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HR Professionals Lunch-N-Learn
in Maryland on September 18, 2012 presented by New York Life Insurance Company

Collective Bargaining for Health Benefits in Today's Legal Environment (Webinar Recording)
Nationwide on August 17, 2012 presented by Nixon Peabody LLP

ACI’s 5th National Advanced Forum on Defending & Managing ERISA Litigation
in New York on October 29, 2012 presented by American Conference Institute

 

Measuring the Cost of Undiagnosed Depression (PDF)
"Based on 2000 data, the total annual cost of depression was estimated to be $83.1 bil.lion, with $26.1 bil.lion (31 percent) being spent on medical costs ... and $51.5 bil.lion associated with workplace expenses, including absences and loss of productivity.... [T[he median delay from the onset of depression to the beginning of treatment was estimated to be eight years for major depression and seven years for dysthymia.... While the post-diagnosis costs of depression have been studied widely ... the literature isn't as robust on the costs for health care and absence from work during the period between the initial onset of the disease and its subsequent diagnosis." (Milliman, Inc.)

Executive Forum on Creating A Culture of Health - October 8-9, Chicago   [Advert.]

Shifting organizational norms and behaviors to embody a true Culture of Health results in an exponential rise in employee health, engagement and performance. Gain perspectives to restructure resources and chart next steps in transforming your workforce.

Health Care Spending Slows Down—But Why?
"Here's what we know for sure: Health-care spending has grown a lot slower in the past two years than it has in the decades before it. Last year, it grew just as fast as the rest of the economy. What we don't know is why." (The Washington Post; free registration required)

HHS Addresses Application of ACA Nondiscrimination Rules to Gender Identity, Se.x Stereotyping
"The HHS Q&As clarify that because Sec. 1557 [of the ACA] prohibits discrimination on the basis of "se.x," it extends protection against discrimination based on gender identity and se.x stereotyping. However, Sec. 1557 does not require that gender transition surgery be covered by health plans. The HHS intends to propose regulations on the application of Sec. 1557 in the future." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)

Obama's Health Care Law: Who Pays the Most?
"Some 4 mil.lion individuals without insur.ance are expected to pay about $55 bil.lion over eight years, according to the Congressional Budget Office's estimates. Employers could be dinged an estimated $106 bil.lion for failing to meet the mandate, which starts in 2014. But that mandate money, whether it's called taxes or penalties, is overwhelmed by other taxes, fees and shrunken tax breaks in the law. These other levies could top $675 bil.lion over the next 10 years, under the CBO's projections." [Article includes a list of "the most significant tax changes -- and who pays".] (Associated Press via NJ.com)

Health Insur.ance Refunds May Stall in Employers' Hands
"Workers were notified in form letters from insurers this month that a 'rebate' had been sent to their employer, who 'must follow certain rules in distributing the rebate to you.' But even when employees paid a significant share of the premium, many employers are still deciding how, when or even whether to share the cash.... The law gives employers up to three months and considerable discretion to decide how to spend the employees' money, so long as it is eventually used to benefit insur.ance plan participants." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Assurant Cited Most by U.S. for Health Premium Increases
"Assurant units raised premiums in excess of 10 percent on individual health plans 31 times in 12 states since October, according to documents provided by the U.S. Center for Consumer Information and Insur.ance Oversight. The greatest increase was 24 percent on plans covering 17,666 people in Wisconsin in May. Assurant is the only publicly traded health insurer cited by the agency this fiscal year." (Bloomberg)

How Do Consumer-Directed Health Care Plans Affect Medical Care? (PDF)
"From 2006 to 2011, researchers ... conducted the first-ever large-scale, multiemployer study of the effect of consumer-directed health care plans on medical care.... The study assessed: The effects of such plans on their users' access to, cost and utilization of health care The plans' particular impact—if any—on vulnerable populations (defined for the study as lower-income and chronically ill people) Future national impact of widespread use of such plans." (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)

Health Care Provisions to Prompt Cuts by Retailers and Restaurants
"Retail and restaurant industry employers will likely drop their health coverage plans or cut employee hours in reaction to requirements taking effect in 2014 ... Just under 50% of retail and hospitality employers say they will have to make changes to accommodate the law, and 9% are planning to drop their existing health plans. According to McDonald's CFO Peter Bensen, the new law will cost each of the company's restaurants between $10,000 and $30,000 annually." (Treasury & Risk)

[Opinion]

Text of Comments from Employers and TPAs to NAIC on Gudeline Amendments to the Stop Loss Insur.ance Model Act (PDF)
Comments submitted in advance of the ERISA Working Group meeting to be held on August 11, 2012, at which will be discussed proposals for the Stop Loss Insur.ance Model Act. (National Association of Insur.ance Commissioners - ERISA Working Group)

[Opinion]

Fact Checker: President Obama's Claim That Insur.ance Premiums 'Will Go Down'
"[T]he president is claiming that premiums actually will go down for people in the individual and small group markets.... [T]he CBO estimates that small employers will experience decreased premiums of up to 2 percent.... [and] that individuals purchasing coverage on the exchanges would see premium savings of 14 to 20 percent when compared to the purchase of the same policy without the law.... But the law also mandates a number of significant changes that many experts believe will put upward pressure on premiums. There are potentially important policy reasons for each of these changes. But remember, you usually don't get something for nothing." (The Washington Post; free registration required)

[Opinion]

Two-Tier Health Care
"Massachusetts, the canary in the health care reform coal mine, is starting to have a two tier health care system. That means that people with limited means have one system available to them, and those who can pay up have another." (Forbes)

[Opinion]

Affordable Care Act Comes with Side Effects
"One of the most maddening aspects of the health care debate in 2009 and 2010 was that the focus was entirely on the demand side—the millions of uninsured who, according to the narrative at the time, would now have access to "quality, affordable health care." Few people, certainly those in favor of the law, ever mentioned the supply side: the doctors, nurses, hospitals and diagnostic equipment that would be necessary to meet the new demand. Rather than being treated as a limited resource, health care was implicitly lumped in the same category as sunshine or fresh air—a commodity that could be dispensed in equal measure to anyone who wanted it, whenever they needed it, without any impact on quality." (NJ.com)

[Opinion]

Another ACA Failure in the Making
"[N]ow comes what is likely the biggest failure to date—the Health Insur.ance Exchange idea.... Robert Pear reports in the New York Times that only 13 states have told the Feds they intend to set up exchanges, and completed applications have to be submitted by November 16 of this year! If a state fails to set up its own exchange in time, the Feds will set one up instead. But Mr. Pear writes that there is absolutely no information available on what the Feds might be doing to make this happen. He writes, 'States have done their work in public, but planning for the federal exchanges has been done almost entirely behind closed doors.'" (John Goodman's Health Policy Blog)

Bankrupt Law Firm Protecting Some Partners From Liability, Retirees Say
"Bankrupt Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP is 'rushing' to implement a plan that would largely free select partners from liability for mismanagement while imposing burdens on others at the firm, including retired partners, a group of retirees said. They [asked] a federal court ... for a trustee or an examiner to look into the 'gross mismanagement' that continues after the bankrup.tcy, eroding assets, they said. Assigning an examiner to probe and pursue or settle clawback or other claims related to the conduct of Dewey and its executives also would be beneficial, they said." (Bloomberg)

Effective Delegation of ERISA Plan Administrator Duties and Standard of Review
"[A]n ERISA Plan that fails to properly delegate administrative duties to another party may lose discretionary review. But does the delegation of authority have to be in writing? Maybe not, so long as the Plan allows for delegation.... [The Seventh Circuit recently held that:] '[D]elegation does not depend on an express grant; instead it is permissible unless it would be "contrary to the public policy or the terms of a promise." ... There is no reason why an employer cannot make a summary plan description be part of the plan itself and thus reduce the length of the paperwork and the potential for disagreement between the summary and the full plan ... Nothing in this plan forbids delegation [to Aetna].'" [Aschermann v. Aetna Insur.ance Company (7th Cir. July 31, 2012)] (Lane Powell PC)

Nearly Half of Retirees, Pre-retirees Underestimate Life Expectancy
"[According to a recent study by the Society of Actuaries,] approximately four in 10 respondents (43% of retirees and 38% of pre-retirees) underestimate average life expectancy by five year or more ... Another two in 10 underestimate it by two to four years. Four in 10 retirees (42%) and pre-retirees (41%) correctly respond that about half of 65-year-old men and women can expect to live until median life expectancy (age 83 for men and age 86 for women). Two in 10 (21% of retirees and 20% of pre-retirees), believe that fewer than half will live at least until that age, while approximately one-third (31%) and 36%, respectively) believe about 75% or more will live until then." (LifeHealth Pro)

NFP Executive Benefits Launches Deferred Compensation Mobile App
(National Financial Partners Corp. (NFP))