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February 4, 2009

Here are the Web's best new links about compliance and cost aspects of plan operation, design and policy.


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States Chart Health Care Reform Course (PDF)
64 pages. Excerpt: "This year's State of the States will review the full range of state activity on health reform during 2008 while also looking to the future, particularly in light of the expected impact of the economic downturn and the possibility of federal action. This is a time of both challenge and possibility for policymakers, and the nation. The experience of states can inform the ongoing discussion." (The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)


As Daschle Withdraws, Health Care Drive Suffers a Setback
Excerpt: "The abrupt collapse of Tom Daschle's cabinet nomination on Tuesday undercut President Obama's mission to expand health care by depriving him of an unusually well positioned architect for a big legislative campaign and leaving him without a backup plan. . . . But the White House insisted that Mr. Daschle's departure would not stop the effort to cover the uninsured and rein in health costs, a goal that is 'bigger than one person,' as the press secretary, Robert Gibbs, put it. 'We're looking for a new nominee,' Mr. Gibbs said, 'but the problem has existed for quite some time, and the work toward a solution to make health care more affordable won't stop or won't pause while we look for that nominee.'" (The New York Times; free registration required)


Health Care Reform Not No. 1 Priority on the Hill
Excerpt: "'Why might reform not happen this year? As is often the case, the new administration and the new Congress face competing priorities,' said Sen. Max Baucus, Montana Democrat and Senate Finance Committee chairman, at a health policy conference in Washington. 'These priorities compete for time on the agenda and attention in the press and in public.'" (The Washington Times)


Health Savings Accounts and High-Deductible Health Insurance Plans: Implications for Those with High Medical Costs, Low Incomes, and the Uninsured
Excerpt: "The authors note that: HSA/HDHPs are a highly tax-advantaged savings vehicle appealing to people who have high incomes and to those who are expected to have low use of health care services. For the uninsured, these approaches are less attractive since they often have low income and neither benefit significantly from the tax advantages now have the financial assets necessary to cover the large deductibles associated with the plans. Their ability to reduce system-wide spending is very limited. The plans have the potential to increase segmentation of health care risk in private insurance markets unless employers set premiums to offset the healthier selection into the plans or government subsidizes the higher costs associated with the remaining non-HSA market." (Urban Institute / Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)


Cost-Effective Implementation of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act
Excerpt: "The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 requires group health plans that offer mental health or substance abuse coverage to provide those benefits on par with medical and surgical benefits. The parity mandate, effective for plan years starting after Oct. 3, 2009, applies to cost-sharing terms and treatment limits. The act also makes permanent a 1996 law's ban on lower annual and lifetime dollar limits for mental health coverage and extends this protection to substance abuse benefits. This Perspective discusses the new law and related benefit design issues for employers." (Mercer LLC)


Small Payroll, But Big Costs for Health Insurance
Excerpt: "Even before the recession, owners of the smallest businesses had struggled to absorb the inexorable annual rise in health premiums. The share of firms with fewer than 10 workers that offer health benefits has declined by 16 percent since 2001, to 49 percent, according to an annual survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, while the rate in larger firms essentially stayed flat. The economic downturn has only accelerated the pressure on small-business owners to pinch every penny, and many feel they have few options but to go after employee health coverage." (The New York Times; free registration required)


[Opinion]
Unspoken Secrets of Health Reform

Excerpt: "The thought process of most governmental reforms is that one-size-fits-all is the solution. That is financially inefficient and impersonal. More than ever, we all need to get the most bang-for-the-buck from our health coverage dollars. One of the great achievements of the employee benefits system, is that it has encouraged customized health plans per-employer. Those created under the ERISA law have been especially good in this regard. What is covered can be custom-designed for the unique needs of that company or union's workers. One-size-fits-all and the ever-growing list of politically-popular mandated benefits decrease or kill the personalized approach and thus less bang-for-the-buck for patients. That hurts people, not employers." (Frederick D. Hunt via Society of Professional Benefit Administrators)


[Opinion]
State of the Third Party Administrator Industry & Forecast for 2009

Excerpt: "Different Environment: A major difference in the situation today (besides the fact that this is the first time in three decades when the threat of replacing the private employee benefits system with national health insurance is not a significant goal of government) is that for many of the new innovations, instead of being written laws and regulations which you can read and SPBA can analyze for you, the new concepts, such as Wellness, Never Events, 'Medical Home', Health technology exchange, Global healthcare, CDHP, etc. are evolving in the private sector." (Society of Professional Benefit Administrators)


[Opinion]
The Role of Individual Mandates in Health Care Reform (PDF)

2 pages. Excerpt: "The Massachusetts experience is being carefully watched, and interest in individual mandates continues to be high. Several national reform proposals include an individual mandate, and a number of states have considered moving in this direction as well. Yet much of the discussion of mandates has occurred without a careful consideration of the evidence supporting arguments for and against them, without discussion of their nuances in practice, and without a review of the available evidence on their effectiveness. In this essay I review all three of these topics." (Jonathan Gruber via National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation)


[Opinion]
The Supreme Court's Two-Front War on the Safety Net: A Cautionary Tale for Health Care Reformers (PDF)

12 pages. Excerpt: "The intense national debate over how to restore and improve the nation's health safety net is, understandably, focused on the new administration and Congress. What is a little less understandable is that zero attention is paid to the courts. In fact, during the near-half century since the contemporary structure of national health entitlement programs was put in place, federal courts have hosted wide-ranging and fierce battles over their terms, governance, availability to beneficiaries, and especially, remedial options for beneficiaries to vindicate their rights and interests. The decisions yielded by those battles have significantly affected the scope, effectiveness, and impact of those programs. Regrettably, in the past two decades much of that impact has been negative." (American Constitution Society)


[Opinion]
Health Care Delivery Reform Requires Improved Coordination, Payment Systems, Focused Policy Agenda

Excerpt: "[In the January 27 Health Affairs] article, Building Organizational Capacity: A Cornerstone of Health System Reform, leaders from the National Quality Forum asserted that U.S. health care currently is not a 'system,' because care too often is uncoordinated and fragmented, and suffers from lack of a common strategy and accountability for continuity of care. Furthermore, the current health care structure 'seldom achieves the promise of consistently high performance seen in other sectors of the economy.'" (Wolters Kluwer)



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Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

[Guidance Overview]
IRS Guidance on Section 457A Foreign Deferred Compensation Rules (PDF)

5 pages. Excerpt: "New Code section 457A, which imposes substantial restrictions on the use of nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements sponsored by certain foreign entities, was included as part of the financial bailout legislation (Pub. L. No. 110-343) enacted last fall. . . . Under the new provision, compensation deferred under a nonqualified plan of certain nonqualified foreign entities is taxed at the time of vesting - i.e., the deferred amounts are includable in income when such amounts are no longer subject to a 'substantial risk of forfeiture' - even if they are not yet payable. The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service recently released Notice 2009-8 (the 'Notice,' Jan. 26 IRS Bulletin), which provides interim guidance interpreting Code section 457A." (Groom Law Group)


U.S. Plans to Curb Executive Pay for Bailout Recipients
Excerpt: "The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive large amounts of bailout money, according to people familiar with the plan. Under new rules to be announced by the Treasury Department Wednesday, executives would also be prohibited from receiving any bonuses above their base pay, except for normal stock dividends." (The New York Times; free registration required)


New York Judge Says Same-Sex Spouse Gets Husband's Estate
Excerpt: "A judge has issued New York state's first ruling that the survivor of a legal same-sex marriage is entitled to inherit a dead spouse's estate. Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Kristin Booth Glen ruled that J. Craig Leiby was 'the surviving spouse' and sole heir of H. Kenneth Ranftle." (AP via Yahoo! News)


2009 Revenue Procedures for Employee Plans
Excerpt: "The IRS has updated its annual revenue procedures for employee plans: Rev. Proc. 2009-4 addresses procedures for furnishing rulings and information letters; Rev. Proc. 2009-5 discusses the process of providing technical advice on employee plan issues to IRS area managers and appeals offices; Rev. Proc. 2009-6 updates procedures for issuing determination letters on a retirement plan's qualified status; and Rev. Proc. 2009-8 lists related user fees for employee plans and exempt organizations. The revenue procedures appear in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2009-1." (Mercer LLC)


[Opinion]
Secunda on [No] ERISA Remedies

Excerpt: "Paul Secunda (Marquette) has just posted on SSRN his article (forthcoming Hofstra LELJ) Sorry, No Remedy: Intersectionality and the Grand Irony of ERISA. Here's the abstract: Congress enacted the Employee Retiree Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA or Act) to protect employees' retirement and welfare benefits. Nevertheless, the Act has been interpreted by the U.S Supreme Court over the years to be in essence an Employers' Security Act, with employers using ERISA to shield themselves against employee benefit-related claims." (Workplace Prof Blog)




Newly Posted Events

Employee Benefits in Mergers and Acquisitions: Benefits in Transactions During Troubled Times
in New York on April 24, 2009
presented by ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits

PEBA's International Series: Managing Global Issues in 2009
in Pennsylvania on February 18, 2009
presented by PEBA --Penjerdel Employee Benefits & Compensation Assn.

Retirement Plans in a Troubled Economy Seminar - NEW in March 2009
Nationwide on March 19, 2009
presented by SunGard Relius

The 23rd Annual National Institute on ERISA Basics
in Illinois on June 10, 2009
presented by ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits



Newly Posted Press Releases

Great-West Retirement Services Appoints New Regional Sales Directors
Great-West Retirement Services

Putnam Names New Lead of DC Business
Putnam Investments

Fiduciary Risk Assessment and PlanTools Merge
Fiduciary Risk Assessment LLC

Firm Announces Launch of System Designed to Engage Employees in Their 401k Plans
vWise Inc.



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Daily Record Keeping Associate
for Alliance Benefit Group of Michigan
in MI

Plan Administrator
for DR Pension Services, LLC
in CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT

Sr. Clinical Programs Advisor
for NRECA
in VA

Pension Administrator
for The Benefits Consulting Group, Inc.
in IL

Benefits Compliance Manager
for Kaiser Permanente
in CA

Compliance Specialist - Account Manager
for Third Party Administrator
in NC




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