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October 10, 2011 Get Retirement News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

Employee Benefits Jobs

Advisory Associate
for The Standard in TX

Account Executive
for Lincoln Financial Group in CA, GA, IL, NY, PA, TX

Retirement Plan Administrator
for MVP Plan Administrators, Inc. in NC

Director, eMarketing
for Prudential in NJ

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Webcasts and Conferences

Defined Contribution Health Exchanges
Nationwide on November 10, 2011 presented by MCOL

Reducing Readmissions: It's the Little Things that Make Navigating this Complex Issue Much Easier
Nationwide on November 16, 2011 presented by MCOL


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[Guidance Overview]
FMLA's 'Needed to Care for' Standard Requires Proximity
"The Family and Medical Leave Act requires that employees taking unpaid time off to care for a relative must stay close to that person during most of that leave, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said in deciding Baham v. McLane Foodservice, Inc." (SmartHR)

[Guidance Overview]
No Stop-Loss Coverage for Employer That Extended Health Plan Coverage During Non-FMLA Leave That Followed FMLA Leave
"The court rejected the employer's lawsuit because it found that, under the plan terms, the employee's loss of coverage (and therefore her COBRA qualifying event) occurred when her FMLA leave ended. This is what mattered for purposes of the stop-loss insurer's liability and it did not matter that the employer, contrary to plan terms, continued to cover the employee during the disability leave." (Thomson Reuters/EBIA)

Nearly 30% of Employers Interested in Exploring ACOs
"[Employers are interested or very interested in exploring Accountable Care Organizations] as a way to continue offering employer-sponsored benefits, while reducing costs and improving quality of care, according to recent research from consultants Aon Hewitt and Polakoff Boland." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business / CCH)

OPM Expands Affinity Benefits for Same-S.ex Domestic Partners
"While . . . choices won't be part of FEHBP and could provide more limited benefits, domestic partners will be able to enroll on their own and pay all premium costs. According to OPM, the coverage offered is generally at the individual as opposed to a group rate, and the terms and conditions of enrollment are not subject to OPM review." (Government Executive)

The Affordable Care Act on the One Year Anniversary of the Patient's Bill of Rights (PDF)
"This report outlines how the Affordable Care Act is strengthening the health care system for all Americans and helping to control health care costs. The report finds that the Affordable Care Act's reforms have helped reduce premiums and hold insurance companies more accountable, and the Administration's anti-fraud efforts alone will save $1.8 bil.lion through 2015. In fact, a series of reforms to drive down costs for businesses are already helping to make it easier for employers to provide coverage to their employees." (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)

Essential Health Benefits Criteria to Guide Content of the Aggregate EHB Package (PDF)
The criteria document also lists the Criteria to Guide EHB Content on Specific Components and the Criteria to Guide Methods for Defining and Updating the EHB. (National Academy of Sciences)

Essential Health Benefits: Balancing Coverage and Cost
"This package—commonly referred to as a set of essential health benefits (EHB)—constitutes a minimum set of benefits that the plans must cover, but insurers may offer additional benefits. The ACA requires that the EHB include at least 10 general categories of health services, and have benefits similar to those currently provided by a typical employer." (National Academy of Sciences)

Retiree Health Care Benefits for CalPERS-Contracted Cities in San Diego County (PDF)
"This report addresses the 13 cities in San Diego County that contract with California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) to handle pension and benefit funding and offer other post-employment benefits." (San Diego County Taxpayers Association)

Insurer Says Plans Weighing Options on How To Deal With and Distribute MLR Rebates
"Insurers are weighing several options on how they plan to distribute rebates under the health reform law's minimum medical loss ratio requirements, with many leaning toward cutting checks directly for the employers and employees . . . ." (Atlantic Information Services, Inc.; free registration required)

FMLA Leave To Care for an Adult Child
"[B]ased on the applicable FMLA regulations, two factors must be present before an employee can take FMLA leave to care for his/her son or daughter: the adult child must be incapable of self-care and have a physical or mental disability." (Franczek Radelet P.C.)

Insurers Review Whether To Still Pay for Routine Screening
"Insurers and clinicians scrambled on Friday to decide whether to continue to offer routine P.S.A. tests following news that an influential panel of experts no longer recommended them for healthy men." (The New York Times; free registration required)

[Opinion]
Free Market Competition Cannot Make Heath Care Efficient
"Not a few politicians and pundits continue to believe that free market competition offers the best solution to creating a health care system that offers good value for our health care dollars. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, for one, argues that if we just give every American a tax credit, and let each person shop for his or her own insurance, consumers would pick the insurance network that offered the best care at the lowest price." (The Century Foundation)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

[Guidance Overview]
Adverse Ruling in First Reported 'Say on Pay' Decision
"The opinion, NECA-IBEW Pension Fund v. Cox, . . . denied a motion to dismiss breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment claims against the directors and officers of Cincinnati Bell, Inc." (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP)

Equity Compensation Report for October 2011
The October 2011 Equity Compensation Report features articles on valuation issues in closely held companies, best practices for capitalization reporting, an interview with Anne Claire Broughton of the Social Jobs Venture Fund, and more. (National Center for Employee Ownership)

Press Releases



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