9 Levels of Office Worker’s Hell
Originally posted February 20, 2014 by Dan Cook on https://www.benefitspro.com
Sometimes even an obviously self-serving study by a corporation can be helpful. The e-book “The 9 Levels of Enterprise Work Hell” fits into this category. The Utah company behind this e-book, AtTask, sells work management tools for business teams, and much of the “advice” contained in the book involves getting the right work management tools for business teams.
Yet the e-book is cleverly designed and written, with lots of spooky graphics and gothic images and typeface. The data was derived from 1,000 survey responses, so it’s not a bad sample, either. And, most of all, AtTask has found a fun way to deliver serious information about those things that irritate people most.
Fast Company also pulled together a fine synopsis on this, interviewing AtTask Chief Marketing Officer Bryan Nielson, whose quotes are included here. And now, without further ado, here are AtTask’s workplace equivalents of Dante’s levels (or, to be accurate, circles) of hell:
1. Tool Hell
The average person uses 13 different tools or methods to manage their day, says Nielson. That’s way too many and leads to workers spending more time trying to remember how to use existing tools, learn how to use new ones and get the old and new ones to work together, than actually using them to do important work.
“All that toggling back and forth creates challenges and fragments work experience,” he says. Nielson says the fix is to consolidate tools, using one or two that are easily accessible by everyone. And, of course, choose a task-management tool. AtTask makes them. Also, AtTask advices setting up best practices for the team and making sure everyone knows what they are and sticks to them.
2. Rework Hell
Workers spend 14 percent of their day duplicating information and forwarding emails and phone calls. A quarter to 40 percent of project budgets are wasted as a result of rework, says Nielson.
“The cause for this is disconnect; workers aren’t getting the right information from those who request the work,” he says.
Part of the problem is that the work, and its outcomes, were not clearly defined before the tasks began. Before a new request is taken, take plenty of time to gather information upfront, Nielson says, and get stakeholders involved at every stage by managing feedback and approvals in a central location.
3. Fire Drill Hell
In this level of chaos and insanity, fires are bursting out all over the place (oftentimes strategically set by those who use a fire to cover their lack of productivity). No one has a chance to stand back and consider how the work should be done or what the outcomes of the work should be. The “average” corporation spends about half its time in fire-drill mode, Nielson says. To eliminate this type of work hell, don’t start by pretending fires aren’t breaking out or that you can immediately stop them. Instead, acknowledge their existence by building time in project schedules for them. That way, they are part of the timeline, not the disrupter of timelines. Then, start to fireproof your workplace by improving communication. “Encourage workers to give feedback on requests such as, ‘I can take this urgent project, but it will cause these four other things to slip. Are you OK with that?’” he says.
4. Silo Hell
More than half of workers say departmentally “siloed” information is their top challenge in managing data, says Nielson. People often create their own silos intentionally. Everyone is using different systems and solutions, no one is smoothly sharing information, and transparency is nil. Teams don’t talk and don’t work together. “The problem is not having complete alignment,” Nielson says. His solutions: eliminate needless formalities that throw up obstacles between people and departments, such as going through proper channels. Encourage collaboration, using such techniques as a new office layout, shifting of job responsibilities, rearranging reporting channels. Diversify project teams and organize staff meetings by project instead of department.
5. Reporting Hell
Old data isn’t very useful except for comparison’s sake. But how often does your data need to be updated? When is data out of date, and when is an update not really very useful? These are other questions are raised in Reporting Hell, as direct reports send in mounds of numbers and analyses in different formats, at different times and with little thought to whether the latest report matters to the enterprise.
Managers gather information for meetings and to justify their jobs, says Nielson, but the collection method is often outdated. Instead, he says companies should create a communication plan that will identify who needs to get updates, what information they need, when they need it, where the data will be stored and how it will be distributed. Then create a process in collaboration with your team members that automatically distributes information to the right people.
6. Meeting Hell
At the enterprise level, all meeting cannot be eliminated. But, says Nielson, an awful lot of them can be, thus freeing you and your workers from “the prison of the working dead.”
“Fifty percent of meetings are considered a waste of time, and 74 percent of workers do other work while in meetings,” he says. That’s because most meetings aren’t collaboration meetings, they’re status updates.”
Eliminate status meetings and review meetings, he advises. These can be handled asynchronously with a robust work management system that everyone has access to. Never schedule any other kind of meeting without first asking, “Is this meeting really necessary? Is there a faster way to get information to and from people.” If the meeting is necessary, he says, clearly define the purpose beforehand so participants can prepare.
7. Interruption Hell
Nielson says about 50 percent of the average worker’s day is consumed by interruptions, of which 80 percent have “no value.” These can range from someone dropping by a workstation with a “quick request” to emails with random and unapproved work requests to text messages, instant messages and sticky notes that mysteriously appear stuck on a computer screen during a worker’s break.
Like the fire drill, you’ll never eliminate all interruptions, Nielson says. But you can reduce the amount you get each day. Categorize the common types of disruptions you get each day and plan for them, he says. Set up a specific process for making requests that allows workers to check their inbox at set times during the day or week. This can be an online work management tool, or something as simple as a paper tray or dedicated email address. These assignments should be approved and prioritized. And until everyone gets the message, don’t take requests in any other way, and do not suffer non-essential interruptions without pointing them out to the perp.
8. Email Hell
This one, says Nielson, gets hellish really fast but can be remedied fairly easily.
Most workers say they feel overwhelmed by the welter of emails that flood into their inboxes every working day. They spend so much time managing email that they don’t get any serious work done.
“Email is overwhelming organizations,” he says. “We get hundreds each day. It’s impossible to get through them all, but we’re expected to. We end up doing email at all hours of the day.”
The solution: break everyone’s addiction to email as the single source for communicating everything from meeting time updates to the location of the company picnic. Remove its status as a management, collaboration status update, feedback and document-sharing tool, says Nielson. Use a project management tool instead. This will significantly decrease the amount of email you receive, and put communication within the proper context.
9. Collaboration Hell
What kills collaboration is one-on-one communication between two team members that leaves everyone else out. Or everyone not on the system collaboration platform, or never collaborating in the same physical place. The solution is to centralize correspondence, says Nielson, giving the whole team visibility into each other’s work and feedback. “Chat or instant messengers are great for real-time, but those conversations are lost when the window is closed,” says Nielson. “True work collaboration needs to be documented, visible and easy to track.” When the project demands true collaboration, the collaborators need to be inputting and outputting from the same work process tool. When all parties are talking to one another, the work gets done right. When the pieces and players are scattered, collaboration fail happens.
Flu hitting younger and middle-age adults hardest this season
Originally posted February 20, 2014 by Steven Ross Johnson on https://www.modernhealthcare.com
Younger and middle-age adults make up the majority of hospitalizations and deaths from influenza this season, matching rates not seen since the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, federal health officials said Thursday.
Data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show people between ages 18 and 64 have accounted for 61% of flu hospitalizations since September through Feb. 8. That's almost double the average rate of 35% over the past three seasons, according to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
“Influenza can make anyone very sick, very fast, and it can kill,” CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said.
Frieden urged healthcare providers not to wait to treat patients with flu symptoms. “It's important that everyone get vaccinated,” he said. “It's also important to remember that some people who get vaccinated may still get sick, and we need to use our second line of defense against flu: antiviral drugs to treat flu illness. People at high risk of complications should seek treatment if they get a flu-like illness. Their doctors may prescribe antiviral drugs if it looks like they have influenza."
The H1N1 strain of the virus, which the World Health Organization said was responsible for about 18,000 deaths worldwide in 2009, has resurfaced this year.
The CDC said deaths from influenza this season are following similar patterns from those observed during that pandemic. As in 2009-2010, about 60% of flu deaths in the past five months have been people between ages 25 and 64.
Flu vaccinations have been effective this season, reducing a person's risk of seeking medical help by about 60%, according to a second report this week in the MMWR.
Analysis questions value of ACA deductible cap
Originally posted February 14, 2014 by Bruce Shutan on https://ebn.benefitnews.com
In a sign of just how difficult it is to rein in out-of-pocket costs, 35% of 2014 bronze-level plans in the Small Business Health Options Program exchange had deductibles that exceeded suggested annual caps under the Affordable Care Act. The conclusion was based on a HealthPocket analysis of government data from small group health plans in 32 states.
Another key finding was that the lowest level of coverage generated the highest possible costs. A whopping 96% of 2014 bronze-metal SHOP plans, for example, had deductibles of more than the ACA’s $2,000 individual and $4,000 family limits. That same result wasn’t nearly as prevalent for silver or gold plans (28% and 6%, respectively, for individuals and 88% and 6%, respectively, for families), nor was it an issue at the platinum level.
At the bronze level, the medical deductible for an individual enrollee averaged more than twice the amount of the original deductible limit at $4,216 and $8,667 for family coverage, while the annual cap on out-of-pocket costs averaged $6,224 for an individual and $12,518 for a family.
Any strict enforcement of the deductible caps could have substantially narrowed the inventory of health plans in the SHOP exchange, according to the study, which found that fewer than 4% of bronze-tier plans would have satisfied the ACA limits for individual and family enrollees. Small group plans are able to exceed the deductible caps only under the condition of necessity.
“The government effectively abandoned the deductible cap since it would prevent a significant minority of plans from meeting their actuarial value requirements,” explains Kev Coleman, head of research and data at HealthPocket, Inc. and a co-author of the study. He says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicated in February 2013 that these deductible limits must be “applied so as to not affect the actuarial value of any health plan.”
But if the first few months of the HIX marketplace are any indication, there could be changes made that force plans to be re-designed. The study noted that if the deductible cap waivers are removed from future regulations, “then almost all qualified bronze plans would have to decrease their deductibles to satisfy the limits. Decreased deductibles could, in turn, require increases in other categories of enrollee cost-sharing such as co-payments in order for the plans to maintain their actuarial values.”
Last August, U.S. Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) introduced H.R. 2995, which would eliminate the deductible caps for SHOP marketplace plans. The bill, which was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has five co-sponsors.
Fewer Americans getting health insurance through employers
Originally posted February 13, 2014 by Melissa Winn on https://ebn.benefitnews.com
Fewer people are getting their primary health insurance coverage through their employers, according to a Gallup Poll released Wednesday, which also reported the number of uninsured Americans has reached a five-year low.
The poll found 43.5% of Americans now get their primary health insurance coverage through their current or former employer, down from 45.5% in the fourth quarter of 2013. More people now say they have a plan fully paid for by themselves or a family member — 18% versus 17.2% at the end of last year.
The poll also found the percentage of uninsured Americans fell to 16%, down from 17.1% in the fourth quarter of 2013. While more than a month remains in the first quarter of 2014, Wednesday’s data show the uninsured rate appears to be on track to drop to the lowest quarterly level since 2008.
Although the Affordable Care Act’s requirement to have health insurance went into effect Jan. 1, it’s still too early to tell if that requirement has led to the decline in uninsured Americans, the poll says. If the uninsured rate continues to fall over the next few months, however, it could suggest the Affordable Care Act is responsible for the decline, it adds.
Several provisions of the ACA have yet to go into effect, including the mandate for employer health insurance coverage by 2015 or 2016. These provisions are expected to affect the number of uninsured Americans, as well as what types of insurance they have.
The Gallup poll also found the percentage of Americans insured through Medicaid has increased to 7.4% from 6.6% in the fourth quarter of 2013. This increase may be because some states have chosen to participate in the Medicaid expansion under a provision of the ACA, the poll adds.
Dental health savings plans suppress employer ACA aches
Originally posted February 14, 2014 by Michael Giardina on https://ebn.benefitnews.com
Industry onlookers are saying that the voluntary exemption in the Affordable Care Act will do little to improve dental health across the nation as projections point to federal and health exchanges doing little to lower costs for Americans. However, can private dental exchanges and savings plans help to fill this void?
With more than 120 million Americans in need of dental coverage according to data from the National Association of Dental Plans, DentalPlans.com, an exchange that has been in operation since 1999, says that adults will find that stand-alone dental plans will only be available on public exchanges with the purchase of medical insurance plans.
“The ACA does not require adults to be covered for dental services in medical plans,” says Jennifer Stoll, president of DentalPlans.com . “Therefore, adult dental benefits have to be purchased separately, because they are optional under the law.”
Due to the ACA, the NADP explains that about 30 to 40 million will enter the dental plan market while about 10 to 20 million will lose or change their current plans. Because of these expected changes, Stoll says employees can benefit with the savings plan model.
“Purchasing a dental savings plan can help the employee get the oral care they need with savings of 10% to 60% off what they would pay out-of-pocket,” says Stoll.
The American Dental Association said in a recent report that an estimated 5.3 million adults will attain oral health coverage as a result of the ACA. This will reduce the number of adults without dental benefits by about 5%, according to the April 2013 study, which notes that more than 8.7 million children will benefit from the new provisions.
“The ACA is a missed opportunity, and we have a long way to go in ensuring access to oral health for all Americans,” says Dr. Marko Vujicic, managing vice president of the ADA’s Health Policy Resource Centers. “This is especially true for adults, who have experienced greater financial barriers to dental care in recent years.”
Communicating these financial barriers could help employers and employees. DentalPlans.com currently offers plans to employers that start $6.00 per employee/month. For an average family, which includes two adults and two dependent children, families can save $626 on annual ADA recommended treatments, says the dental savings plan retailer.
DentalPlans.com offers more than 30 different plans, which fall under brands like Aetna, Careington, Signature Wellness and UNI-CARE.
“Since dental care for adults is not a required Essential Health Benefit under the ACA, employers are able to offer savings plans to their employees any time,” Stoll explains. “The plans can be offered completely voluntary with no employer contribution requirement. The employer is able to offer a dental savings plans that are affordable rather than offering nothing at all.”
But can dental health translate into more productive employees? Stoll says yes. Dental insurance can treat adults in the early stages of bleeding gums, infections and cavities so that employees do not miss work when the pain becomes unbearable.
“Adults miss work due to their own dental illnesses, but also many adults stay home with kids who have to miss school due to toothaches and dental illness as well,” Stoll says.
Moreover, Stoll explains that dental insurance, a missed and often forgotten voluntary option, can become an “added benefit to an employee’s compensation package.”
“Employers experienced enhanced productivity and performance of employees because they could take better care of their own and their families’ oral health,” Stoll explains. “With the recent slowdown in the economy, many employers wonder if they can continue to offer dental benefits to their employees.”
Final Employer ACA Regs from IRS Provide Transition Relief to Mid-Sized Employers
Originally posted on https://www.ifebp.org
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued final regulations implementing the employer responsibility provisions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that take effect in 2015.
The final rules implement the employer shared responsibility provisions of the ACA, under section 4980H of the Internal Revenue Code. The rules make a number of changes in response to input on the proposed regulations issued in December 2012.
Highlights of the rules include addressing a number of questions about how plans can comply with the employer shared responsibility provisions; ensuring that volunteers such as firefighters and emergency responders do not count as full-time employees; and phasing in provisions for businesses with 50 to 99 full-time employees and those that offer coverage to most but not yet all of their full-time workers.
The final rules provide, for 2015, that:
- The employer responsibility provision will generally apply to larger firms with 100 or more full-time employees starting in 2015 and employers with 50 to 99 full-time employees starting in 2016.
- To avoid a payment for failing to offer health coverage, employers need to offer coverage to 70 percent of their full-time employees in 2015 and 95 percent in 2016 and beyond, helping employers that, for example, may offer coverage to employees with 35 or more hours, but not yet to that fraction of their employees who work 30 to 34 hours. (Proposed regulations would have required employers to offer coverage to 95 percent of their full-time employees in 2015.)
Various Employee Categories
The final regulations provide clarifications regarding whether employees of certain types or in certain occupations are considered full-time, including:
- Volunteers: Hours contributed by bona fide volunteers for a government or tax-exempt entity, such as volunteer firefighters and emergency responders, will not cause them to be considered full-time employees.
- Educational employees: Teachers and other educational employees will not be treated as part-time for the year simply because their school is closed or operating on a limited schedule during the summer.
- Seasonal employees: Those in positions for which the customary annual employment is six months or less generally will not be considered full-time employees.
- Student work-study programs: Service performed by students under federal or state-sponsored work-study programs will not be counted in determining whether they are full-time employees.
- Adjunct faculty: Based on the comments received, the final regulations provide as a general rule that, until further guidance is issued, employers of adjunct faculty are to use a method of crediting hours of service for those employees that is reasonable in the circumstances and consistent with the employer responsibility provisions. However, to accommodate the need for predictability and ease of administration and consistent with the request for a “bright line” approach suggested in a number of the comments, the final regulations expressly allow crediting an adjunct faculty member with 2 ¼ hours of service per week for each hour of teaching or classroom time as a reasonable method for this purpose.
U.S. Treasury Press Release
U.S. Treasury Fact Sheet
IRS Questions and Answers on Employer Shared Responsibility Provisions Under the Affordable Care Act
In 2020, Workers Will Decide Health Benefits
Originally posted by Bill Toland February 09, 2014 on https://insurancenewsnet.com
By the end of the decade, the majority of American workers will be selecting their health benefits from an online menu of plans and paying for those benefits with a stipend from their employer, according to experts in the field.
If and when that day comes, it would mark a major shift for the nation's health care apparatus and a reversal of the method by which health insurance has been furnished to American workers for decades -- through a defined-benefits plan selected by an employer.
In 2020, private health "exchanges" will be the predominant way that health care benefits are delivered in this country, said Eric Grossman, a senior partner at Mercer and the exchange business leader in his company's benefits division.Mercer, based in New York with an office in Pittsburgh, is a global human resources, benefits and financial services consultant.
Mr. Grossman, like many other experts in the field, likens the transition in health insurance to the ongoing transition in retirement planning -- where once the "defined-benefit" pension was commonplace, now many companies offer "defined contributions" which employees can steer to a 401(k) or an investment mix of their choice.
That transition took two decades, but now, for anyone under the age of 35, employer-subsidized retirement -- where it still exists, that is -- generally means a defined contribution.
"Our prediction in health care is that a similar transition will happen, [but] it will happen more quickly," Mr. Grossman said.
Private health insurance exchanges -- some of which already exist -- work like this: Instead of an employer negotiating a standard benefits plan or two for its employees, companies instead make a defined cash contribution to employee accounts. Employees then use the cash to select from a menu of a half-dozen or so health plans, with varying price levels of coverage.
Exchanges are set up and managed by health insurers (such as Highmark), benefits consultants (such as Mercer), traditional benefits brokers and online brokers. Plans included in exchanges can be a mix of plans from regional and national insurers, depending on who is the sponsor. A Highmark exchange would offer only its own plans, for example, while a Mercer exchange would offer plans from several companies.
Businesses have dozens of plans to choose from within the exchange "universe" -- health as well as dental, vision and others -- but that list is whittled down to a handful before the plans are finally offered to employee groups.
These are called private, or closed, exchanges because the policies are available only to company employees -- not to the population at large, as is the case with the national and state-based marketplaces that came online Oct. 1 as part of the Affordable Care Act.
Right now, said Bill Brown, Highmark's manager of digital distribution, national marketplace penetration for private exchanges is about 3 percent and adoption rate among Highmark's client base is about the same. Large companies with more than 250 employees have been particularly cautious.
Highmark began offering large employers access to its "MyBenefits" exchanges Jan. 1.
"There's a lot of interest," Mr. Brown said. "But they're not ready to jump."
That's partly because, despite the 401(k) analogy, there's not much immediate cost savings in a health exchange, particularly for large groups. When big employers moved away from pensions and toward defined contributions, the point was to reduce immediate retirement costs and unload a major financial liability going forward. Today, less than 30 percent of Fortune 100 companies offer a defined-benefit retirement plan to new salaried employees.
But with health exchanges, big, self-insured employers that now pay all of their own medical claims will continue to do so. The impetus to move to an exchange, at least among larger employers, won't come from claims savings but rather the opportunity to offer a wider array of health plans to employees and to offload some of the benefits administration now handled by human resources departments.
The real savings will come for fully-insured small-and-mid-sized groups, Mr. Brown said.
They'll be able to offer far more variety to employees, and the entire process will happen online. "It really streamlines administration," he said.
If they "move onto [the] exchange, they get five medical options, four dental, four vision" plans, he said. Employees can choose the plan that is best for them and their family.
While the pension analogy is the one most commonly used to describe the shift, Mr. Brown said a comparison to the world of retail shopping might be more appropriate. Where once customers went to a store and were able to select from whatever the store had in stock, now they can go to Amazon.comand buy anything.
A decade or so ago, people might have been skeptical of the online shopping process, but not anymore -- at least, not in retail.
Mr. Brown believes that will be proven true in health insurance: 14 years ago, Highmark test-launched an online ("paperless," the press release described it) defined-contribution platform called BlueChoice. "It kind of fizzled out. Nobody was ready at that time."
But they soon will be. Part of it is just the ubiquity of the Internet. Part of it is getting used to health care as a retail market. And part of it, said Mr. Grossman of Mercer, is getting people to separate work from health insurance. If people don't buy auto or mortgage insurance through their employers, why do they get health insurance that way?
"The mindset for decades was, for most people, 'My employer provides it,' " Mr. Grossman said, and employers have done so, and continue to do so, for competitive reasons. Employer-sponsored health insurance became the norm in the U.S. following World War II, driven by recruiting needs and labor unions.
That era is ending, and Mercer is of the opinion that the "employee is in the best position to decide the best plan," Mr. Grossman said.
Mr. Brown predicted that in the next 18 months, up to 40 percent of small employers will be offering benefits through some kind of exchange and up to a quarter of midsized companies will do the same.
"The one thing I'm waiting for is someone really big to make a move [to exchanges] -- Walmart, McDonald's," Mr. Brown said. "That's the tipping point. And the entire market is going to start to switch."
Stress continues to boil up in American adults: APA study
Originally posted February 12, 2014 by Michael Giardina on https://ebn.benefitnews.com
Are Americans accepting ways to cope with ever skyrocketing stress levels that can make them more productive to employers? New research finds that traditional pressures continue to rise and more needs to be done to relieve this strain.
The American Psychological Association’s annual survey, released Tuesday, finds that stress continues to plague American adults. According to its Stress in America report, 42% say that stress levels have increased and 36% state that these levels have remained constant over the past five-years.
On average, despite reporting that a healthy stress level is 3.6 on a 10-point scale, survey respondents state their stress level is 5.1. APA says that only 10% of these adults actually make time for stress management activities.
Dr. David Ballard, who heads up APA’s Center for Organizational Excellence, explains that in stress “there is a sizeable gap of what people think is healthy and what they are experiencing.”
Ballard notes stresses related to money, work and the economy seem to support this year’s growth among the 2,000 adults who participated in the nationwide study. While “not unusual,” Ballard says the industry needs to act.
“[Employers] have a workforce…trying to be productive and engaged [but] who is overwhelmed,” Ballard says. “To have more than two-thirds of their workforce say that work is a major source of stress for them, it’s clearly something that employers and employees alike need to deal with.”
Individual stress interventions such as relaxation trainings, meditation, exercise or yoga classes and teaching time management skills are just some options for employers.
“The organizations that do take steps to address work stress typically are focusing on individual-level intervention….but this individual level approach by itself typically won’t be enough to prevent the stress from occurring in the first place and keeping it from being a problem,” Ballard continues. “The key is adding…organizational level things that can be done because when you look at what work stress really is, it’s a mismatch between the demands that employees are facing to the resources that they have available to cope with those demands.”
Previously, in February 2013, APA found that 31% of Americans who categorize themselves as suffering from high stress never discuss stress management with their health care provider. Moreover, 32% of Americans say they believe it is very or extremely important to talk with their health care providers about stress management, but only 17% report that these conversations are happening often or always.
In this year’s study, APA lists that stress impacts both sleep and exercise habits. Ballard says that employers can get ahead of the curve by first instituting hiring practices that find individuals who are a “good fit for the job and the organization.” He adds that additional training and development can help to handle conflicts that arise from positions, ambiguity of work tasks and the handling of high workloads.
Also, employers should assess social and work environment issues that can address team compatibility and workplace organization from both the social and physical dynamic, he says.
“When organizations understand that the health of their workforce and the performance and success of the company are linked together, then they’ll take steps that are both for the wellbeing of the worker and for the organization’s performance,” Ballard explains. “This isn’t just about doing the right thing and taking care of your workers, that is all true and it’s important, but it’s also smart business.”
Can Companies Screen Employees to Prevent Workplace Injuries?
Originally posted February 06, 2014 by Sandy Smith on https://ehstoday.com
Many companies are considering implementing functional capacity evaluations to ensure employees are fit enough to start new jobs or are ready to return to work after an injury.
What happens when increasing staff costs meet tighter skilled labor markets? Productivity becomes an issue, with increasingly more companies – particularly those with physically demanding work – looking to minimize staff downtime and ensure that workflow proceeds as smoothly as possible.
One way companies in Singapore are doing so is by accessing and ensuring that their employees are fit enough for the actual physical work to be done. The physical fitness level assessment of an employee to do his or her job is known as a functional capacity evaluation (FCE). As the name suggests, it measures the capacity of an employee to perform the tasks that their jobs require.
"In the past, it was generally large, foreign [companies] that were asking for FCEs but these days we have done evaluations for local companies,” said Sylvia Ho, the principal physiotherapist at Core Concepts, one of the largest private musculoskeletal healthcare groups in Singapore, specializing in spors medicine, workers’ compensation cases, massotherapy and physical and occupational therapy. “We see increasing demand [for FCEs] in the future. Rising operating cost and labor tightness will make the cost of conducting FCEs more and more viable.”
Functional capacity evaluations measure the ability of employees to carry out certain functional movements. Measurements include strength levels and stamina of certain basic movements involved in most job functions.
Ho said she takes it a little further to combine a musculoskeletal screening that also assesses the body's muscle, joint and skeletal structure to provide information about things like joint flexibility. “With our physiotherapy background, we aim to take a more comprehensive approach in detecting potential problems that may occur in the future,” she said. “Our clients come from a range of industries, including the pharmaceutical industry, the oil and gas industry and heavy manufacturing.”
FCE is only one piece of the productivity puzzle, but one of growing importance, said Ho.
“Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower has adopted a national, strategic and long-term approach to achieving sustainable, continuous improvement in workplace safety and health performance. We hope to play our role by helping industries prevent avoidable workplace health incidences,” she said.
Reminder: CMS Online Disclosure Due by March 1, 2014
This requirement is nothing new. In the past health plan sponsors have been required to complete an annual online disclosure form with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), to show whether the prescription drug coverage offered under the sponsor's plan/plans are "creditable" (at least as good as Medicare Part D's prescription drug benefit) or "noncreditable" (not as good). The plan sponsor must complete the disclosure within 60 days after the beginning of the plan year.
Who Is Exempt From this Process?
As an employer if you do not offer drug coverage to any Medicare-enrolled employee, retiree or dependent at the beginning of the plan year are exempt from filing. Similarly, employers who qualified for the Medicare Part D retiree drug subsidy are exempt from filing with CMS, but only with respect to the individuals and plan options for which they claimed the subsidy. If an employer offers prescription drug coverage to any Medicare-enrolled retirees or dependents not claimed under the subsidy, the employer must complete an online disclosure for plan options covering such individuals.
Filing with CMS is due by March 1, 2014.
A CMS filing is also required within 30 days of termination of a prescription drug plan and for any change in a plan's creditable coverage status. As described above some plans are exempt from the filing requirement.
Instructions related to the online filing discuss the types of information that are required, including the total number of Part D eligible individuals, the number of prescription drug options and which options are creditable and noncreditable. Click to access the instructions. Please save any documentation of this filing for your records.
Click to access the online portal that is used to complete the submission.