Today's News from BenefitsLink

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The BenefitsLink Newsletter -
Welfare Plans Edition

January 29 and 30, 2001

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HIPAA Medical Information Privacy Standards May Be In For Bush-Style Alterations
Excerpt: "It is possible the final regulations could be overturned by the George W. Bush administration, but Mark Lutes, a partner with Epstein Becker & Green, says that is not likely." (Washington Business Journal)

GM Deal With Medical Information Company Aims to Cut Health Costs
Excerpt: "General Motors Corp., the nation's largest purchaser of health care, has partnered with a medical information company to give doctors 5,000 hand-held computers in hopes of minimizing deadly and injurious mistakes." (Detroit News)

IRS Explains Why Mileage Rate for Medical Expenses is Substantially Less Than Rate for Biz Expenses
Excerpt: "Thanks to the IRS for its clear explanation of the reason for the medical and business mileage rate discrepancy. Health FSA claims can only be reimbursed if they are deductible under Code Section 213 (and meet other conditions), so this will help administrators answering questions about why participants' transportation costs to the hospital are reimbursed at a rate so much lower than for their business travel." (EBIA Weekly)

Severance Benefits Denied; Employee Fails to Sign Waiver Agreement Including Non-Solicitation Clause
Excerpt: "Employers who want non-solicitation, non-compete or other valuable agreements from employees seeking severance benefits should pursue them--but not the way that [the employer in this case] did, despite its success in this case." (EBIA Weekly)

Presence of Unrelated Employee Health Plan Does Not Make Owners' Disability Policy Subject to ERISA
Excerpt: "This case ... involved a husband and wife, the sole owners of a business, who applied for and received coverage under a long-term disability policy insured by Prudential. The policy was never offered to employees of the business and never covered anyone other than the two owners." (EBIA Weekly)

11th Circuit: Employee Not Required To Exhaust Paid Sick Leave To Get Relief Under FMLA
Strickland v. Water Works (2000). (United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit , via FindLaw.com)

New Social Security Disability Claims Process Eliminates Reconsideration from Admin. Procedures
Link to proposed regulations published January 19. Excerpt: "The changes, which would apply to initial applications for disability benefits, would: (1) permit disability examiners in our State agencies the flexibility to decide whether input from a medical or psychological consultant is needed to make a disability determination... (2) provide claimants with an opportunity for an informal disability conference... and (3) eliminate the reconsideration step of the administrative review process." (Social Security Administration)

Drug Prices To Blame For 13 Percent Hike In 2001 Health Insurance Costs
Excerpt: "Skyrocketing prescription drug costs are to blame for the 13 percent hike in large employers' 2001 health benefit plans, according to the latest annual 'Towers Perrin Health Care Costs Survey.'" (insure.com)

Retirees See Threat To Health Benefits
Excerpt: "The [Coalition for Retirement Security] is backing federal legislation that would bar employers from changing workers' health benefits after they retire. Under the measure, known as the Retiree Health Benefits Protection Act, companies that reduced or eliminated benefits for retirees would be required to reinstate them." (Boston Globe)

New HMO Watchdog Settles In; California Agency is Unique in U.S.
Excerpt: "As head of a new state agency that regulates HMOs, Daniel Zingale takes the 'do no harm' part of the Hippocratic oath and applies it to the consumer. 'I'm more interested in preventing harm to a patient rather than putting a price tag on it after the patient has been harmed,' said Zingale, director of the Department of Managed Health Care in Sacramento." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Georgia Slaps CIGNA With $300,000 Fine For Late Payments
Excerpt: "Handing down the stiffest penalty against an HMO in his department's history on Jan. 29, 2001, Georgia Insurance Commissioner John W. Oxendine ordered CIGNA to shell out $300,000 for failing to pay its claims on time." (insure.com)

Consumers' Group Publishes California HMO Arbitration Abuse Reports
Excerpt: "Read a new patient testimony each day that highlights the need for reforms such as California legislation AB 1751 (Kuehl). The bill makes HMO arbitration voluntary rather than mandatory." (Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights)

Problems in Canadian Healthcare System Have Been Exaggerated
Excerpt: "There is no true crisis in the Canadian healthcare system, according to physicians from the newly formed Tommy Douglas Research Institute.... the problems that do exist in Canada, [one researcher] added, have been exaggerated by interest groups who could make substantial profits if the Canadian system were to go the private route. Some of the foes of the Canadian healthcare system include US for-profit healthcare companies and some US medical associations." (Reuters, via Medscape; free registration required)

Families USA Criticizes Bush Prescription Drug Proposal for Seniors
Excerpt: "President Bush's "Immediate Helping Hand" proposal to provide prescription drug coverage for America's seniors offers little in the way of real help to seniors struggling with soaring prescription drug costs, according to an analysis by Families USA, the national organization for health care consumers." (Families USA)

Consumers' Group Comments on Bush Prescription Drug Proposal for Seniors
Excerpt: "While Consumers Union commends the Bush Administration for recognizing the urgent need for an expansion of prescription drug coverage for seniors and the disabled, the Administration's proposal falls short of providing the relief that all Medicare beneficiaries need from spiraling prescription drug prices." (Consumers Union)

Bush Offers Prescription Drug Coverage Proposal
Excerpt: "Acting on a campaign promise, President Bush offered a proposal Monday to help states subsidize prescription drug costs for millions of needy senior citizens, saying it was a necessary step on the road to Medicare reform. The plan sent to Capitol Hill set up a clash with lawmakers who are hungry for a more sweeping Medicare overhaul now ..." (Associated Press, via Excite!)

Expanding Health Insurance Coverage: Reflections on Recent Efforts
Excerpt: "This paper focuses on the major health care initiatives and proposals that policymakers have enacted or considered since 1980 and describes what we can learn from these efforts to expand coverage." (Medscape; free registration required)

Post-Election Survey: The Public and the Health Care Agenda for the New Administration and Congress
Excerpt: "This Kaiser Family Foundation-Harvard School of Public Health survey, conducted immediately after the 2000 Presidential election, finds that health care issues ranked near the top of voters? priorities for spending the surplus." (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)

Voters Said to Be Divided on Solutions to Healthcare
Excerpt: "A post-election survey of voters finds widespread support for modest steps to address a variety of healthcare problems, but little consensus about how to solve them." (DrKoop.com)

(Following also appears in Retirement Plans Edition)

Benefit Costs Up 5.6 Percent in 2000
Excerpt: "Employee benefit costs for private industry-- including those involving paid leave, retirement, and insurance benefits-- rose 5.6 percent in 2000, according to figures just released by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics." (CFO.com)

Chao Confirmed as DOL Secretary by Unanimous Consent
Excerpt: "Chao was warmly welcomed during confirmation hearings before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last week. She was introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers that included her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)." (Chicago Tribune)

Graef Crystal: Compensation Experts Must Change Their Game Plan
Excerpt: "Compensation consultants will need retraining if the stock market is to regain its buoyancy. Their actions, left unchecked, are likely to dampen corporate earnings growth and drain money from shareholders. The reason lies in the way most consultants determine how large an option grant executives or employees ought to receive." (Graef Crystal, on Bloomberg.com)

Stock Option Tax on Hold
Excerpt: "As a temporary solution to a controversial issue, the IRS announced a two-year moratorium [January 18] on its collection of payroll and withholding taxes on ESPPs and ISOs." (CFO.com)

White House Delays Effective Date of Recently Published Regulations
Excerpt: "This action temporarily dams the flow of regulations that have flooded the employee benefits community ... a torrent of regulations addressed such topics as ERISA claims procedures and summary plan descriptions; HIPAA health care privacy and nondiscrimination; national medical child support notices; cafeteria plan elections; transportation fringe benefits plans; COBRA; required minimum distributions; and electronic notices to interested parties." (EBIA Weekly)

Job Openings Newly Posted or Reposted on EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com

Conversion Specialist

for State Street Research
in MA

Client Service Manager

for ING-Aetna Financial Services
in CT

Senior Benefits Analyst

for The Benefits Group, Inc.
in CA

Benefits Manager

for Pillsbury Winthrop LLP
in CA, DC, NY, VA

Stock-Based Executive Compensation Attorney

for Law Firm with 20 Exec.Comp/Benefits attorneys
in CA, CO, DC, WA

401(k)and Investment Sales

for http://www.401k-recruiter.com
in DC, GA, NC, TN, VA

Assistant Executive Director

for Employees' Retirement Association, County of Kern
in CA

Financial Consultant

for The Stratevest Group
in NY

Benefits Assistant

for West-Coast affiliate of a specialty retailer of fine jewelry.
in CA

Pension Paralegal

for Reid and Riege, P.C.
in CT

Pension Consultant/Administrator

for Gorrelick, Tievy & Associates, Inc. in MD (DC Suburbs)
in MD

Compliance Associate

for BISYS Plan Services
in PA

Administrative Assistant

for BISYS Plan Services
in PA

Employee Benefits Specialist

for BISYS Plan Services
in PA

Form 5500/ Audit Team Leader

for Benefit Services Corporation, a subsidiary of METLIFE, is a 401(k) plan administrator with 30 years of specialized experience in defined contribution recordkeeping.
in GA

Retirement Specialists

for KeyBank
in OH

Employee Benefits Conferences Newly Posted on BenefitsLink

Web-Based Communication

in MD on February 15, 2001
presented by The Baltimore Chapter of ISCEBS

M & A Tips from the Trenches

in CA on March 7, 2001
presented by Western Pension & Benefits Conference, San Francisco Chapter

Common Myths of Investment Education Programs

in CA on March 14, 2001
presented by Western Pension & Benefits Conference, San Francisco Chapter

Membership Appreciation Night featuring a Social Security Debate

in CA on April 17, 2001
presented by Western Pension & Benefits Conference, San Francisco Chapter

Overview of Current Legal Decisions

in MA on March 6, 2001
presented by Greater Boston Chapter: Intl Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists