Webcast content will provide information for multiemployer and single employer plans. For multiemployer plans, it will cover how plans will have more time to make up for the investment losses incurred in 2008 and 2009, the solvency-based test and restrictions on plan amendments increasing benefits. For single employers, it will review what the extended amortization options are and a brief guide to the many other details and special rules.
|
[Guidance Overview]
DOL's FAQ on Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act Regulations
Excerpt: "his FAQ will make it easier for plan sponsors to determine whether financial requirements (such as copayments) or treatment limits applicable to outpatient services for mental health or substance use disorders will be permissible under the MHPAEA regulations."
(The Segal Group, Inc.)
Survey Reveals Employers' Reactions to Various Health Care Reform Provisions
Excerpt: "A key takeaway from a recent survey on this topic by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans . . .: Despite a slew of health care reform challenges, most (87%) employers remain confident that they will continue to offer health care benefits to their active employees because they are critical to employee recruitment, retention and remaining competitive."
(Wolters Kluwer)
OBRA vs HIPAA: Who Has the Right to Demand Access to Medical Records?
Excerpt: "Here's what creates the issue - most of you know that under [OBRA] regulations for nursing facilities, and state licensure law for both SNFs and assisted living communities, residents have a right to see and obtain a copy of their medical records. But you also know that HIPAA precludes or restricts the disclosure of residents' protected health information . . . , which includes virtually anything in a medical record, except in very limited situations."
(Poyner Spruill LLP)
How Do Employers React to a Pay-or-Play Mandate? Early Evidence from San Francisco
Excerpt: "There is substantial employer demand for the public option, with 21% of firms using Healthy San Francisco for at least some employees, yet there is little evidence of firms dropping existing insurance offerings in the first year after implementation."
(National Bureau of Economic Research; paid subscription or individual purchase required to retrieve fulltext)
The Risk of Out-of-Pocket Health Care Expenditure at End of Life
Excerpt: "Total out-of-pocket expenditures are strongly positively related to wealth and weakly related to income. We find evidence for a mechanism by which wealth could plausibly buy health: large expenditures on home modifications, helpers, home health care, and higher-quality nursing homes, which have been shown elsewhere to improve longevity."
(National Bureau of Economic Research; paid subscription or individual purchase required to retrieve fulltext)
Multiemployer Plan Trustees Conflicted When Deciding Claims, Appeals Court Rules
Excerpt: "Giving weight to this conflict -- applying the Supreme Court's analysis in Glenn -- the appeals court found the trustees abused their discretion in denying disability benefits. The court rejected a 2009 Ninth Circuit finding that Taft-Hartley trustees have no conflict because both employers and unions are at the table . . . ."
(Mercer LLC)
Medical Home Approach to Care Can Improve the Sickest Employees' Health and Reduce Costs
Excerpt: "Last fall, Boeing announced the completion of a two-year pilot program in Seattle-area clinics for patients with chronic illnesses who get their health insurance through the company. The program . . . was based on the concept of the medical home, which puts patients at the center of a team of nurses and doctors who are paid extra to actively manage a person's health and health care."
(Workforce Management; free registration required)
Advertise your company's products and services right here in the
BenefitsLink newsletter.
Our subscribers care about employee benefit plan compliance, administration, costs and design. Roles include in-house benefits directors and administrators, TPAs, consultants, attorneys, trust officers, auditors and investment managers.
Your ad will show both your banner and a paragraph of
text -- more exposure than you'll find anywhere else. And,
of course, a clickable link to any page on your web site.
Contact Mary Hall for details.
|
Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
New Trend in Bonuses: 'Phantom Stock'
Excerpt: "[Phantom stock] is simply a promise to pay an employee a bonus that is directly tied to the value of a company's stock, but without actually giving an individual shares."
(CNNMoney.com)
Webcasts and Conferences
Press Releases
Newly Posted Employee Benefits Jobs
Handy Links:
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
Jeanette Hull, News Editor
jeanette.hull@benefitslink.com
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
david.baker@benefitslink.com
Copyright 2010 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:
|