Do companies really need a culture of health in the office?
Great article by Henry Albrect on how to have an effective wellness program that truly impacts your bottom line. To many time we focus on one aspect and not the whole picture of creating an effective wellness program.
Original Post from EmployeeBenefitAdviser.com on July 28, 2016.
You’ve probably heard that a “culture of health” is the best way to see success with your wellness program.
I disagree.
A successful wellness program should align with an employer’s strategy and culture above all else. The further you get from these, the more likely your program will be “a little HR thing” — and not a vibrant part of your workplace. Frankly, and with the notable exception of healthcare companies, health isn’t a top concern for most organizations.
Align any health and well-being programs with your business goals
Investing a few million in feel-good programs is easy. But investing in anything off-strategy is always a risk. If you are in the manufacturing business, wellness strategies should reinforce readiness, safety, discipline and musculoskeletal health. In retail, they should support energy levels, having infectious positive energy that helps customers enjoy buying your products. In healthcare, mindfulness and resilience play a strong role.
Do it in a way that fits with your culture
The true definition of company culture has gotten lost along the way.
Your company culture is the backdrop for everything that happens within your organization. It determines workplace norms, values and beliefs. It rules employee behaviors and experiences.
Well-being, broadly defined, is a key element of all great company cultures. Wellness programs should fit into and reinforce your culture — but they aren’t the point of your culture.
Why? Because, above all else, your business goals should define your company culture. The two have to align.
According to a Willis Towers Watson report, 67% employers say developing a workplace culture of health is a top priority.
But company culture and strategy can’t exist separately. And health isn’t at the heart of the business goals for every organization. Retailers might prioritize customer service while tech companies thrive on innovation. Company culture needs to support the main mission and goals.
When culture and strategy align, businesses are successful, a study published in April 2015 in the Journal of Organizational Behavior suggests.
Researchers collected data from 95 car dealerships over six years and found that when companies had a culture that engaged and motivated employees, they had higher ratings of customer satisfaction and vehicle sales. When employers neglected their culture, their performance declined over time.
What about health and wellness?
Businesses can embrace well-being and invest in employee health even if it doesn’t define the company culture. And they should.
A 2015 survey published by Quantum Workplace and my company, Limeade found that respondents were 38% more engaged and 18% more likely to go the extra mile when they felt their employers cared about their well-being.
Use that power to build a wellness program that supports your authentic culture and achieves business objectives. Don’t worry about developing a culture of health. Well-being initiatives in the workplace should align with the culture — not the other way around.
Determine why you want a wellness program. What are the goals, and why are they important to the business? If you want to improve customer satisfaction, what programs can you use to make employees more chipper? If you’re focused on innovation, how can you inspire creativity?
These specific goals should guide which programs and initiatives are right for the company. Then, connect it back to your culture.
If your culture values teamwork, bring employees together in sports games and competitions around the office. If you value community involvement, give employees time to volunteer or participate in a local charity walk. Every company’s wellness initiative will look different.
Building a culture of health might be great for some hospitals, but it isn’t right for every organization. Focus on bringing your authentic culture to life through a program that aligns with your business goals. Winning in business helps you win with well-being, and vice versa.
Does your wellness program connect to business goals?
See The Full Article Here.
Source:
Albrecht, H (2016, July 28). Do companies really need a culture of health in the office? [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/opinion/do-companies-really-need-a-culture-of-health-in-the-office
How On-the-Job Training can Solve Your Pipeline Problems
Great article by Paul Wolfe on employee development as an investment to your company.
Original Post from SHRM.org on July 27, 2016
On-the-job training was popular a generation ago but has been steadily declining in the U.S. for decades. Companies expect candidates who are armed with a degree or certification and relevant work experience, which is discounting a large pool of the American workforce.
This model worked for companies when there were more qualified people than jobs available, but today’s labor market paints a different picture. Now we are seeing a lot more demand for specialized talent than there are qualified candidates. And though we have seen strong hiring, wage growth has been stagnate, leaving many workers frustrated with the lack of progress in their careers. In fact, only 15% of the job force are currently in fields that are experiencing wage growth and competitive salaries, which are the “opportunity” jobs, according to a new report released by Indeed’s research team Hiring Lab.
The upside is that 35% of all job postings on Indeed are these opportunity jobs, which are in the fields of healthcare, management, technology, business and finance and engineering. There are a lot of talented workers out there, employed or not, that have transferable skills that would be interested in moving into a role with steady wage growth and competitive salaries.
That’s why I think it's important for companies to consider investing in employee development to fill roles within their organization. Investing in training helps workers get into a high-growth career and enables companies to build its own pipeline of talent.
Employee development can look very different depending on your company or industry. For example, at Indeed we bring in about 80 university graduates from around the world to our Austin technology office for a summer program called Indeed Universtiy. We train these new hires on Indeed’s data-driven development process and give them the freedom to develop new product ideas. This is helping us to fill our most in-demand jobs - software engineers - while training them to contribute right away and offer innovative ideas for our company to test. Finding a software engineer who already has 3-5 years of experience is extremely competitive, so as a company we made the decision to invest in new college grads to help fill this need.
Offering development to your employees is an investment, but for those companies who are struggling to fill roles in these highly competitive and specialized fields, it can help close the gap of of the mismatch we are seeing in the labor market.
See the original article here.
Source:
Wolfe, P. (2016, July 27). How on-the-job training can solve your pipeline problems [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://blog.shrm.org/blog/how-on-the-job-training-can-solve-your-pipeline-problems
Rethinking the Modern Accumulation of Technology
In an article from SHRM.org, Natalie Kroc addresses how technology is impacting security measures.
Original post from SHRM.org on June 16, 2016.
It wasn’t the latest gadget or platform or program that the speakers discussed at a recent conference session on how to keep teleworkers and remote workers connected. Instead, it was the most basic of modern technologies that kept being stressed:
E-mail. An Internet connection. Maybe a webcam (though this proved controversial).
“I am a Millennial, and I … primarily communicate through e-mail,” said Greg Caplan, founder and CEO of Remote Year, a year-old startup that has brought together a group of 75 people to travel the world while holding down various remote jobs. Caplan believes that, for work purposes, e-mail is still king.
The other panelists at the Telecommuting, Remote and Distributed (TRaD) Works Forum, held June 9-10 in Washington, D.C., agreed that the simplest of technologies can successfully keep offsite employees connected. TRaD refers to the different kinds of offsite employees: Telecommuters are those who work from home sometimes, remote workers do their entire jobs from home and a distributed workforce is when an organization doesn’t have a physical location so its employees all work remotely.
Employees who work offsite only need “an Internet connection. Anything else we can work around,” said Carol Cochran, director of people and culture for Boulder, Colo.-based FlexJobs, a job search site that focuses on telecommuting, part-time and other flexible work opportunities. FlexJobs was a co-host of the forum.
Organizations may want to consider providing their remote workers a cellphone with Internet capabilities as a backup. This all but guarantees that employees will be able to work—even if they are having difficulties with their home Internet connection.
A chat function can be useful as well, if the work that employees are doing would benefit from the ability to reach out and have real-time conversations.
Many organizations that employ remote workers have the routine of a “daily huddle” or something similar, wherein employees are expected to check in at the start of the day, whether in a brief meeting or by writing their day’s plans in a shared document.
When an organization’s workforce is made up of remote or teleworking employees, or a mix of offsite and onsite workers, it’s especially important to use the time when everyone gets together effectively. Meetings should be “30 minutes, if not 15 minutes, instead of an hour,” Cochran said. If certain employees are inclined to speak for long periods of time, establish a time limit—and then stick to it.
Video: Love It or Hate It
“I hate video,” Cochran said. “I’m really reluctant to put it on, it’s so awkward.” FlexJobs uses it only rarely, and even then it’s often for social occasions. Cochran said she has found that workers become preoccupied knowing they are being viewed on screen, and worry about their hair and clothes and background surroundings.
This was a point of fierce contention among the panelists and forum attendees alike, though. Some organizations believe that video is essential, and that any initial awkwardness that employees may feel will disappear with habitual use.
Alex Konanykhin, CEO of Transparent Business, a platform that aims to help companies that employ teleworkers and freelancers, offered a solution: Get the organization’s leaders to work from home—and to exercise right before the meeting. When they dial in, they should be in full post-workout gear, including messy hair or a baseball cap. “All it takes is one time” of seeing that, he said, to have a workforce that can be comfortable with being on screen.
Video is a way of giving voice to remote workers and “making them feel part of the organization,” he added.
For those organizations that decide to incorporate webcams into the remote-worker experience, the panelists had some advice:
- Don’t keep the webcams on all day—turn them on at specific times, such as for meetings or training sessions.
- Suggest to employees who express reluctance that they may want to purchase a simple screen or backdrop to place behind them so that their home surroundings will not be visible on screen. This also may help to convey a more-businesslike feel.
- Consider making video an option, not a requirement, for meetings.
- Finally, if the organization’s video capabilities prove to be less than ideal—and repeatedly involve technical snafus such as the video shutting off or freezing, then stop trying to make video happen.
Adopt New Tools Cautiously
The speakers had their individual favorites among newer technologies, such as messaging app Slack, electronic signature platform DocuSign, Google Drawings for collaborating on charts and diagrams, and Zoom for streamlining remote communications. However, the panelists also derided many new offerings as being unnecessarily confusing and others for seeming to be more about entertainment than practical application.
Tools that are adopted by an organization need to be fully embraced by both remote and onsite workers, the speakers agreed. “When you take on a tool, you have to have a very clear expectation of how it is to be used,” Caplan said. “And that’s just culture.”
That said, it’s important for organizations to pick their tools wisely. Each new tool should represent an improvement from whatever employees were using before to accomplish a particular task. And while entertainment shouldn’t be a priority, each new tool should make employees’ jobs easier, the panelists said.
“Why do people love Facebook?” asked Konanykhin. “It’s instant gratification.” Employees expect the same ease of use and sense of satisfaction with the tools they use for work.
Natalie Kroc is a staff writer for SHRM.
See the original article here.
Source:
Kroc, N. (2016, June 16). Rethinking the modern accumulation of techonology [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/technology/Pages/Rethinking-the-Modern-Accumulation-of-Technology.aspx
Ninth Circuit Holds that Cash Payments Made in Lieu of Health Benefits Must Be Included in Regular Rate for Overtime Purposes Under FLSA
A ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court may impact your cash benefit offerings. See the article below for more insight.
Original Post from ThinkHR.com on July 7, 2016
On June 2, 2016, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Flores v. City of San Gabriel, held that the City of San Gabriel willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by failing to include cash payments to police officers for unused medical benefits allowances when calculating their regular rate of pay, which ultimately resulted in a lower overtime rate and an underpayment of overtime.
In Flores, the City provided a flexible benefits plan to its employees under which the City furnished a designated monetary amount to each employee to be used for purchasing medical, vision, and dental benefits. While employees were required to use a portion of these funds to purchase vision and dental insurance, employees with access to alternative medical coverage (for example, through a spouse) could decline to use the remaining benefits and opt for a cash payment instead. The cash payment would then be added to the employee’s regular paycheck. The City did not consider the value of that cash payment when calculating the employees’ regular rate of pay and resulting overtime rate. A group of current and former officers sued, claiming they were underpaid for overtime hours worked because the cash provided to employees in lieu of benefits should have been used in calculating their overtime rate.
The primary issue was whether the City’s cash-in-lieu payments were properly excluded from the employees’ regular rate of pay. The Ninth Circuit held that cash payments made to employees in lieu of health benefits must be included in the hourly “regular rate” used to compensate employees for overtime hours worked. The City argued that the cash-in-lieu payments were not payments made as compensation for hours of employment and were not tied to the amount of work performed for the employer, and therefore were excludable under 29 U.S.C. § 207(e)(2) from the regular rate of pay as are payments for leave, travel expenses, and other reimbursable expenses. The Ninth Circuit disagreed, finding the payments were “compensation for work” even if the payments were not specifically tied to time worked for the employer.
The Ninth Circuit also rejected the City’s argument that its cash in lieu of benefit payments were properly excluded pursuant to § 207(e)(4) because the payments were paid directly to employees. Section 207(e)(4) excludes from the regular rate of pay “contributions irrevocably made by an employer to a trustee or third person pursuant to a bona fide plan for providing old age, retirement, life, accident, or health insurance or similar benefits for employees.”
Note: This decision only affects those employers located in the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Guam.
See Original Article Here.
Source:
Unknown (2016, July 7). Ninth Circuit Holds that Cash Payments Made in Lieu of Health Benefits Must Be Included in Regular Rate for Overtime Purposes Under FLSA [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.thinkhr.com/blog/hr/ninth-circuit-holds-that-cash-payments-made-in-lieu-of-health-benefits-must-be-included-in-regular-rate-for-overtime-purposes-under-flsa/
Feds reveal how to handle tax treatment of wellness rewards
Did you get the Wellness Program notice from the IRS? Jared Bilski outlines how the new memorandum may impact your wellness benefits in the article below.
Original Post from HRMorning.com on June 10, 2016
Most HR pros are focused on ensuring their wellness rewards meet the strict requirements of the ACA and the ADA. But the IRS just reminded employers there are other considerations as well.
Via its Office of Chief Counsel, the agency just released a memorandum on its views of the tax treatment of rewards under employer wellness plans.
Note: IRS memoranda don’t constitute formal advice. However, they do give employers a good understanding of how the agency views compliance topics.
Cash, cash-equivalent rewards
The memorandum confirms that certain tax rules apply to employer-sponsored wellness program. Coverage — including health screenings and other medical care — provided by an employer-sponsored wellness program is generally excluded from an employee’s income under specific sections of The Tax Code. But cash rewards or cash-equivalent rewards earned as a result of a wellness program are a different story.
According to the IRS, if an employee earns a cash reward under the program, that reward must be included in the employee’s gross income under Code Section 61 and is a payment of wages subject to employment taxes.
In addition, if an employee earns a cash-equivalent reward that isn’t excludible from his or her income — e.g., the payment of gym membership fees — the fair market value of that reward will be included in the employee’s gross income and is a payment of wages subject to employment taxes.
Additional clarifications
A few additional clarifications in the IRS memorandum:
- If employers reimburse all or a portion of the premiums paid by the employee through a cafeteria plan for the company’s wellness plan, those reimbursements will be included in the employee’s gross income and are payments of wages subject to employment taxes.
- Although some non-cash benefits may be excludible as de minimis fringe benefits (e.g., a T-shirt for a company wellness plan), cash fringe benefits generally aren’t eligible to be treated as excludable de minimis fringe benefits.
Find the original article here.
Source:
Bilski, J. (2016, June 10). Fed reveal how to handle tax treatment of wellness rewards [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.hrmorning.com/feds-reveal-how-to-handle-tax-treatment-of-wellness-rewards/
Use It or Lose It: Are your employee's taking advantage of their PTO?
Are your workers taking advantage of their PTO? It is important for you employee's to de-stress and take a break to continue to be sucessful. Ensure your employees are taking the time off they need to keep a happy and healthy workfoce.
According to a Forbes article, only 25% of Americans take their paid vacation. The article also gives insight as to how not taking vacation can impact your overall effeciency in the workplace.
It’s not healthy to keep working without a break. Vacation recharges our internal batteries, gives us perspective on what we do and fuels creativity and energy. Vacation also promotes creative thinking, expands our cultural horizons and sharpens cognition, especially if we can travel to another country. “Traveling shifts us from the solipsistic way we operate every day,” Joan Kane, a Manhattan psychologist, told me a when I did a story on vacations a few years ago. “It promotes a sense of well-being and gets you thinking in different ways. It can be life-altering.”
In the article The common workplace practice that’s costing employers billions by Cort Olsen, gives more understanding of why employees do not always take the time offered.
Having diligent, hardworking employees is every employer’s dream, but it can come at a cost. Studies have shown that employees who sacrifice their vacation time to maintain their work flow could be costing an employer more than it would to have one or two employees out of the office for a couple of weeks’ vacation time.
According to the U.S. Travel Association, employees who choose not to use their paid time off could potentially cost an employer close to $52.4 billion annually due to lost revenue, employee termination or resignation, and hiring and training replacements.
“When you look at a manager or someone in a leader capacity, we run into situations where managers don’t want to be out of the office or away from the team because they feel like they need to be available,” Sciortino says. “Some people who are not in a leadership position may be the only one who does a certain task, so they know if they are not there then the work is not going to get done.”
To combat this problem, employers need to train employees to be backups for other employees who are responsible for a specific task in the event that person is out of the office for a period of time, she says.
“From an employer’s perspective, we want our teams to take PTO, because turnover is costly,” Sciortino says. “You can lose employees because they are feeling burnt, and obviously rehiring and retraining people for positions frequently can be costly on their organization.”
Another costly issue employers face when employees do not use their vacation time is paying out that unused time. Claire Bissot, managing director for CBIZ, says she is against any employer that allows employees to be paid out for not using their vacation time at the end of the year.
Read the full article from Forbes.com here.
See the full article from Employee Benefit Adviser here.
Sources:
Adams, S. (2014, April 7). Only 25% of americans take their paid vacation [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/04/04/only-25-of-americans-take-their-paid-vacation/#ea0d8c22c5cf
Olsen, C. (2016, June 7). The common workplace practice that's costing employers billions [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/news/the-common-workplace-practice-thats-costing-employers-billions
5 adjectives you want to hear job candidates say
Christian Schappel gives some great tips on hiring the right person for your company.
Original Post from HRMorning.com on June 22, 2016
It’s difficult to tell what kind of person someone is just by their resume. Heck, it can even be difficult to tell when face to face with the person. But there are some approaches that will do the trick.
Obviously, you want a hire who’s self-motivated, honest and trustworthy — in addition to having the background you’re looking for, of course.
While candidates will likely tell you they’re all those things if asked, it’s also likely they’re doing so because they know that’s what you want to hear (whether it’s true or not).
As a result, Dave Porter, managing partner at Baystate Financial in Boston, a company that holds its recruiters and managers accountable for the results of those they bring on board, says companies should ask candidates to describe their character.
Five words Porter says you want to hear candidates say that indicate they’re made of the right stuff:
- Honest
- Respectful
- Punctual
- Curious, and
- Accountable.
Whether or not you hear adjectives like these will tell you “how much the candidate cares about others and about doing the right thing,” Porter says in his book Where Winners Live: Sell More, Earn More, Achieve More Through Personal Accountability.
‘When nobody was looking’
Porter has another suggestion as well. Ask candidates this question: When in your life have you made a decision that you’re proud of — when nobody was looking?
If candidates take a while to answer, they’re likely not good fits for Baystate Financial. Porter says, candidates with integrity should have little trouble recalling situations — and the decisions they made in them — that reveal their true character.
In his book, Porter said one candidate, Leonard, told a story about finding a camera in the back seat of a Boston taxi. When the driver told Leonard he was going to keep the camera, Leonard refused to give it to the driver and instead took it to the taxi company’s lost and found. Leonard got the job.
Those are the kinds of stories you want to hear — along with adjectives like those described above.
Bad indicators
What you don’t want to hear, Porter says, are indicators the candidate has what he describes as an “all-about-me” attitude.
Some of those indicators could be dropping adjectives like:
- Carefree
- Fun
- Laid back.
However, describing themselves in those ways aren’t necessarily deal breakers. Those qualities can actually be good things, Porter says, when balanced out by professional attributes. But finding out whether that’s the case requires deeper probing.
Read the original article here: https://www.hrmorning.com/5-adjectives-you-want-to-hear-job-candidates-say/
Source:
Schappel, C. (2016, June 22). 5 adjectives you want to hear job candidates say [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.hrmorning.com/5-adjectives-you-want-to-hear-job-candidates-say/
IRS Update on Filing ACA Forms After June 30, 2016
The IRS is giving a pass this year but encourages those who missed the deadline to file ACA Forms to still complete filing returns. See the article below from ThinkHR.com for more information.
Original Post from ThinkHR.com on July 1, 2016
If you are an applicable large employer, self-insured employer, or other health coverage provider, the deadline to electronically file ACA information returns (e.g., Forms 1094-B, 1095-B, 1094-C and 1095-C) with the IRS was June 30, 2016. The ACA Information Returns (AIR) system will remain up and running after the deadline. If you were not able to submit all required ACA information returns by June 30, 2016, you are advised to complete the filing of your returns after the deadline.
It is important to note the following:
- The AIR system will continue to accept information returns filed after June 30, 2016. In addition, you can still complete required system testing after June 30, 2016.
- If any of your transmissions or submissions was rejected by the AIR system, you have 60 days from the date of rejection to submit a replacement and have the rejected submission treated as timely filed.
- If you submitted and received “Accepted with Errors” messages, you may continue to submit corrections after June 30, 2016.
The IRS is aware that some filers are still in the process of completing their 2015 tax year filings. As is the case for other information returns, penalties may be associated with the submission of the ACA information returns for failure to timely file required returns. As the IRS has publicly stated in various forums in recent months, filers of Forms 1094-B, 1095-B, 1094-C and 1095-C that miss the June 30, 2016 due date will not generally be assessed late filing penalties under section 6721 if the reporting entity has made legitimate efforts to register with the AIR system and to file its information returns, and it continues to make such efforts and completes the process as soon as possible. In addition, consistent with existing information reporting rules, filers that are assessed penalties may still meet the criteria for a reasonable cause waiver from the penalties.
If you are not an electronic filer and you missed the May 31, 2016 paper filing deadline for ACA information returns, you should also complete the filing of your paper returns as soon as possible.
For more information, the IRS provides helpful questions and answers on the ACA reporting requirements for applicable large employers here.
Read the original article here.
Source:
Unknown (2016, July 1). IRS Update on Filing ACA Forms After June 30, 2016 [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.thinkhr.com/blog/hr/irs-update-on-filing-aca-forms-after-june-30-2016/
States Offer Privacy Protections To Young Adults On Their Parents’ Health Plan
Michelle Andrews gives insight on how the ACA is impacting HIPPA and privacy for young adults. See her article below.
Original Post from Kaisher Health News on June 28, 2016.
The health law opened the door for millions of young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they turn 26. But there’s a downside to remaining on the family plan. Chances are that mom or dad, as policyholder, will get a notice from the insurer every time the grown-up kid gets medical care, a breach of privacy that many young people may find unwelcome.
With this in mind, in recent years a handful of states have adopted laws or regulations that make it easier for dependents to keep medical communications confidential.
The privacy issue has long been recognized as important, particularly in the case of a woman who might fear reprisal if, for example, her husband learned she was using birth control against his wishes. But now the needs of adult children are also getting attention.
“There’s a longstanding awareness that disclosures by insurers could create dangers for individuals,” said Abigail English, director of the advocacy group Center for Adolescent Health and the Law, who has examined these laws. “But there was an added impetus to concerns about the confidentiality of insurance information with the dramatic increase in the number of young adults staying on their parents’ plan until age 26” under the health law.
Federal law does offer some protections, but they are incomplete, privacy advocates say. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a key federal privacy law that established rules for when insurers, doctors, hospitals and others may disclose individuals’ personal health information. It contains a privacy rule that allows people to request that their providers or health plan restrict the disclosure of information about their health or treatment. They can ask that their insurer not send the ubiquitous “explanation of benefits” form describing care received or denied to their parents, for example. But an insurer isn’t obligated to honor that request.
In addition, HIPAA’s privacy rule says that people can ask that their health plan communicate with them at an alternate location or using a method other than the one it usually employs. Someone might ask that EOBs be sent by email rather than by mail, for example, or to a different address than that of the policyholder. The insurer has to accommodate those requests if the person says that disclosing the information would endanger them.
A number of states, including California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Maryland, have taken steps to clarify and strengthen the health insurance confidentiality protections in HIPAA or ensure their implementation.
In California, for example, all insurers have to honor a request by members that their information not be shared with a policyholder if they are receiving sensitive services such as reproductive health or drug treatment or if the patient believes that sharing the health information could lead to harm or harassment.
“There was concern that the lack of detail in HIPAA inhibited its use,” said Rebecca Gudeman, senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, a California nonprofit group that helps provide resources to attorneys and groups representing the legal interests of poor children. She noted that HIPAA doesn’t define endangerment, for example, and doesn’t include details about how to implement confidentiality requests.
Concerns by young people that their parents may find out about their medical care leads some to forgo the care altogether, while others go to free or low-cost clinics for reproductive and sexual health services, for example, and skip using their insurance. In 2014, 14 percent of people who received family planning services funded under the federal government’s Title X program for low-income individuals had private health insurance coverage, according to the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.
Even though most states don’t require it, some insurers may accommodate confidentiality requests, said Dania Palanker, senior counsel for health and reproductive rights at the National Women’s Law Center, a research and advocacy group.
“Inquire whether there will be information sent and whether there’s a way to have it sent elsewhere,” Palanker said. “It may be possible that the insurer has a process even if state doesn’t have a law.”
Insurers’ perspective on these types of rules vary. In California, after some initial concerns about how the law would be administered, insurers in the state worked with advocates on the bill, Gudeman said. “I give them a lot of credit,” she said.
Restricting access to EOBs can be challenging to administer, said Clare Krusing, a spokesperson for America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group. A health plan may mask or filter out a diagnosis or service code on the EOB, but provider credentials or pharmacy information may still hint at the services provided.
There’s also good reason in many instances for insurers and policyholders to know the details about when a policy is used, experts say. Policyholders also may have difficulty tracking cost-sharing details such as how much remains on the deductible for their plan.
In addition, “if a consumer receives a filtered or masked EOB, he or she has no way of knowing whether their account has been compromised or used as part of fraudulent activity,” Krusing said.
Read the full article and learn more at: https://khn.org/news/states-offer-privacy-protections-to-young-adults-on-their-parents-health-plan/
Source:
Adnrews, M. (2016, June 27). States offer privacy protections to young adults on their parents’ health plan [Web log post] Retrieved from https://khn.org/news/states-offer-privacy-protections-to-young-adults-on-their-parents-health-plan/
5 Top Employee Benefits Questions and How to Answer Them
Original Post from BenfitsPro.com
By: Monica Majors
Legislative changes continue to markedly affect the health benefits marketplace. Employers and their workers face challenges on a number of fronts. Along with those challenges come questions that range from current and future requirements of health care reform, to providing adequate plan coverage that serves employees well.
By understanding the top-of-mind employer benefit issues and responding to them appropriately and effectively, brokers and advisors can better serve existing clients, attract new ones, and help employees protect themselves and their families going forward.
1. How can I meet my employees’ needs?
A key concern of today’s employers is making sure benefits they offer for both prospective and current employees are competitive. Businesses recognize the role a solid benefit program plays in attracting and keeping good talent, and they want to know what is included in plans offered by their competitors.
Brokers serving the health benefits marketplace can best serve customers by knowing the current market landscape well, speaking confidently about it and sharing that knowledge with customers. Key to this knowledge is understanding what the employer currently offers, what types of employees make up its workforce, what their needs are, and what gaps may currently exist.
Then, talk with insurers and learn what industry and market insight they may possess based on geographic and industry-specific factors. Search out findings made available from insurance- and customer-specific industry research organizations and trade associations. You can also mine data from within your own office, such as aggregated customer information by industry.
Integrate all of this information with comprehensive benefit offerings available from the carriers you represent, and show employers how they can gain a competitive market advantage with the right benefit plan.
2. How can I control my costs?
The question of controlling costs is common for obvious reasons. Small groups, in particular, are looking for creative ways to keep their health benefit expenses down. Brokers can address this question by understanding current offerings and combining that with knowledge of the plans available through the carriers they represent.
Understanding the various coverage tiers available and sharing that knowledge with employers is key. Often, implementing a health benefit program that meets the minimum required coverage levels brings the lowest cost.
Other cost-reduction strategies include addressing coverage for dependents or part-time employees. Some employers may consider eliminating dependent coverage or reducing contributions for this coverage. Also, determine with the employer the cost versus the benefit of including part-time staff in the plan. Employers may need to make tough decisions to maintain viable programs for employees.
Employers need to consider other costs that may come into play. For example, new IRS and ACA reporting requirements for employers to notify employees about new mandates bring with them administrative expenses. While they may not be able to eliminate these costs, brokers can help provide guidance and increase awareness around the changing requirements. They can also recommend approaches that might help employers streamline the process to reduce the impact of the requirements.
3. What about exchanges?
Employer questions about health benefit exchanges are prevalent. How do the exchanges align with the employer’s desire to deliver benefits in a cost-effective manner? What advantages do they offer? What are the drawbacks? Brokers need to be familiar with individual and group exchanges — both private and public.
Brokers working with some employers may find that certain tax advantages come along with using a public exchange. Private exchanges offer other benefits, from cost-management tools to a broader set of administrative support options and a choice of benefit options that extend beyond basic medical coverage. Group or employer-focused exchanges are becoming increasingly popular as a way to efficiently manage health benefits. Brokers should become familiar with the pros and cons, as well as processes involved.
It’s important to understand the advantages for different employer groups, as well as the reputation and satisfaction levels of exchanges, and use that knowledge to help employers select the right option.
4. What’s on the horizon?
Large employers are concerned about looming changes. They wonder how new regulations—for example, the Cadillac tax —may affect them in the future. Brokers need to be knowledgeable about what is coming down the pike, and how to minimize negative resulting impacts.
Preparing for the Cadillac tax, for example, may require a strategy shift. While the tax is primarily levied against health plans for coverage deemed “too rich,” it will ultimately affect employers and workers. Health plans are likely to pass off at least some of the costs to employers in the form of higher premiums. Employers may then pass costs off to workers in the form of higher cost-sharing arrangements. Of course, employers will have to consider how this will impact employee retention and recruitment.
The Internal Revenue Service posts helpful information about the ACA’s requirements on employers on its website: irs.gov/affordable-care-act. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website is another valuable resource: cms.gov/cciio/.
5. Why you?
The final top question may be one employers don’t explicitly ask; but it’s one you need to answer: “Why should I use you as a broker?” How is it that you set yourself apart from other brokers — industry knowledge, market strategy or customer service? Brokers need to carefully and clearly explain benefit plan designs, educate employers, guide them through the maze of changes in the benefits arena, and explain all the implications.
Building knowledge is the first part of the answer. Learn about laws, regulations and your employers’ workforce attributes. Learn more about the products offered by carriers and through the exchanges. Combine that knowledge with employer and employee data you capture to design programs that can help employers attract and retain good workers. Work with financially strong carrier partners to find and deliver the right benefit plans, and consider offering your clients a multi-year strategy where appropriate. And leverage administrative, technology, client portals and other resources your carrier partners offer.
Be sure to document and explain the advantages you can bring to the employer. Also, encourage satisfied customers to provide testimonials, directly and on social platforms, and then share these testimonials and references to help differentiate yourself and your shop from your competitors.
By understanding the needs of your clients, offering cost control solutions and keeping businesses apprised of changes on the horizon, you set yourself apart from other brokers and demonstrate your value as a trusted adviser. New and existing clients will come to you year after year for help in designing affordable health benefit plans that will attract and hold onto good workers.