: "[Now an Emory University professor of health policy, Ken Thorpe] has a clear strategy for attacking the [health care reform] problem, and he is beginning to enlist influential allies in his cause. It's essentially a flanking attack -- shifting the focus from the longtime arguments over financing mechanisms and coverage concerns to an assault on the real cost driver in the system: chronic diseases." (The Washington Post; free registration required)
'Healthy Blue Incentives' to be Offered in July 2007
Excerpt: "Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan . . . announced it is launching a new PPO wellness product that reduces copayments and deductibles for Blues members who engage in its wellness program." (Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association)
Workforce Retention and Engagement Through a Workplace Financial Well-being Program
Excerpt: "It is rare, yet extraordinarily valuable, when a single effort can have equal power and effectiveness across all workforce demographics. What this article will show is how an employer workplace financial well-being program can have that effect -- while driving higher levels or workforce engagement." (401khelpcenter.com)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Connecticut Takes Up Fight Over GASB Accounting Rules
Excerpt: "The state is poised to enact a bill that would empower its comptroller to diverge not just from one accounting rule, but from all of them." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Overview: Executive Compensation and Bankrup.tcy: Retention Payment Rules
2 pages. Excerpt: "Federal trial courts have begun interpreting changes made to the Bankrup.tcy Code in 2005 that were designed to restrict retention pay and severance benefits. Several recent cases have addressed what constitutes a retention payment, so as to be subject to the special and strict rules on the addition of that type of compensation during bankrup.tcy." (NASPP Advisor via Utz Miller & Kuhn LLC)
Text of IRS Notice 2007-49: Determination of 'Covered Employees' Under Code Sec. 162(m)(3) (PDF)
Excerpt: "Section 162(m)(1) provides, in general, that in the case of any publicly held corporation, no deduction shall be allowed for applicable employee remuneration with respect to any covered employee [as defined in section 162(m)(3)] to the extent that the amount of such remuneration for the taxable year with respect to such employee exceeds $1,000,000." (Internal Revenue Service)
Listing of IRS Published Guidance for January-May 2007
Excerpt: "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)
Newly Posted Events
Automatic Enrollment: Is It Appropriate for Your Clients? - Webcast
Nationwide on October 30, 2007
presented by McKay Hochman
Employees' Rights, Benefits and Obligations under USERRA: Legal and Practical Advice for the Employer - Webcast
Nationwide on June 7, 2007
presented by West LegalEdcenter
Newly Posted Press Releases
BenefitStreet Launches Direct Exchange Traded Fund 401k Platform
BenefitStreet, Inc.
Transamerica Adds Two New Fund Families to its Retirement Plan Offering
Transamerica Retirement Services
Metrics Partners Achieves 401k Electronic Marketing Milestone
Metrics Partners
ING Enhances Rollover Tool to Enable Employees to Rollover Assets Online
ING Group
The Online 401k Upgrades Integrated Customer Relationship Management Platform
The Online 401(k)
The Online 401k Partners With Two Financial Advisors
The Online 401(k)
SEC Plans Roundtable on Mutual Fund 12b-1 Fees
Securities and Exchange Commission
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
(Post a Job | View All Jobs)
Senior Plan Administrator
for American National Insurance Company
in TX
Internal Sales Consultant
for Transamerica
in MA, NJ
Retirement Services Consultant
for Administaff
in TX
Director, Benefits System
for 20th Century Fox
in CA
401(k) Plan Administrator
for Eisner Retirement Solutions
in NY
Actuarial Testing Director - Defined Benefits
for Fidelity Investments
in NY
Manager, Health and Welfare Plan
for Rockwell Automation
in WI
Paralegal - ERISA Claims And Appeals Analyst - Excellent In-house Opportunity! Will Relocate!
for PROVIDUS
in TX
Programmer -- Senior Actuarial and Defined Contribution Programmer
for Leggette Actuaries, Inc.
in TX
401(k) Plan Administrator
for Actuarial and Administration Company
in TX
Retirement Plan Administrator
for Fred S. Shapiro & Associates, Inc.
in MD
Communications Strategist
for CitiStreet
in MA
Experienced Relius Benefit Administrator
for Employers Administrative Services, Inc.
in IA
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research (hypertext article)
- Employee Benefits Library
Subscribe to the BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter, Too!
Sign-up form is at https://benefitslink.com/newsletter (free).
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: