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| August 8, 2007 |
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More Generics Slow Rise in Drug Prices
Excerpt: "The nation currently spends $275 billion a year on prescription medicines. But over the next five years, analysts forecast a golden era for generic drugs, as patents begin to expire on brand-name medications with more than $60 billion in combined annual sales. That will open the door to copycats that may be 30 percent to 80 percent cheaper." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Health Care Costs: A Primer - Key Information on Health Care Costs and Their Impact (PDF)
20 pages. Excerpt: "This primer . . . examines the rapid growth in the nation's health care costs since 1970 . . . . examines the impact of health care costs on families . . . . [and] describes the types and sources of health care spending and the demographic factors associated with higher or lower levels of spending. It also discusses other factors that influence health care spending growth, including the use of new medical technology, population changes, and changes in disease prevalence." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Draft Disease Management Practice Note (PDF)
30 pages. Excerpt: "This Practice Note was prepared by the Disease Management Work Group of the Health Practice Council of the American Academy of Actuaries. The work group was charged with developing a description of some of the current practices used by U.S. health actuaries in 2007 with respect to work involving disease management programs." (American Academy of Actuaries)
'Toolkit' on the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and State Health Reform (PDF)
7 pages. Excerpt: "This toolkit offers links to resources that will help readers better understand the relationship between ERISA and state-level health reform." (Alliance for Health Reform)
Consumerism in Health Care -- A Reality Check
Excerpt: "The rise of consumerist strategies in providing employee health care is a genuine trend, but is your organization's consumer-directed health plan a genuine effort on the part of all stakeholders? It's time to get real about fulfilling the promise of consumerism." (Workforce Management; free registration required)
2007 Leading EAP Providers - Listed in Alphabetical Order
Excerpt: "Employee assistance programs have a dual purpose. They help companies address productivity issues in the workforce and also assist employees in identifying and resolving personal concerns, according to the Employee Assistance Professionals Association." (Workforce Management; free registration required)
Why Young Adults Become Uninsured and How New Policies Can Help
Excerpt: "Several states have passed laws to expand coverage of dependent young adults up to age 24 or 25 under parents' insurance policies. Three policy changes could further help uninsured young adults gain coverage and prevent others from losing it: extending eligibility for public insurance programs beyond age 18; extending dependents' eligibility for their parents' private coverage beyond age 18 or 19; and ensuring that colleges require full- and part-time students to have coverage . . . ." (The Commonwealth Fund)
First Circuit Rejects Use of Equitable Estoppel to Reform Plan
Excerpt: "The plaintiff attempted to construct a claim for benefits under ERISA Section 502(a)(1)(B) by cobbling together a case evoking equitable estoppel principles and a claim for benefits. The plan required a health form by its terms but, based upon the alleged statement over the hotline, the plaintiff sought to bar Verizon from asserting the plan language as a defense." (Health Plan Law blog by Attorney Roy F. Harmon III)
Standing Issue Now Before U.S. Supreme Court
Excerpt: "As demonstrated in Graden v. Conexant Systems, the standing question continues to vex ERISA plaintiffs by providing defendants a technical argument that offers nothing but advantage to them, but potentially a show stopping obstacle for plaintiffs. Thus, the issue arises more and more frequently." (Health Plan Law blog by Attorney Roy F. Harmon III)
More Than Half of Fortune 500 Companies Offer Same-Sex Domestic Partner Benefits
Excerpt: "From Spencer's Benefits Reports: In 2006 and 2007, 267, or 53%, of Fortune 500 companies provided benefits to employees' same-sex domestic partners, according to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's (HRCF) annual State of the Workplace for G.ay, Les.bian, Bise.xual, and Transgender Americans 2006-2007." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
RAND/Watson Wyatt Study of Consumer-Directed Health Plans
Excerpt: "Watson Wyatt is partnering with the RAND Corporation to investigate the effects of [consumer-directed health plans] on health care health costs and quality. Specifically, the study will analyze medical care use and expenditure patterns as reported in the medical claims files for nearly 40 large employers over the 2003-2007 period." (RAND/Watson Wyatt Worldwide)
Opinion: Free Lunch on Health Care? Think Again
Excerpt: "The great hope of every health care reformer is that better care will mean cheaper care. The three leading Democrats running for president have all put this idea at the center of their plans. Rudy Giuliani, the first Republican candidate to offer some health care ideas, has talked about it, too." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Survey Brief: Political Independents and Health Care
Excerpt: "This Survey Brief takes an in-depth look at independents' views on health care, including the saliency of the issue, which party best represents their own views, whether candidates should focus on lowering costs or expanding coverage, and willingness to pay to cover the uninsured." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Women More Likely to Say Employers Aid Work/Life Balance
Excerpt: "Women were more positive (58%) than men (55%) in their perceptions of company efforts to help them balance work and life, according to a recent survey by Kenexa Research Institute." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Overview: New Regulations to Prevent Caregiver Discrimination
Excerpt: "Employers should be careful to not discriminate against parents and other caregivers, as federal authorities are paying closer attention to caregiver discrimination." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)
Judge Formally Blocks Massachusetts Benefits Discrimination Probe
Excerpt: "A Boston federal judge has issued an injunction blocking an investigation by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) into whether an employer illegally restricted health benefits to same-sex domestic partners of employees." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
HHS's OCR Representatives Offer Their Informal Views on a Wide Variety of HIPAA Privacy Issues
Excerpt: "The American Bar Association's Joint Committee on Employee Benefits (JCEB) has posted on its website the report of its annual question-and-answer session with representatives from HHS's Office for Civil Rights (OCR). [The target page provides] some highlights . . . ." (Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc.)
UAW Says Contract Talks Should Not Focus on Retiree Health Care Costs
Excerpt: "Contract negotiations between United Auto Workers and the Big Three automakers should focus on manufacturing costs, rather than retiree health care obligations, according to the union, the AP/Tennessean reports . . . ." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Employee Communication Greatest Consumer-Directed Health Plan Challenge
Excerpt: "Ninety percent of employers responding to a new study conducted jointly by Watson Wyatt Worldwide and the RAND Corporation cited employee communication as their greatest challenge in introducing consumer-directed health plans (CDHP) and during the first year of CDHP implementation." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
The Coverage/Access Disparity in Universal Health Care (PDF)
5 pages. Excerpt: "Universal coverage neither guarantees individuals will receive needed care -- a safety net -- nor promises a system that won't spiral out of control. What do past efforts teach us?" (Benefits Quarterly via Milliman)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Displaying the Funding Status of Postretirement Plans: The Impact of SFAS 158 Disclosure
Excerpt: "FASB believes that SFAS 158 will result in a more complete, comparable, and representationally faithful presentation of postretirement benefit plans. The cost of implementation should be minimal, but the impact on future postretirement plan policies and practices, cost of capital computations, and labor negotiations may be significant. What is certain is that, just like SFAS 106, SFAS 158 will be a significant item of discussion in corporate boardrooms." (The New York State Society of CPAs)
Social Security: Basic Data
Excerpt: "The report tells how much beneficiaries receive, describes how Social Security is financed, and explains its financial status." (AARP)
Overview: SEC Adopts Final Rule Regarding Internet Access to Proxy Materials (PDF)
2 pages. Excerpt: "The SEC recently adopted amendments to the proxy rules under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act), which enable shareholders to choose the means by which they access proxy materials and require issuers to make proxy materials available via the Internet. In particular, the amendments provide that issuers must comply with the notice only option, the full set delivery option, or a combination of the two when distributing proxy materials to shareholders." (Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP)
Many 'Paper Millionaires' Understand Less About Their Stock Options Than They Think
Excerpt: "More than 50 percent of publicly traded companies award stock options, and about 10 million U.S. employees now hold them. In aggregate, Americans hold 1.2 billion options, representing $80 billion in value. Stock options, in fact, make up more than 50 percent of the total compensation for the top 10 percent of corporate executives. Yet some of those happy option holders will ultimately collect less than they expect." (CFO via NewsEdge Corporation via Human Resource Executive Online; free registration required)
Think Tanks Talk Back to Robert J. Samuelson
Excerpt: "Last week, Robert J. Samuelson criticized think tanks as failing to offer reasonable ways to address 'the huge budget costs of aging baby boomers' ['Making the Think Tanks Think,' op-ed, Aug. 1]. [The target page contains] three responses to Samuelson's argument . . . ." (The Washington Post; free registration required)
Cato Institute Scholars Have Been Writing About Need for Entitlement Reform for Almost Three Decades
Excerpt: "Robert J. Samuelson challenges think tanks to come up with solutions to the 'huge budget costs of aging baby boomers.' We thought you'd never ask." (The Washington Post; free registration required)
Benefits Web Technology Use Growing but Could Improve
Excerpt: "The Trends in Benefits Web Technology: 2006 Research Among Benefits Plan Sponsors report includes data about 10 different insurance carriers from two Prudential studies - Study of Employee Benefits: 2006 & Beyond and 2006 Plan Sponsor Web Benchmarking Study. Copies of these studies are available at www.prudential.com." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Overview: Determining Specified Employees for Purposes of Code Section 409A (PDF)
6 pages. Excerpt: "Under the final regulations, a publicly traded company and its affiliates that comprise its controlled group must determine each year a single list of who the specified employees will be for that year. The list will apply to all plans that are subject to Section 409A in the controlled group." (Baker & McKenzie)
Newly Posted Events
Executive Compensation Institute: Complying With Code Section 409A
in Illinois on September 11, 2007
presented by Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits at The John Marshall Law School
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