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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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On October 13, by a vote of 14-9, the Senate Finance Committee approved the America’s Healthy Future Act, sponsored by Sen. Max Baucus (Mont.) (see News, Oct. 12, 2009, Finance Committee To Vote On Amended Health Reform Plan; CBO Projects Deficit Reduction and News, Oct. 12, 2009, CBO Projects Reduced Deficit From Finance Committee’s Health Reform Proposal). Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) was the lone Republican to vote with the Democrats to approve the bill, for which complete legislative language now will be finished…
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Just as the insurance industry was releasing a report claiming that the health care reform proposal from the Senate Finance Committee would result in higher prices for health care, the Senate Judiciary Committee was holding a hearing to consider scaling back the 64-year-old insurance company exemption from antitrust laws known as the McCarran-Ferguson Act…
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In the first quarter of 2009, average health savings account (HSA) balances for individuals grew to $960, up from $697 in the first quarter of 2008, according to recent research from health care banker Canopy Financial. The report, HSA Market Report Q1–2009, also found that average balances for family accounts rose to $1,720 in the first quarter of 2009, up from $1,419 in the first quarter of 2008…
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Americans ages 55 through 64 would pay 50% more for individual health insurance from an exchange under the Senate Finance Committee’s America’s Healthy Future Act than under the House health care reform proposal, according to a study from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation…
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After 73 members of Congress sent a letter to regulators asking about the progress of mental health parity regulations, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius replied that the regulations would be out by January 2010, three months after the effective date of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (see News, Oct. 5, 2009, Mental Health Parity, Michelle's Law Take Effect In October)…
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In a meeting on employee benefits issues raised by the American Bar Association’s (ABA) employee benefits committee section on taxation, representatives of the Internal Revenue Service addressed COBRA, imputing fair-market value to self-insured employer-provided health care coverage, and one-time lump sum cash payments for irreversible waiver of retiree health benefits…
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The current economic crisis is adversely affecting revenue and employment of local governments nationwide, but particularly larger governments. These issues, and the escalating cost of health care, in turn have raised concerns about the affordability of health care for employees and retirees at public sector employers. These were among the conclusions of a study, Health and OPEB Funding Strategies: 2009 National Survey of Local Governments, conducted by the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS). About half of the responding governments expect their revenues to drop in 2010, and one-fifth expect a drop in employment. County, municipal, and township governments were more likely to anticipate a revenue drop…
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A recent study conducted by Prudential Financial revealed that employee benefits budgets have been frozen or trimmed during these difficult economic times. Fewer than half of benefit plan sponsors said that their benefits budgets increased in 2009, compared with two-thirds of those surveyed in the prior two years, according to Prudential’s study, A New Day in Employee Benefits: A Companion Report to the Study of Employee Benefits: 2009 & Beyond. The study reflects responses from plan participants, plan sponsors, and benefits brokers and consultants…
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Contrary to previous concerns, under Massachusetts’ 2006 health care reform law, employers have not dropped coverage or reduced benefits, according to the results of a study published in the October 1 online issue of Health Affairs. Instead, as of the fall of 2008, the rate of coverage through employers had risen and the scope and quality of coverage also improved, even among small employers (those with 50 or fewer workers), the researchers from the Urban Institute noted. However, workers’ premiums and out-of-pocket costs have become an issue for workers at small firms, although this does not seem to have negatively affected participants’ access to needed medical care…
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Twenty-eight percent of Americans have lost or experienced cutbacks in their health care coverage over the past year, according to a September 2009 report from the Consumer Reports National Research Center. The survey, Healthcare Experience and Concerns, which contained data from 1,002 adults, found that reported losses in health care coverage were most pronounced among those ages 35 to 64 (33% of the group) and among those earning less than $50,000 (34% of the group). However, even 21% of those making more than $100,000 reported a loss or cutback in health care coverage…
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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has published a notice in which the agency requests nominations for public members of the National Advisory Council for Healthcare Research and Quality. The notice appeared in the October 9 Federal Register…
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In a class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges that Atlanta-based United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by rejecting an extension of medical leave as a reasonable accommodation for its employees with disabilities. The case is EEOC v. United Parcel Service, Inc. (Civil Action No. 09-C-5291)…
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