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August 23, 2007
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UAW-Automaker Pacts May Boost Rx Copays; Drug Benefit Is 27% of GM's Health Tab
Excerpt: "The Big Three U.S. auto manufacturers are expected to try and apply brakes on the generous prescription drug benefits that members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union employed at the auto giants have long enjoyed." (DRUG BENEFIT NEWS via AISHealth.com)

Review of Retiree Health Care Bias Ruling Denied
Excerpt: "The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to review a ruling upholding the ability of employers to reduce health benefits to retirees when they become eligible for Medicare, bringing a long-running legal battle near an end." (Business Insurance)

Massachusetts HIRD Forms are now in Spanish and Portuguese
Excerpt: "[The target page provides links to the] HIRD Forms just issued by the Division of Healthcare, Finance and Administration . . . in Spanish and in Portuguese, joining their English counterpart." (Rackemann, Sawyer & Brewster)

Opinion: Single-Payer Coverage Already Works in U.S.
Excerpt: "The one approach [to health care reform] we haven't tried - because of fear, complacency, politics, apathy, or all of the above - is to wring out the inefficiencies in financing, while maintaining our basic fee-for-service delivery model. This is the basic premise behind single-payer national health insurance." (The Ann Arbor News via Physicians for a National Health Program)

An Ailment Could Delay or Rule Out Health Care Coverage
Excerpt: "In insurance terms, pre-existing conditions can encompass any medical problem you have now or may have had years ago. If the ailment (or the history of it) makes you a high-risk patient, insurers and employers know that covering you could prove to be expensive." (U.S. News & World Report)

Overview: CMS Guidance on Rebates and Extracting Part B Costs for the RDS Program (PDF)
6 pages. Excerpt: "CMS recently posted additional information on its website to help employers participating in the retiree drug subsidy program under Medicare Part D determine the subsidy amount they are entitled to." (Buck Consultants)

2007 Ameriprise Workplace Financial Planning Benefit Decisions Study (PDF)
10 pages. Excerpt: "Ameriprise found the employees surveyed would like their employer to provide financial planning assistance. Eighty-nine percent of respondents said a financial plan that directly addressed their workplace benefit costs and contingent financial decisions would be helpful, and 70% would be moderately or very interested in one-on-one financial planning if offered through their employer." (Ameriprise Financial via PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

Report Recommends That Massachusetts Municipalities Be Able To Join State Health Insurance Program Without Unions' Permission
Excerpt: "Massachusetts municipalities should be allowed to bypass negotiations with labor unions to join the state's health insurance program, according to a joint report . . . by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the Boston Globe reports." (Kaiser Family Foundation)

FDA To Study How People React to Direct-to-Consumer Drug Ads
Excerpt: "FDA on Tuesday announced plans to study whether positive images featured in direct-to-consumer television advertisements for medications 'distract consumers from carefully considering and encoding' audio warnings about the treatments, the AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports." (Kaiser Family Foundation)


Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

A Quick Look at Potential Legislative Changes to Federal Pay and Benefits
Excerpt: "[Congress] has adjourned for its August recess. But it can't hurt to check in on some pending legislation that could affect your checkbook if it advances when lawmakers return." (GovExec.com)

Text of Letter from 92 Law Firms to IRS Commissioner Requesting Extension on 409A Compliance Deadline (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "[W]e respectfully request that the period to bring plan documents into compliance with Section 409A be extended until December 31, 2008. We further request that all transition relief currently scheduled to expire on December 31, 2007 (including the 'reasonable good faith compliance' standard for plan operation) be extended until December 31, 2008 and that the date of the applicability of the final regulations be changed to January 1, 2009. . . . [W]e urge you to solicit practitioner input on ways for employers to comply on a simplified and bulk basis . . . and to develop a voluntary correction program for inadvertent Section 409A violations." (Ninety-Two U.S. Law Firms)

Companies Altering Long-Term Incentive Strategies for Executives Outside U.S.
Excerpt: "Only 24% of the U.S.-based multinational corporations participating in a recent Towers Perrin compensation survey said they expect to grant the same number of shares to both U.S. and non-U.S. employees at the same level in the organization in the near future." (Towers Perrin)

Overview: 409A Rules Contain Provisions for International Deferred Compensation Arrangements
Excerpt: "Noncompliance with the regulations will result in adverse tax consequences to the individuals, including immediate taxation at vesting plus an additional 20% tax. As a result, employers need to know how these special rules work in order to determine whether individuals in their organization may be subject to U.S. tax." (Towers Perrin)

Record Retention for ERISA Plan Administrators - How Long Do We Keep This Stuff?
Excerpt: "Depending on the purpose, several answers can be given to the question of how long to retain ERISA records. For defense purposes, one might wish to have records that exceed what is legally required. Several resources are available to assist the plan administrator in making the assessment of the minimum retention periods." (Health Plan Law blog by Attorney Roy F. Harmon III)

California High Court Gets Marriage Briefs
Excerpt: "Four civil rights groups filed briefs with the California Supreme Court last week, arguing that the state violates its own constitution by denying same-sex couples the right to marry." (Yahoo! News)

National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in Private Industry in the United States, March 2007 (PDF)
39 pages. Excerpt: "Just over one-half of workers in private industry participated in employer-sponsored retirement and medical care plans in March 2007. More workers had access to medical plans (71 percent) than to retirement plans (61 percent), but workers were more likely to participate in the latter." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)


Newly Posted Events

Invest n Retire® 3rd Annual 401(k) Conference
in Oregon on October 22, 2007
presented by Invest n Retire, LLC

Retirement, Termination, and Change Web Seminar
Nationwide on September 25, 2007
presented by SunGard Relius

Understanding the New Cafeteria Plan and Dependent Care Regs
Nationwide on September 20, 2007
presented by CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business


Newly Posted Press Releases

Mergers and Acquisitions Executives Get Biggest Raises, Watson Wyatt Data Services Reports
Watson Wyatt Data Services

U.S. Labor Department Obtains Settlement Appointing Independent Fiduciary To Manage Pension Plan Of Cleveland-based Polytech Inc.
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)

89% of Companies State ESOPs are Good Business
Employee Ownership Foundation

ProView Global Selects COBRApoint to Power Revolutionary COBRA Service
COBRApoint

Mcube 401(k) Plan Added As A Client To the Invest N Retire Platform
Invest n Retire, LLC

IRA Rollover Market Grew By 38% From 2004 To 2007, Recovering From Recent Decline
Spectrem Group

Bionostics Relies on Synapses Retirement Income Report Tool to Educate Employees on 401(k) Contributions
Synapses Inc.

Lifespring Health and National City Team Up to Combat Rising Healthcare Costs With the Lifespring Health Everyday Rewards Visa(R) Credit Card
Lifespring Health


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