BRIEFCASE PACIFICARE PLAN FOR TV-FILM WRITERS.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

SANTA ANA - PacifiCare Behavioral Health, a national managed behavioral health care organization, was chosen by the Writers Guild-Industry Health Fund to provide behavioral health care benefits and insurance coverage for its members.

The WGIHF represents 7,888 television and film writers and related professionals in the United States through its East and West Coast regional offices.

Under terms of the three-year agreement, PBH will offer WGIHF plan participants inpatient and outpatient mental health and chemical dependency coverage with access to PBH's national network of 19,500 behavioral health clinicians and more than 900 facilities.

Workers' pay rises only slightly in Q4

WASHINGTON - Workers' wages and benefits grew by 0.7 percent in the final quarter of 2003 - the smallest quarterly increase in a year - as companies still uncertain about the durability of the economic recovery kept a close eye on their bottom line.

The increase in the employment cost index for the October-to-December quarter marked a moderation from the 1 percent advance registered in the previous quarter, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The 0.7 percent increase in compensation was the smallest since the fourth quarter of 2002 and was slightly weaker than the 0.9 percent rise that economists were forecasting.

SEC may restrict mutual fund firms

WASHINGTON - The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission will recommend the agency ban mutual fund companies from making special payments to brokerages for steering clients toward certain funds.

The recommendation goes beyond a recent SEC proposal to require that fund companies disclose such special arrangements to investors because they create a conflict of interest. An investigation by the agency found that the practice was rampant in the mutual fund industry and frequently undisclosed - prompting officials to express outrage.

Staff plan to present the proposal to the five SEC commissioners for a vote in February.

Rigas trial begins selection of jurors

NEW YORK - Several hundred prospective jurors answered written questions Thursday about their investments and backgrounds as the first stage of jury selection began in the trial of Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas and his two sons.

Potential jurors crowded into U.S. District Court in Manhattan, passing by television tents and camera crews set up for the securities fraud trial of Martha Stewart in an adjacent courthouse.

The 25-page questionnaire had 56 questions. Among other queries, jurors were asked whether they'd been a victim of fraud, and whether they had any connection to businesses involving the Rigas family.