TAHU Update Volume No. 5 Issue No. 9 May 2004

Next Meeting

Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Brier Creek Country Club
Main Clubhouse
11:45 am, Luncheon Meeting

Please RSVP before Friday, May 7, 2004
to Mike Alexander, at
Jmalexander@nc.rr.com or 919-544-5681

GUEST SPEAKER
Harry L. Reynolds
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina

Harry Reynolds is a Vice President at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. Harry has 30 years experience in the technology field focusing mainly in Health Care. He started his career with IBM, worked at two large hospitals (Ohio State and UNC) designing systems and has been with Blue Cross for the last 24 years. Harry has managed all aspects of IT at BCBSNC as well as managing a $500 million business unit that served 450,000 covered lives (N. C. Teachers & State Employees). He coordinated all Y2K efforts for Blue Cross, a $40 million effort.

Harry currently has responsibility for oversight of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Social Security Number Replacement Project. In December 2003, Harry was appointed to serve a 4-year term on the National Committee for Vital Health Statistics. Harry also has served as NCHICA HIPAA co-chair and on the NCHICA Board of Directors. Harry served on the Durham YMCA Board of Directors and was its Board Chairman in 1999. A native of Ohio, who after 30 years in residence, calls North Carolina home.

SPONSORED BY
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina

Click on the above ad to see a larger copy

President's Message:
Nancy Gibson, HIA, MHP

All Aboard!!

The Board has started looking forward to next year – hardly seems possible that we are there already. Barry Hill is getting ready to take on the responsibilities of leading NCTAHU next year and we’ve started to seek out those individuals who would like the opportunity to become more involved with our organization.

My “career” with NCTAHU started out on the side of the road picking up trash. That’s right – picking up trash! Trish White, who was Public Service Chair at the time, asked if I would join a group of people EARLY on Saturday morning to pick up trash as part of our Adopt a Highway project. I met with Bernard Obie, John Henson, Rufus Langley, Trish and others for breakfast and a clean sweep of the roadside.

There were mornings when it was chilly and damp, sunny and warm. But regardless of the weather we provided a public service, enjoyed each other’s company and represented our organization. In just a few short years I was serving as President.

Now, we don’t do the Adopt a Highway project anymore, so there is little danger of your being asked to pick up trash. But there are many opportunities for you to get involved in a small way with our organization.

Volunteer to serve on one of the committees, get your feet wet one toe at a time. But do volunteer!! The rewards are tremendous. You get to know other professionals with whom you compete and with whom you have business relationships. You will have an opportunity to help set the direction of the organization and learn as you grow and the organization grows. You may express your interest directly to Barry or any of the board members or via our website.

And remember, even if serving on a committee or the board is not your cup of tea, your attendance at our meetings, your interest in the organization and sharing what we do by recruiting another member is still the most important thing you can do.

Plan to be with us on May 11th at Brier Creek Country Club.

Nancy Gibson, HIA, MHP
Principal Financial Group
1616 East Millbrook Road, Suite 210
Raleigh, NC 27609
919-783-7790
919-783-9748 Fax
gibson.nancy@principal.com

Continuing Education:
David Smith

COMING IN MAY - ERISA BASICS for AGENTS

A follow-up to the hour received during the Symposium, this 3 hour CE class will help agents and employee benefits specialists better understand the impact of these federal laws on the employee benefit plans offered by employers.

This law will talk about the structure of ERISA as well as the various notice, claims and inter-relationship of IRS, DOL and the various tax and benefit laws that impact nearly every employer providing benefits to their employees.

This class will begin around 1:15 pm following our May meeting. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to give me a call at 919-806-4481 or email to david@beninslaw.com.

David C. Smith
BenInsLaw
2530 Meridian Parkway, Suite 200
Durham, NC 27713
919-806-4481
919-882-9745 Fax
davidcurtissmith@yahoo.com

Golf Tournament:
Mike Alexander

Monday, May 17th is the date for the 10th Annual TAHU Golf Tournament benefiting 2nd Chance Pet Adoptions. This year's event will return to beautiful Brier Creek Country Club, an Arnold Palmer designed layout voted 'Best New Private Course' by North Carolina magazine. A shot-gun start will kick off the Captain's Choice format at 11:00 A.M. with a cookout immediately following the conclusion of the event. For information regarding registration & sponsorship, please check our website at www.nctahu.org ; otherwise you may contact Mike Alexander at #544-5681. Volunteers are also needed for registration, goody bags, prizes, recruitment of sponsors, etc.

J. Michael Alexander
Magellan Benefits Group
#4 Haycox Court
Durham, NC 27713
919-544-5681
919-806-8455 Fax
jmalexander@nc.rr.com

Law and Legislation:
Bill Hendrickson

HEADLINES---

Capital Conference Review
Hillary’s Back!
New U. S. Treasury Health Savings Account Guidelines
Potential North Carolina Legislative Action

A stimulating, informative, and well structured Capital Conference took off in Washington, DC on March 28. Only three delegates (David Smith, Rufus Langley, and Bill Hendrickson) represented TAHU. Those are very few delegates from our large chapter, since TRIAD sent seventeen (17!) to the conference. Let’s start planning to send more next year.

Speakers from the House of Representatives, the Senate, and various government departments brought us up to date on pending legislation and on many health issues being considered in our nation’s capital. Especially striking was the speech by Dr. Mark McClellen, the brand new Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. He spoke to us on his second day at this new position. Another dynamo speaker was Karen Ignagni, President of newly formed American Health Insurance Plans, the combination group of the old AAHP and HIAA.

Regular highlights of the conference are the visits with our local Congressmen or their staff persons. Several of us visited the offices of Representative Brad Miller, Bob Etheridge, and David Price. At Miller’s office we met with Boz Zellinger and at Etheridge’s office we met with Lea Fisher, neither of whom were very aware of health legislation or of what they could learn from NAHU. We tried to educate them in our ½ hour together. At Price’s office we met Elizabeth Kirkland with whom we have met in the past. She is a savvy assistant on health issues. And lo and behold, Representative Price himself made an appearance! When speaking with Representatives of Senators themselves, we can accomplish a great deal.

NAHU is a dynamic organization and a leading advocate of our industry in government circles. We need to support NAHU and work alongside their staff to assure our needs and the needs of our clients are met. This means being in regular communication with our very own legislators both in Washington and in Raleigh.

View pictures of our delegates at the conference.

HILLARY’S BACK! — well, sort of. She (or several of her ghost writers) penned the feature article of April 18’s Sunday “New York Times Magazine”. Her article, in case you missed it, is titled “Now Can We Talk About Health Care?” This is a different Hillary than the one who almost buried us in 1994, in that she recognizes the value of the health insurance industry, the pharmaceutical companies, and private enterprise. She even supports some of the issues endorsed by NAHU. I have a 20 page download of her article and am willing to fax it to those who might be interested.

Senator Clinton writes about genetic discrimination, the uninsured, greater use of information technology and other issues, many of which we in NAHU are familiar with. She ends her article saying, “So achieving comprehensive health care reform is no simple feat, as I learned a decade ago. None of these ideas mean anything if the political will to ensure that they happen doesn’t exist.”

Sam Corey, Jr. of The Brokerage Resource has kindly distributed the March 30 Treasury and IRS additional guidelines affecting Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s). These additional guidelines clarify the types of preventive care that can be provided under a high deductible health plan (HDHP) as well as the interaction between an HDHP and prescription drug benefits. Further transitional relief is also offered for those persons who are having trouble finding a trustee to handle the savings account benefits. Some underwriters are recommending the HSA Bank, formerly the MSA Bank, located in Wisconsin. On the other hand, some insurance companies have established arrangements so that insured persons need not find an outside trustee, but can have the HSA fully administered by the insurance company.

The North Carolina Legislature is chugging into action on many fronts, Health Care being one of them. The House Select Committee of the Rising Cost of Health Care has issued its report and has prepared legislation to be introduced this year. Here is some of this important legislation:

Disease Management legislation directed toward the various state controlled organizations, including the Teachers and State Employees Comprehensive Major Medical Plan.
Create the North Carolina Health Insurance Innovations Commission, housed at UNC-Charlotte to identify problems small employers have with health insurance, to initiate regional pilot projects including innovative plans and products, subject to Commissioner Long’s approval.
Develop recommendations for actions all health insurance related groups to improve affordability and availability of insurance for small employers. These and other topics would be included under this new commission and let’s hope that NCAHU would be fully represented on the commission.
Once again, study High Risk Pools.
Bring the NC tax code incompliance with the Federal code as it relates to HSA’s.

There are other legislative issues that will be considered and if many of these are put into effect, we may see some relief in the cost escalation that our clients are burdened with. We all need to keep well informed as to what’s happening in Raleigh.

William Hendrickson
Hendrickson & Company, Inc.
2219 Lawrence Road
Hillsborough, NC 27278
919 644-8636
919 644-6433 Fax
bill2219@mindspring.com

Website:
Michele Gregory, MHP, RHU, REBC

May We – Mais Oui!
Merci!

May is a busy, busy month, already committed to a long list of important celebratory occasions. Here’s just a smattering of May’s special days:

Cinco de Mayo
Mother’s day
Chocolate chip day
National hamburger day
Mother Goose day
Limerick day
Candied orange peel day
Memorial day
National escargot day

May is also a critical month for TAHU - it is the month when we have to determine which members are willing to serve as officers for the coming year.

I know this article is supposed to be about the website, so humor me just a little. Go to the TAHU Board page, look at the list of offices we need to make our organization function, and see if there is not at least one of them that is a good match for your talents, abilities, interests and time.

While you're at our website, check out TAHU Talks - there's a pertinent new topic there.

As soon as you find that good match, contact Barry Hill (our President Elect) and let him know how you are willing to serve TAHU in the coming year. Your efforts will help the organization - AND serving on the Board for a year will be good for you.

MAIS OUI!

Michele Gregory, MHP, RHU, REBC
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina
2501 Aerial Center Drive, Suite 200
Morrisville, North Carolina 27560
919-765-4671; 800-228-6216
919-467-2823 Fax
Michele.Gregory@bcbsnc.com

As the success of the Triangle Association of Health Underwriters largely depends upon the benevolence of corporate contributors, we are proud to honor the following organizations for their continued support of our many programs and activities:

Diamond Sponsors
2003-2004

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of NC

Cigna

UnitedHealthcare

Please extend your appreciation to the Triangle members representing these organizations and remember their generosity when placing coverages.

Triangle Association of Health Underwriters
P.O. Box 19177
Raleigh, NC 27619-9177