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| July 6, 2007 |
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| Record Retention Requirements for Health & Welfare Plans |
| In Record Retention Requirements for Health & Welfare Plans, EBIA's experts analyze record retention requirements for ERISA health and welfare plans as well as other employer-provided health and welfare benefits not subject to ERISA. You'll find answers to your record retention questions for many benefits including cafeteria plans, DCAPs, qualified transportation plans, HSAs, group health plans (like major medical, dental, health FSAs, and HRAs), and other ERISA benefits.
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Texas Supreme Court Holds That Contractual Subrogation Rights Prevail Over Equitable Defenses
Excerpt: "Vanessa Cantu suffered serious injury in a car wreck which rendered her a paraplegic. She sued the driver of the vehicle in which she was riding, his employer, the vehicle seller, and the vehicle manufacturer (Ford)." (Health Plan Law blog by Attorney Roy F. Harmon III)
San Francisco Incurs Huge Health Care Costs for Public Retirees
Excerpt: "The city, like most local governments and school districts in California, has put aside no money to cover the fast-growing cost of delivering on health care coverage promised to its workers once they hit retirement age. But in San Francisco, the financial liability hanging over the city is one of the heaviest in the state, thanks in part to the generosity of its employee health care benefits." (San Francisco Chronicle)
The Income-Tax Treatment of Life Insurance
Excerpt: "Historically, life insurance has been considered beneficial to the public good because it contributes to the financial well-being of families. As a result, there are certain tax benefits for life insurance products. It is important to know how these come into play with the death proceeds and living benefits of an individual life insurance contract." (Advisor Today)
In the Summertime, Enjoy Flexible Fridays: Some Employers Allow Early Weekend Departures Perk
Excerpt: "[W]orkplace consultants say summer work arrangements can be a popular and efficient way for employers to offer work flexibility because it involves little or no additional cost as long as the work gets done and schedules are coordinated among staffers.' (The Baltimore Sun)
Spiritual Healing Part of the Benefits Package for Some Workers
Excerpt: "A growing workplace ministry is providing spiritual support to workers at factories, hospitals, and police and fire stations. Industrial and Commercial Ministries trains hundreds of lay and professional ministers who spend their days traveling to corporations and listening to employees' needs." (AP via Daily Press)
Big Three's Magic Pill: Union-Run Fund May Cure Health Care Headache
Excerpt: "In December, Akron's Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. and the United Steelworkers signed a contract that transferred responsibility for retiree health care from the company to the union. Goodyear paid $1 billion up front, but it no longer has to carry those costs on its balance sheet." (The Detroit News)
Cost Transparency and Decision Support Needed to Reform Health Care System, According to Survey
Excerpt: "A large majority of employers believe that providing their workers with the necessary tools on how to manage medical costs is the key to improving health care benefits, not raising deductibles or otherwise increasing employee cost-sharing. These opinions were voiced in a recent survey by United Benefit Advisors, which polled 1,746 employers of various industries and sizes." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)
An Overview of Pharmacy Benefit Manager Core Services and Profit Structures
Excerpt: "[An] area that needs further exploration is how PBMs make money and how their decisions can greatly affect employers' total pharmacy benefits spending. Historically, the PBM industry emerged as employers struggled to deal with the increasing cost of pharma.ceuticals." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)
Opinion: Waiting Times for Health Care? Try Looking at the U.S.
Excerpt: "Waiting times in U.S. hospitals and clinics are becoming so lengthy that even one of the nation's biggest insurers, Aetna, has admitted to its investors that the U.S. healthcare system is 'not timely' and patients diagnosed with cancer wait 'over a month' for needed medical care, said two leading organizations of doctors and nurses today." (Physicians for a National Health Program)
Overview: New Guidance for Employer Obligations Under Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt: "Massachusetts released the employee Health Insurance Responsibility Disclosure (HIRD) form and related regulations. This form must be collected within 30 days from each Massachusetts employee who declines employer-provided medical coverage or who declines to pay for Connector coverage on a pretax premium basis. . . . The form can be found at: http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dhcfp/g/regs/employee_hird_form.pdf." (Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP)
Change in Percentage of Families Offered Coverage at Work, 1998-2005 (PDF)
8 pages. Excerpt: "This paper analyzes data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an annual survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the National Center for Health Statistics, to assess changes between 1998 and 2005 in the percentage of families with workers that have at least one offer of health insurance through an employer. Results are broken out by family income relative to the federal poverty level." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Towers Perrin U.S. Legislative Tracking Charts -- Health and Welfare -- Updated July 5, 2007 (PDF)
32 pages. Excerpt: "These charts summarize selected federal legislation that would affect employee benefit programs. The bills included on the charts are based on judgments regarding the prominence of the issue, the likelihood of enactment, and the influence of the sponsors." (Towers Perrin)
Researchers Study Demographics of Holes in Health Coverage
Excerpt: "Researchers at the Commonwealth Fund, New York, reported . . . findings in a summary of results in recent telephone interviews of 3,535 U.S. adults ages 18 years and older." (The National Underwriter Company; free registration or paid subscription required)
2008 Presidential Candidates Vow to Overhaul U.S. Health Care
Excerpt: "There is no better measure of the power of the health care issue than this: Sixteen months before Election Day, presidential candidates in both parties are promising to overhaul the system and cover more -- if not all -- of the 44.8 million people without insurance." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Opinion: A 'Right' to Health Care?
Excerpt: "The underlying goal of a legally enforceable right to health care is to provide quality medical care to the greatest number possible. Perversely, making health care a 'right' would make that goal harder to attain." (Michael F. Cannon via National Review Online)
Sicko Inspires Grassroots Action in Dallas Cinema
Excerpt: "Here's a first-hand account of a trip to see Michael Moore's Sicko in a suburban mall in Dallas, in which the audience of conservative cowboys were converted to health-care activists . . . ." (Boing Boing)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Assessing the Risks and Savings of Electronic Transmissions
Excerpt: "[Issuing electronic notices has difficulties]. Most disclosures are subject to specific Internal Revenue Service, Labor Department and other rules intended to comply with the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN). E-SIGN provides that information required to be in writing can be made available electronically only if the consumer consents to receive the information electronically, and the business clearly discloses specified information . . . ." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)
Rev. Rul. 2007-49: Transfers of Section 83 Stock in Reorganizations and Taxable Stock Acquisitions (PDF)
10 pages. Excerpt: "1) There is not a transfer of substantially nonvested stock subject to § 83 where restrictions imposed on substantially vested stock cause the substantially vested stock to become substantially nonvested. 2) There is a transfer of substantially nonvested stock subject to § 83 where a service provider exchanges substantially vested stock for substantially nonvested stock in a reorganization described in § 368(a). 3) There is a transfer of substantially nonvested stock subject to § 83 where a service provider exchanges substantially vested stock for substantially nonvested stock in a taxable stock acquisition." (Internal Revenue Service)
Overview: CFOs No Longer Subject to $1 Million Compensation Deduction Limit (PDF)
Excerpt: "The Internal Revenue Service has issued new guidance (IRS Notice 2007-49) that changes the group of public company officers subject to the compensation deduction limit under Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code." (Seyfarth Shaw LLP)
IRC Section 409A: Links to Law and Official Guidance
Excerpt: "NOTE: These links should help those who need to know about the law in more detail." (Rackemann, Sawyer & Brewster)
Towers Perrin U.S. Legislative Tracking Charts -- Human Resources -- Updated July 5, 2007 (PDF)
9 pages. Excerpt: "These charts summarize selected federal legislation that would affect employee benefit programs. The bills included on the charts are based on judgments regarding the prominence of the issue, the likelihood of enactment, and the influence of the sponsors." (Towers Perrin)
Coping with the Demographic Challenge: Fewer Children and Living Longer (PDF)
45 pages. Excerpt: "Due to demographic changes, the U.S. Social Security system will face financial challenges in the near future. Declining fertility rates and increasing life expectancies are causing the U.S. population to age." (U.S. Social Security Administration)
Newly Posted Events
3rd Annual Consumer-Centric Healthcare Congress
in Virginia on November 8, 2007
presented by World Congress
Newly Posted Press Releases
Labor Department Settlement Resolves Lawsuit Over Mismanagement of South Carolina Employee Stock Ownership Plans
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
JennisonDryden Wholesalers Earn Professional Plan Consultant™ Designation
Prudential Financial, Inc.
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
(Post a Job | View All Jobs)
Pension/ERISA Attorney
for Major Lindsey & Africa
in MA
Account Manager (Insurance/TPA)
for Zenith Administrators
in NV
Vice President Northwest Region (Insurance/TPA)
for Zenith Administrators
in WA
Health and Welfare/Defined Benefits
for Apex Systems, Inc.
in FL, MA
Defined Contribution Consultant
for BPSM, A Wells Fargo Company
in TN
Accountant I
for Alerus Retirement Solutions
in MN
Benefits Administrator
for Alan T. Nahoum, Inc.
in NY
Retirement Plans New Business Processor
for Standard Insurance Company
in OR
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