Medical Benefits articles from March 2004

Medical Benefits archives from March 2004

Top five benefit priorities for 2004: a survey of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists.
March 30, 2004... International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists and Deloitte Consulting LLP, February 2004 "The issue of health care cost control has dominated the agenda of HR professionals for a decade. In sync with this reality, when...

US employees register for benefits online.
March 30, 2004... Hewitt Associates, January 27, 2004 "Online enrollment for benefits continues to be the number one choice for US employees, with 77% using the Internet to enroll this year. This is an increase of 7% from 2002 and more than 25% from 2000....

Americans concerned on health care, jobs.(Health Care Costs)
March 30, 2004... Ipsos-Public Affairs for Associated Press, January 17, 2004 "Worries about the cost of health care have grown in the public's consciousness over the past two years and now rival their concerns about the economy. Health care costs...

Are the young becoming more disabled?(Health Care Costs)
March 30, 2004... Darius N. Lakdawalla et al., Health Affairs, January/February 2004 "From 1984 to 1996 routine-needs disability [the percentage of the population unable to attend to personal care needs or perform other routine tasks] expanded...

Supplemental analyses of recent trends in infant mortality.(Health Care Policy)
March 30, 2004... Kenneth D. Kochanek, M.A., and Joyce A. Martin, M.P.H., Ceters for Disease Control and Prevention, February 2004 "Preliminary data for 2002 indicate an increase in the infant mortality rate (IMR) to 7.0 deaths per 1,000 live births from...

Mandates targeted to ease health crisis.(Health Care Policy)(Brief Article)
March 30, 2004... Joanne Wojcik, Business Insurance, January 26, 2004 "Lawmakers in 29 states plan to introduce legislation in 2004 that will attempt to make health insurance coverage more accessible and affordable by allowing small employers to buy...

Drug ads need stronger medicine: new FDA guidelines may not go far enough.(Health Care Policy)(Food & Drug Administration)
March 30, 2004... John Carey, BusinessWeek, February 9, 2004 "Since taking off in the late 1990s, direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug ads have prodded more people to see their doctors and get needed treatments. At the same time, however, the ads may have...

Shedding some tiers.(Health Care Industry)(Tiered Provider Networks)
March 30, 2004... Laura B. Benko, Modern Healthcare, January 6, 2004 "Tiered provider networks are conceptually similar to tiered pharmacy benefits in that patients are given a broad choice of providers but are required to pay more out of pocket if they...

Updates on weight-loss surgery expenses.(Legal Pulse)(Brief Article)
March 30, 2004... Taxpayers who itemize deductions on Schedule A of Form 1040 are now able to deduct expenses related to bariatric surgery--often referred to as "stomach stapling." The deduction is subject to the 7.5% threshold (taxpayers may deduct only the...

FDA publishes final rule on bar codes for drugs and blood products.(Legal Pulse)(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief Article)
March 30, 2004... The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a final rule requiring bar codes on the labels of thousands of human drugs and biological products. The measure is intended to eliminate preventable medication errors. The rule calls for the...

HHS creates drug importation task force.(Legal Pulse)(Health and Human Services)(Brief Article)
March 30, 2004... The US Department of Health and Human Services has announced the creation of a task force to advise and assist HHS in determining how drug importation might be conducted safely, and its potential impact, positive and negative, on the health...

MCOs saddled with legal struggles when forming physician networks.(managed care organizations)(Brief Article)
March 30, 2004... Stuart R. Kaplan, Managed Healthcare Executive, January 2004 "It has become increasingly difficult for managed care organizations (MCOs) to balance the overlapping and sometimes conflicting interests of physicians and the public. If, in...

According to plan: percentage of 2003 medical plan costs paid by employees, by plan type.(MB Stat)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
March 30, 2004... Employees in a preferred provider organization (PPO) plan or point-of- service (POS) plan paid nearly one-quarter of medical plan costs in 2003 for either "family" or "employee and spouse" coverage, as opposed to roughly 20% spent by...

Health spending projections through 2013.
March 15, 2004... "Health spending in the United States is projected to grow 7.8% in 2003, a marked slowdown from the 9.3% growth experienced in 2002 (Table 1). A slowdown in overall health spending growth in 2003 would follow six consecutive years of...

Disputes over coverage of emergency department services: a study of two health maintenance organizations.
March 15, 2004... "The prudent layperson standard permits insurers to limit coverage for emergency department (ED) services to emergency conditions but anchors the definition of 'emergency' to a reasonable layperson's interpretation of symptoms. Using a...

Results of 2004 medicare advantage funding.
March 15, 2004... "[Our] survey of member companies participating in the Medicare Advantage program [shows] that the new 2004 funding rates will result in more affordable, enhanced coverage for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries. All Medicare Advantage...

Cancer statistics, 2004.
March 15, 2004... Editor's Note: Each year, the American Cancer Society estimates the number of new cancer cases and deaths expected in the United States in the current year and compiles the most recent data on cancer incidence, mortality, and survival rates...

Leading consumer-driven health vendors tout enrollment hikes, high re-enrollment levels for 2004.(Consumer-Driven Health)
March 15, 2004... "Over the last year, enrollment in consumer-driven health (CDH) plans has more than doubled. Early projections for 2004 put final enrollment numbers somewhere between 1 million and 1.3 million. A year ago, about 500,000 people were covered by...

Fruits and vegetables and physical activity at the worksite.(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... "Employers can help reduce employee obesity and its related health costs by offering healthier food choices and improving access to physical activity at the worksite. [Our] report found that many business leaders support worker health...

Minor change will bring big shift in employer-sponsored insurance.
March 15, 2004... "A provision in last November's Medicare reform creates health savings accounts (HSAs), [which are] almost certain to accelerate the move by employers to higher deductible group health insurance. A high deductible health plan (at least $1,000...

IRS provides reporting relief for credit and debit cards for FSAs and HRAs.(Internal Revenue Service)(Flexible Spending Accounts)(Health Reimbursement Accounts )(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... Revenue Ruling 2003-43 addressed the use of employer-provided debit, credit and stored value cards for use to pay expenses reimbursed by health flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health reimbursement accounts (HRAs). In that guidance, the...

HHS clarifies regulations on hospital billing of the uninsured.(Department of Health and Human Services)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... On February 19, Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services (HI-IS), clarified the government's policies on billing of the uninsured in a letter to Richard J. Davidson, president of the American Hospital Association. The letter was...

FDA warns Texas companies against importing.(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning letter to Expedite-Rx, a pharmacy benefits manager; SPC Global Technologies, Ltd., an insurance claims processor, and Employer Health Options, Inc., an insurance company, all of...

HHS takes steps against counterfeit drug threats.(Department of Health and Human Services)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a final report developed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that highlights specific steps the agency is taking to keep the US drug supply secure against counterfeit...

MCO executives navigate Medicare's new competitive market.(Managed Care Organizations)
March 15, 2004... "Health plans nationally are trying to determine the impact of the Medicare legislation on their businesses and on the members in their communities. The new Medicare legislation creates a more predictable and stable pricing environment by...

For-profit conversions and merger trends among Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans.
March 15, 2004... "Recent regulatory setbacks have slowed the pace of for-profit conversions and mergers among Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans, but the trend is likely to resume among the Blues as plans adapt conversion strategies. Historically,...

Pharmacy benefit moves away from copayments and toward coinsurance.(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... "Consumer-directed health plans have put a new price tag on healthcare--the real cost instead of the minimal copayment consumers have come to expect. The consumer-driven model has gained momentum and is starting to envelop pharmaceutical...

The changing structure of the pharmaceutical industry.
March 15, 2004... "By some accounts, the pharmaceutical industry is facing a productivity crisis. The rate at which the industry generates new products appears to be shrinking. In 2002, the US Food and Drug Administration approved only 17 new molecular...

Why we pay so much for drugs.(prescription drugs-prices)
March 15, 2004... "While prescriptions represented only 10.5% of total health care costs in the United States in 2002, they amounted to 23% of out-of-pocket costs for the consumer. The disparity between US and other countries' drug prices is becoming a major...

A new 'buzz' infects health care management.(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... "Predictive modeling--the ability to predict which patients are most likely to become ill--is the new buzz [within the health care community]. The risk management community has used such models to predict the likelihood of catastrophic...

Who leads the online pharmacy pack?(statistical survey)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... Who Leads the Online Pharmacy Pack? Editor's Note: Forrester Research recently asked US consumers who purchase prescriptions online which online pharmacies they used. Walgreens.com 21% Medcohealth.com 20% CVS.com...

2004 disease management directory & guidebook.(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... For the past six years, many in the disease management (DM) industry have used this source for information on DM trends, programs, vendors, resources, strategies, and outcomes. The book has been recently updated, and includes trends and...

An employer's guide to disability income insurance.(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... As the population ages, employees are more likely to value disability insurance. This eight-page PDF from the Health Insurance Association of America reviews the basics of disability coverage in easy-to-understand language to help employers...

HSAs and notice 2004-2 reshape the landscape for active employee health coverage.(Health Savings Accounts)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... This Legal Alert from the law firm Kilpatrick Stockton LLP discusses health savings accounts (HSAs) and their interpretations by Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service in Notice 2004-2 (the government's initial guidance on HSAs). Until...

2004 US master employee benefits guide.(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... This recently published ninth edition addresses federal tax and employment laws that affect employee benefits communication, management, reporting and disclosure, and other compliance issues affecting nonpension benefits, including health...