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February 10, 2012 Get Retirement News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

Employee Benefits Jobs

Director, Actuary - Retirement Plan Strategy
for Prudential in CT

DC/DB Document and Government Form Specialist
for Malcolm Thompson & Associates in

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Webcasts and Conferences

The Year of Disclosure: New Regulations and Legislation Impacting 401(k) and 403(b) Plans Seminar
in Massachusetts on March 9, 2012 presented by New England Employee Benefits Council


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[Guidance Overview]
Benefits and Coverage Summaries Begin September 23
"'Consumers, for the first time, will really be able to clearly comprehend the sometimes confusing language insurance plans often use in marketing,' said Kathleen Sebelius, HHS Secretary. 'This will give them a new edge in deciding which plan will best suit their needs and those of their families or employees.'" (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business / CCH)


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[Guidance Overview]
Final Regs on Summary of Benefits and Coverage Try to Eliminate Redundancy with SPD
"Responding to concerns [raised under the earlier, proposed regulations] that the new 'summary of benefits and coverage' (SBC) mandated by the health reform law is redundant, HHS, DOL and Treasury/IRS quickly turned around a final rule that eases some SBC requirements." (SmartHR Manager)

Obama Modifies Birth Control Mandate
"Obama announced that the rule would be tweaked, so in cases where non-profit religious organizations have objections, their insurance companies will be required to reach out to employees and offer the coverage directly." (USA TODAY)

White House Compromise Still Guarantees Contraceptive Coverage for Women
"The compromise goes beyond similar accommodations in Hawaii and several other states, because in those states, insurers can charge an extra premium for the contraceptive coverage. Administration officials did not explain why the compromise was not incorporated earlier, despite the fact that it had been widely discussed as early as last fall." (The Washington Post; free registration required)

Amid Catholic Contraception Coverage Anger, Obama Compromises
"Under the new plan put forward by the White House health insurance companies, rather than the employer, will be required to offer contraception directly to employees of religious-linked institutions if requested. The institutions — such as universities or hospitals — would not be required to subsidize the cost of offering birth control to their employees, nor would they be asked to refer them to organizations that provide it." (BBC News)

HHS Unveils Requirements for Consumer Health Insurance Disclosures
"The Obama administration [on Tuesday Feb. 9] unveiled final regulations that detail what information health insurers must provide on new consumer labels mandated by the federal health law to explain their plans." (Kaiser Health News)

UnitedHealth Will Tie Doctors' Payments to Quality of Care
"UnitedHealth expects to save twice as much as it would spend on incentive payments for doctors because patients will be healthier . . . . The program may cover as much as 70 percent of the insurer's commercial members by 2015, from less than 2 percent now, the company said." (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

Rules Requiring Contraceptive Coverage Have Been in Force for Years
"There's been no let-up in the debate about the Obama administration's rule requiring most employers to provide prescription birth control to their workers without additional cost. Here's the rub: The only truly novel part of the plan is the 'no cost' bit." (National Public Radio)

[Opinion]
AHIP's Statement on Summary of Benefits and Coverage
"The final rule requires an almost complete overhaul and redesign of how information must be provided to consumers. . . . Requiring a separate document for each coverage scenario will significantly increase administrative costs and potentially result in consumers having to sort through scores of pages of coverage information." (AHIP (America's Health Insurance Plans))

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

Post-Modern Pay: Developing Unique Compensation Strategies in the Era of Universal Solutions (PDF)
"Compensation committees that subjectively evaluate their compensation plans (while making the design process less mechanical overall) will become increasingly relevant in the talent market. For many, this will require viewing executive compensation through a more strategic lens and seeking alternatives to conventional design features that were formerly considered implicit." (Aon Hewitt)

Contrary to 'Entitlement Society' Rhetoric, Over Nine-Tenths of Entitlement Benefits Go to Elderly, Disabled, or Working Households
"Moreover, the vast bulk of [the remaining benefit] goes for medical care, unemployment insurance benefits (which individuals must have a significant work history to receive), Social Security survivor benefits for the children and spouses of deceased workers, and Social Security benefits for retirees between ages 62 and 64. Seven out of the 9 percentage points go for one of these four purposes." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

The ERISA Litigation Newsletter, February 2012
Covers 'the Fourth Circuit's decision . . . [which] held that ERISA's duties of prudence and diversification require more than a showing of a failure to investigate or diversify to equate to causation of loss and therefore liability . . . several court decisions . . . which suggest that, in some jurisdictions, courts have seemingly abandoned the policy and purpose behind the exhaustion doctrine's creation: namely, to keep the courts from acting as surrogate plan administrators." (Proskauer Rose LLP)

[Opinion]
Do Public School Teachers Really Receive Lavish Benefits?
"According to Richwine and Biggs, this makes teachers' total compensation 52 percent higher than fair-market levels and amounts to $120 bil.lion 'overcharged' to taxpayers each year. This finding, and previous research by the same authors . . . are at odds with a large body of research showing that public school teachers and other government workers have total compensation that is lower -- or at least no higher -- than that of comparable private-sector workers . . . ." (Economic Policy Institute)

Press Releases



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