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Nuns, Archdiocese of Boston Settle Lawsuit Over Pension Plan

The Daughters ... sued late last year to force the archdiocese to hand over the investments the Daughters had made in the archdiocese's pension plan on behalf of the order's lay employees.

Boston's Pension Action Center Helps Participants and Beneficiaries Get Their Pensions

"[P]ersistence is the hallmark of the Pension Action Center, a nonprofit that for more than 20 years has helped people find and claim the benefits due them. Since its founding in 1994, the center has helped recover more than $50 million owed to 7,500 retirees. They include people like a merchant seaman whose initial benefit was sharply lower than it should have been, and a widow denied survivor benefits under her husband's pension plan. For many, the monthly check has meant the difference between living on the edge and finding security in their later years."

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Scandal That Isn't (at Least Not Yet)

Excerpt: The Boston Globe had a story Monday (which is making the rounds today) about the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's decision last year to switch from investing mostly in fixed-income securities to a mix of 45% fixed-income, 45% equities, 5% real estate and 5% private equity.... There's a big difference between deciding to put and actually putting, though, and while the Globe reported that the agency 'refused to say how much of the new investment strategy has been implemented,' a quick look at the PBGC's Annual Management Report (available here) for the fiscal year that ended in September reveals that the answer is probably not much.

Massachusetts Probes High Insurance Payments to Favored Hospitals

"The governor of Massachusetts is convening a bunch of top state officials to look into why a powerful hospital group has been able to charge more than its competitors. The Boston Globe has the story. The Globe recently reported that Partners HealthCare -- which includes the prestigious Mass. General and Brigham and Women's hospitals -- cut a deal a few years ago with the state's Blue Cross Blue Shield, leading to the higher prices."

Presidential Candidate Kucinich Is Right on Health Care

Excerpt: [I]n a recent visit to the Globe, he accused the other Democratic candidates of faking it on healthcare reform. 'One of the greatest hoaxes of this campaign -- everyone's for universal healthcare,' Kucinich said. 'It's like a mantra. But when you get into the details, you find out that all the other candidates are talking about maintaining the existing for-profit system.'

Cost-Controlled Health Coverage Called 'Global Payment' Plans Gaining Ground

In just three years, a new way of paying for medical care has spread rapidly across Massachusetts, and now more than 1.2 million people are covered by plans that put providers on a budget in an effort to restrain health spending. This means that about one in five Massachusetts residents are being treated by doctors working under these new cost-conscious arrangements, a Globe survey of insurers found[.]

On-Site Shopping Gains As Popular Employee Benefit: Helps Workers Balance Jobs, Life

Excerpt: Worksite shopping is the latest in a long list of benefits designed to help US employees balance the demands of their personal lives with responsibilities at work. The concept began with concierge services like Boston's Circles Inc. .... Now, included among these benefits is the business-within-a-business, vendors who sell their wares at the worksite, and company-run stores that make it easier for employees to make purchases without leaving the office.

A Corporate Culture of Health and Wellness (or Else)

"This is the new wave of corporate activism: Looking out for employees' health, in ways that are sometimes gently encouraging, sometimes more coercive. In 2010, at Boston-based insurance broker William Gallagher Associates, employees were asked to fill out a voluntary survey about their health, and got a $50 gift card in return. In 2011, the company offered a set of lab screening tests, free, along with a considerable stick: If employees declined to do the bloodwork, the company would pay a smaller percentage of their health care premiums."

Economist Sounds Warning on Reality of Retirement

"[Alicia Munnell, director of Boston College's Center for Retirement Research,] has been writing about Social Security and retirement for nearly five decades, and has no plans to stop working. She said she recognizes her book makes proposals that workers and policy makers may not want to hear. But the reality is retirement for this and coming generations has changed. Workers are increasingly on their own and denying that -- and failing to take steps such as working a few more years -- will only lead to serious problems in the future."

Is ERISA Preemption Coming to the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act?

Excerpt: You know that theme music from the movie Jaws? Cue it up - the sharks are circling the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act. Hard on the heels of the recent reports that the state is going to have to increase the financial obligations of employers to maintain the near universal coverage called for by the act comes this story ['Business and consumer groups debate minimum insurance standards,' The Boston Globe, September 9, 2998] noting the same thing I said yesterday, that increasing the obligations the act imposes on employers will likely provoke a preemption challenge.