BenefitsLink |
 |
 |
March 26, 2009 |
| Here are the Web's best new links about compliance and cost aspects of plan operation, design and policy. |
SunGard (Advert.)
SunGard’s Relius 125 With SunGard’s Relius 125, you can administer FSA (Dependent Care and Health), HSA (Health Savings Accounts), HRA (Health Reimbursement Arrangements), §132 Plans (Transit and Parking), and Premium Conversion Benefits. Relius 125 is a flexible benefit administration system that streamlines daily processing and supports several comprehensive reimbursement options. For more information about SunGard's Relius 125 or to schedule a demonstration, call 800-326-7235, ext. 1100 or click here. |
[Guidance Overview]
Webinar: Unscrambling the New Legislative Requirements for 2009-2010
Excerpt: "On March 17, Michael Rosenbaum, partner in the Chicago office with Gallagher Benefit Services hosting presented a webinar entitled 'Unscrambling The New Legislative Requirements 2009-2010'. This webinar focused on reviewing the list of legal/regulatory challenges facing HR professionals in 2009 and 2010, such as FMLA, Federal COBRA Subsidy, COBRA and the Trade Assistance Act (TAA) and HIPAA Privacy & Security. [A link is provided to the audio portion of this webinar.]" (Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP)
[Guidance Overview]
COBRA Compliance Webcast by DOL for Employers Now Available Online
Excerpt: "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides for premium reductions and additional election opportunities for continuation coverage under COBRA. In this webcast, the Department of Labor [was] joined by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service to discuss the new COBRA provisions and provide assistance in complying with the new requirements, including the model notices and the tax credit." (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)
Actuaries Can Determine E-Prescribing's Potential for Savings and Improved Outcomes
Excerpt: "In the article, An Electronic Prescription for Health Care Efficiency, [Susan] Pantely asserts that e-prescribing makes a doctor's prescribing practice more efficient by helping the doctor make an 'appropriate determination of the best drug for the patient' in a real-time fashion. To determine e-prescribing's potential, an actuary can review doctors' drug prescribing patterns and their generic proportions; that is, lower order rates for generic drugs shows greater potential for savings, she wrote." (Wolters Kluwer)
Options for Achieving Savings and Improving Value in U.S. Health Spending
Excerpt: "To inform national discussions and spur progress toward such a plan, The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System sponsored this report, which examines 15 federal policy options and their potential for lowering health spending over the next 10 years, relative to projected trends. [Originally published December 18, 2007.]" (The Commonwealth Fund)
How Effectively Does the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Help Laid-Off Workers and States Cope with Health Care Costs?
Excerpt: "A new analysis from the Urban Institute concludes that these provisions are likely to achieve only partial success." (The Urban Institute via Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
Paid Parental Leave for Federal Employees Advances in House
Excerpt: "The House federal workforce subcommittee on Wednesday passed a bill that would provide federal employees with four weeks of paid leave on the birth or adoption of a child. During the bill's markup, Democratic committee members and one Republican said the 2009 Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (H.R. 626) would provide an important model to private sector employers. The legislation advances to the full House Oversight and Government Reform Committee." (GovernmentExecutive.com)
Innovations in Recognizing and Rewarding Quality Health Care Delivery
82 pages. Excerpt: "Our report highlights some of the most innovative approaches that regional and national health insurance plans have taken to advance quality of care and efficiency through the recognition and reward of physicians and hospitals for achieving national benchmarks, demonstrating outstanding performance, and making measurable improvements over time. Some involve rewarding physicians for making structural changes such as adopting electronic health record systems. Others involve rewarding practitioners for measuring and reporting on improved patient care, such as, by more actively monitoring and coordinating care for patients with chronic illnesses. Some of the programs described here focus on physicians, while others focus on hospitals. Many involve multi-stakeholder collaborations." (America's Health Insurance Plans)
Local Government Retiree Health Care: Current Offerings and Future Direction (PDF)
6 pages. Excerpt: "A new paper by Joshua Franzel, Center Vice President, Research, on the challenges facing local governments seeking to fulfill their promises to employees while curbing costs." (Journal of Compensation and Benefits via Center for State and Local Government Excellence)
President Obama Says Balancing Budget Without Addressing Health Care Is 'Impossible'
Excerpt: "President Obama on Tuesday during a prime-time news conference linked issues within the U.S. budget in part to high health care costs, stating that 'almost every single person' who has examined the nation's budget has concluded that the government must find a way to reduce health care costs, the Washington Post reports (Shear/Wilson, Washington Post, 3/25)." (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Employers Question Whether Genetic Testing Is Worth the Cost
Excerpt: "Genetic testing, with its ability to decode a person's genes and serve up probabilities of health risks, offers patients the hope of answers to life's immutable questions around sickness and death. And yet while many patients think genetic tests will answer life's big questions, many doctors -- and with them the employers and insurers that pay for medical care -- look for answers to immediate issues like: Will a medicine do what it is supposed to do when it enters the peculiar ecosystem of an individual's body? And is a genetic test a cost-effective tool to answer that question?" (Workforce Management; free registration required)
San Francisco Health Care Mandate Inches Toward Supreme Court
Excerpt: "The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision this month not to review a 2008 appeals panel ruling upholding a San Francisco health care spending law brings one step closer a potential U.S. Supreme Court review and perhaps a final resolution on the legality of employer spending mandates. In a case followed by employers nationwide due to its potential impact on the design, cost and administration of corporate health plans, a majority of appeals court members rejected a request for the full appeals court to review a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the court that the law could stand." (Workforce Management; free registration required)
A Health Plan for All and the Concerns It Raises
Excerpt: "It is one of the most contentious health care proposals President Obama has floated: offer a federal, Medicare-like insurance plan to anyone, at any age. And let commercial insurers offer their private health plans alongside it. It gives consumers more choices, and it helps keep the private sector honest, because there's some competition out there,' Mr. Obama said this month at a health care forum in Washington. But the insurance industry and others wary of too much government intervention vehemently oppose the idea. They say the heavy hand of the government will eventually push out the private insurers, leaving the government option as the only option." (The New York Times; free registration required)
Major Health Insurance Companies Offer to Stop Charging Sick People More for Coverage
Excerpt: "The country's leading health insurers Tuesday offered to end their long-standing practice of charging sick customers higher premiums, a significant concession in the face of mounting criticism of the industry in Washington. The offer from America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Assn., whose member companies cover more than 200 million people, comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill debate a proposal to create a government-run insurance program." (Los Angeles Times)
[Opinion]
The Dangers of a Public Health Care Plan
Excerpt: "Len Nichols says that there would be a level playing field between a new government health plan and private plans if 'all rules of the marketplace -- benefit package requirements, insurance regulations, and risk adjustment processes -- apply to all plans equally, whether public or private.' But this is a false assurance because Washington can continue to change the rules that dictate how the private marketplace must operate. A statement to be released this week by members of the Health Policy Consensus Group will explain that, 'While there may be initial assurances of a level playing field, the NHP would have special advantages over private health insurance. Private plans would be forced to match the more expensive benefits promised by the government plan, but only the government plan would be able to impose price controls and draw on government policing and taxing authority." (Galen Institute)
The Savvy Self-Funding Healthcare Conference & Expo (Advert.)
Employer-Designed Healthcare Conference Offers Unique Perspective & Comfortable Atmosphere June 1-3, 2009 - The Savvy Self-Funding Healthcare Conference and Expo. Started as a community effort in 2005, the goal is to help educate employers and plan sponsors about self-insured plans. Solutions to rising healthcare costs are not always reducing benefits or raising premiums. Conference is a relaxed, comfortable environment. Vendor expo includes both carriers AND brokers. Contact Karrie Andes, SPHR, Conference Chairperson and Human Resources Director for Deffenbaugh Industries, Inc. & Affiliates, at 800-226-5205, karrie@savvyemployerconference.com and visit www.savvyemployerconference.com. |
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
[Opinion]AIG Deferred Compensation Plan Payouts
Excerpt: "Most of the funds paid out were employees' own salary reduction contributions to AIG's deferred compensation plans (and the investment earning thereon) and most of the recipients were not from the now infamous Financial Products Group. However, United Airlines pilots and many other executives and former executives over the years have lost their non-qualified deferred compensation plan benefits when their companies filed for bankrup.tcy protection." (Michael S. Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)
Webcasts and Conferences
(Click to post your webcast or conference)Subrogation Soup: The Law & Practicalities
Nationwide on April 21, 2009
presented by ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits
Webinar: "Retirement Plans in Times of Change"
Nationwide on April 1, 2009
presented by Spectrum Pension Consultants, Inc.
Press Releases
(Click to post your press release)U.S. Labor Department Sues Former NFL Player and Others in Bankruptcy Court to Recover Pension Assets
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Putnam Launches New DC Platform
Putnam Investments
ERIC Endorses Minority Leader Boehner's Pension and Savings Relief Legislation
ERIC (ERISA Industry Committee)
5500 Schedule C Reporting Delay And Additional Guidance Needed, According To Survey By The SPARK Institute
SPARK Institute
Employee Benefits Jobs
(Click to post your job opening | View all jobs |
RSS feed of all jobs )
Vice President, Health & Welfare Advisory Services
for Sapers & Wallack, Inc.
in MA
Retirement Plan Consultant
for The Retirement Advantage, Inc.
in WI
Payroll Account Executive - Various Locations
for Fidelity Investments
in ANY STATE, IL, MA, MN, NC, NJ, NM, NY, PA, RI
401(k) Plan Administrator
for Capital Retirement Plan Services, Inc.
in PA
Sr. Insurance Project Representative – Team Liaison
for National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
in VA
EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com (Sponsor)
(Click on banner to learn more.)
| Where the best employers find the best candidates! |
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 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 2009 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: