Author: jfortenberry@fortenberrylaw.com

“Solving The Health Care Insurance Mess“: Forbes.com reports. The article notes that Towers Perrin’s 2004 Health Care Survey indicates that employers will face a 14% increase in health care costs in 2004, which amounts to a $742 increase per employee from 2003. Quote of Note: “In the face of such dire predictions, companies are bracing themselves. So far, most have stuck with traditional strategies: 57% of the 402 fastest-growing companies of the past five years have raised deductibles since 2000, while 54% have changed carriers and 19% have reduced or eliminated coverage, according to a PricewaterhouseCooper study. But with the cost increases showing no sign of letting up, they are now investigating new approaches like prevention and employee education as additional ways to stem health care expenses.”

The Wizard of Id‘s solution to the health care mess at the Tax Guru-Ker$tetter Letter.

USA Today reports: “Medical-privacy law creates wide confusion.” The article points out the life-threatening chaos going on in the medical field over HIPAA privacy and quotes Richard Campanelli of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as making the following points about HIPAA misconceptions:

• HIPAA does not prevent doctors or hospitals from sharing information with other doctors or hospitals in order to treat their patients;
• HIPAA allows hospitals or doctors to share information with the patient’s spouse, family members, friends or anyone the patient identifies is involved in their care;
• HIPAA does not prevent hospitals from disclosing names to clergy or from keeping patient directories. It does not require patients to sign up to be included in the directory, but it does allow patients to “opt out” and not be listed; and
• HIPAA does not apply to most police or fire departments; they may release names and information about accident victims, homicides and other incidents. HIPAA does limit the information that emergency medics may disclose.

For those who do not know, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides a great deal of helpful information at this site and answers to frequently asked questions here. You can access Mr. Campanelli’s chat on “Medical Privacy” at USAToday.com here.

“Health care rules change will be cost“: MSNBC reports. The article reports that “[d]espite the 12-month delay implementing the standard transaction rules, only an estimated 50 percent of health care carriers and providers were fully prepared to handle the new transactions mandated” according to Lee Barrett, director of client services for PricewaterhouseCoopers of Hartford, Conn., and an adviser to the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services for HIPAA policy. Other estimates showed only 20 to 25 percent of small to mid-sized health care providers were ready to submit HIPAA-compliant claims to insurance companies by Oct. 16.

For more information on HIPAA: HIPAA Advisory News and HIPAA Blog.

Thanks to Dave Baker at Benefitslink.com for a link to this post and for sending a horde of readers to Benefitsblog last Friday to find the answer to this question: “What is a Serbonian bog?” (A kind reader left some enlightening comments on the subject if you have not yet found them.)

ERIC has published this very meaningful chart prepared by Covington Burling, outlining the significant issues in the case of Tittle v. Enron, discussed in many previous posts which you can access here. (An earlier post referred to a chart outlining the Enron case which was prepared by the Groom Law Group.)

Mike O’Sullivan at Corp Law Blog gives us some details regarding the very unusual Microsoft Stock Option Transfer Program in posts here and here.

CBS MarketWatch reports: “Guidance system: Congress hammering out 401(k) advice law.” The article discusses the need for a bill introduced by Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., last week, entitled “the Retirement Security Advice Act of 2003” (S. 1698)–that would provide workers with access to professional investment advice to help them make more informed decisions about their investment options. The bill has been referred to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. You can access information about the bill here.

The Heritage Foundation supports the bill as indicated in this Executive Memorandum: “Congress Should Improve Workers’ Access to Better Advice for Retirement Investing.” The Memorandum describes the bill as follows:

H.R. 1000 and S. 1698 amend ERISA to allow a “fiduciary advisor” to offer prudent and objective investment advice that is solely in the interest of retirement plan participants. Plan managers would be required to select the best advisors available and monitor their activities. The advisors would have to disclose in writing their relationship to any company that offers products through the retirement plan as well as any fees or other compensation that they would receive. These disclosures would have to be made when the relationship is established and annually thereafter. Workers would have the ability to accept or reject any investment advice they receive.