What's New on BenefitsLink - Week of 9/22/97

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Previous Week ~ Week of September 22, 1997

9/26: Payments For Employee Welfare Benefit Plans And Cafeteria Plans, a statement from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. (Thanks for the tip, Craig Knauer of the Ballard, Spahr law firm.) Excerpt:
General.
This policy statement is intended to provide employers and employees with a detailed explanation of the Pennsylvania Personal Income Tax treatment of:
- Payments for employee welfare benefit plans, effective January 1, 1997.
- Internal Revenue Code section 125 cafeteria plans, effective January 1, 1997.
- Employer-provided day care facilities and services, air flights, cars, athletic, recreational or entertainment facilities and other employer-provided property or services, effective January 1, 1998.

9/26: Health Care Up There is an article on the Canadian health care system, from IntellectualCapital.com magazine.

9/26: The following benefits-related items were added to the "Recently Issued Reports" page on the U.S. Government Accounting Office's World Wide Web site (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/newtitle.htm) in Portable Document (PDF) format. (Use the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view them.)
- Managed Care: Explicit Gag Clauses Not Found in HMO Contracts, But Physician Concerns Remain. HEHS-97-175. 19 pp. plus 2 appendices (4 pp.) August 29, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he97175.pdf
- Defense Health Care: TRICARE Resource Sharing Program Failing to Achieve Expected Savings. HEHS-97-130. 21 pp. plus 5 appendices (17 pp.) August 22, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he97130.pdf
- Federal Pensions: Relationship Between Retiree Pensions and Final Salaries. GGD-97-156. 23 pp. plus 2 appendices (3 pp.) August 11, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/gg97156.pdf
- Federal Personnel: Public Health Service Commissioned Corps Officers' Health Care for Native Americans. GGD-97-111BR. 43 pp. plus 4 appendices (16 pp.) August 27, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/gg97111b.pdf
- Financial Management: Review of the Military Retirement Trust Fund's Actuarial Model and Related Computer Controls. AIMD-97-128. 7 pp. plus 2 appendices (15 pp.) September 9, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/ai97128.pdf
- Health Care Access: Opportunities to Target Programs and Improve Accountability. T-HEHS-97-204. September 11, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he97204t.pdf
- Medicaid: Three States' Experiences in Buying Employer-Based Health Insurance. HEHS-97-159. 19 pp. plus 1 appendix (1 pp.) July 25, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he97159.pdf
- Medicare: Fewer and Lower Cost Beneficiaries With Chronic Conditions Enroll in HMOs. HEHS-97-160. 18 pp. plus 2 appendices (6 pp.) August 18, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he97160.pdf
- Military Offsets: Regulations Needed to Implement Prohibition on Incentive Payments. NSIAD-97-189. 9 pp. plus 2 appendices ( 5 pp.) August 12, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/ns97189.pdf
- Pay and Benefits: Comparative Analyses of Federal Physicians' Compensation. GGD-97-170. 21 pp. plus 4 appendices (25 pp.) September 15, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/gg97170.pdf
- Social Security Disability: SSA Must Hold Itself Accountable for Continued Improvement in Decision-making. HEHS-97-102. 55 pp. plus 4 appendices (20 pp.) August 12, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he97102.pdf
- VA Health Care: Resource Allocation Has Improved, but Better Oversight Is Needed. HEHS-97-178. 28 pp. plus 4 appendices (8 pp.) September 17, 1997.
  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he97178.pdf

9/26: Yikes, only 17,145 Medical Savings Accounts established so far, according to Hewitt Associates.

9/23: U.S. Deparment of Labor requests information to assist the Department in assessing the need for a regulation clarifying certain statutory notice requirements set forth in section 606 of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and in section 4980B of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code). These statutory notice requirements were enacted as part of the continuation coverage provisions included in the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA). The continuation coverage provisions, commonly referred to as the COBRA provisions, generally require group health plans to provide participants and beneficiaries who under certain circumstances would otherwise lose coverage (qualified beneficiaries) with the opportunity to elect to continue coverage under the plan at group rates for a limited period of time. The Department anticipates that information and views provided by plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries, service providers to plans, plan participants and beneficiaries, and other interested persons will aid it in assessing the need for issuing a regulation to explicate the notice requirements of the COBRA provisions and the appropriate scope and content of any such regulation. A regulation on the notice requirements of the COBRA provisions would affect participants and beneficiaries (including qualified beneficiaries) of certain group health plans, as well as the sponsors and fiduciaries of such plans. (Here's the press release.)

9/22: More answers in the popular Question and Answer column, Q&A for Plan Defects: Correction/VCR/CAP, written by attorneys Fred Reish and Bruce Ashton of Reish & Luftman, a Professional Corporation.
QUESTION 48: A reader asks: "If a standardized defined benefit prototype document is filled out incorrectly, is the plan a nonamender? Is CAP the only recourse?"
Answer is here.

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