Hussein Rallies the Troops – Vast Email Blast Sent

From: President Barack Obama <info@barackobama.com>
Subject: A final vote on health reform
To:
Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 2:21 PM

Biff –Last Thursday’s first-of-its-kind summit capped off a debate that has lasted nearly a year. Every idea has now been put on the table. Every argument has been made. Both parties agree that the status quo is unacceptable and gets more dire each day. Today, I want to state as clearly and forcefully as I know how: Now is the time to make a decision about the future of health care in America.

The final proposal I’ve put forward draws on the best ideas from all sides, including several put forward by Republicans at last week’s summit. It will put Americans in charge of their own health care, ensuring that neither government nor insurance company bureaucrats can ration, deny, or put out of financial reach the care our families need and deserve.

I strongly believe that Congress now owes the American people a final vote on health care reform. Reform has already passed the House with bipartisan support and the Senate with a super-majority of sixty votes. Now it deserves the same kind of up-or-down vote that has been routinely used and has passed such landmark measures as welfare reform and both Bush tax cuts.

Earlier today, I asked leaders in both houses of Congress to finish their work and schedule a vote in the next few weeks. From now until then, I will do everything in my power to make the case for reform. And now, I’m asking you, the members of the Organizing for America community, to raise your voice and do the same.

The final march for reform has begun, and your participation is crucial. Please commit to join with me to take reform across the finish line.

Essentially, my proposal would change three things about the current health care system:

First, it would protect all Americans from the worst practices of insurance companies. Never again will the mother with breast cancer have her coverage revoked, see her premiums arbitrarily raised, or be forced to live in fear that a pre-existing condition will bar her from future coverage.

Second, my proposal would give individuals and small businesses the same choice of private health insurance that members of Congress get for themselves. And my proposal says that if you still can’t afford the insurance in this new marketplace, we will offer you tax credits based on your income — tax credits that add up to the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history.

Finally, my proposal would bring down the cost of health care for everyone — families, businesses, and the federal government — and bring down our deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next two decades. These savings mean businesses small and large will finally be freed up to create jobs and increase wages. With costs currently skyrocketing, reform is vital to remaining economically strong in the years and decades to come.

In the few crucial weeks ahead, you can help make sure this proposal becomes law.

Please sign up to join the Organizing for America campaign in the final march for reform:

http://my.barackobama.com/commit

When I talked about change on the campaign, this is what I was talking about: coming together to solve a huge problem that has been troubling America for 100 years and standing up to the special interests to deliver a brighter, smarter future for generations to come.

I look forward to signing this historic reform into law. And when I do, it will be because your organizing played an essential role in making change possible.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

Editor’s Note:  Put this picture in the Oval Office

SBA Email Alert

SPBA Email Alert: – March 3, 2010

Health Reform Insights & Talking Points
Personal observations from SPBA President Fred Hunt

You are probably multi-tasking right now; reading this and listening to the President at the same time.  This is a reality check and to put into context what you are hearing.  All the pieces in the earlier e-mails still apply. This just describes some new twists that are taking place and the timetable.

Whether the President will actually say it or not, the Democrats now have a time schedule to pass health reform.  So, I’ll give you the dates and the reality-check factors of each.

By March 19th:  Target for House to vote to pass the mega Senate bill and send it  directly to the President, and it gets signed into law in 24 hours.

Reality check:   Many House Democrats strongly dislike portions of the Senate bill, so this is a giant leap of faith to go on record voting for things you hate, and especially since some divisive provisions, such as abortion & immigration almost certainly can not be rationalized as “budgetary” and thus put into a Reconciliation bill (though VP Biden, as President of the Senate, is ultimate  decision power of what can be in the Reconciliation bill).

So, Speaker Pelosi has said that the House won’t go out on this limb unless they have a letter signed by at least 50 Senators committing to pass a mutually-agreeable “tweaks”…meaning the same Reconciliation as the House passes + perhaps  another bill for changes that can’t be done via Reconciliation, although Pelosi has quietly indicated that abortion & immigration (issues with strong opinions in both chambers) might be dropped.  It is hard to imagine 50 Democrat Senators blindly saying they’ll vote for something not yet drafted.

By March 21st:  The House drafts a reconciliation bill to “clean up” (change things they don’t like) in the just-passed Senate version.  The wording of the Reconciliation is a delicate mine field. The changes the House would want are significant (such as public option), but what the Senate is apt to accept is minimal.  So, we are right back where we were last August as far as unsolvable disagreements.

Legislative Counsel says that the President’s health reform proposal (fleshed-out version of the outline at the Summit ) can not be introduced until the Senate mega version is passed by the House, so the Obama version is planned to be in the Reconciliation bill.

By March 23rd:  The Senate begins debate on the (House-drafted) Reconciliation bill.  Debate is limited to 30 hours, but unlimited amendments may be proposed, so this stage could drag out for weeks.

March 26th (the start of the Congressional Spring Recess) is the target to vote on Reconciliation.  The Democratic leaders’ goal is to get something voted (so Congressmen can’t later back down) before Congressmen go home and face voters during the Spring recess.

This is based on LOTS of wishful thinking, such as:

(1).  Will both liberal & conservative House Democrats who have strong problems with the mega Senate bill (but would demand opposing changes) be willing to make a flying leap of faith to, in effect, vote the mega Senate-passed health reform directly into law??  If Reconciliation or other attempts to make changes later stall, the House members would feel like chumps.   House members are already nervous sticking their necks out and making votes first on this explosive issue in an election year, leading into a home recess with voters, and knowing that the slower Senate process can drag out for weeks or months.

(2).  Will 50 Senators sign a document blindly promising to pass whatever Reconciliation bill the House comes up with?  That’s highly doubtful, even if this was not full of issues divisive among Democrats.

(3).  Will House & Senate be able to agree on word-for-word twin Reconciliation bills?

(4).  Will having the Obama version inserted into the process (and bitterness from many Democrats that Obama seems ready to accept 4 suggestions from Republicans while dumping key items of Democrats, such as public option and cost controls) smooth or muddy the Reconciliation and general legislative process on this?

(5).  Since the House & Senate barely had enough votes to pass their versions of the mega bills, is there any sign that some Democrats who voted “no” last time might be willing to now vote “yes” for the strategy described above?  The answer is yes.  For example, in the House, the following 9 Democrats who voted no before are rumored to be reconsidering and may vote “yes”.  So, Pelosi’s challenge to get enough votes to pull this off is much closer now than a couple of weeks ago.  Baird-WA + Boucher-VA + Gordon-TN + Kosmas-FL + Kravotil-MD + McMahon-NY + Murphy-NY + Tanner-TN

Other tidbits of news:

>>When advisors to a President start protecting their own reputations at the expense of the President (so as not to look like a loser) it is an indication that the bloom is off the rose of the Presidency and people who want to protect their reputations as political wizards want to distance themselves from what they think may be going down the tubes.  A series of articles praising Rahm Emmanual and leaving an unflattering view of Obama and his White House team is being interpreted as a giant sign.  Also, Tom Daschle, who was one of the key architects of the Obama health reform effort, is now bemoaning that it lacks cost controls.

>>Some ardent supporters of health reform, such as Health Care for American Now (HCAN) are shifting to guerilla warfare against AHIP, insurance companies, and even individual insurance execs.  The goal is to create the political correctness view that AHIP and its members are evil and “illegitimate”.  So, HCAN will try to disrupt the AHIP convention, picket insurance companies and even the homes of some insurance executives.

>>Bill Clinton’s stents recently got great praise from the press as a wonderful quick procedure when the former President had a heart scare.  However, whether stents are cost-effective is strongly debated.  If a health reform effectiveness panel were created to determine what would and would not be covered, stents (and/or other current popular procedures) might well end up dropped.  So, this is an interesting case example.  We know this worked for Mr. Clinton, but what if, next time, stents are not an approved option?

>>Democrats love to talk about Republicans in health care.  The story lines are that Republicans are the big obstacle to everything.  President Obama announces today that he is “exploring” 4 Republican ideas into his proposal (HSAs + medical malpractice + Medicare fraud & waste + addressing disparities among states in payments to providers by Medicaid).

However, as readers of these e-mails know, month after month the fierce battles are Democrat versus Democrat.  I just mention this as a reality check that when all sides are trying to hype their version of history, remember the truth.  It was not evil Republicans masterminding defeat for this health reform.  It was deep (and usually sincere) divisions within the Democrats.

Fred

What Exactly is “Eligible Indirect Compensation?”

In the Know - Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois

 

March 3, 2010

Note: This article was originally published in the Feb. 17 special edition of In the Know.
BCBSIL Sending NEW Reports Regarding ERISA Form 5500 Filings [Group Markets]
(The information below relates only to customers who are required to file an ERISA Form 5500. Please inform your clients this week about the pending mailing. You can disregard if none of your customers are required to file an ERISA Form 5500.)

As you’re aware, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) has communicated to all of our group customers that beginning with the 2009 Plan Year, the Department of Labor, the Department of the Treasury, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation have published new requirements pertaining to the ERISA Form 5500 report.

To assist your customers in complying with the new regulatory requirements regarding the types of reportable “indirect monetary and non-monetary compensation,” BCBSIL will send two new reports to customers who are subject to the ERISA Form 5500 filing requirements. Customers should start receiving these reports in the mail within the next several weeks. These new reports are in addition to the original ERISA Form 5500 Information Report that has been sent annually and will be mailed separately. The content and the timing of the original ERISA Form 5500 Information Report have not changed.

Prior to the mailing of the two new reports, a letter will be sent to customers providing them with additional information about the content provided in the new reports.

Following are details about the new reports, which will be mailed together:

ERISA Form 5500 Supplemental Information Report

The 2009 Supplemental Information Report will contain an estimate of non-monetary compensation in the form of meals, entertainment, gifts and meetings provided by Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), a Mutual Legal Reserve Company, including Dental Network of America, Inc. to customers and producers in relation to the customer’s business.  

This report will be automatically sent to Prospective Premium group customers with more than 100 enrolled employees, all Retrospective, Minimum Premium, Cost-Plus and ASO group customers, as well as any other group customer that received an annual ERISA Form 5500 Information Report last year. Excluded from the mailing will be any group customers who have previously communicated that they are ERISA exempt.

The amount of non-monetary indirect compensation included in the Supplemental Information Report will be an estimated amount. It will not be the exact amount spent on each customer or on each producer relative to each customer. The actual amount spent per customer or per producer may be greater or lesser than the estimated amount shown in the report. Expenses may be allocated to a customer or to a producer even if none was actually received. In some cases the actual amount may be zero.

The estimated non-monetary compensation will be calculated by first aggregating the non-monetary expenses associated with customers and producers by block of business (Small Group, Large Group, Labor, etc.). The block of business totals will be divided by the number of enrolled lives in the block. The resulting amount will be the Average Expense per Enrolled Life for the block. Each customer will be associated with one of the blocks of business. The customer’s estimated amount will be calculated by multiplying the customer’s enrolled lives by the Average Expense per Enrolled Life for the block of business in which the customer is classified. Customers with fewer enrolled employees will receive smaller non-monetary expense totals and customers with more enrolled employees will receive larger non-monetary expense totals. The detailed description of the calculation will be listed in the footnote to the Supplemental Information Report. An estimation methodology is allowed for reporting purposes per the Department of Labor guidance on the revised legislation. (Note: Expenses with a unit value of less than $10 were excluded from this report.)

The indirect non-monetary compensation provided by HCSC for miscellaneous gifts, meals, entertainment and meetings will be reported to the customer as a single line item per recipient (customer and producer(s), if applicable). There will be no itemized expenses and no change to the calculation of the previously reported Special Commissions.

2009 ERISA Disclosure Information Report

The 2009 ERISA Disclosure Information Report will be sent to ERISA Group Customers that have purchased Minimum Premium, Cost-Plus funded plans, or self-insured (ASO) services. This information will also be available, upon request, for customers with other funding arrangements. The 2009 ERISA Disclosure Information Report will be included in the same mailing as the 2009 Supplemental Information Report.

The 2009 ERISA Disclosure Information Report contains information about Health Care Service Corporation, our corporate structure and the companies it uses to assist in delivering services to our group customers. In the past, much of this information was provided to these customers through a variety of channels, including marketing materials, Web sites, RFPs, contracts, reports, and other communications.

Included in the 2009 Disclosure Information Report is also detailed information that we believe meets the requirements for Eligible Indirect Compensation (EIC) under the new ERISA regulations. We are providing this information to these customers because a plan administrator’s reporting requirements on Schedule C to the Form 5500 Report are streamlined if the requirements for disclosure of EIC are met. Please note that the amounts that are included as disclosures in the 2009 Disclosure Information Report will NOT be included in the annual Form 5500 Information Report. The content and the timing of the original Form 5500 Information Report have not changed.

HCSC is required to provide certain information to our customer groups and they may receive more information than they actually need, depending on their specific Form 5500 reporting requirements. Your customers should consult their own advisors and legal counsel to determine how the new reporting requirements may apply to their organization.

If your customers are required to file an ERISA Form 5500 and have not received the new reports by the end of March, or they need more information, please contact your BCBSIL account representative.

See FAQs for more detailed information.

Review sample employer letter with Form 5500 Supplemental Information.

Review sample employer letter with Form 5500 Supplemental Information and 2009 ERISA Disclosure Information Report.

A Division of Health Care Service Corporation, a Mutual Legal Reserve Company,
an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

Editor’s Note: BCBS of Illinois has sent out this Second Notice to their producers. Why? Are producers concerned about new compensation disclosure rules? Are employers concerned too? Could this be a case of sending out a Memorandum intended to inform but turns out to be a Memorandum that brings to mind more questions than answers?