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BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter
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First HIPAA Enforcement Action Against a Business Associate (and the Plot Thickens with Transparency Demands)
"On Jan. 19, 2012, in the wake of the theft of an unencrypted laptop computer containing approximately 23,500 patients' records, the Minnesota attorney general brought the first formal enforcement action against a business associate, Accretive Health, Inc., for an alleged violation under [HIPAA], using her authority under the [HITECH] Act. Additionally, the attorney general appears deeply unsettled by the amount of information that Accretive Health collected about patients without the patients' knowledge, alleging that this lack of transparency represents deceptive and fraudulent practices under Minnesota law."
(Davis Wright Tremaine LLP)
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Aging Workforce Values Vision Benefit, Doesn't Use It Fully
"[According to results from the annual Employee Perceptions of Vision Benefits survey] Baby Boomers (ages 45 to 64) were only slightly more likely than younger employees to enroll in their vision benefit (79 percent vs. 75 percent)."
(Society for Human Resource Management)
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[Opinion]
A Discussion on Health Care Costs, Payers and Policy
Uwe Reinhardt writes: "A second major factor accounting for high health spending per capita in the United States is the significantly higher prices Americans pay for virtually all health care services and products. My thesis on this issue . . . is that these much higher prices are the product of a deliberate strategy, hashed out in our political bazaars between the supply side of health care and state and federal legislators, always to keep the payment side of our health system fragmented and relatively weak vis à vis the supply side of health care."
(Physicians for a National Health Program)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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ISS Issues FAQs on 2012 U.S. Voting Policies
"A new set of [FAQs] from Institutional Shareholder Services . . . clarifies its 2012 proxy-voting guidelines on pay-for-performance assessments, say-on-pay responsiveness and equity plans. The FAQs supplement ISS's white paper explaining the proxy adviser's quantitative and qualitative approach to identifying pay-for-performance disconnects. The updated guidelines apply for shareholder meetings on or after Feb. 1."
(Mercer)
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IRS's Updated Version of Taxable Fringe Benefit Guide
"This publication offers helpful insight into the IRS's views regarding the taxation, withholding, and reporting requirements for many fringe benefits. And unlike many other IRS summaries, it includes citations to statutes, regulations, cases, and guidance that make it useful as a gateway reference."
(Thomson Reuters/EBIA)
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Press Releases
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