Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter |
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| October 15, 2009 \ Compliance \ Costs \ Administration \ Design \ Policy | ||
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[Guidance Overview]
Does Your Wellness Program Need to Revise Its Health Risk Assessment?
Excerpt: "The new rules clarify that your health risk assessment can still seek genetic information if no reward is provided, completing the HRA is voluntary, and the HRA is not completed until after a new participant is covered under your health plan. But if your plan offers a reward, then the HRA may not directly or indirectly seek genetic information (although you could put questions seeking genetic information into a separate, voluntary HRA for which there is no reward.)" (Warner Norcross & Judd LLP)
[Guidance Overview]
New HIPAA Breach Notification Rules
Excerpt: "Rather than waiting for a breach to occur and then reacting in a panic, best practice is to proactively act now to establish notice procedures, maintain breach logs, revise business associate agreements, train employees and update privacy procedures." (Briggs and Morgan P.A.)
[Guidance Overview]
GINA Regulations Require Redesign of Health Plan Wellness and Disease Management Incentives
Excerpt: "The Bulletin provides an overview of GINA's prohibitions; discusses the regulations involved in using health-risk assessments to ask questions about an individual's family medical history; and briefly outlines the action steps for sponsors of group health plans. Plan sponsors must conduct a compliance review immediately to ensure that: Health-risk assessments (including those designed by outside vendors) and any associated wellness policies and procedures comply with GINA's broad prohibition on collecting genetic information; and Wellness or disease management programs do not collect or use genetic information to screen individuals for eligibility for benefits under the plan." (The Segal Group, Inc.)
Weakened Individual Health Insurance Mandate a Cause for Concern for Employers
Excerpt: "While employers cite admiration for much in the bill, they too have criticized the committee's decision to water down the requirement that all individuals carry health insurance. Health insurers have agreed to stop their longstanding practice of denying people coverage based on pre-existing health conditions on the basis that all individuals be required to purchase insurance. The effect would be that policies for young and healthy individuals would offset the cost of caring for sicker and older patients. The Finance Committee bill, however, includes a reduced penalty for individuals who decide not to carry insurance." (Workforce Management; free registration required)
Can VEBAs Alleviate Retiree Health Care Problems?
Excerpt: "Recent negotiations between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Detroit automakers focused attention on an innovative response to the long-term decline in retiree health insurance in the United States. The union agreed to set up a trust called a Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association (VEBA) to assume responsibility for the UAW retiree medical care at the companies. An analysis of the General Motors Corporation VEBA suggests that it is a second-best option to employer-paid retiree coverage. However, absent comprehensive national health-care reform, it may be a viable alternative for those unable to fend off the elimination of retiree health elimination by an employer." (Pension Research Council; registration required to download fulltext of paper)
New Oversight Has Not Cut Approvals of L.I.R.R. Disability Claims
Excerpt: "A federal retirement agency approved nearly 100 percent of disability claims filed by workers for the Long Island Rail Road even after enacting changes meant to address chronic abuse of the public benefits system, a government review has found. The agency, the Railroad Retirement Board, which is the equivalent of Social Security for railroad workers, said last October that it would use greater oversight to examine claims filed by L.I.R.R. employees after reports in The New York Times that virtually every career L.I.R.R. employee applied for and received disability payments from the federal government. [Published October 8, 2009.]" (The New York Times; free registration required)
Myth #10: Consumers Can Make the Best Decisions About Their Medical Care
Excerpt: "In order to navigate high-deductible health plans and become good health care 'consumers,' patients need information. Some patients want a lot of information and some want a little. Studies confirm that consumers prefer receiving medical information from their doctors rather than from an outside source such as the Internet, although that may change over time as Web-based and other health information sources become more user-friendly to patients. At the University of Virginia, we have developed a model system that identifies consumers' health information needs, their preferences and the ways in which they prefer to receive health information. Understanding how patients want to receive information about their medical care will lead to the design of appropriate educational materials, which, in turn, will promote better patient decision making." (Governing.com)
Galen Institute Launches New Health Reform Website
Excerpt: "The Galen Institute today is launching a new website - Health Reform Hub www.HealthReformHub.org - which will serve as a central access point for the latest news and information about market-based ideas for health reform." (Galen Institute)
[Opinion]
Obama Owes Progressives Answers on 3 Health Care Questions
Excerpt: "This week the powerful Senate Finance Committee has withered the president's health reform ambitions to a mandate for individuals to show proof of a private health insurance policy. Neither of the traditional twin demands of progressives survived: a public health care option to the private market or a strong employer mandate to pay for employees' insurance. . . . Sure every American will have access to an insurance policy because there will no preexisting condition limitation, but they will also have a duty to buy one. Insurers will have no duty to hold down their prices or profits." (The Huffington Post)
[Opinion]
Fight Obesity by Taxing Calories
Excerpt: "President Obama set the soft-drink industry fizzing recently when he mentioned the possibility of a 'soda tax' on sweetened beverages as a way of combating America's obesity crisis. 'I actually think it's an idea that we should be exploring,' he told Men's Health magazine. 'There's no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda.' The notion of a soda tax got a lot of people riled up, and in the hullabaloo, the White House downplayed the prospect of any possible legislation. But it might have died too quickly." (USA TODAY)
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Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
[Guidance Overview]IRS Increases Alternative Per Diem Rate for Travel and Entertainment Expenses
Excerpt: "The alternative per diems companies can use to reimburse employees for business travel, sometimes called 'high-low' rates, have inched up for 2010. Every year, the IRS releases alternative per diem rates for employers that choose not to use the continental U.S. (CONUS) per diem rates set by the General Services Administration (GSA). The new high-low rates are from Oct. 1, 2009 through Sept. 30, 2010. The 'high' per diem rate for 2010 is $258 (up from $256 last year) for travel to any high-cost locality, defined as a place for which the GSA has set a maximum CONUS per diem of $211 or more. The 'low' per diem for 2010 is $163 (up from $158 in 2009). The low rate applies to travel to any destination not considered to be a high-cost location." (Thompson Publishing Group, Inc.)
California Recognizes Same-S.ex Marriages from Other States
Excerpt: "California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law a bill that recognizes same-s.ex marriages entered into in other states, Business Insurance reports. . . . According to the news report, Schwarzenegger said in a statement, 'This measure honors the will of the people in enacting Proposition 8 while providing important protections to those unions legally entered into in other states.'" (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)
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in OH
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