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March 9, 2012 Get Retirement News  |  Advertise  |  Unsubscribe  |  Past Issues  |  Search

Employee Benefits Jobs

Plan Administrator
for Noble-Davis Consulting, Inc. in OH

Retirement Planning Officer
for First Merchants Bank in IN

Actuarial Consultant
for DCS Retirement Group, Inc. in GA

Actuarial Analyst
for DCS Retirement Group, Inc. in GA

Lead Legal Analyst - ERISA
for T. Rowe Price in MD

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Webcasts and Conferences

Worker Classification: When an Independent Contractor is Really an Employee
Nationwide on April 3, 2012 presented by ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits

The 22nd Annual National Institute on ERISA Litigation
in District of Columbia on June 7, 2012 presented by ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits

Cash Balance Summit 2012
in Louisiana on March 17, 2012 presented by Payden/Kravitz


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[Guidance Overview]
What Will You Do With Your Medical Loss Ratio Rebates?
"Employers sponsoring fully-insured group health plans (as opposed to self-funded group health plans) may be receiving rebates beginning in August of this year pursuant to the medical loss ratio (MLR) rules of Health Care Reform. New guidance has been issued instructing employers as to what they may do with the rebates." (Miller Johnson)


9th Annual World Health Care Congress: Strategy, Innovation and Execution   [Advert.]

Sponsored by World Congress

The 9th Annual World Health Care Congress, April 16-18 in Washington, DC. Register now, save $300 with code RDR697. To register, call 800-767-9499 or learn more at www.worldhealthcarecongress.com.


[Guidance Overview]
Self-funded Plan Can Convert to Insured Without Sacrificing Annual Limit Waiver or Grandfathered Status
"A recent [IRS] Q&A release clarifies that a self-insured plan that has an annual limit waiver is able to move to an insured arrangement without losing its waiver or grandfathered status. The same rules that apply to a move among insurers also apply to a self-insured to insured move[.]" (HighRoads)

How to Manage Pharmacy Benefits Plans in a Rapidly Changing Pharma.ceutical Landscape (PDF)
"Designed and used appropriately, pharmacy benefits can provide cost-effective and efficient treatment ... can help reduce absenteeism and ... improve worked productivity. If not managed appropriately, they can represent a constantly growing drain on employer financial resources that undermines the return on investment of an employer's entire health-care benefits program" (Buck Consultants)

Employers Looking at Corporate Health Exchange Model
"Seventy-five percent of respondents [to a recent Aon Hewitt survey] who could cut health care costs by moving to a corporate exchange say they would use part of the savings to lower labor costs while 64 percent of respondents say they would use the savings to invest in expanding health and wellness programs. Another 62 percent of respondents say they would relay these funds to other nonhealth care-related programs." (BenefitsPro)

N.Y. Governor Raps Insurers and Health Providers for 'Unacceptable Opaqueness' in Billing
"Too often patients who thought they had all the right approvals from their insurers get hit with surprise bills for out-of-network medical costs, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says in a report that calls on insurers, doctors and hospitals to help craft reforms." (Kaiser Health News)

2012 Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Health Care (PDF)
"[One] group of employers ... [has] maintained cost increases at or below the Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health (TW/NBGH) median for the past four years. The way these employers manage their health benefit programs provides vital insights for everyone studying health care trends today." (Towers Watson)

Dependent Coverage Can Pose Challenges
"Many, perhaps most, employers provide some coverage to employees' dependents under the benefit plans they offer. But an employer needs to be careful when it does so. Many factors can complicate this coverage.[E]xamples [are provided] that highlight complicated situations that can arise for an employer that covers employees' dependents and how an employer should address them." (Thompson SmartHR Manager)

What Is the Cause of Excess Costs in U.S. Health Care?
"Why are costs so much higher in US healthcare compared to other countries? ... [B]ecause in order to subsidize the hidden costs of medical care, providers charge more for imaging and procedures." (The Health Care Blog)

Health Insurance Plans Sue Drug Companies over Coupons
"Coupons for drug co-payments are illegal and drive up long-term health-care costs for all, a consumer group and four trade-union health-insurance plans said ... in announcing lawsuits against eight pharma.ceutical companies. Drug companies use co-pay coupons to entice patients to stay with higher-cost brand-name drugs and not switch to lower-cost generics." (philly.com)

Give Your Wellness Program a Legal Checkup
"There are federal, state and sometimes local laws that can affect wellness programs. Employers need to understand them. They also need to stay alert to changes in the laws and court interpretations that may make their chosen wellness initiatives more or less risky." (Business Management Daily)

Health Care Reform Law Driving Up Employers' Group Health Costs
"While most employers have not yet calculated the financial impact of compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, some estimate compliance with the law has driven their group health costs up by as much as 5%, according to a [recent Willis Group survey]." (Business Insurance; free registration required)

Government Barriers to Flexible Workplaces
"Among the many laws that have limited the adoption of flexible workplace arrangements, ... the most burdensome is the Fair Labor Standards Act ..., which raises burdens for tracking hours worked out of the office on irregular schedules. 'The FLSA exposes employers to lawsuits over uncompensated overtime — including suits over the use of mobile devices when employees are off the clock[.]'" (Society for Human Resource Management)

Ensure Compliance with Reform Law's Lactation Room Requirements
"Effective practices for meeting and exceeding the health care reform law's requirements to provide a lactation room for breastfeeding mothers [are described] ... [Studies show that] lactation programs resulted in a 77 percent reduction in lost work time due to infant illness and ... one-day absences occur twice as often for employees whose babies are not breastfed. In addition, employees of companies providing lactation support say they feel more productive and loyal to the company." (Society for Human Resource Management)

Short-Term Analysis to Support Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity Implementation
"This report describes the findings from studies focused on two issues in the Interim Final Rules implementing the MHPAEA. The two issues are the use of 'non-quantitative treatment limitations' by self-insured employers, insurers, health plans and managed behavioral health organizations, and the identification of a 'scope of services' in behavioral health to which parity applies. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation)

[Opinion]
Want Health Care Reform to Go Away? Don't Hold Your Breath
"James Klein, president of the American Benefits Council, ... laid out a cogent, logical forecast for how the Supreme Court case ... is likely to transpire.... 'All those four [justices] have to do is persuade one more of the remaining five justices.' That's likely to happen, he opined, because many conservative justices at the circuit-court-of-appeals level wrote opinions upholding the mandate." (CFO)

Benefits in General; Executive Compensation

Executive Pay Programs Stabilize, Reflecting Best Practices
"While the majority of companies reported making changes to plan performance measures in 2011, most companies are stabilizing their annual and long-term incentive programs despite renewed market volatility in the latter part of 2011." (Society for Human Resource Management)

National Consumer Protection Week: Securing Your Health and Retirement Benefits
"[The week is a] coordinated campaign among federal and state government agencies and non-profit groups that encourages consumers nationwide to take full advantage of their consumer rights and make better-informed decisions. When most people think of the [DOL], they don't think consumer protection. But it's [EBSA's] job to ensure that workers, as consumers of investment products and health insurance coverage provided by their employers, know their rights and receive the benefits they pay for." (Department of Labor)

Press Releases



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Jeanette Hull, News Editor
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Lois Baker, J.D., President
Holly Horton, Business Manager

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