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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 Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service have issued Notice 2008-82, which allows reservists to recover funds in their health flexible spending accounts (health FSAs) after being called to active duty (see Text: IRS Notice 2008-82, FSAs For Reservists)…
On September 25, the Senate unanimously passed H.R. 2851, which provides continued coverage protections for dependent students on medical leave (see Text, Statute, H.R. 2851, Coverage Of Dependent Students On Medical Leave). The House passed the bill, which was introduced by Rep. Paul Hodes (N.H.), on July 30. H.R. 2851 has been sent to President George W. Bush for his signature…
Annual average premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose 5% in 2008 to $12,680 for family coverage, even with more workers enrolled in high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), according to the 2008 Employer Health Benefits Survey, jointly issued by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET). Although the premium increase this year was relatively small, it has more than doubled since 1999, when it was $5,791 for family coverage, the report noted. Since 1999, workers’ wages rose 34% and general inflation rose 29%, while the cost of employer-sponsored health care premiums grew by 120%…
After almost eight years of slowdowns, health care costs have begun to creep up, with Hewitt Associates projecting a 6.4% average increase for employers in 2009, up slightly from the 6.0% increase in 2008 and 5.3% increase in 2007…
In Advisory Opinion 2008-06A, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) concludes that a welfare plan may be amended to transfer its remaining assets to an IRC Sec. 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and then, following the plan’s termination, have the assets transferred to an organization that is not a party-in-interest (see Text: DOL Advisory Opinion 2008-6A, Transfer Of Assets From Terminated MEWA). Louis Campagna, chief of the division of fiduciary interpretations in the EBSA’s Office of Regulations and Interpretations, wrote the advisory opinion…
According to Towers Perrin’s annual Health Care Cost Survey, the average health benefit expenditure in 2009 for large companies will be $9,660 per employee, an increase of 6% over 2008 figures. The Towers Perrin survey database shows that total health care costs have increased by 33% since 2004, with the employee share increasing by 42% during the same period…
The retiree drug subsidy (RDS) is facing greater scrutiny and audits as required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Susan Hayes, principal at Pharmacy Outcome Specialists in Lake Zurich, Ill., told attendees of the recent Second Annual Pharmacy Benefit Academy sponsored by the Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH) and Pharmacy Outcome Specialists in Chicago. The CMS plans to perform financial audits on one-third of all of the 450 prescription drug plans (PDPs) and Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans each year over the next three years, with an eye toward identifying and stemming fraud, waste, and abuse, Ms. Hayes said (see Report 324.4.-9)…
In a recent report to the Senate, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made progress toward protecting electronic health information, but that more work remains. The new report is an update on the HHS’s progress since the GAO evaluated its health information technology (IT) policies in January 2007 (see News, Feb. 26, 2007, GAO Assesses HHS’s Progress, Challenges In Developing A National Health IT Strategy)…
Medicare beneficiaries’ coverage generally is less generous than the coverage from a large employer plan or from the most popular coverage in the Federal Employees’ Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), according to a study recently conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation…
With the ratio of elderly persons growing at a faster rate than the working-age population in many parts of the world and the implications that this trend has on financing of future health care and pension benefit costs, “employers will play a critical role in shaping public policy and addressing these concerns,” according to benefits consulting firm Mercer. In 2007, the United Nations predicted that by 2050, the ratio of persons age 60 and older will have grown from 21% to 32% of the population in developed countries. Mercer’s conclusion is based on the report that it recently released with the World Economic Forum (WEF) entitled The Future of Pensions and Healthcare in a Rapidly Aging World: Scenarios to 2030…
Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) has introduced the Prosthetics Parity Act of 2008 (S. 3517), which would amend ERISA and the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) to provide parity under group health plans and group health insurance coverage for the provision of benefits for prosthetic devices and components and benefits for other medical and surgical services. The bill was referred to the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee…
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