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BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter
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[Guidance Overview]
Proposed Regulations Provide Roadmap for State Exchanges and Establishing Reinsurance and Risk Standards
"The process of gearing up for Exchanges to begin in 2014 began shortly after health care reform was enacted, and there is still more to come as guidance relating to Exchanges is being issued in several phases with many issues yet to be addressed, including benefit design standards for QHPs (for instance, the definition of 'essential health benefits') and the process for eligibility determinations for Exchanges, premium tax credits, cost-sharing reductions, and other public programs."
(Thomson Reuters/EBIA)
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6th Annual Obesity and Wellness Congress [Advert.]
Convening providers, payers, employers and public purchasers, the 6th Annual Obesity and Wellness Congress will discuss preventative and collaborative solutions to reverse the nationwide epidemic of obesity.
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Louisville, Kentucky, Employees' Domestic Partners to Get Health Benefits
"The Courier-Journal reports that the order extends medical, dental and vision insurance coverage for qualified adults, which are defined as someone who is unmarried, over 18 years old, not eligible for Medicare, residing in the employee's household for at least nine months, and financially interdependent with the employee for 12 months or longer."
(PLANSPONSOR.COM)
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Proposed Rules Provide Basic Frameworks for State and Small Business Exchanges Under Health Reform
"Beginning in 2014, Exchanges will operate a SHOP, a program that offers small employers and their employees new choices. Through the SHOP, employers can choose the level of coverage they will offer (bronze, silver, gold or platinum plans), define their contribution toward their employees' coverage, and then offer the employees choices of multiple insurers and plans."
(Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
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The Hidden Cost of Employee Confusion About Health Insurance Plans
"ERISA says that SPDs should be written in plain English so that the average participant can understand them. But according to a 2004 report by the Institute of Medicine, most employer- provided information about health insurance is too complex."
(Employee Benefit News; free registration required)
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More Plans Get Health Care Reform Waivers
"The Department of Health and Human Services in June approved 39 one-year waivers—mostly for mini-med plan sponsors—from meeting a health care reform requirement that first restricts and ultimately eliminates annual dollar limits for essential benefits."
(Business Insurance)
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The Matter of Standards for Electronic Health Records
"[The concern about standards is] prompting heated debate in recent meetings of representatives from medicine, industry, academia and government. The stakes, they say, could scarcely be higher. They agree that, when well designed and wisely used, digital records can deliver the power of better information to medicine, improving care and curbing costs. But computer forms, they add, can also be difficult to use, cluttered and distracting, causing more harm than good in health care."
(The New York Times; free registration required)
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[Opinion]
ERIC Comment Letter on W-2 Reporting Requirements (PDF)
"The ERISA Industry Committee . . . is pleased to respond to the request of the [IRS] and Treasury Department . . . for comments regarding the interim guidance in Notice 2011–28 implementing the requirements for reporting the cost of group health plan coverage on Forms W-2."
(The ERISA Industry Committee)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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Recent Developments in Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
The July 2011 edition covers: IRS Notice on Potential Approaches to Shared Responsibility and Other Health Care Reform Requirements; Supreme Court Ruling on SPD-Based Benefit Claims, and Expansion of Potential Lawsuits For ERISA Plaintiffs; Impact of New State Marriage And Civil Union Laws on Employee Benefits; and, Wellness Programs.
(Blank Rome LLP)
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14 Cities Being Eaten Alive by Public Sector Workers
"Skyrocketing employee costs—the result of overly generous union contracts, an aging workforce, and bad pension investments—are now pushing several municipalities to the brink of fiscal ruin. Without union concessions or substantial reform, these cities will edge closer to insolvency while residents pay higher taxes for deteriorating public services."
(Business Insider, Inc.)
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In Anemic Job Market, Benefits Take Hit.
"A few family-related benefits have taken a hit since the recession, and haven't recovered, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) latest annual survey of 600 employers' benefits' offerings."
(The Wall Street Journal)
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Employee Ownership Update for July 15, 2011
NCEO Executive Director Loren Rodgers discusses the following: A new study shows equity plans are a large part of employee savings. Other research sheds light on the relation between ESOPs and disclosure practices at public companies. ESOP-owned Reflexite will merge with a German company. The ESOP is a core part of the corporate identity of USA800, a call center company. The Economist published an obituary for Robert Oakeshott. (National Center for Employee Ownership
(NCEO))
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Press Releases
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Holly Horton, Business Manager
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