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May 22, 2009 \ Compliance \ Costs \ Administration \ Design \ Policy

International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (Advert.)

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[Guidance Overview]
DOL Unveils COBRA Appeals Process

Excerpt: "The U.S. Department of Labor has announced the appeal process individuals can use if they are denied a premium subsidy for their group health plan continuation coverage. . . . The appeal process allows applicants who are denied the subsidy to request a review by the Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). Individuals seeking a review must complete the department's appeal form in order to begin the review process. [A]pplicants can submit the completed application online, by mail or fax. [The application is at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/COBRA/main.html.]" (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)


[Guidance Overview]
Preparing for a Pandemic Outbreak: Lessons Learned from the H1N1 Flu

Excerpt: "The consequences of H1N1 have been less severe than originally anticipated, but there are some important lessons to be learned. Should the worst occur, most companies would be caught without the necessary policies and plans in place to deal with a deadly outbreak. This article outlines the steps that an employer can take in order to prepare for a pandemic and ensure business continuity." (Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP)


[Guidance Overview]
District Court Applies Tenth Circuit Weber Opinion in Affirming Benefit Denial

Excerpt: "The district court in Dove v. Prudential attempted to applied its interpretation of post-Glenn Tenth Circuit authority in evaluating a denial of benefits under an accident policy. The important aspect of the opinion is framed by the excerpt quoted above. When faced with a conflict of interest by a plan administrator, what factors should it evaluate in determining whether the conflict affected the benefits denial decision." (Roy Harmon III via Health Plan Law)


GM Bankrup.tcy Plan Would Use Stock Worth 39% of Firm To Fund Half of VEBA Obligation
Excerpt: "The United Auto Workers retiree health fund is set to own as much as 39 percent of the restructured GM, in exchange for giving up its claim to at least $10 billion that the company owes it. Yesterday, the union announced that it reached an agreement with GM that will reduce the company's labor costs." (The Washington Post; free registration required)


GM's Future Rests With Bondholders After UAW Deal
Excerpt: "The United Auto Workers struck a deal with General Motors and the federal government Thursday to cut labor costs, close factories and change the way retiree health care is funded. The agreement could ease one of GM's biggest problems: The cost of its work force. But the automaker is still struggling with a crushing debt that may drive it into a Chapter 11 bankrup.tcy reorganization. . . . The government has told the automaker to cut labor costs, close factories, shed dealers and brands, and persuade at least 90 percent of its bondholders to sign on for the stock-for-debt exchange. But thousands of bondholders are expected to shun the company's offer to take 10 percent of its stock to wipe out $27 billion in unsecured debt." (The New York Times; free registration required)


General Motors and UAW Reach Deal on Contract Changes
Excerpt: "The United Automobile Workers union said Thursday that it had reached a tentative deal with General Motors and the Treasury Department that would help G.M. cut its labor costs and reduce its obligations to a new retiree health care fund by billions of dollars, The New York Times's Nick Bunkley reports from Detroit. The U.A.W. did not release details, which must be ratified by G.M. workers. The agreement is expected to be similar to one reached last month with Chrysler, which allowed that automaker to substitute equity for up to half of the $10 billion owed to its retiree health care fund. G.M. owes about twice that amount to the fund for its workers." (The New York Times; free registration required)


Senate Finance Committee's Proposed Health Care Reform Funding Options
Excerpt: "Taxability of Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits: Various proposals were advanced for eliminating deductions for, as well as taxing the value of, employee health benefits, for all or just higher-income taxpayers. The taxable amount could be the full value of the benefits or just their value above a benchmark basic plan such as the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program." (McDermott Will & Emery)


But Can Healthcare Reform Reduce Premiums?
Excerpt: "As Congress prepares for a four-month sprint to pass a sweeping healthcare bill, though, it is hard to find anybody serious about health policy who believes premiums will actually drop anytime soon." (The Boston Globe)


Pennsylvania State Benefits Board Extends Health Care to Domestic Partners
Excerpt: "Domestic partners of Pennsylvania state employees will soon be eligible for state employer-sponsored health care benefits. The Pennsylvania Employees Benefits Trust Fund agreed on the policy, which goes into effect in July. It provides full medical coverage for domestic partners who have lived together at least six months, as well as their children, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)


Management Analysis of Approaches for Expanding Access to Health Care
Excerpt: "Analyses of proposals to expand health coverage generally focus on their programmatic or policy impact. This emphasis is understandable, since many proposals provide only sketchy information about management, and administrative costs represent only a small portion of the total costs of a proposal. Nonetheless, failure to address matters of implementation can result in policies or programs that cost too much or fail to achieve their goals. This project examines the management and administrative issues that are likely to arise as part of efforts to expand health coverage. It is the product of a study panel convened jointly by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI). As part of its work, the study panel has published ten working papers . . . ." (National Academy of Social Insurance)


Wellness Programs May Become Universal for Federal Government Workers
Excerpt: "'As a result of many successful programs at businesses across the country, workers have become more engaged in their own health care, productivity is increasing, absenteeism is dropping, and employers are passing some of their health care savings to their workers,' the White House said in a statement earlier this month. The push for a healthier workforce will extend to civil servants. Obama has directed the Office of Personnel Management to work with other agencies to 'explore the feasibility of developing such a plan for federal employees and their workplaces.' OPM hasn't released any details about options it is considering. But if the federal plan is modeled after private sector and state-level efforts, it would emphasize assessing employees' health, and initiating programs to address shortcomings. Perhaps most important, it would include incentives for employees to participate in fitness and other classes." (GovernmentExecutive.com)


U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn Offers GOP's Health Care Prescription
Excerpt: "Sen. Tom Coburn and other Republican lawmakers unveiled a health care reform plan Wednesday aimed at getting everyone but the elderly into a private insurance plan. Coburn, R-Muskogee, said the government doesn't 'have a good track record' on most of the health care programs it runs, including Medicaid, the Indian Health Service and care for veterans. The complex proposal made by Coburn and his GOP colleagues would include a major change in the way employer-provided health insurance is treated under the tax code. It would eliminate the tax 'exclusion' workers now get on their employer-provided insurance, meaning the value of the benefit would be subject to income taxes." (The Daily Oklahoman via AARP)


Tax Proposals Draw Critics in Talks on Financing Health Insurance
Excerpt: "Even as Congress weighed options to finance health insurance for tens of millions of Americans, lobbyists mobilized Wednesday to head off proposed taxes on employer-provided health benefits, alcoholic beverages and soft drinks. Labor unions began attacking a proposal by Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Max Baucus of Montana, both Democrats, to consider changes in the tax treatment of employer-sponsored insurance, the main source of health coverage for people under 65." (The New York Times; free registration required)


Preventable Medical Errors Still Kill Thousands, Cost Billions as Employers Foot Bill
Excerpt: "Despite a landmark report a decade ago detailing the deadly nature of the U.S. health system, a consumer group said Tuesday, May 19, that little has been done to prevent the errors that still kill as many as 100,000 patients each year -- a number that the group said is a conservative estimate. Consumers Union, which publishes the magazine Consumer Reports, published what it called a 'review of the scant evidence' of the health system's efforts to reduce preventable errors that cost the country $17 billion to $29 billion annually, a cost borne by the employers that pay for shoddy care." (Workforce Management; free registration required)


[Opinion]
American Benefits Council Letter on HHS Guidance and Request for Information: HITECH Breach Notification (PDF)

5 pages. Excerpt: "[The Council comments on the Guidance] specifying the technologies and methodologies that render protected health information (PHI) unusable, unreadable or indecipherable to unauthorized individuals and thus 'secure' PHI, not subject to the breach notification requirements imposed by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. . . . The HITECH Act added new privacy and security obligations for covered entities subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA). The comments . . . specifically address the Guidance on technologies and methodologies that render PHI 'secure', as well as the breach notification requirements more generally." (American Benefits Council)



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Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General

[Guidance Overview]
Protecting Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation

Excerpt: "Why have protection issues become some important recently? Clearly the bankrup.tcy filings by several prominent companies have brought to light the issues. But there have been many bankrup.tcy filings in past downturns (think 2000-2002). What is different this time around is that Code Section 409A now prevents companies and executives from using certain strategies that could have protected their non-qualified deferred compensation funds and promises." (Michael Melbinger via Winston & Strawn LLP)


Lawmakers Unveil Bipartisan Federal Employee Domestic Partner Benefits Bills
Excerpt: "A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced House and Senate bills that would grant the domestic partners of g.ay and les.bian federal employees the same health and retirement benefits as the spouses of heterose.xual workers. . . . [Rep. Ileana] Ros-Lehtinen and Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who co-chairs the Congressional Les.bian G.ay Bise.xual and Transgender Equality Caucus, introduced the 2009 Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act in the House. Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, unveiled the Senate version." (GovernmentExecutive.com)


Updated Employee Ownership 100 List: America's Largest ESOP and Other Employee-Owned Companies
The NCEO has published on its Web site the newest version of its Employee Ownership 100 list, which lists the largest U.S. companies with least 50% of their stock owned by an ESOP, a stock purchase plan in which most full-time employees can participate, a profit sharing plan or other trust, or some combination of such plans. (National Center for Employee Ownership)



Press Releases

U.S. Labor Department Further Extends Effective Date of Rules on Investment Advice
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)

U.S. Labor Department Publishes Process to Appeal Denials of COBRA Subsidy Under American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)

American Association For Long-Term Care Insurance Recognizes Four Marsh Professionals Among Top 40 U.S. Producers
Marsh Global Consumer

(Click to post your press release)

Employee Benefits Jobs

Defined Contribution Analyst I/II/III
for The Standard
in OH

Senior Consultant/Client Services Manager/Efficiency and Streamlining
for Great Lakes Pension Associates, Inc.
in MI

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