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| September 25, 2007 |
| Here are the Web's best new links about compliance and cost aspects of plan operation, design and policy. |
Today's sponsor is Employee Benefits Institute of America Inc. (EBIA)
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
| 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.
Available now at the introductory price of $195. Please enter priority code BL195. For more information and to order, visit http://www.ebia.com/OtherOfferings/Books/RecordRetention. |
New Compliance Rules; Other Government Documents
(None today.)News
United Auto Workers Sets Strike Deadline for General MotorsExcerpt: "United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger and Vice President Cal Rapson early [September 24 in the] morning said that union members would walk out of General Motors on a national strike if a contract deal is not reached by 11 a.m., the Detroit Free Press reports." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
The Leaders of GM and the UAW Are Working on Landmark Health-Care Compromise
Excerpt: "[T]he world's largest automaker is desperately trying to hammer out a new contract that would shift the [retiree health care cost] burden to the United Auto Workers (UAW), the union that represents 73,000 of GM's employees and nearly 270,000 retirees. The company wants to fund a health-care trust, administered by the UAW, to pay for retirees' medical needs." (Time Inc.)
Indiana Gets OK for Novel Health Plan
Excerpt: "In a novel plan, low-income adults in Indiana who can't afford health insurance will be able to tap into as much as $300,000 in coverage by contributing to health savings accounts." (Stateline.org)
Compliance Rule Summaries/Analysis/Filed Comments
Overview of New York's 'Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act' (PDF)2 pages. Excerpt: "New York joins a group of other states that have passed laws to provide job protections for nursing mothers. The Act requires employers to 'provide a reasonable amount of paid or unpaid break time during each work day to permit an employee to express breast milk for her nursing infant for at least two years following child birth.'" (Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP)
Sixth Circuit Applies HIPAA Rule in Determining Whether Plan Documents Create One Plan or Multiple Plans
Excerpt: "Determining whether multiple coverage options constitute one plan under ERISA is a case of first impression for this Court. To be sure, there have been numerous cases considering the issue of 'what is a plan,' but those cases address whether an ERISA plan exists at all . . . ." (Health Plan Law blog by Attorney Roy F. Harmon III)
Trends; Surveys; Research
Retirement Can Be Buffeted by Health Costs and Poor PlanningExcerpt: "The impact of health spending on employee retirement contributions cannot be overstated, according to Dallas Salisbury, founder, president and CEO of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), during a teleconference on retirement in the private sector." (Society for Human Resource Management)
Creating Payment Systems to Accelerate Value-Driven Health Care: Issues and Options for Policy Reform
Excerpt: "This paper is designed to assist health care payers and policymakers to restructure payment systems in ways that will improve the quality of health care and reduce (or slow the growth in) the costs of health care. Drawing on the research and proposals of many researchers and practitioners, it attempts to: summarize the key concepts involved in any discussion of ways to restructure payment systems; catalog the quality and cost problems that current payment systems create; list the key concerns . . . ." (The Commonwealth Fund)
Working Paper: Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Can.ada vs. the U.S.
Excerpt: "Does Can.ada's publicly funded, single payer health care system deliver better health outcomes and distribute health resources more equitably than the multi-payer heavily private U.S. system? We show that the efficacy of health care systems cannot be usefully evaluated by comparisons of infant mortality and life expectancy. We analyze several alternative measures of health status using JCUSH (The Joint Can.ada/U.S. Survey of Health) and other surveys." (National Bureau of Economic Research; paid subscription or individual purchase required to retrieve fulltext)
Massachusetts to Post How Much Insurers Pay Hospitals for Specific Procedures
Excerpt: "The agency also plans to include quality measures, which would allow consumers to see whether individual hospitals follow best practices associated with each procedure along with what the hospitals' overall patient outcomes are for those surgeries." (Modern Healthcare; free registration required)
Data Reveals Rate of Increases for U.S. Health Care Costs Declines for Fifth Consecutive Year
Excerpt: "According to Hewitt, the average health cost per person for major companies will increase from $7,982 in 2007 to $8,676 in 2008. The amount employees are being asked to contribute in 2008 will be $1,859, representing approximately 21 percent of the overall health care premium and up from $1,690 in 2007. [A link to Hewitt's 2007 Health Care Costs Charts is available on the target page.]" (Hewitt Associates)
Employers See Value in Helping Those Laid Off
Excerpt: "A growing number of employers give laid-off staffers something extra to ease the pain of their job loss: continued access to employee-assistance programs." (The Wall Street Journal Online)
Bosses See Benefit in Giving Sabbaticals to Workers
Excerpt: "Sabbaticals have long been a way of life in academic settings. Now they are getting more attention in the corporate world as well, although the number of companies offering them is still relatively small. About 18 percent of firms offer unpaid sabbaticals, and 5 percent give paid sabbaticals, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. These are often available to those who have worked for a firm between five and 10 years." (The Christian Science Monitor)
Routine Health Exam Study Cites High Cost and Unclear Benefit
Excerpt: "Routine physical exams cost the U.S. health care system nearly as much as treating breast cancer, but that's not necessarily money well spent, a report said Monday. The authors say they are the first to quantify the number and cost of routine checkups, whose value has been debated for several years." (USA TODAY)
Study Finds Companies Increasingly Instituting Incentives for Healthy Behavior and Penalties for Unhealthy Behavior
Excerpt: "A Watson Wyatt news release said companies recognize that having a healthy workforce can help control rising health care costs and increase worker productivity." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
From Health Care to Firm Wage Law, Requested Compromise Huge for Gov't Employees in Michigan
Excerpt: "As Gov. Jennifer Granholm leads a push for a large tax increase to help solve Michigan's budget crisis, the principal message from Republicans is simple: We're not voting for higher taxes without a deal that includes substantial cost-cutting and reforms to make state and local governments and public school districts more efficient. That agenda is largely focused on changing the health benefits, pensions and pay of public employee and teachers unions." (Detroit Free Press)
Health Blog : Arming Doctors Against Insurers Becomes Big Business
Excerpt: "[Athenahealth is] in the 'denial management' business, which sounds like a kind of therapy -- and in a way it is. It's an emerging field devoted to helping doctors get more money out of insurance companies. (If you want to know why this is like therapy, ask a few doctors about the depth of their issues with insurers.)" (The Wall Street Journal Online)
Uninsured Americans Traveling to Panama for Health Care
Excerpt: "Americans are traveling abroad for medical care like never before and now looking to Panama as a destination to cure their insurance woes, high prices and delays for treatment back home. This Central American nation touts U.S.-trained doctors, high-tech hospitals and costs far below U.S. rates to attract Americans for services from dental implants to hip replacements. It also promotes its location near U.S. shores." (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Making Mortality Data More Meaningful
Excerpt: "[O]ther observers are hoping CMS will make subsequent iterations of the mortality reports more meaningful to consumers by focusing on conditions for which patients shop for medical care. . . . Despite the challenges to Medicare's recent release, many are happy to see the government return to outcomes reporting, which represents the next frontier." (The Commonwealth Fund)
Addressing Cost Challenges in Providing Retiree Health Benefits
Excerpt: "Currently, companies are pursuing two strategies. First, they are working to better control and manage their retiree medical costs. Second, they are looking to effectively offset costs through efficient funding. Many companies use both approaches. There are five primary ways to look at funding these liabilities . . . ." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)
Health Blog : Drug Prices Rise Less, but We Buy More
Excerpt: "The low rise in prices was the result of the wave of new generics hitting the market, and the growing push to get more people to switch to generics. As a result, the average price of drugs actually declined in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the government." (The Wall Street Journal Online)
Employers Get Tough on Health As Some Take Punitive Steps Against Smokers, Overweight Workers
Excerpt: "Get ready to say goodbye to the days of high-fat meals, junk food snacks and that after-work cigarette you always enjoy smoking -- at least if you intend to have a job and health insurance. The rules of the workplace are changing, and personal behavior and lifestyle habits -- those unrelated to what you do at work -- are now fair game for employers determined to cut health-care costs." (Chicago Tribune; free registration required)
Policy; Opinion; Advocacy
Who Pays for Obesity?Excerpt: "Should fat people be charged higher insurance premiums? Should insurers be obliged to cover weight-loss surgery? Should the obese have to pay more for airline or theater seats? When can an obese person file a legitimate disability claim? Among the public and policy-makers, there's more confusion than consensus on these and other questions. Yet billions of dollars in public costs ride on the answers." (The Enquirer)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Perspectives of Employers, Workers and Policymakers in the G7 Countries on the New Demographic Realities
Excerpt: "With its comprehensive overview of aging workforce issues in the countries comprising the Group of Seven (G7) -- Can.ada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States -- this AARP study breaks new ground by exploring how key stakeholders in these nations are responding to the aging workforce dynamic . . . ." (AARP)
Half of Retirees Say Expenses Have Met Expectations
Excerpt: "Nearly half of retired adults said their expenses in retirement were what they expected, compared to about 30% who said they were more than they expected, according to a a recent Wall Street Journal Online, Harris Interactive poll." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Law Firms Ask for Second 409A Deadline Delay
Excerpt: "A group of nearly 100 law firms has once again asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to push back the deadline to bring documents into compliance with 409A nonqualified deferred compensation regulations even after the IRS recently granted a limited compliance extension." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
Data Dump, Not Deprivation May Be the Problem for Both Advisers and Employers
Excerpt: "Advisers regularly lament the fact that carriers are stingy with employer claims data. And while anecdotal teeth gnashing is wide spread, a sampling of industry data experts shows that the true issue may by the availability of information. Data by itself can be useless, but cleaned and compared it can be transformed into information -- something that both adviser and client can use to attack costs." (Employee Benefit Advisor; free registration required)
Depression Influences Retirement Decision
Excerpt: "A provocative study suggests middle-aged men and women are more likely to retire early from their jobs if they are depressed. Middle-aged men who suffer with symptoms of depression are more likely to retire early, while retirement-age women often take the leap even if their depressive symptoms are mild." (Mental Health America & Psych Central)
CRS Report for Congress (RL32697): Income and Poverty Among Older Americans in 2006 (PDF)
Excerpt: "Excerpt: Retirement benefits from Social Security and pensions are the most common sources of income among the aged. In 2006, Social Security paid benefits to 86% of Americans age 65 and older. . . . In 2006, 35% of people age 65 and older received income from a private or public pension. Among people age 65 and older who reported income from a government pension, the median annual amount was $14,400. Among recipients of private pensions, the median amount received in 2006 was just $7,200." (Congressional Research Service, U.S. Library of Congress)
Newly Posted Events
Ask The Experts - Members Only Breakfast
in Pennsylvania on October 9, 2007
presented by ASPPA Benefits Council of Delaware Valley
Compliance Assistance Seminar - Free
in Tennessee on October 30, 2007
presented by U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Newly Posted Press Releases
Watson Wyatt Identifies Major Benefit Trends During Open Enrollment Season
Watson Wyatt
Hewitt Associates Data Reveals Rate of Increases for U.S. Health Care Costs Declines for Fifth Consecutive Year
Hewitt Associates LLC
Two Step Software Earns Top Ranking For Corporate Governance And Stock Plan Management In International Legal Technology Association's Annual Survey
Two-Step Software, Inc.
Towers Perrin Health Care Cost Survey Projects That Average Annual Per-Employee Cost for 2008 Will Exceed $9,300
Towers Perrin
Paulson Statement on First in Series of Social Security Papers on Common Ground
U.S. Treasury Department
Massachusetts Employers and Health Plans Continue to Support Quality Care by Rewarding Physicians through Bridges to Excellence Programs
Bridges to Excellence (BTE)
Mayors Help Families Learn the Importance of Saving
U.S. Conference of Mayors
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
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