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The Spencer’s Consumer-Driven Health Report is a summary of the week's news items posted in the WHAT'S NEW pages of Spencer’s Consumer-Driven Health Report Online. For questions regarding this email service, contact Customer Service at (800)449-9525.
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The U.S. Master Pension Guide reflects the latest regulations, rulings and cases for qualified retirement plans, surveying the different type of plans from which an employer may choose, and describing the procedures for obtaining plan qualification.
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This is in response to a letter from the Bend Chamber of Commerce concerning the application of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to an arrangement the Chamber of Commerce in Bend, Oregon (Bend Chamber) proposes to establish and offer to its employer members…
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that the San Francisco health care ordinance (see News, May 27, 2008, 734 Companies Currently Participate In Healthy San Francisco Program) is not preempted by ERISA for two primary reasons: first, the San Francisco program is not an ERISA plan, and second, the program does not “relate” to employers’ ERISA plans. In the case, Golden Gate Restaurant Association v. City And County Of San Francisco (No. 07-17372), the court noted that it was being “asked only to decide whether ERISA preempts the employer spending requirements” of the San Francisco ordinance…
The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and a coalition of independent retail pharmacy groups have asked the Internal Revenue Service to delay from Jan. 1, 2009, implementation of a rule on the use of debit cards to purchase medical care items through an IRC Sec. 125 health care flexible spending account (FSA) or a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA). The groups claim that the rule could prevent account holders from using the cards at many independent retail pharmacies…
Businesses of all sizes with higher-wage workers are more likely to offer health care benefits than firms with lower-wage employees; and workers with access to health care benefits on average receive more than double the hourly compensation of workers without access to health care benefits ($30 versus $12), two studies from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found. The studies, or Snapshots as KFF refers to them, are Compensation for Workers with and without Access to Health Benefits at Work, and Health Benefit Offer Rates and Employee Earnings. In general, even small businesses, such as those with fewer than 50 workers, are likely to offer health care benefits if there is a comparably large share of high-wage workers, the KFF Snapshots noted…
In Advisory Opinion 2008-07A, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) concludes that a welfare benefits arrangement proposed by a local chamber of commerce would be subject to state insurance regulation (see Text, DOL Advisory Opinion 2008-7A, Application Of ERISA To Oregon Chamber Of Commerce Welfare Benefit Plan). The advisory opinion was written by Lisa M. Alexander, chief of the division of coverage, reporting, and disclosure in the EBSA’s Office of Regulations and Interpretations…
Health care plans are leading the health information technology (IT) movement, according to America’s Health Insurance Plan’s (AHIP) Center for Policy and Research. AHIP’s paper, Trends and Innovations in Health Information Technology, is based on telephone interviews with chief information officers and other health IT professionals at eight AHIP member health care plans, and found that plans are strongly committed to creating an interconnected health care system in which health information can be exchanged electronically…
In the October 3 Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a notice reissuing the wage index information for the fiscal year 2009 Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment system (PPS). Although the CMS had previously issued its final regulations for the Medicare inpatient PPS in the August 19 Federal Register (see News, Aug. 25, 2008, CMS Issues Updated Factors For Medicare Inpatient Payment Rates For Fiscal Year 2009), the enactment on July 15, 2008, of the Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) (Pub. L. 110-275) necessitated reissuance of the fiscal year 2009 wage index tables, rates, and impacts to reflect the changes made in the legislation…
Prescription drug spending in the United States totaled $216.7 billion in 2006, more than five times the $40.3 billion spent in 1990, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) reported in its Prescription Drug Trends analysis released in September. Although spending for prescription drugs represents a relatively small share of total health care spending (10% in 2006), it has been one of the fastest growing components. In 2006, the growth rate of prescription drug spending slowed from double digits to 9%, compared with 7% for hospital care and 6% for physician services…
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