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Hand-picked links to the web's best news articles, official guidance, jobs, webcasts and more.
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[Guidance Overview]
BakerHostetler Health Law Update, August 22, 2013
Articles include: [1] Background Check Policies Exposing Employers to Legal Liability; [2] Illegal Commission Arrangements: Appeals Court Reinstates Jury's Verdict Against Pharmacy Executive; [3] HIPAA Violation Results in $1.44M Jury Verdict Against Walgreens, Pharmacist; [3] Health Plan Settles HHS OCR Investigation Related to Photocopier Breach for $1.2M; and [4] Employers Face a Multitude of Deadlines and Decisions Despite Employer Mandate Delay.
(BakerHostetler)
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The Numbers Behind UPS's Move to Cut Spousal Health Coverage
"[B]y reducing spousal coverage and pushing premium increases to tobacco users, UPS can hold premiums steady for nonsmoking employees even as nationwide coverage costs are increasing by about 4 percent.... Limiting coverage for spouses is expected to save UPS $60 million per year[.]"
(Bloomberg BusinessWeek)
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We Need To Know More About Wellness Incentives
"Evidence on the effectiveness of incentives shows clear promises in some cases, but is only just emerging.... Few programs have been evaluated, and even fewer evaluations are published ... Current knowledge about practice and best practice is therefore patchy, and the Final Rules expressly do not require that programs conform to clinical guidelines or national standards to ensure quality. Consequently, employees may lose out on the most effective programs, and worse, may needlessly be exposed to poor or perhaps harmful or unfair designs."
(Health Affairs Blog)
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Delta Air Lines: Next Year, Our Health Care Costs Will Increase By 'Nearly $100 Million'
"[L]arge employers who self-insure should be exempt from most of Obamacare's most onerous regulations. It turns out, however, that even America's largest companies face higher costs due to the health law. A recently-leaked letter from Delta Air Lines to the Obama administration states that the 'cost of providing health care to our employees will increase by nearly $100,000,000 next year,' much of it due to Obamacare."
(Forbes)
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California Health Exchange Might Face Online-Enrollment Delay
"A spokesman for Covered California, the state agency creating the exchange, said the technology for its enrollment process is still being tested, and 'we are fully planning on being fully functional on Oct. 1.' But, he said, 'we've communicated to the health plans that there's a possibility, depending on the success of the tests, that we would have an aided enrollment and work toward a self-enrollment shortly thereafter.'"
(The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)
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Accountable Care Organizations, Explained
"ACOs have become one of the most talked about new ideas in Obamacare. Providers get paid more if they keep their patients well. About four million Medicare beneficiaries are now in an ACO, and, combined with the private sector, more than 428 hospitals have already signed up. An estimated 14 percent of the U.S. population is now being served by an ACO. You may even be in one and not know it."
(Kaiser Health News)
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State Laws May Hinder Obamacare Effort to Enroll Uninsured
"Under the [ACA], the U.S. government plans to pay a network of local groups known as navigators to explain the law's new coverage options to the uninsured and guide them through its online insurance markets. New laws passed by a dozen Republican-led states, the latest in Missouri last month, may make that harder, imposing licensing exams, fines that can run as high as $1,000 and training that almost doubles the hours required by the federal government. Republicans say the measures will protect consumers. Obamacare supporters say they'll undermine the effort to get as many people as possible enrolled."
(Bloomberg)
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Text of DOL Amicus Brief to Eighth Circuit Supporting Participant Claim that Insurance Certificate on Web Site Was Not SPD Furnished by Plan Sponsor
"Not only did defendants fail to produce evidence that they had distributed an SPD ... but the document they claim to have provided to Plan participants is a nearly 100 page-long certificate of insurance written in technical terms, which does not qualify as an SPD. Distribution of a full plan policy in lieu of an SPD cannot be justified in light of the basic objective of SPDs to provide 'clear, simple communication' ... Nor does the availability of the certificate on the employer website meet the requirements of the Department's regulation even if the certificate could qualify as an SPD, inasmuch as the governing regulation requires plan administrators to furnish the SPD by a method or methods of delivery likely to result in full distribution to participants."
(U.S. Department of Labor)
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Full-Replacement HSAs Result in Dramatic Long-Term Savings for Employers
"[W]ithin the first year of implementing a full-replacement HSA, employers substantially decreased their medical expenses.... [L]aboratory services spending was reduced by 36 percent, while expenses for prescription drugs declined by 32 percent. For four years after the full-replacement HSA was adopted, pharmacy spending decreases were the most substantial at between 40 to 47 percent for individuals."
(ConnectYourCare)
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Why Has Growth in Spending for Fee-for-Service Medicare Slowed?
"[A]vailable evidence does not support a finding that demand for health care by Medicare beneficiaries was measurably diminished by the financial turmoil and recession. Instead, much of the slowdown in spending growth appears to have been caused by other factors affecting beneficiaries' demand for care and by changes in providers' behavior."
(Congressional Budget Office)
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Say What? Jargon-Busters Tackle Health Insurance
"Americans' knowledge of insurance fundamentals is downright dismal. Only 14 percent of people understood basics of their policies ... So [a group of researchers] combed through thousands of wonky Web pages and documents, ... extracted and translated the stuff they found to help anyone answer these four basic questions: What are my choices for health insurance? How do I get it? How do I use it? And what will it cost me? The result is an online guide ... [that] unfolds naturally from those four questions, and reads like a handout from your favorite middle school teacher. It's not fancy -- just very clear."
(National Public Radio)
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House Republican Leaders Seek to Prevent Split on 'Obamacare'
"With the party divided, Republican leaders have been working to find alternative ways to try to weaken the health law. One idea under consideration is tying approval of an increase in the country's borrowing limit to agreement by the Obama administration to delay implementation of the law."
(Reuters)
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[Opinion]
These Three Paragraphs Say Everything About Obamacare
"When Americans actually interact with Obamacare, it won't be called Obamacare at all. In Kentucky, for example, it will be Kynect, the state health marketplace. In Idaho, local residents will purchase coverage from Your Health Idaho. Covered Oregon will serve (surprise!) Oregonians, while neighboring Washingtonians will purchase coverage from WAHealthPlanFinder.... This means it's entirely possible that, even as people start signing up for Obamacare, the program won't get much more popular at all[.]"
(Sarah Kliff in The Washington Post; subscription may be required)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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Cypen & Cypen Newsletter, August 22, 2013
Article titles include: Florida Division of Retirement Releases Police and Fire Premium Tax Monies Report; Pension 2013 Assumption and Disclosure Survey; Retirees Entitled To Receive Health Care for Life Without Contributions; For FSLA and FMLA Purposes, Volunteer Firefighters Are "Employees"; What Has CalPERS Ever Done for California? and Florida Division of Retirement Annual Police Officers' and Firefighters' Pension Trustees' Fall Conference.
(Cypen & Cypen)
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