Prescription Drugs

[Guidance Overview] Flexible Spending Accounts Can't Reimburse OTC Drugs Without Prescription, Says IRS
Excerpt:"The rules issued September 3 involve a section of the health care reform law that sharply restricts FSA reimbursements for over-the-counter medications such as nonprescription pain relievers, cold medicines, antacids and allergy medications."(Workforce Management; free registration required)

[Guidance Overview] Reimbursing OTC Drugs and Applying for Mini-Med Waivers
Excerpt:"On September 3, 2010, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (OCIIO) independently announced the release of additional Affordable Care Act guidance."(Kilpatrick Stockton LLP)

[Guidance Overview] New IRS Guidance Regarding Reimbursement of Over-the-Counter Medicine and Drugs (PDF)
3 pages. (American Benefits Council)

[Official Guidance] Text of IRS Rev. Rul. 2010-23: Making Obsolete the Existing Revenue Ruling on Reimbursement of Drug Expenses by FSAs, HRAs, HSAs, MSAs (PDF)
1 page. Excerpt:"Because the definition of medical expenses has been changed, the Internal Revenue Service has concluded that the ruling position stated in Rev. Rul. 2003-102 is no longer determinative. Accordingly, Rev. Rul. 2003-102 is declared obsolete as of the effective date of section 9003 of the Affordable Care Act."(Internal Revenue Service)

Report Touts Employer Benefits of Employer Group Waiver Plan with Wrap-Around Secondary Plan
Excerpt:"Employers providing prescription drug benefits to Medicare-eligible retirees could enjoy'a potentially significant savings opportunity'with a particular plan configuration called EGWP + Wrap, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report. The [report asserts that the arrangement could potentially reduce employers'pre-tax cash cost by 20% or more below current levels under the Retiree Drug Subsidy program] and would not require a substantial change from the current drug benefit design from retirees'standpoint."(PLANSPONSOR.com)

New IRS Guidance on Health Care Reimbursement
Excerpt:"The IRS said that Notice 2010-59 provides guidance on new section 106(f) of the Internal Revenue Code, added by section 9003 of the Affordable Care Act. That section sets forth a new standard, effective January 1, 2011, for reimbursement of expenses for over-the-counter drugs from all workplace health plans . . . ."(PLANSPONSOR.com)

Company Focuses on Saving Money on Drug Prices
Excerpt:"Navitus Health Solutions was founded to bring some clarity to the murky world of drug pricing."(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

AARP Says Brand-Name Drug Prices Up 8% in 2009
Excerpt:"Over the last five years, according to the report . . ., the retail prices for the most popular brand-name drugs increased 41.5 percent, while the consumer price index rose 13.3 percent."(The New York Times; free registration required)

Pediatric and Specialty Drugs Drive Rx Trends
Excerpt:"In its 2010 Drug Trend Report, Medco researchers found that growth in prescription drug use among children was almost four times higher than the increase seen in the general population."(Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

[Guidance Overview] $1 Million Payment Required in Agreement to Settle Potential HIPAA Privacy Rule Violations
Excerpt:"The settlement follows an [HHS's Office for Civil Rights] investigation triggered by media reports that Rite Aid's pharmacies were disposing of prescriptions and labeled pill bottles with individuals'identifiable information in dumpsters that were accessible to the public."(Employee Benefits Institute of America)

[Guidance Overview] PBM Not A Fiduciary Under D.C. Law and ERISA Preempts Some Provisions
Excerpt:"Parts of a District of Columbia . . . law regulating and treating pharmacy benefit managers . . . as fiduciaries of employee benefit plans is preempted by ERISA, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit."(Wolters Kluwer)

Plan Sponsors and Pharmacy Benefit Managers: Are Changes in the Way Drugs Are Priced Coming?
Excerpt:"Questions remain as to whether a controversial benchmark for drug pricing known as AWP, or Average Wholesale Price, is going to be phased out and replaced with another approach."(Human Resource Executive Online)

Employers Initiate Medication Adherence Initiatives
Excerpt:"Some employers, after years of simply helping cover the cost of prescription medications, are experimenting with financial and behavioral strategies to persuade workers to actually take the drugs, in the hope that a lower investment upfront will ward off strokes and other costly medical problems later."(Workforce Management; free registration required)

[Guidance Overview] ERISA Preemption Notes After PCMA v. District of Columbia
Excerpt:"On the big picture, the Court of Appeals found that a substantial part of the District's law regulating pharmacy benefit mangers . . . was preempted. Some contractual provisions that could be waived by benefit plans survived the preemption challenge. Additional argument remains for consideration on remand, so the case will likely be around for a while yet."(Roy Harmon via Health Plan Law)

Washington, D.C.'s Effort to Regulate Pharmacy Benefit Managers Ruled Invalid
Excerpt:"The District of Columbia Council passed the AccessRx Act in 2004 in response to rising prescription drug prices. Title II of the act had sought to regulate PBMs by imposing fiduciary duties on the companies and requiring them to disclose certain financial information including rebates, discounts and similar payments."(Business Insurance)

Reexamining Prescription Drug Benefits in Light of Recent Developments
Excerpt:"In response to recent developments in the prescription drug industry, employers may want to consider taking the following actions with respect to their prescription drug coverage: Revise PBM contracts in light of uncertainty in drug pricing and the composition of pharmacy networks."(The Segal Group, Inc.)

[Guidance Overview] Flexible Health Spending Accounts to Become Less Flexible Under Health Reform
Excerpt:"Under the new health care reform law, obtaining reimbursement for over-the-counter medications will become more difficult. The primary change: A doctor's prescription will be required beginning January 1."(Workforce Management; free registration required)

Not Taking Medication As Prescribed Fuels More Than $100 Billion Dollars in Health Costs Annually Because Those Patients Often Get Sicker
Excerpt:"Now, a controversial, and seemingly counterintuitive, effort to tackle the problem is gaining ground: paying people money to take medicine or to comply with prescribed treatment. The idea, which is being embraced by doctors, pharmacy companies, insurers and researchers, is that paying modest financial incentives up front can save much larger costs of hospitalization."(The New York Times; free registration required)

Nation's Biggest Drugstore Chains'Dispute Potentially Affecting Where Millions of Consumers Can Fill Prescriptions
Excerpt:"On Monday, Walgreen, which operates about 7,500 drugstores across the country, announced it would not participate as a prescription drug provider for customers in new drug benefit plans administered by CVS Caremark."(The New York Times; free registration required)

Potential Loophole Closed in Drugmaker Agreement for Part D Doughnut Hole
Excerpt:"Beginning in 2011, beneficiaries will receive a 50% discount on brand-name drugs in the coverage gap from manufacturers."(AIS Health.com)

Changes in Part D Gap Coverage Add Burden, Confusion for Health Plans
Excerpt:"The consensus among industry stakeholders is that the new 50% Medicare Part D coverage-gap discount on brand-name drugs is confusing for all involved."(AIS Health.com)

Many Patients Diagnosed with Chronic Conditions Fail to Get Initial Medication Prescriptions Filled
Excerpt:"This phenomenon -- referred to as'prescription non-adherence'-- has been documented in various studies. Until recently, however, little data existed regarding the number of Americans who fail to get those prescriptions filled in the first place. That's changed, thanks to a new study based on an analysis of electronic prescriptions for two conditions -- high cholesterol and asthma -- by CVS Caremark and Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey."(Human Resource Executive Online)

New Benchmarks for Wholesale Drug Pricing Have the Health Industry Scrambling to Adapt. (PDF)
3 pages. Excerpt:"New benchmarks for the wholesale pricing of prescription drugs are now in effect, and payors are now struggling to determine how the changes will affect them. Health plans and pharmacy benefit managers alike must now pay careful attention to pricing methodologies and must maintain an open dialog with one another to ensure pricing consistency and transparency."(Best's Review via Milliman)

Expensive'Specialty'Drugs Poised to Take Off
Excerpt:"The anticipated flood of specialty drugs will put further financial strain on organizations and employees alike looking to capitalize on the health benefits from innovative drugs that will help to treat and manage chronic conditions. Some estimates place as much as a five-fold increase in current volumes of specialty drugs over the next decade."(Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Mail-Order Drug Provider Identifies $163B In Potential Prescription Drug Savings
Excerpt:"A study by Express Scripts, a mail-order prescription drug provider, said Tuesday that an'estimated $163 billion in health care spending could be saved each year if patients took their medicines as prescribed, chose generic drugs and other low-cost alternatives, and had their prescriptions delivered by mail,'the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports."(Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)

[Guidance Overview] CMS Announces Indexed Medicare Part D Amounts for 2011
Excerpt:"On April 5, 2010, the Centers for Medicare&Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the indexed Medicare Part D standard benefit and Retiree Drug Subsidy (RDS) amounts for 2011. This Capital Checkup features charts comparing the 2011 numbers to the 2010 numbers."(The Segal Group, Inc.)

[Opinion] Will Write-Offs for Retiree Health Care Kill Jobs?
Excerpt:"For starters, we should note that the, say, $1 billion in asset write-offs reported by AT&T is merely a book entry, and is not immediately matched by a like-sized cash outflow. Rather, as I explained in the previous post, that $1 billion is basically the sum of much smaller, additional future annual cash payments to the Internal Revenue Service, over the next 10 to 20 or perhaps even 30 years. Employers will have to make these added tax payments, because they will no longer be able to deduct from their taxable income that part of their outlays on prescription drugs for retirees that will actually be paid for by government in the form of a 28 percent federal subsidy."(Uwe E. Reinhardt via The New York Times; free registration required)

[Guidance Overview] Limitation of Distributions from Health Accounts for Over-the-Counter Medicines
Excerpt:"The definition of qualified medical expenses, for purposes of reimbursements from health flexible spending arrangements (health FSAs) or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), and distributions from health savings accounts (HSAs) or Archer medical savings accounts (Archer MSAs), has been modified to include amounts paid for medicine or a drug only if such medicine or drug is a prescribed drug (determined without regard to whether such drug is available without a prescription) or is insulin."(Wolters Kluwer)

Major Employers Announce Costs of Drug Subsidy Deduction Change; Long-Term Impact Is Uncertain
Excerpt:"Some major employers have announced large non-cash charges against their retiree medical liabilities as a result of a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148). As of Jan. 1, 2013, the law removes the amount of the Medicare Part D retiree drug subsidy (RDS) these firms receive from the amount of prescription drug costs that they claim as a deduction in their corporate tax returns."(Wolters Kluwer)

Employers Criticized for Complying with SEC, Accounting Rules Requiring Disclosure of Adverse Impact of Health Reform Law
Excerpt:"Both Congress and the Administration have taken issue with large employers for complying with accounting and securities rules that require them to disclose the adverse impact of a change under the new law that will eliminate their ability to deduct a government subsidy given to companies who provide qualified drug coverage to retirees. . . . The lawmakers have asked the companies for a large number of documents, including: analyses related to the projected impact of health care reform on the company, documents, including email messages sent to or prepared or reviewed by senior company officials related to the projected impact of the law, and an explanation of the accounting methods used by the company since 2003 to estimate the financial impact on the company of the retiree drug subsidy."(HR Policy Association)

[Guidance Overview] First Quarter 2010 Financial Reporting Implications of Elimination of Medicare Part D Subsidy Tax Deduction
Excerpt:"The Acts effectively change the tax treatment of federalsubsidies paid to sponsors of retiree health benefit plans that provide a benefit that is at least actuarially equivalent to the benefits under Medicare Part D. The PPACA effectively made these subsidy payments taxable for tax years beginning after December 31, 2010. HCERA delayed the effective date of this provision to tax years beginning after December 31, 2012."(PricewaterhouseCoopers)

Healthcare Reform Law Cuts Medicare Advantage Payments and (Mostly) Increases Prescription Drug Program Payments (PDF)
Excerpt:"While increasing overall expenditures, the Healthcare Reform Law also cuts approximately $16 billion from the Part D program, primarily byreducing Part D premium subsidies for high-income beneficiaries. Companies that offer MA and Part D plans and pharmaceutical manufacturers will be the most directly affected by these changes."(Morgan, Lewis&Bockius LLP)

[Guidance Overview] CMS's 2011 Medicare Part D Benefit Parameters (PDF)
Excerpt:"Plan sponsors that want to remain qualified for the employer retiree drug subsidy will need to determine if their 2011 prescription drug coverage is at least actuarially equivalent to the 2011 standard Medicare Part D coverage. The actuarial equivalence testing will not reflect the new benefits provided in the donut hole. Those plan sponsors who provide coverage directly or indirectly through a Part D plan may want to review the impact of these new parameters and provisions on their plans.In any event, plan sponsors may want to evaluate whether to move Medicare retirees into other options for medical and/or drug coverage for 2011. The changes made under the health care reform law make a review of various options particularly important this year."(Buck Consultants)

[Guidance Overview] Elimination of Tax Deduction Related to Medicare Part D Subsidy: Accounting for the Impact Under U.S. GAAP and IFRS
Excerpt:"Under U.S. GAAP, ASC 740, Income Taxes, requires the impact of the change in tax law to be immediately recognized in continuing operations in the income statement in the period that includes the enactment date (i.e., the date the change is signed into law). Companies affected by the change in tax treatment will need to identify theimpact of the change. That amount would reduce the deferred tax asset on the balance sheet with an offsetting charge to the income statement in the period that includes the enactment date (e.g., a calendar year-end publiccompany would record the charge in the quarter ended March 31, 2010). Different accounting for the change in tax treatment is required under IFRS."(PricewaterhouseCoopers)

Four-Tier Pharmacy Benefit Designs Are Increasingly Used by Employers
Excerpt:"Employers continue to be concerned about their drug costs, prompting them to look for ways to help mitigate their spend, according to a recent report from the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute. To that end, more of them are turning to adding additional tiers on their formularies, says the 2009-2010 Prescription Drug Benefit Cost and Plan Design Report."(AIS Health.com)

Hearing Set on Health Care Reform Charges to Earnings: Ending Tax-Free Status of Federal Retiree Drug Subsidy Key Issue
Excerpt:"[Recent corporate] announcements cite just the section of the bill related to the new tax on the subsidy for retiree drug coverage. And James Klein, president of the American Benefits Council, predicts that there will be more companies announcing such charges.'Companies that sponsor retiree drug coverage are compelled now either to take an immediate hit on their financial status or determine they will not longer provide retiree drug coverage to avoid the accounting charge,'Klein says. Joan Vines, a senior director in the compensation and benefits practice at accounting firm BDO, says the charges companies are reporting reflect Financial Accounting Standard 109, which governs income tax accruals."(Treasury&Risk)

Audio and Text: Firms Say Passage in Health Act Will Cost Them Millions
Excerpt:"Under the newly passed health care law, companies still get the subsidy for offering drug coverage, but they no longer get a tax deduction as well. The administration says this will add $4.5 billion to government coffers. But it will come at the expense of companies like Caterpillar, John Deere and AT&T, which says it will lose as much as $1 billion down the road."(Morning Edition via National Public Radio)

Federal Employee Telework and Benefits Bills Move Forward in Congress
Excerpt:"A House subcommittee on Wednesday approved legislation to promote telework in federal agencies, increase oversight of prescription drug coverage in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and allow federal employees to invest the value of their unused annual leave in their retirement accounts. The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and District of Columbia unanimously approved the 2009 Telework Improvements Act (H.R. 1722), introduced by Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md. The bill would codify a governmentwide telework policy that Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry announced in April 2009."(GovernmentExecutive.com)

Effective Contracting with Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PDF)
6 pages. Excerpt:"As prescription drug costs continue to increase, health plan sponsors should pay careful attention to the services they get from their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and what they pay for them. Effective PBM contracting can ensure that plan members get the services they need at a cost that's right for the plan sponsor."(Health Watch via Milliman)

Drug Plan Sponsors Have Little Price Negotiation Leverage With Specialty Drug Companies
Excerpt:"Plan sponsors reported having little leverage to negotiate price concessions from manufacturers for most specialty tier-eligible drugs under Medicare Part D when there were few or no other treatment options, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office."(Wolters Kluwer)

[Guidance Overview] DOL Issues New FAQs on Schedule C Reporting of Pharmacy-Related Compensation
Excerpt:"On February 4, 2010, the DOL added two FAQs to the supplemental FAQs issued last year; they specifically address whether certain direct and indirect compensation earned by PBMs is reportable for Schedule C purposes. While the guidance reiterates DOL's previously-articulated position that PBMs generally would be considered plan service providers subject to Schedule C reporting, DOL nonetheless announced substantial, though potentially temporary, reporting relief for some forms of indirect compensation earned by PBMs, including rebate and discount revenue."(Groom Law Group)

GAO Report: Spending, Beneficiary Cost Sharing, and Cost-Containment Efforts for High-Cost Drugs Eligible for a Specialty Tier
43 pages. Excerpt:"GAO was asked to provide information about high-cost drugs eligible for a specialty tier. This report provides information on these drugs including spending under Medicare Part D in 2007, the most recent year for which claims data were available; how different cost-sharing structures could be expected to affect beneficiary out-of-pocket costs; how negotiated drug prices could be expected to affect beneficiary out-of-pocket costs; and information Part D plan sponsors reported on their ability to negotiate price concessions and to manage utilization.'Executive summary is online at http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10242high.pdf (U.S. Government Accountability Office)

Bill Seeks Transparency in Federal Employees'Health Program
Excerpt:"Bringing more transparency to the program is a prime objective of legislation considered during a hearing Tuesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on the federal workforce, Postal Service and the District. It followed another hearing in June and a forum in September on what subcommittee Chairman Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.) called'an opaque and flawed health benefit design'that results in higher drug costs than are found in other federal programs."(The Washington Post; free registration required)

[Guidance Overview] Welfare Plan Fees Paid to PBMs Are Reportable Direct Compensation for Form 5500 Schedule C
Excerpt:"In recently released Supplemental frequently-asked questions about the 2009 Schedule C, the DOL also stated that rebates or discounts that the PBM receives from drug makers are not reportable indirect compensation for Schedule C, unless the plan agreement with the PBM cedes the rebates and discounts to the PBM as part of its compensation."(Wolters Kluwer)

[Guidance Overview] Pharmacy Benefit Manager Fees Must Be Reported on Schedule C
Excerpt:"Not all welfare plans are required to annually report on Form 5500 or Schedule C. A plan that covers less than 100 participants at the beginning of the plan year ? and which is unfunded, fully insured, or a combination of both ? is exempt from the annual reporting requirement. See Department of Labor Regulation ? 2520.104-20 and 2009 Instructions to Form 5500, page 4. Where such a welfare plan has 100 or more participants at the beginning of the plan year, it is subject to the annual reporting requirement but is not required to file Schedule C."(Deloitte via BenefitsLink.com)

Even When Treated, Depression Costs Employers
Excerpt:"Workers with depression stay home sick more often than healthy colleagues, even when their disease is treated, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Tuesday. The report, commissioned by drug maker Sanofi Aventis, suggests that employers would benefit from better treatments of their workers for depression. Depression is the leading cause of disability among Americans aged 15 to 44, according to the National Institute of Mental Health."(Reuters via The New York Times; free registration required)

West Virginia Groups Push for Health Insurance Coverage of Birth Control for Teens
Excerpt:"A state law passed in 2005, called the Prescription Fairness Act, requires insurers to cover the cost of contraceptives. But it allows both private insurers and the state's Public Employees Insurance Agency to exempt dependent minors from that coverage. Last week, 10 members of the House of Delegates introduced a measure (HB4272) to remove that exemption."(The Charleston Gazette)

[Guidance Overview] DOL FAQs on How Pharmacy Benefit Manager Compensation Is Reported for Form 5500 Schedule C Purposes
Excerpt:"EBIA Comment: It is interesting to see the DOL provide such specific guidance for PBMs. Those entities, and the plans they provide services to, will want to take note. But it is important to remember that Schedule C will not be required for an ERISA welfare plan unless it has a trust (or should have had a trust because Technical Release 92-01 does not apply). And in light of a growing number of cases addressing whether PBMs are ERISA fiduciaries, we find noteworthy the DOL's caveat that the guidance on rebates and discounts is for Schedule C purposes only and does not indicate the agency's view on other ERISA Title I provisions."(Employee Benefits Institute of America)

Value-Based Health Insurance Design Will Balance Costs for Drugs and Other Medical Services
Excerpt:"A value-based health insurance design program that promotes proven effective drugs for chronic medical conditions will, at the very least, keep costs balanced through reduced use of medical services, according to the results of a study published in the February 2010 Health Affairs. The study, Evidence that Value-Based Insurance can be Effective . . . ."(Wolters Kluwer)

[Guidance Overview] CMS Update of Creditable Coverage and Late Enrollment Penalty Guidance
Excerpt:"The recent changes by CMS reflect a tightening of the procedures that apply in determining creditable coverage and the Part D plan sponsor's obligation to collect the [late enrollment penalty]."(Deloitte via BenefitsLink.com)

[Guidance Overview] Deadline Approaches for Submission of Creditable Coverage Disclosures to CMS (PDF)
Excerpt:"Group health plan sponsors that provide prescription drug coverage to Medicare Part D eligible individuals must annually disclose to the Centers for Medicare&Medicaid Services (CMS) whether such coverage qualifies as creditable or non-creditable. All plan sponsors that provide prescription drug coverage are required to make this disclosure, even if they do not make coverage available to retirees. Calendar year plans must submit this year's disclosure to CMS by March 1, 2010."(Buck Consultants)

Rising Drug Costs Can Be Contained with the Right Strategies and Policies, Say Experts
Excerpt:"[E]mployers need to provide benefit coverage for drugs that are available over the counter. Some drugs are just as effective, and, in most cases, are less expensive, such as heartburn medication. A leading prescription drug for heartburn may cost $3 a pill, but there are several OTC drugs available for a fraction of the price, as well as'generic'versions (store brand) of the OTC drugs that are even less costly and just as effective."(Human Resource Executive Online)

Brand-Name Prescription Drug Pricing: Lack of Therapeutically Equivalent Drugs and Limited Competition May Contribute to Extraordinary Price Increases
40 pages. Excerpt:"GAO was asked to examine extraordinary price increases for brand-name prescription drugs. Specifically, GAO examined the: (1) frequency of extraordinary price increases for brand-name prescription drugs from 2000 to 2008, (2) characteristics of the brand-name prescription drugs that had extraordinary price increases, and (3) factors that contributed to the extraordinary price increases experienced by these brand-name prescription drugs."(U.S. Government Accountability Office)

[Guidance Overview] CMS Update of Creditable Coverage and Late Enrollment Penalty Guidance in Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Manual
Excerpt:"EBIA Comment: Most of the guidance is aimed at Part D plan sponsors, not at group health plan sponsors. However, both groups must comply with CMS standards. Group health plan sponsors must provide disclosure notices to help Part D eligible individuals make informed decisions about whether to enroll in a Part D plan. Part D plan sponsors must enroll individuals based on various criteria, including creditable coverage information from group health plan sponsors. Both groups must ensure that creditable coverage information is accurate, which should reduce the imposition of unnecessary [late enrollment penalties]."(Employee Benefits Institute of America)

[Opinion] Why Drug'Reimportation'Won't Die, Though It Ought To
Excerpt:"[A]llowing price controls into this country is a sure path to destroying our drug industry, which is now a prime driver in developing new and innovative pharmaceuticals. The drug industries in countries with price controls lag behind our drug industry in developing new, important drugs."(The Wall Street Journal)

Medicare Part D: Taking Another Look at Employee Group Waiver Plans for Tax-Exempt Plan Sponsors (PDF)
2 pages. (Milliman)

Health Plans Try to Rein in Specialty Pharmacy Spending by Managing the Medical Benefit
Excerpt:"Oftentimes more than half -- and possibly as much as 70% -- of a health plan's specialty drug spend may fall under the medical benefit. But with physicians buying and billing drugs they administer in their offices and using ambiguous billing codes, it can be notoriously difficult for payers not only to manage these therapies but also to even understand how much they are spending."(AIS Health.com)

U.S. Health Care Reform May Lead to an Unexpected One-Time Charge to P&L for Lost Tax Benefits (PDF)
1 page. Excerpt:"A change in the tax deduction for prescription drug benefits would reduce the deferred tax asset recorded by employersthat provide qualified prescription drug coverage to their retirees -- with a corresponding charge to tax expense (P&L)."(Towers Perrin)

Employers Warn of Cuts to Benefits Due to Tax Treatment of Medicare Part D Benefits
Excerpt:"Some of the biggest employers in the U.S. are warning that a provision in the Senate's proposed health-care overhaul could lead to cuts in retiree benefits and a sharp reduction in reported earnings next year. Companies including Boeing Co., Deere&Co., MetLife Inc. and Xerox Corp. plan to lobby Democratic leaders to drop the provision, which would change the tax status of payments for retiree health benefits."(The Wall Street Journal)

Medicare Part D 2010 Data Spotlight: A Comparison of PDPs Offering Basic and Enhanced Benefits
Excerpt:"Companies that sponsor Medicare Part D prescription drug plans are required to offer a basic benefit, either the standard Part D benefit defined by law or an actuarially equivalent benefit design. Plan sponsors can also offer plans with enhanced drug benefits. Enhanced plans are required to have a greater actuarial value than basic plans, but plans vary in the ways in which they improve coverage. This Part D Data Spotlight examines key differences between basic and enhanced Medicare stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDPs), including monthly premiums, cost sharing, and gap coverage."(Kaiser Family Foundation)