Medicare Coordinated Retiree Health Care Plans Remain A Viable Plan Design.Employers offering retiree health care benefits coordinated with Medicare now have a welcome exemption from the Age Discrimination in Employment Act The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, Pub. L. No. 90-202, 81 Stat. 602 (Dec. 15, 1967), codified as Chapter 14 of Title 29 of the United States Code, through (ADEA), prohibits employment discrimination against persons 40 years of age or older in the United States (see ). . Medicare coordinated retiree health care plans have been revived as a viable plan design under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA ADEA Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 ADEA American Dental Education Association (Washington, DC) ADEA Association for the Development of Education in Africa (RSA) ). In AARP AARP, a nonprofit, nonpartisan national organization dedicated to "enriching the experience of aging"; membership is open to people age 50 or older. Founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus as American Association of Retired Persons, AARP now has over 30 million v. EEOC EEOC abbr. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EEOC n abbr (US) (= Equal Employment Opportunities Commission) → comisión que investiga discriminación racial o sexual en el empleo , No. 05-4594 (3d Cir. 2007), a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) proposed regulation that establishes an ADEA exemption permitting employers to coordinate retiree health care benefits with Medicare. The EEOC's proposed regulation was issued in 2003, in response to another decision of the Third Circuit on retiree health care issues in Erie County Erie County is the name of several counties in the United States:
Before the EEOC could finalize the proposed regulation in 2004, the AARP obtained an injunction preventing the EEOC from publishing the regulation or taking any other action to effectuate ef·fec·tu·ate tr.v. ef·fec·tu·at·ed, ef·fec·tu·at·ing, ef·fec·tu·ates To bring about; effect. [Medieval Latin effectu the regulation. In 2005, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted summary judgment to the EEOC and determined that the regulation did not violate the ADEA. On appeal, the Third Circuit upheld the district court's decision, and lifted the injunction obtained by the AARP, which blocked implementation of the EEOC's regulation. The Third Circuit reasoned that the EEOC's proposed regulation was a proper exercise of its authority, as over time it will likely benefit all retirees. In addition, the court found that the EEOC's regulation was narrowly tailored to address the practice of coordinating employer-sponsored retiree health care benefits with Medicare eligibility and, as such, was "consistent with the purposes and intent of the ADEA." The court cited the legal reality that employers are not required to provide retiree health care benefits in the first instance and generally may reduce or terminate retiree health care benefits altogether once they are provided. The court also acknowledged that, in the wake of the Erie County decision and overall rising health care costs, employers were in practice reducing retiree health care benefits or eliminating such benefits altogether. Based on these practical realities, the Third Circuit decided that the EEOC's regulation was a permissible agency action because it is in the public interest and will likely help preserve employer-sponsored retiree health care benefits. Final implementation of the EEOC regulation should move forward now that the injunction has been lifted. Once implemented, the final regulation will afford employers offering retiree health care benefits that are coordinated with Medicare a welcome exemption from the ADEA. That said, it is yet to be determined whether the AARP will seek to continue its fight against implementation of the regulation and seek review by the Supreme Court of the United States Supreme Court of the United States Final court of appeal in the U.S. judicial system and final interpreter of the Constitution of the United States. The Supreme Court was created by the Constitutional Convention of 1787 as the head of a federal court system, though it was . The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances. Mr Michael Graham Michael Graham is an American author, columnist, and conservative talk radio personality on Boston's WTKK-FM (96.9). He authors a twice-weekly column for the Boston Herald. Career Graham was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in South Carolina. McDermott Will & Emery 227 West Monroe West Monroe, city (1990 pop. 14,096), Ouachita parish, N La., on the Ouachita River, opposite Monroe, in a forest and lake area; inc. 1851. Its chief industries are lumber and paper milling. Street Chicago IL 60606 5096 UNITED STATES United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. E-mail: pdevinsky@mwe.com URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : www.mwe.com Click Here for related articles (c) Mondaq Ltd, 2007 - Tel. +44 (0)20 8544 8300 - http://www.mondaq.com |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion