BenefitsLink |
 |
 |
| October 30, 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. |
(a) New Guidance Documents
(None today.)
(b) News
Cigna Settles in Physician Rankings Investigation
Excerpt: "Health-insurer Cigna Healthcare has agreed with New York Attorney General Mario Cuomo to make changes regarding its physician ranking program as part of Cuomo's ongoing investigation into such rankings. Cuomo sent letters to Cigna (NYSE:CI), UnitedHealthcare and Aetna in August, saying that their physician rankings are likely to confuse or even deceive consumers. Aetna and UnitedHealthcare have not reached settlements with Cuomo's office, a spokesman said [yesterday]." (Philadelphia Business Journal via bizjournals.com; free registration required)
Calif. Agencies Release Proposed Regs to Prevent Improper Cancellations of Health Insurance Policies
Excerpt: "The California Department of Managed Health Care and Department of Insurance on Tuesday proposed new regulations intended to prevent insurers from improperly canceling individual health insurance policies, the Sacramento Bee reports . . . . The agencies said the new rules reinforce existing laws prohibiting insurers from rescinding coverage unless they can prove policyholders intentionally omitted information or lied on a medical questionnaire . . . ." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
UAW Members at Chrysler Approve Four-Year Contract with VEBA
Excerpt: "United Auto Workers officials . . . said that Chrysler Group employees represented by the union approved a four-year contract that will establish a voluntary employees' beneficiary association, the Detroit Free Press reports . . . . Under the contract, Chrysler will contribute $8.8 billion to a VEBA managed by UAW, a move that would shift retiree health care liabilities from the company to the association." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
(c) Summaries of Guidance; Filed Comments
Representations to DOL and IRS Were Not Determinative of Plan's ERISA Status
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: As the court noted, under DOL regulations, a plan in which no employees (or former employees) participate cannot constitute an ERISA welfare benefit plan. This is why plans covering only self-employed individuals or partners are not subject to ERISA. Coverage of even one employee, however, can convert an arrangement into an ERISA plan under which all covered individuals have ERISA rights." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
Proposed Changes to Regulations on Federal Employees' Emergency Leave-Sharing Programs
Excerpt: "The federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has proposed several changes to its regulations governing emergency leave-transfer programs for certain employees of the federal government. These regulations address the establishment and operation of programs under which employees may donate unused annual leave for transfer to other employees in their own or another agency who are adversely affected by a major disaster or emergency, as declared by the President." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)
(d) Trends, Surveys, Research
GASB Statement 45: The Bottom Line -- Ratchet Up Funding
Excerpt: "Many governments have figured out their OPEB (other post-employment benefit) liability under the new accounting standards that require them to disclose that number. Far fewer have a plan firmly in place for dealing with that liability." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
SCHIP and 'Crowd-Out': The High Cost of Expanding Eligibility
Excerpt: "Expanding SCHIP eligibility further up the income ladder is not a good way to help families that lack insurance yet have incomes above the current federal threshold. Enrolling children in families at these income levels is inefficient and will disrupt the private coverage many of them have today. This is because government programs and taxpayer dollars will increasingly become substitutes for private coverage and funding. This policy-induced phenomenon, known as 'crowd out,' substantially increases the cost of covering uninsured children." (The Heritage Foundation)
Risks in Self-Funding Long Term Care -- Other Than Morbidity
Excerpt: "A common reaction to the option of self-funding long-term care benefits is that it seems too risky. There are three important elements that drive the cost of long-term care benefits. These are the cost of the benefits, the investment earnings on the fund, and the lapse rates of employees dropping their coverage. Variation in each of these items represents risk to a self-funded plan. There are additional key elements of risk, which are the risk of adverse selection and changes in legislation or tax rules." (Milliman)
Automakers' Online Rx Program Cuts Errors, Costs, Analysis Finds
Excerpt: "An electronic prescribing initiative by General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler is significantly reducing medication errors and increasing generic drug use, according to the first review of the efforts by the Southeast Michigan ePrescribing Initiative, the Detroit News reports." (California HealthCare Foundation)
Employers Shift Focus to Preventing Obesity
Excerpt: "The seven most common chronic diseases -- six of which can be caused or worsened by obesity -- are costing Kansas employers $9.3 billion in lost productivity, a new study says. The Milken Institute, an economic think tank, released its research this month showing that these common diseases -- including diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure -- have an annual economic impact in the U.S. of more than $1 trillion. The kicker is that much of the cost is avoidable, researchers say." (The Wichita Eagle via Human Resource Executive Online; free registration required)
Industries in Redmond, WA Exploring Employee Child Care
Excerpt: "[Redmond officials] are working to create Central Oregon's first accredited child care facility for employees. The facility could hold as many as 250 children of working parents and would employ nationally accredited child care supervisors who would undergo training and receive competitive benefits designed to reduce turnover." (The Bend Bulletin)
Proposed California Rescission Regulation Could Mean New Expenses for MCOs
Excerpt: "The California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) and the California Department of Insurance (DOI), which jointly proposed parallel sets of regulations, say the rules, if enacted, will be the nation's 'strongest protection for consumers against the illegal rescission of health insurance.'" (AISHealth.com)
Uninsured Are Paying a High Price for Mental Health
Excerpt: "The need for mental-health treatment is great -- an estimated 1 in 4 Americans has a diagnosable mental disorder; 6 percent suffer from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or other serious problem. But coverage falls far short. It is not unusual for a policy to set a lifetime limit of $1 million for medical care but just $50,000 for mental-health treatment." (U.S. News & World Report)
Employers Rolling Out Wellness Programs to Contain Costs
Excerpt: "Straining to contain costs and looking ahead to worse as the workforce ages, employers are beginning to introduce wellness programs with teeth. Feel-good corporate self-interest is taking a back seat to employee accountability, with heftier rewards for those who toe the line -- or painful bites taken from paychecks of workers who don't. And instead of simply urging workers to exercise and engage in other health-promoting activities, companies are focusing on specific benchmarks for weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol, for example, that they expect employees to meet to get the lowest-priced healthcare coverage." (U.S. News & World Report)
Election 2008: U.S. Adults Favor Health Care Proposals from Democrats, Poll Finds
Excerpt: "According to the survey, 62% favor a requirement that large employers offer health insurance to employees -- a provision included in health care proposals from Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) -- and 31% oppose such a requirement. Fifty-one percent favor a requirement that individuals obtain health insurance -- a provision included in the Clinton and Edwards proposals -- and 39% oppose such a requirement, the survey found." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Employers Planning to Offer Consumer-Driven Health Plans Need Good Communication in Place
Excerpt: "Whether you're considering a consumer-driven health plan or already have one in place, think hard about the need for ongoing communication with your workforce. For your efforts to be successful short-term, employees will need to be aware of how their benefits are changing, and then they will need to enroll and have enough information to use the plan without frustration." (Employee Benefit Advisor; free registration required)
The Benefits That Hearing Riders Offer
Excerpt: "Workers chained to computers are expected to drive spending on vision benefits, and the rise of the iPod and other audio devices has some experts predicting a similar spike in auditory medical needs in the coming decades. To deal with the expected rise, ancillary benefits provider AlwaysCare has introduced a hearing rider to its dental and vision programs. It's a program that some advisers are taking time to listen to." (Employee Benefit Advisor; free registration required)
Self-Insured Employers Must Hold Service Providers' Feet to the Fire
Excerpt: "When employers self-insure, they usually look to hundreds of available external administrative firms to manage claims and managed-care services. However, there is little oversight on these companies from public regulators or private compliance specialists. Thus, the most effective tool for vendor management is a two-fold approach that requires performance guarantees up front and ongoing oversight through periodic claim audits to evaluate and confirm reported accuracy results." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)
Long-Term Care Insurance Buyers Younger
Excerpt: "Long-term insurance is appealing to an increasingly younger cohort of clients, a survey conducted by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance reported." (Investment News; free registration required)
(e) Policy, Opinion, Advocacy
Opinion: Say Yes to National Health Care
Excerpt: "Despite the merits of a single-payer system, none of the major 2008 presidential candidates supports it. Instead, they have put forth a creative array of meaningless, incremental reforms that would do little for our failing system." (The Baltimore Sun via Physicians for a National Health Program)
Opinion: AHIP's Deceptive Release on CDHC
The target page presents excerpts from HealthDecisions.org and HealthPartners and is followed by comments from Don McCanne. Excerpt: "The real issue is that high-deductible health plans are replacing more comprehensive coverage, and these deductibles are making health care access less affordable. Hiding behind the rhetorical diversion over health savings accounts, to which two-thirds of employers don't even contribute, hardly advances the cause of affordable, comprehensive health care for all." (Physicians for a National Health Program)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Chrysler Chairman Wants to Offer Employees Stock Options
Excerpt: "Speaking with an interviewer at the Magazine Publishers of America conference in Boca Raton, Florida, Nardelli said he would like to see Chrysler offer stock options to employees. 'We're going to move options down pretty significantly into the organization,' Nardelli told Dennis Kneale, CNBC media and technology editor, during a webcast of the event Monday, October 29. 'It is important to give them a piece of the action.'" (Workforce Management; free registration required)
DOL's Office of Labor-Management Standards Posts FAQs on Form LM-10
Excerpt: "The Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) posted three new or expanded Form LM-10 FAQs to its web site. The OLMS expanded FAQ 7(A), discussing when a service provider is considered to be an agent of a labor organization." (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans)
Employees Desire 'People Like Me' Benefits Information, According to Trends Survey
Excerpt: "Employees are interested in receiving information geared toward their life stage--i.e. 'people like me'--on what kinds of benefits to select during their company's open enrollment period, according to MetLife's 2007 Open Enrollment Trends Survey. Six out of 10 (59 percent) employees would like their employer to suggest benefits that would be appropriate for someone in their life stage." (Wolters Kluwer Financial Services)
Newly Posted Events
Care Management Web Summit
in California on November 15, 2007
presented by Healthcare Web Summit
Consumer-Driven Healthcare: Key Drivers and Future Market Adoption - Webcast
Nationwide on October 31, 2007
presented by Health Resources Online
Final QDIA Regulations
Nationwide on November 8, 2007
presented by Convergent Retirement Plan Solutions, LLC
Newly Posted Press Releases
ASPPA And CIKR Support Uniform Fee Disclosure Requirements
ASPPA (American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries)
BISYS Retirement Services Becomes Ascensus
BISYS Retirement Services
PBGC Announces Maximum Insurance Benefit for 2008
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
ERIC Urges Congress to Wait for DOL to Finish Work Before Moving New Fee Disclosure Legislation
ERIC (ERISA Industry Committee)
HighRoads Enables Compliance in Summary Plan Description Process
HighRoads, Inc.
New Survey Reveals Connection Between Mental Health and Productivity in the Workplace
Meritain Health
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
(Post a Job | View All Jobs |
RSS Feed )
CDG Operations Manager
for Hewitt Associates
in IL
Primary Administrator for Qualified Retirement Plans
for Kidder Benefits Consultants, 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: