Watson Wyatt Launches eHR Solution

March 5, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Plan sponsors can now opt for a customized web portal from Watson Wyatt Worldwide's new eHR/Benefits service.

eHR/Benefits will reportedly allow employers to reduce the time and expense associated with traditional benefits administration, and is designed to “plug and play” with any portal platform.

The announcement comes less than a week after the announcement of a strategic alliance with Workscape (NewsDash March 1) to deliver/develop www.employee.com

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The Watson Wyatt service includes access to:

  • Tools that allow employers to compare performance data on hundreds of health care providers and evaluate benefits plans across industries and among peer companies
  • Consulting services, including health plan design and pricing, vendor management and annual renewal negotiations
  • Web-based health plan enrollment
  • Maintenance of employee status and election changes
  • Employee satisfaction surveys
    Benchmarking data
  • Watson Wyatt data, including Best Practices benefits research

eHR/Benefits also offers three levels of access on its web portal, including:

  • Employee View, offering 24/7 employee access to benefits, benefit plan enrollment and comparison of benefit options
  • Benefits Administrator View, offering access to plan data and a host of workflow and data management tools
  • Human Resources Manager View, with a quick summary of key plan results, access to research and use of decision-support tools

Roughly a month ago Hewitt Associates announced a service that was also designed to cut down on benefits administration expense through use of the Internet.

More information is at www.eHR.com/Benefits .

TRW Settles Pension Calculation Dispute

May 2, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Industrial parts maker TRW agreed to pay $48.5 million to settle a lawsuit regarding pension calculations.

About four years ago a federal district court judge had ordered TRW to recalculate 10 years of lump-sum payments to the retirees. TRW appealed, but the ruling was affirmed last December.

Calculation Differences

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Attorneys for the retirees noted that both sides had been trying to figure a settlement amount based on a formula suggested by the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals.  While TRW had reportedly figured a settlement of about $40 million, the retirees were seeking about $50 million.

The suit had been brought on behalf of about 5,500 retirees who had retired between October 23, 1986, and July 1, 1996. Most of the retirees worked in TRW’s West Coast operations, according to the Associated Press.

TRW continues to believe that it calculated the pensions properly, TRW spokesman Michael Jablonski told the AP.

“We believe it is in the best interests of the company and of the TRW retirees to bring the litigation to a conclusion by entering into a settlement agreement,’ the company said in a written statement.

Attorneys discussed the proposed settlement with US District Judge Ann Aldrich, who issued the original ruling, on Tuesday.  The parties will be in court May 29 to ask for preliminary approval.

 

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