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BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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.)
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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)
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[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)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[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)
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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)
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Press Releases
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