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Looks like the folks at AHIP wont be on Ron Pollacks holiday card list. After AHIP President Karen Ignagni released a statement in the wake of the Senate Finance Committees vote on health care reform legislation, Pollack, executive director of the consumer health organization Families USA, fired back.
Soon, many of us will be sneaking snacks from our kids Halloween bags. Ironically, the day after youngsters make their annual candy haul is the start of American Diabetes Awareness Month.
Friday (Oct. 16) is National Bosses Day. As a boss myself, Id like to pass along a little unsolicited advice: Everything I need to know about being a boss, I learned in kindergarten.
I’ve never met Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, personally, but I’d like to. It can’t be easy to be the public face of the health insurance industry — a group notoriously vilified and distrusted by the public — and have to dance on the tripwire of appealing to consumers, Congress and carriers when it comes to health care reform.
Heres some recession news that can hurt your bottom line as much as declining profits: Even if companies havent literally lost their employees, many have lost them psychologically, says Jon Gordon, author of The Shark and the Goldfish: Positive Ways to Thrive During Waves of Change.
I’ve worked hard to keep this blog balanced, keeping my personal politics and preferences to myself and presenting alternate points of view on issues – particularly when it comes to health care reform. So, when I offer up news of NYC protesters who staged a sit-in at an Aetna office to advocate a single-payer health care system, I want to offer up news today from the other side of the spectrum.
… To remind you of the importance of complying with USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994). Or, take whatever money you have in your wallet and throw it in the trash, as a reminder of the consequences if you don't comply. In this month's EBN, contributors David Henderson and Matthew Ritchie details several cautionary tales from employers who were taken to court for USERRA violations, and one particular case this year that
Employees are notorious for only spending a few minutes making their annual benefits selections, but you may want to communicate to them that this is definitely not the year to gloss over such choices.
Clearly, target-date funds are the persona non grata of the retirement plan these days, with their abysmal 2008 performance sparking federal hearings on whether the funds needed tighter regulation.
If your company sponsors a pension plan, I don’t envy you. You’re sponsoring defined benefit plans, trying to maintain a benefit they believe is best for their workers — against some daunting financial and administrative odds. And the hits just keep on coming. Despite recent increases in asset values and regulatory relief from the IRS, employers will be required to contribute $89 billion (yep, with a ‘b’) to their DB plans in 2010 and more than
In keeping with my long-standing commitment to leave legal stuff to lawyers, I offer you todays tip from Llyod Aubry Jr. and Armilla Staley-Ngomo, two employment attorneys at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco. I dont know them personally, but it sounds like they know their stuff; Aubry formerly served as special assistant and counsel to the Secretary of Labor.
For all of our collective benefits know-how, a type of health care plan has us EBNers stumped. We got word last week of an HRA-esque arrangement called a PFA, or participating funding arrangement. And then we looked at each other and asked, 'What is a PFA?'
With all their money, houses, cars and jewels, I never imagined that professional athletes needed financial counseling. I just thought that since they could wallpaper their bathroom with $100 bills, they had it all figured out. It was only folks like me who needed help learning how to budget, plan, save and invest properly. Turns out, not so.
About six weeks ago, when I talked to Evelyn Ireland, executive director of the National Association of Dental Plans and Jeff Album, vice president of public and government affairs for Delta Dental of Calif., N.Y., Pa., and affiliates, they both were definitely concerned about aspects of H.R. 3200, the House’s health care reform bill.
For the people who looked at the headline and said, “What pension?” this post is not for you. However, there are some of you pros out there whose companies still maintain defined benefit plans, and new stats from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans show that 73% of multiemployer pension plans report they are less than 80% funded.
Since I know you’re all wondering, I wanted to let you know what happened to the protesters who yesterday staged a sit-in at a NYC Aetna office to advocate for a single-payer health care system. The 19 participants, wearing T-shirts with slogans that read “Medicare for All” and chanting “Patients, not profits!” linked arms and sat down in the lobby of the Aetna building, prompting Aetna employees to step around them on their way into their
Breaking news from Capitol Hill this morning is that Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has canceled the planned October recess (scheduled to coincide with Columbus Day weekend) so that the chamber may bring health care reform legislation to the floor. According to an online report about 90 minutes ago from the Congress-watchers at The Hill, Reid had previously threatened to cancel the break, but followed through today, saying on the Senate floor, “The Columbus Day
News outlets began reporting about an hour ago that the Senate Finance Committee has rejected the public option that was part of chairman Max Baucus' (D-Mont.) health care reform bill by a vote of 15-8. According to CNN, Baucus admitted that the public option would 'hold back meaningful reform this year.'
I have a feeling NYC jails might be more crowded today than usual. A group of protesters advocating a single-payer health care system planned a sit-in at an Aetna office in New York City this morning, with several other similar civil disobedience protests planned at insurer offices in Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities throughout October. According to a press release I received this morning, the protesters were expected to assemble and walk into Aetna
From now on, whenever I drink a German beer, see a person on a Segway or hear Coldplay’s “Yellow,” I’ll think of Robert Whiddon and wish he was still here. I know that Robert affected many of your lives and you have your own list of moments and circumstances that will trigger memories of him. And while we all have in our own ways paid tribute to him and his legacy, one of his contacts in