BenefitsLink |
 |
 |
| December 31, 2007 |
| Here are the Web's best new links about compliance and cost aspects of plan operation, design and policy. |
Today's sponsor is 17th Annual Nat'l Health Benefits Conference & Expo (HBCE)
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
| "The Biggest Challenge Remains: Addressing the Most Intractable Cost Problem Facing American Employers" |
| January 17-18, 2008 - Tampa Waterfront Convention Center
Featuring: The Boeing Company (147,000 employees); Ohio Retirement Systems & Ohio State University (350,000 covered lives); Benefits Manager of the Year; Cities of Milwaukee & Las Vegas; Rayonier, Inc.; University of Alabama; Florida Power & Light (FPL); J.B. Hunt; Sonic Automotive, Inc. (Fortune 300); State of West Virginia; Manatee County Schools; Lincoln Industries, Inc.; Sarasota County...and more... 24 total sessions. |
(a) New Guidance Documents
(None today.)
(b) News
San Francisco Asks Federal Appeals Court to Let City Extend Health Plan
Excerpt: "San Francisco asked a federal appeals court on Thursday to let the city extend its groundbreaking universal health coverage plan to thousands more uninsured adult residents next week, despite a federal judge's ruling striking down a key provision requiring employers to pay part of the cost." (San Francisco Chronicle)
FMLA Expansion for Military Hits Snag
Excerpt: "President Bush's pocket veto on Friday of the defense spending bill ensnared a bi-partisan proposal to expand FMLA benefits for military families." (Workplace Prof Blog)
(c) Summaries of Guidance; Filed Comments
Overview: New Rules Permit 2% Shareholder-Employee To Deduct Employer-Paid Accident and Health Premiums and Reimbursements
Excerpt: "An Internal Revenue Service representative has confirmed to us that the special rules are effective immediately. Two percent shareholder-employees of S corporations should review the Notice carefully to determine whether they satisfy the requirements and are therefore qualified to claim the deduction under section 162(l) of the Internal Revenue Code." (Littler Mendelson P.C.)
Facts on the Washington, DC Proposed 'Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act'
Excerpt: "Under the proposed Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act, District employers would be required to provide paid leave to all workers to care for themselves or family members." (The Washington Post; free registration required)
(d) Trends, Surveys, Research
Top Eight Health Industry Issues in 2008
Excerpt: "The report highlights impending changes -- ranging from major changes in provider reimbursement, to new drug safety reporting requirements, to a potentially burgeoning market for individual health insurance -- and how they could impact health organizations." (PricewaterhouseCoopers)
Two-Level Benefit Rule Won't Be Last Word on Retiree Health Benefits
Excerpt: "Most retirees won't notice much impact from this week's federal rule effectively creating two classes of employer health benefits, for early retirees and all others, experts agree. That's because most don't receive them, and those who do have seen benefits erode for at least two decades. But experts debate whether the new policy might accelerate or curb that trend more for early retirees or the older ones." (InsuranceNewsNet)
How Chicago-Area Employers Support the Troops: Keep Troops on Payroll, Maintain Benefits
Excerpt: "Federal law requires that employers hold open the jobs of employees on active duty in the military. Like many of the Chicago area's biggest employers, Hoffman Estates-based Sears Holdings Corp., parent company of the Sears and Kmart chains, goes beyond that minimum requirement by making up the difference between the typically lower military pay during deployment and the worker's Sears salary. Sears also pays any bonuses employees might be entitled to." (The Chicago Sun-Times)
(e) Policy, Opinion, Advocacy
Overview of a NBER Working Paper: The Lifetime Costs and Benefits of Medical Technology
Excerpt: "In 'The Lifetime Costs and Benefits of Medical Care' (NBER Working Paper 13478), David Cutler evaluates the long-term costs and benefits of one specific medical technology. The technology he examines is therapeutic surgical care after a heart attack, or revascularization, a term that encompasses both bypass surgery and angioplasty. These are relatively common and expensive medical treatments whose value has been a matter of debate in the literature." (National Bureau of Economic Research)
Overview of a NBER Working Paper: Comparing the U.S. and Canadian Health Care Systems
Excerpt: "In 'Health Status, Health Care, and Inequality: Can.ada vs. the U.S.,' (NBER Working Paper 13429) June O'Neill and Dave M. O'Neill take a closer look at the performance of the U.S. and Canadian health care systems. The authors examine whether the Canadian system delivers better health outcomes and distributes health resources more equitably than the U.S. system." (National Bureau of Economic Research)
Overview of Papers on The Economics of 'Pay-or-Play' Mandates
Excerpt: "The costs and benefits of pay-or-play mandates are evaluated in two new papers by NBER researchers. In 'Employer Health Insurance Mandates and the Risk of Unemployment,' (NBER Working Paper 13528), Katherine Baicker and Helen Levy estimate the potential job loss from health insurance mandates. . . . In 'Who Gets What from Employer Pay or Play Mandates?' (NBER Working Paper 13578), Richard Burkhauser and Kosali Simon take a closer look at how effective health insurance mandates might be in providing health insurance for the working poor." (National Bureau of Economic Research)
Opinion: Health Care -- The Best and Worst of 2007
Excerpt: "Unfortunately, 2007 was not a great year for health care in the United States. Every time we seemed to be making a little progress, bad news came rolling in. The fact is that it's hard to improve a health care system that is designed first, and foremost, to make profits. After all, legally a corporation's first responsibility is to its shareholders. And corporate executives feel obliged take their own needs into account. The nation's health just has to take a back seat." (The Century Foundation)
A Prescription for the Future of Health Care in the United States (PDF)
6 pages. Excerpt: "The Canadian health care system was designed to provide excellent health care for all, with as little administrative expense as possible, through a single-payer system. That the cost of all health care in Can.ada amounts to 9.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) compared to 15.3 percent of GDP in the United States says something about administrative expense, bulk purchasing, and, perhaps, extra capacity." (American Academy of Actuaries)
Health Reform Comes Slowly for California
Excerpt: "Expanding health coverage to the uninsured requires some funding mechanism. One route is a broad-based tax. That's both unpopular and risky: Employers, who are the main providers of health insurance, may decide to drop coverage and let government pick up that burden. Instead, many plans -- including San Francisco's -- have tried to force employers who are not providing health insurance to shoulder some of the burden. But that's proved to be nearly impossible given ERISA, a law preventing state and local government interference in employer-provided benefits. The state's reform proposal does just that, argues Anthony Wright, executive director for Health Access California, an advocacy group that helped draft the legislation." (The Christian Science Monitor)
Employers Fear Loss of ERISA Shield
Excerpt: "Business leaders stir nervously when talk turns to undoing ERISA, a type of health plan that shields businesses from state and local regulation. Courts have struck down state efforts to mandate employer health care benefits in Maryland, New York and, in a ruling Wednesday, San Francisco." (The Washington Times)
Opinion: California Court Ruling Suggests Several Health Care Plans Violate Federal Law
Excerpt: "The prospects for dramatic changes in Colorado's health-care delivery system got a little more murky last week, thanks to a court order issued by a federal judge in San Francisco. OpThat's a positive development, in our view. As we said two months ago, presidential candidates are giving medical reform a prominent role in the campaign. So any state legislation enacted in 2008 may well be pre-empted by federal action in 2009." (Rocky Mountain News)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Overview of SEC Launch of The Executive Compensation Reader
Excerpt: "On December 21, 2007, just in time for the holidays, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission launched The Executive Compensation Reader, which it described as 'the first-ever online tool that enables investors to easily and instantly compare what 500 of the largest American companies are paying their top executives.' The Executive Compensation Reader is available on the SEC's Web site." (Winston & Strawn LLP)
Newly Posted Events
401(k) Fees and the New Disclosure Mandates
in Michigan on January 22, 2008
presented by ASPPA Benefits Council of Detroit
403(b) Revolutionized!
in Pennsylvania on January 30, 2008
presented by ASPPA Benefits Council of Delaware Valley
The New Frontiers of ERISA Litigation: How to Proceed in a High-Risk Environment
Nationwide on December 28, 2007
presented by BNA, Inc.
Newly Posted Press Releases
U.S. Labor Department Announces FY 2007 Enforcement Results
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Morgan Stanley Hit with 401(k) Stock Suit
Stull, Stull & Brody
The Hartford Makes Another Retirement Business Acquisition
The Hartford
Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP File Class Action Lawsuit - Egan v. Morgan Stanley & Co., et al.
Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP
Blue Cross And Blue Shield Of North Carolina Waives Copayments On Drugs For Chronic Conditions
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
(Post a Job | View All Jobs |
RSS Feed )
Defined Benefits Actuarial Consultant
for ERP Actuaries & Consultants
in NY
Senior Plan Consultant I
for Scholz, Klein & Friends Enlightened Retirement Group, Inc.
in TX
Associate Consultant
for Fidelity Investments
in MA
Vice President - Institutional Sales West Coast
for Raymond James
in ANY STATE
TPA Regional Manager - Northeast Region
for Transamerica Retirement Services
in MA, PA
401(k) Production Manager
for Malcolm Thompson & Associates, Inc.
in TX
Project Manager - Transition Manager
for MassMutual Financial Group
in MA
Manager, Retirement Services
for Aris Corporation of America
in PA
401(k) Plan Operations Manager
for ADP TotalSource
in FL
Editor, Knowledge Management
for Administaff, Inc.
in TX
Director of Pension Operations
for Delaware Valley Retirement, Inc.
in PA
Pension Administration Team Leader
for Schiller's Pension Consulting
in CA
Call Center Manager, Retirement Plans
for The Newport Group
in NC
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: