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BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter
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[Guidance Overview]
EEOC Issues Final Rule Extending Title VII And ADA Recordkeeping Requirements to GINA
"The EEOC issued a final rule extending the existing recordkeeping requirements under Title VII and the ADA to entities covered by Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA). Effective April 3, 2012, employers with 15 or more employees must retain all personnel and employment records for at least one year, and must retain documents relevant to charges filed under GINA until their final disposition."
(Practical Law Company)
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[Guidance Overview]
Ninth Circuit Holds That Federal HIPAA Preempts Montana's 'Little HIPAA' Law
"Due to preemption of the state law, the state law claim was defeated on its merits. The court, however, noted that it was not expressing an opinion as to whether its holding would apply to a state HIPAA-type statute that provided additional protection beyond the federal HIPAA statute."
(Haynes And Boone)
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Seven Companies With Unique Employee Health Benefits
"Home-improvement retailer Lowes established a partnership with the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio to offer heart surgery procedures at no cost to full-time employees and dependents enrolled in its self-insured medical plan. Lowe's covers all medical deductibles and coinsurance amounts, as well as travel and lodging expenses for the patient and a companion."
(Mother Nature Network)
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[Opinion]
Comments of American Academy of Actuaries on HHS' Essential Health Benefits Bulletin (PDF)
"[T]here are a few implications of allowing the flexibility to create multiple benefit sets that should be considered. Such flexibility in benefit design could create confusion for consumers; result in situations in which insurers design benefit packages to minimize certain risks; and have a material effect on premium rates, particularly in the individual market. . . . Clarification of the use of the terms 'actuarial equivalence' and 'substantially equal' as used in the context of essential health benefits is needed as well."
(American Academy of Actuaries)
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[Opinion]
Health Care Consumers Have Uphill Battle in Pushback Against High Prices
"To an economist it is astonishing that Americans have been content for so long to allow an economic sector that has absorbed an increasing portion of their incomes — 18 percent of their gross domestic product now and 20 percent before too long — to operate without any meaningful price transparency."
(New York Times; free registration required)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Guidance Overview]
Estoppel in ERISA: Simple Mistakes Can Lead to Costly Litigation
"Even if the participant ultimately fails in proving the elements of estoppel, defending against such claims is costly and time-consuming. Accordingly, employers and plan administrators should take the following steps to protect themselves from these types of claims: . . . ."
(Employee Benefits Law Report)
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SEC Reporting Trap and Setting Performance Goals
"In a series of correspondence with Verizon, the SEC took a surprising position on the Summary Compensation Table disclosure of performance-based equity awards in situations where the Compensation Committee retained authority to adjust performance-based equity awards based on non-objective criteria."
(Winston & Strawn LLP)
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Providence Is Now on 'the Brink of Bankrup.tcy,' Mayor Taveras Warns
"Taveras said the city's retirees must accept reduced pension and health care benefits to save the city from financial ruin. A decree signed in 1991 by Mayor Buddy Cianci pushed the city's pension liability 'into the stratosphere' by giving annual cost-of-living increases of 5% and 6% to more than 600 retirees, he said."
(WPRI.com)
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Annual Statistical Supplement, 2011, Published by the U.S. Social Security Administration
"The Supplement is a major resource for data on our nation's social insurance and welfare programs. The majority of the statistical tables present information about programs administered by the Social Security Administration -- the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program, known collectively as Social Security, and the Supplemental Security Income program. In addition, data are presented on the major health care programs -- Medicare and Medicaid -- and social insurance programs, including workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, temporary disability insurance, Black Lung benefits, and veterans' benefits. The Supplement also includes program summaries and legislative histories that help users of the data understand these programs."
(U.S. Social Security Administration)
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Providence, R.I., Mayor Proposes Benefit Cuts to Avert Bankrup.tcy
"Mayor Angel Taveras, a Democrat, outlined plans to reduce pensions for retired municipal workers and vowed to appeal a recent state court ruling preventing the city from forcing its retirees to switch to the federal Medicare health insurance program when they turned 65."
(New York Times; free registration required)
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[Opinion]
Where the CBO Report on Federal Pay Went Wrong
"[The federal] employees that the report claims may be overcompensated are hardly those whom people would think of as 'government bureaucrats in Washington.' No, these 'bureaucrats' are among the lowest-paid federal employees, doing unglamorous but critical work around the country."
(Washington Post)
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Press Releases
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