In Capitol Hill's Shadow, Health Reform Gets Underway
"If you want to know what health reform in action looks like, here's what you should picture: a nondescript conference room, on the fourth floor of a government building, with about four dozen people sitting in rows of red chairs and one fluorescent light that keeps flickering on and off. No hope, change or death panels to speak of."
(The Washington Post; free registration required)
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IRS Deputy Commissioner Touts ACA Implementation
"Miller noted that the IRS will use written correspondence, rather than levies, liens, criminal prosecutions or revenue agents, to verify individual health care coverage. 'The IRS will match what is reported on the tax return with the information reported by insurers,' Miller said. 'We will follow up with taxpayers who appear to have overpaid, underpaid and/or were not eligible for an exemption.'"
(Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
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Sources of Health Insurance and Characteristics of the Uninsured: Analysis of the March 2012 Current Population Survey
"The percentage of the nonelderly population (under age 65) with health insurance coverage increased to 82 percent in 2011, notable since increases in health insurance coverage have been recorded in only five years since 1994. Employment-based health benefits remain the most common form of health coverage in the United States, though it represents a declining share. In 2011, 58.4 percent of the nonelderly population had employment-based health benefits, down from the peak of 69.3 percent in 2000, during the 1994-2011 period."
(EBRI)
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D.C., Vermont May Require Small Employers to Use Only Exchanges
"To ensure that their exchanges have enough enrollees to be viable, the District of Columbia and Vermont might require small employers to participate in their insurance exchanges. Revenue needed to operate state exchanges likely will come from an assessment or tax on participating health plans, which will be based on the number of enrollees."
(AISHealth.com; free registration required)
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Postal Service to Default on Retiree Health Payment, Again
"'In reality, this is a default on the part of Congress, which in 2006 mandated that the Postal Service do something that no other agency or company in the country is required to do—pre-fund future retiree health benefits,' said National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando. 'It is that unique burden that the Postal Service is "defaulting" on—and what's ironic is that the USPS already has $45 billion set aside for future retiree health benefits, enough to cover all such expenses for several decades, which no other institution can say.'"
(The Washington Post; free registration required)
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Reinsurance Program Already Causing Migraines for Large Employers
"A little-noticed provision of the health reform law will require health insurers and self-insured employers to fund a $20 billion reinsurance program over three years. The money, which must be paid to HHS beginning in 2014, will be used to offset risk in the individual market once health insurers are required to offer coverage to all applicants regardless of health status.... Benefits consultants estimate that insurers and self-funded employers could be required to pay between $60 and $100 per covered life. Insurers will likely pass the new costs onto individuals and employer clients in the form of higher premiums for their full-risk products."
(AISHealth.com; free registration required)
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How to Maximize Your Savings Through Smart Health Care Benefit Decisions
"More than 55 percent of insured workers estimate they waste up to $750 each year because of mistakes during open enrollment, according to a recent survey.... Here are ways to make sure you're getting every dollar's worth from your health benefits: Make time ... Stay Fit, Save Money ... Take a Health Care Tax Break."
(The Washington Post; free registration required)
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U.S. Health Insurance Access Is Like an Airplane: Having a Ticket Is Not the Same As Having a Seat
"The old axis of access in U.S. health care—insured or uninsured—is being replaced by the kind of gradations and complexity in determining who-gets-what-when-for-what-price for which the airline industry has become famous. Recent data and reactions to the provisions of the Affordable Care Act reinforce the trend. While the number of Americans left standing at the gate because they can't afford a health insurance 'ticket' is declining, the scheduled takeoff in insurance coverage has run into mechanical difficulties."
(The Atlantic)
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The Annual Health Benefits Gamble
"It's soon to be open enrollment season for many workplace health plans, when employees choose their coverage for the coming year. And while this may be an annual ritual, many workers, according to a recent survey, have trouble determining which plan is right for them."
(The New York Times)
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2011 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report
"Key Findings from this Report: Regional spending gap widening; Spending on children's health care rising fastest; Cost sharing between patients and payers remains stable; Use of health care services up, particularly outpatient care; Rising prices were the primary driver of spending growth; Prescription spending slowed, growing just 1% from 2010 to 2011."
(Health Care Cost Institute)
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CDHPs Second Most Common Plan Design Offered By Employers
"Consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs) have surpassed health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to become the second most common plan design offered by U.S. employers ... [I]in 2011, 58 percent of employers offered a CDHP and 38 percent offered an HMO. Preferred provider organizations (PPOs) continue to be the most widely offered plans, with 79 percent of employers offering these plans in 2011."
(Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
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Companies with Many Part-Time Workers Should Carefully Weigh Response to ACA Coverage Requirement
"As companies with large populations of part-time employees determine how they will proceed in response to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirement to provide health insurance benefits to employees working at least 30 hours per week, they should consider the effect of their employment decisions not just on human resources costs but also on worker productivity and business results."
(Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
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Dental Insurers Looks for Sense of Regs and Market Come 2014
"With childrens dental coverage set to expand in the next few years, the dental industry is trying to get a sense of what the dental insurance market, and the state and federal rules impacting it, might look like. Today, adult and childrens dental plans are mostly sold through family and group plans, and that's likely to change in the next few years - bringing new market dynamics and also some administrative challenges. An essential health benefit under the Affordable Care Act, pediatric dental plans will be sold in insurance exchanges, both packaged with adult plans and as stand alone plans."
(Healthcare Payer News)
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Why the Health Care Tax Credit Eludes Many Small Businesses
"The G.A.O. concluded that the credit was too small to sway business owners. Moreover, it said, claiming the credit is a task so complicated as to discourage many companies from trying.... On its web site, IRS tried to reduce the burden on taxpayers by offering '3 Simple Steps' as a screening tool to help taxpayers determine whether they might be eligible for the credit. However, to calculate the actual dollars that can be claimed, the three steps become 15 calculations, 11 of which are based on seven worksheets, some of which request multiple columns of information."
(House Ways and Means Committee)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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[Official Guidance]
Text of IRS Notice 2012-63, Special Per Diem Rates (PDF)
"This annual notice provides the 2012-2013 special per diem rates for taxpayers to use in substantiating the amount of ordinary and necessary business expenses incurred while traveling away from home, specifically (1) the special transportation industry meal and incidental expenses (M&IE) rates, (2) the rate for the incidental expenses only deduction, and (3) the rates and list of high-cost localities for purposes of the high-low substantiation method."
(Internal Revenue Service)
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[Official Guidance]
Text of Chicago Stock Exchange Proposed Rule Change to Establish Listing Standards for Compensation Committees
"The Exchange proposes to amend portions of Article 22, Rule 2 (Admittance to Listing), Rule 4 (Removal of Securities) and Rule 19 (Corporate Governance) to establish listing standards that require each member of a listed issuer's compensation committee to be an 'independent' member of its board of directors, to adopt standards relating to compensation committees' authority to retain compensation advisers and to clarify the consequences to issuers for failure to comply with these proposed amendments. It is important to note that virtually all of the proposed amendments are in Rule 19(d), which currently outlines all of the listing standards with respect to issuers' compensation committees."
(Chicago Stock Exchange)
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[Official Guidance]
Text of NYSE Proposed Rule Change to Modify Listing Rules for Compensation Committees
"The proposed changes ... will not become operative until July 1, 2013. ... The Exchange believes that its existing 'bright line' independence standards as set forth in Section 303A.02(b) of the Manual are sufficiently broad to encompass the types of relationships which would generally be material to a director's independence for compensation committee service.... As proposed, Section 303A.05(c) would not include any specific additional factors for consideration, as the Exchange believes that the list included in Rule 10C-1(b)(4) is very comprehensive and the proposed listing standard would also require the compensation committee to consider any other factors that would be relevant to the adviser's independence from management."
(New York Stock Exchange)
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[Official Guidance]
Text of NASDAQ Proposed Rule Change to Modify Listing Rules for Compensation Committees (PDF)
"Generally, Nasdaq's proposals provide that: (1) Companies must have a compensation committee consisting of at least two members, each of whom must be an Independent Director as defined under Nasdaq's current listing rules; ... (3) in determining whether a director is eligible to serve on a compensation committee, a Company's board must consider whether the director is affiliated with the Company, a subsidiary of the Company or an affiliate of a subsidiary of the Company to determine whether such affiliation would impair the director's judgment as a member of the compensation committee; ... (6) Smaller Reporting Companies must have a compensation committee comprised of at least two Independent Directors and a formal written compensation committee charter or board resolution that specifies the committee's responsibilities and authority, but such Companies are not required to adhere to the compensation committee eligibility requirements relating to compensatory fees and affiliation, or the requirements relating to compensation consultants, independent legal counsel and other compensation advisers[.]"
(NASDAQ)
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Seattle's New Paid Leave Law Takes Effect (PDF)
"Seattle's Office of Civil Rights (SOCR) ... recently issued guidance for employers on administering paid time off under the new law.... The ordinance applies to employees who work at fixed locations, telecommute, or only work on occasion in Seattle, regardless of where their employer is located. Once an employee meets the 240-hour threshold, he or she remains covered by the ordinance for both the current and the following calendar year.... SOCR rules confirm that employers that already provide sufficient PTO to meet the ordinance's minimum requirements do not have to provide additional PTO."
(Buck Consultants)
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[Opinion]
Inside the Head of an Overpaid CEO
"High CEO pay is like a zombie that will not die.... Study after study also shows that high differentiation in pay between the CEO and lower-level staffers hurts organizational performance. And there is no shortage of outrage over CEOs who get rich whether their companies do well or not. But social psychology helps to explain why so little has changed -- and why not much is likely to, either."
(The Washington Post; free registration required)
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Press Releases
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