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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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[Federal Register: April 17, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 75)]...
[Federal Register: April 15, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 73)]...
The Internal Revenue Service has issued final regulations to help employers comply with health savings account (HSA) comparability rules in situations in which employees have not established an HSA by the end of the year. The regulations appeared in the April 17 Federal Register (see Text: IRS, Final Regulations, Comparable Contributions To HSAs)...
On April 15, the House passed H.R. 5719, the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act of 2008. This is a $1.1 billion tax bill that includes a provision requiring more reporting on the use of health savings accounts (HSAs). Rep. Charles Rangel (N.Y.) introduced the bill on April 8...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued final regulations that update and clarify provisions of proposed regulations issued in May 2007 for the Medicare Part D prescription drug program (see Text: CMS, Final Rule, Changes To The Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit). The final regulations, which were published in the April 15 Federal Register, include significant clarifications to policies pertaining to the retiree drug subsidy (RDS) that may be claimed by employers and unions sponsoring prescription drug programs for retirees (see Report 324.4.-9). Included is guidance on aggregating plan options for purposes of meeting the “net test” for actuarial equivalence and guidance on applying the Medicare supplemental adjustment when calculating actuarial equivalence...
At a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on April 3, Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), who was the temporary chair for the hearing, said that Americans between 55 and 64 increasingly lack health insurance coverage. Between 2000 and 2007 an estimated 9% fewer employers offered health care coverage for their workers. Often people in this age group earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but are too young to qualify for Medicare, he said...
Medical errors at U.S. hospitals during 2004 through 2006 cost the Medicare program $8.8 billion and resulted in 238,337 potentially preventable deaths, according to HealthGrades’ fifth annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study. An examination of 41 million Medicare patient records from nearly 5,000 nonfederal hospitals revealed a 43% lower chance of experiencing a medical error for patients treated at HealthGrades-identified top-performing hospitals than for patients treated at the hospitals with the worst performance...
Both mortality and costs continue to rise because of the lack of health care coverage, according to two reports that attempt to update a 2002 report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which estimated that 18,000 adults nationwide died in 2000 because they did not have health insurance...
Although many more employers are planning a more direct role in managing employees’ health, employees are not so sure that they want their employers more involved, according to recent research from Hewitt Associates. In addition, some legal experts urge restraint in wellness program implementation...
The growing trend toward employer adoption of wellness programs warrants careful consideration of the potential legal consequences, according to the recommendation of Todd Alan Ewan and Carolyn M. Plumb, two attorneys specializing in labor and employment law at the Philadelphia law firm of Mitts Milavec LLC, in a recent article in The Legal Intelligencer. In the article, Mr. Ewan and Ms. Plumb explain “why companies would be best served to let this trend pass,” in light of the many potential pitfalls to which companies would be exposed...
Increased cost sharing and utilization management restrictions characterize Medicare Part D prescription drug plan (PDP) coverage in 2008, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) reported this month. According to the report, Medicare Prescription Drug Plans in 2008 and Key Changes Since 2006, these cost factors could “have important implications for beneficiaries’ access to needed medication and out-of-pocket expenses"...
A health care plan properly denied a beneficiary’s claim for coverage of a “back-up” prosthetic arm because the device was not “medically necessary.” This was the decision of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Menz v. Procter & Gamble Health Care Plan, et al. (No. 07-1997)...
Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao has announced the appointment of five new members to and new leadership of the 2008 Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans. The 15-member council provides advice on policies and regulations affecting employee benefit plans governed by ERISA. Members are selected by the Secretary of Labor and are appointed for staggered three-year terms...
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