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BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter
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'Hospital At Home' Patients Cost Less and Achieve Better Outcomes
"[H]ospital care is expensive and can pose health threats for older people. Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services adapted the 'Hospital at Home' model developed by the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine and Public Health to provide acute hospital-level care within patients' homes. Patients show comparable or better clinical outcomes compared with similar inpatients, and they show higher satisfaction levels.... [T]his program achieved savings of 19 percent over costs for similar inpatients."
(HealthAffairs)
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Do Plan Changes Confuse Your Employees? [Advert.]
No matter how savvy your employees, today’s benefits world can confuse the most sophisticated consumer. That’s why more organizations use BeneCom for benefits communication. We know what employees need to make their benefits work for them - and you.
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Health Insur.ance Plans Owe $1.1 Bil.lion in Rebates
"Millions of consumers and businesses will receive $1.1 bil.lion in rebates this summer from health insur.ance plans that failed to meet a requirement of the new health-care law, according to the Health and Human Services Department. That Affordable Care Act rule requires insur.ance companies to spend at least 80 percent of subscriber premiums on health-care claims and quality improvement initiatives. The other 20 percent is left for administrative costs and profits."
(The Washington Post; free registration required)
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Employers Adjust to Shifting U.S. Health Care Landscape (PDF)
"[In order to] gain insight into employers' attitudes and behaviors regarding the future of U.S. healthcare benefits in general and the impending ACA regulations in particular ... the Institute surveyed HR/benefits decision makers in a national sample ... Regardless of the future of Health Care Reform, rising health care costs continue to be a major issue for employers, prompting action independent of any legislation or regulation. Measures taken to control healthcare costs vary by company size."
(ADP Research Institute)
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Physicians Applaud Recent Improvement in Health Insur.ance Claims Processing
"Commercial insurers incorrectly processed about one in 10 claims in the early part of 2012, which is a major improvement over error rates from last year, according to the American Medical Association (AMA). The finding comes from the AMA's fifth annual National Health Insurer Report Card, which was released at the AMA's annual house of delegates meeting here. The report concludes that insurers incorrectly processed, or paid the wrong amount, for about 9.5% of all claims. Last year's report card found an error rate of 19%."
(MedPage Today)
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[Opinion]
Determining 'Essential' Health Benefits
"Nearly half of Americans suffer from at least one chronic disease, and the treatment of these diseases accounts for 83 cents of every dollar spent on healthcare in the United States.... [T]here are certain steps HHS should take in defining Essential Health Benefits. Here are three critical ones: ... define 'preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management' within the Essential Health Benefits regulation to include evidence-based programs ... maintain a strong commitment to mental health parity.... [and give] physicians the flexibility they need to provide their patients with the most effective treatments for their conditions."
(The Hill)
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[Opinion]
ObamaCare and the End of Nothing
"[A]ccess to commercial health insur.ance for most of us will still run through the workplace; our employers will still, for better or worse, be charged with money-managing the system they love to hate, a messy, intrusive, difficult role foisted on them as an accident of history in the 1940s and enshrined in the tax code ever since. Health insurers will continue to operate half their book of business on a state-by-state basis, and the other half nationwide for self-insured employers, thus maximizing complexity, confusion and administrative cost for everyone involved."
(The Health Care Blog)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Official Guidance]
SEC Final Rule Requiring Listing Standards for Compensation Committees and Compensation Advisers
"The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a rule that directs national securities exchanges to adopt listing standards for public company boards of directors and compensation advisers. The new rule, required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, requires exchange listing standards to address: The independence of the members on a compensation committee The committee's authority to retain compensation advisers The committee's consideration of the independence of any compensation advisers and The committee's responsibility for the appointment, compensation, and oversight of the work of any compensation adviser. Once an exchange's new listing standards are in effect, a listed company must meet the standards in order for its shares to continue trading on that exchange."
(Securities and Exchange Commission)
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[Guidance Overview]
Foreign-Based Multinationals Must Be Aware of Controlled Group Rules in U.S. Tax Code Affecting Employee Benefits
"For plan sponsors with U.S.-based operations and exclusively U.S.-controlled groups, there is generally a healthy awareness of the rules—this is in part because operations are typically centralized in the U.S., and frequently a single third-party administrator is used for all retirement plans of the controlled group. For foreign-based corporations with U.S. subsidiaries, the level of awareness and compliance with these rules is frequently not very high.... [E]ach company in the controlled group may have its own retirement plan and cafeteria plan with completely different benefits and separate third-party administrators, and none of the parties is aware that a controlled group exists."
(EisnerAmper LLP)
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SEC Requires Listing Standards for Compensation Committees, Advisers
"Listing standards will be required to address the independence of the members on a compensation committee. The standards also must address the committee's authority to retain compensation advisers and its consideration of the independence of any compensation advisers. In addition, the standards must address the committee's responsibility for the appointment, compensation, and oversight of the work of any compensation advisers."
(Journal of Accountancy)
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SEC Issues Final Rule on Compensation Committee Independence, Including Independence of Advisers
"The SEC's final rule confirms that 10C does not require compensation committees to retain or obtain advice only from independent advisers. A listed issuer's compensation committee may receive advice from non-independent counsel, such as in-house counsel or outside counsel retained by management, or from a non-independent compensation consultant or other adviser, including those engaged by management."
(Winston & Strawn LLP)
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Pay Is Top Reason Key Employees Quit
"A majority of respondents (83 percent) thought that failure to retain key talent is 'very costly,' and two out of three agreed that retention of key talent is a major concern of senior management, the study revealed. Survey participants reported that the top reason key talent quits is to get more pay elsewhere. Other reasons include a lack of promotional opportunities, the perception that pay is unfair and dissatisfaction with job and work responsibilities."
(Society for Human Resource Management)
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Retention of Key Talent and the Role of Rewards
"[T]he foremost challenge for management today is how to retain its key talent. Turnover is costly and directly impacts business performance, particularly during an economic recovery.... [R]ewards professionals will be under increased pressure to make counteroffers, increase new-hire offers, make more frequent exceptions to rewards policies and programs, and offer special deals to retain key employees.... [The authors] surveyed rewards professionals to learn what strategies they are using to retain key talent and to learn how effectively these strategies are working."
(WorldatWork)
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Illinois Debt for Retirees Pegged at $200 Bil.lion
"The state's pension debt often is reported to be $83 bil.lion, the amount owed by state government to the retirement systems for teachers, state workers, university employees, judges and lawmakers. However, the [Illinois Policy Institute] said, the state also owes $54 bil.lion for retiree health care and $15.5 bil.lion on bonds sold to make state pension payments. On the local level, cities, counties and other local governments owe $38.2 bil.lion for pensions, $10.7 bil.lion for retiree health care and $1.9 bil.lion for pension bonds."
(Northwest Herald)
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Cypen & Cypen Newsletter for June 21, 2012
Covers employee benefit developments with an emphasis on governmental plans. Articles in this issue include: Public Pension Plan Not Eligible for Relief Under Chapter 11; Boston Will Hike Retirees' Pensions; and Fiscal Survey of the States.
(Cypen & Cypen)
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Why the Large Increase in People on Disability Benefits?
"Entitlement reforms usually focus on changes in Social Security retirement benefits and Medicare. However, the disability component of Social Security is growing faster than retirement benefits and requires substantive reforms. Over the past three years, the number of Americans receiving disability benefits increased by more than 1 mil.lion, bringing the total number to 10.8 mil.lion. What is behind this surge?"
(National Center for Policy Analysis)
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Press Releases
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