Subway’s new program helps workers get degrees

What voluntary benefits does your organization offer? Subway is now offering a program that gives workers access to career readiness and high school diploma programs. Read the following blog post to learn more about this new benefit.


Subway is making it easier for employees to get high school and college degrees.

The sandwich franchise is launching a new education benefit for employees in 331 restaurants in central Florida. The program, which began piloting last month, gives workers access to a career readiness and high school diploma program.

“I think something like this really does bring value and improves the lives of [our] employees,” says Michael Robling, an operations specialist at Subway for North America.

Subway’s program includes a career readiness boot camp and high school degree program offered through Penn Foster. Robling says the company has partnerships with several universities to help employees get college degrees at a discount. The company also offers scholarships for employees through the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation, a private foundation created by one of Subway's co-founders.

“This is definitely just a start,” Robling says.

This move comes after Mexican-inspired restaurant chain Chipotle began offering free college degrees to its 80,000 employees from 75 business and technology degree programs. Employees at Chipotle can earn their associates or bachelor degrees online from the University of Arizona, Bellevue University, Brandman University, Southern New Hampshire University and Wilmington University.

More than half of employers offer a tuition assistance benefit to employees, according to data from the Society for Human Resource Management. Indeed, companies including Disney, Walmart and Discover, Chick-fil-A, Hulu, Lowe’s, McDonald’s and Taco Bell all also announced education benefits last year.

Robling says he thinks more employers will begin to invest in benefits that help workers achieve higher education goals. Employees at Subway are appreciative of the opportunity and it may help the company retain workers long-term, he adds.

“If the franchise owner is looking out for me, I’m going to be happier at work,” he says. “That’s one of the big positives of this program.”

SOURCE: Hroncich, C. (11 November 2019) "Subway’s new program helps workers get degrees" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/news/education-assistance-for-college-and-high-school-diplomas


Strategies to promote emotional well-being in the workplace

According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, one in five adults experiences some form of mental illness during the year. Research has shown that 90 percent of employees perform better when they address mental health. Read the following article to learn more about how to promote emotional well-being at work.


Employers are taking a greater interest in their employees’ well-being by promoting emotional wellness at work.

Wellness programs are offered by 58% of employers, according to data from the Society for Human Resource Management. There are mutual benefits to be reaped by the employer and employees when an organization looks to support its workers’ emotional wellness.

About 90% of employees perform better when they address mental health, but only 41% feel comfortable bringing it up during a check-in, according to data from 15Five, a software company that specializes in gathering employee feedback.

One in five American adults experiences some form of mental illness in any given year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Health. Additionally, one in every 25 adults is living with a serious mental health condition such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or long-term recurrent major depression.

Employees are demanding better mental health benefits from their employers and some of them are listening. In September, coffee giant Starbucks announced that it is taking steps to improve its employees’ mental health with a new long-term initiative that includes an enhanced employee assistance program and mental health training for store managers.

Only 25% of U.S.-based managers, across a variety of industries, have been trained to refer employees to mental health resources, according to SHRM. Employers including PNC and Ocean Spray are also investing in benefits to address mental health.

See Also: 5 reasons employers should offer student loan repayment benefits

By investing in emotional and mental wellness benefits, employers are creating a human-centric workforce that drives retention, productivity and engagement, says Heidi Collins, vice president of people operations at 15Five. A key part in achieving this to create a culture that normalizes conversations about mental health.

Collins spoke with Employee Benefit News about how organizations can provide management with stronger training and more open check-ins that enable them to build trusting relationships with their employees to promote productivity.

How is 15Five creating a culture that is more understanding of employees’ mental health needs?

In so many different practices with our employees, both in our manager and direct report programs, but also as a company as a whole. We are normalizing emotions and emotional wellness in the workplace. What it all has, to begin with, is the strategy behind it and your company’s values. It can’t just be a program that HR is sponsoring and promoting but that’s not really attached to the overall company values.

How can an employer create a more mental-health and wellness-focused workplace?

We do automated weekly check-ins between managers and their direct reports. We have a recognition feature called High5, so that people throughout the organization can highlight their peers, express gratitude and also highlight someone for how they may have impacted their day or a project that went really well. There’s a recognition feature, there’s a review feature, there’s a weekly check-in feature. In the weekly check in we have a poll rating and every week we ask our employees: on a scale of one to five, how did you feel at work this week? So we build into our product the practice of managers checking in with their employees about their feelings and about their emotional and mental well-being. We attempt to create enough psychological safety, trust and openness to vulnerability that employees feel comfortable that if they are having a two out of five weeks, it can be okay to share that with a manager and be able to back it up with the reason why. So for example, an employee might say: This week was a two out of five for me because three projects blew up in our faces and at home my kid is sick and I didn’t get any sleep. The employee can just lay it all out there.

How can employers and employees become more comfortable normalizing the conversation around mental health?

It has to be very intentional, deliberate and explicit. It’s the kind of stuff employers may talk about or advertise or promote on their employer branding website...it should be very clear that promoting emotional well-being and mental wellness is part of the employer’s culture and something they value. The executive team and all of the leadership needs to be totally brought into that and that’s challenging because there are many people out there in the world who aren’t comfortable yet with talking about or bringing up those kinds of things at work. That’s the big challenge we’re facing right now, yet so many employees are coming to expect [support for mental health issues].

See Also: Employers can help employees catch some Z's with new wellness benefit

Is there a generational disconnect when it comes to promoting emotional wellness in the workplace?

I would say that those of us who don’t have our heads stuck in the sand, we get it. We realize that there’s a reason this mindset of addressing employees’ mental health is so popular. It’s because it’s way more effective. This is how we want to work. I’m generation X and I have a lot of friends who work in big corporate environments who still think you leave your emotions at the door. But I would say those of us who want to have a more progressive approach are so on board with it. HR professionals and potential employees who follow those old school ways, they won’t even get hired at a company like ours and I bet a lot of our customer’s companies. That’s because we know that doesn’t work anymore.

What specifically has 15Five done to promote this initiative among its employees?

It all starts from our hiring process and what we communicate about our values and what it’s like to work at 15Five. Not only are we assessing candidates on their skills, but we’re also assessing them on their willingness to go to that very vulnerable place in their day to day with their manager or direct report. We have question in our interviews that ask “would you be comfortable talking about emotions at work?” and “if you were a two out of five on the emotion poll for the week, would you be able to share that with your manager and how would you go about doing that?” We will ask questions to make sure candidates we are bringing in are okay with this way of doing things. If somebody is going into a manager position internally, we have just implemented a manager assessment interview to make sure this person really has the skills to be a 15Five manager. A manager in our eyes is not just a taskmaster or somebody who approves your time off. They need to be employees’ coach, cheerleader and champion and they need to be comfortable supporting employees when things aren’t going well. It’s almost like having the skill set of a therapist.

SOURCE: Shiavo, A. (23 October 2019) "Strategies to promote emotional well-being in the workplace" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/news/strategies-to-promote-emotional-well-being-in-the-workplace


The Open Enrollment Checklist: Are You Poised for a Successful Season

Are you prepared for open enrollment? According to a recent survey, 56 percent of U.S. adults with employer-sponsored health benefits said health coverage satisfaction is a key factor in deciding whether they should leave their current job. Read this blog post from Employee Benefit News to learn more. 


It’s here… the moment we’ve all been waiting for — or, in the case of HR, preparing for (at least we’d hope). That’s right, open enrollment season has arrived.

Open enrollment is a major opportunity for HR to contribute to their company’s performance — both in terms of healthcare savings and employee productivity. The better employees understand their benefits, the more likely they are to make cost-conscious decisions about their plan choices and their healthcare — saving themselves, and their employers, money. Not only that, but a recent survey found that 56% of U.S. adults with employer-sponsored health benefits said that whether or not they like their health coverage is a key factor in deciding to stay at their current job. And, interestingly, satisfaction with benefits and benefits communications have a tremendous impact on job satisfaction and engagement.

Not sure you’ve done everything you could to turn this annual necessity into a true financial, educational game-changer for your organizations? Ask yourself, did you:

Take stock of last year’s enrollment? Before diving into enrollment for 2020, employers should have taken stock of how the company fared last year. Post-mortem meetings with the enrollment team (along with key internal and external stakeholders) to assess what went well (or didn’t) can ensure the coming enrollment season runs smoothly.

In particular, identify the most time-consuming tasks and discuss how they could be streamlined in the future. Second, determine what questions employees asked the most about last year — and be prepared to answer them again this year. Third, consider whether the company achieved its overall open enrollment goals, and what contributed to those results. By addressing the peaks and pitfalls of last year’s season, HR should have a head start on planning for 2020.

Plan your communications strategy?With a defined approach to open enrollment in place, HR at this point should have developed an organized, well-communicated strategy to keep employees informed about their plan options at enrollment and throughout the year. Have you:

· Defined corporate objectives and how to measure success? · Assessed what messages to share with employees, especially anything that is changing — such as adding or eliminating plans or changing vendors? · Determined what information is best delivered in print (e.g. newsletters, posters, postcards, enrollment guides), online or in person through managers or one-on-one enrollment support? Adopting a multi-channel engagement strategy will ensure key messages reach the intended audience(s).

Make sure employees understand the deadline and process for enrolling — and the implications of missing the enrollment window. They must understand whether their existing coverage will roll over, if they’ll default to a specific plan and/or level of coverage (perhaps different from what they currently have), or end up with no coverage at all.

Take a pro-active approach to open enrollment? Ninety percent of employees report that they roll over their same health plan year over year — though this doesn’t indicate overwhelming plan satisfaction. More typically, it’s because they’re intimidated about what they don’t know, are confused about their choices or just don’t care. Employees don’t have the information they need, and aren’t likely to seek it out on their own.

Offering — or even requiring — one-on-one meetings with benefit experts during open enrollment provides a forum for employees to discuss their individual needs and ensure they are selecting the right coverage. These services — often available through brokers or outside engagement firms — provide employees with a safe space to ask specific questions about their health conditions, family history and potential life changes that could affect their insurance needs. This is the ideal time to remind employees that there is no one-size-fits-all plan, and that the least expensive plan on paper may not, ultimately, be the most cost-effective plan over time.

Revisit your SPD? The document we all love to hate, summary plan descriptions (SPDs) remain the best source for information about how each plan works, what it covers and the participant’s rights and responsibilities under that plan.

Having an SPD that is current, appealing (or at least not off-putting) and easy to access can answer many employee questions before they find their way to HR. Simple fixes like adding charts, callout boxes or icons can make your SPDs easier to navigate. Many employers are taking it a step further and offering interactive SPDs, which include robust search functionality and links to definitions, important forms, modeling tools and calculators, vendor sites and even short video clips. By making SPDs digital and interactive, employers can provide employees access to important information about their coverage 24/7 via any device. And, by adding a data analytics component, HR can track which sections employees visit most and pinpoint knowledge gaps about their benefit options to enhance understanding and drive increased benefits usage.

Account for all demographics? With all the focus on today’s multigenerational workforce, it’s important to remember that there’s more to “demographics” than age and gender. Worksite (office vs. shop floor vs. construction site vs. road warrior) can have a tremendous impact on the communications channels you use and when you use them.

And while some “generational generalizations” hold true — many older workers prefer paper, and most young people prefer mobile communication channels — it’s more important to look at employee cohorts from the perspective of differing priorities (planning for retirement vs. retiring student debt), different levels of education and healthcare literacy, and experience with choosing and using benefits. Employees just starting their careers are likely to need more support and different information than a more seasoned worker who’s had years of experience with the enrollment process. Consider the most effective ways to engage the different demographics of your population to gain their attention and interest in choosing the right plan for them.

Equip employees for smart healthcare choices year-round? For most employees, becoming an educated healthcare consumer is a work in progress — which is why many employers offer year-round resources to support smart healthcare choices. That said, these resources are often under-utilized because employees don’t know they exist.

Open enrollment is the perfect time to spread the word about these programs and address the key question for employees: “What’s in it for me?” For example, many employers offer transparency services, which enable employees to research the potential cost of care and compare prices across several providers in their area.

Other resources, such as benefits advocates, can answer questions from employees in real time — including where to get care, how to get a second opinion and what the doctor’s instructions really mean. When used in conjunction, transparency and advocacy services can lower out-of-pocket spending for the employee and reduce costs for the employer. Does your open enrollment communications strategy highlight that these resources exist, outline how they work and explain how they benefit the employee?

What if open enrollment is only a week away and you haven’t taken most, if any, of these steps? It’s not too early to start your to-do list for next year — perhaps by first tackling your SPD and drafting that communications plan. Most importantly, get that post-mortem meeting on the schedule now, while the lessons learned from this year’s open enrollment are still fresh.

SOURCE: Buckey, K. (3 October 2019) "The Open enrollment checklist: Are you Poised for a successful season" (Web Blog Post) https://www.benefitnews.com/list/the-employers-open-enrollment-checklist


Survey: What Employees Want Most from Their Workspaces

This year, employers across the country are expected to spend an average of $3.6 million on employer-sponsored wellness programs. Some of the benefits companies are investing in include onsite gyms, standing desks, meditation rooms and nursing hotlines. Continue reading this blog post to learn more about what employees want most out of their workspaces.


In an effort to support a healthier and more productive workforce, employers across the country are expected to spend an average of $3.6 million on wellness programs in 2019. Think onsite gyms. Standing desks. Meditation rooms. Nursing hotlines. These are just some of the benefits companies are investing in.

But is any of it paying off?

The results of a recent Harvard study suggest that wellness programs, offered by 80% of large U.S. companies, yield unimpressive results — and our findings mirror this. Future Workplace and View recently surveyed 1,601 workers across North America to figure out which wellness perks matter to them most and how these perks impact productivity.

Surprisingly, we found employees want the basics first: better air quality, access to natural light, and the ability to personalize their workspace. Half of the employees we surveyed said poor air quality makes them sleepier during the day, and more than a third reported up to an hour in lost productivity as a result. In fact, air quality and light were the biggest influencers of employee performance, happiness, and wellbeing, while fitness facilities and technology-based health tools were the most trivial.

Organizations have the power to make improvements in these areas, and they need to, both for their workers and themselves. A high-quality workplace — one with natural light, good ventilation, and comfortable temperatures — can reduce absenteeism up to four days a year.  With unscheduled absenteeism costing companies an estimated $3,600 annually per hourly worker and $2,650 each year for salaried workers, this can have a major impact on your bottom line.

Other research finds that employees who are satisfied with their work environments are 16% more productive, 18% more likely to stay, and 30% more attracted to their company over competitors. Two-thirds of our survey respondents said that a workplace focused on their health and wellbeing would make them more likely to accept a new job or keep the job they have. This means that companies willing to adapt to an employee-centric view of workplace wellness will not only increase their productivity, they will also improve their ability to attract and retain talent.

To get started, here are three steps you can take to improve your work environments and the wellbeing of your employees:

1.  Stop spending money on pointless office perks. A good rule of thumb is to never assume that you know what your employees want — but instead, find ways to ask them. If more employers did, they might put less emphasis on office perks that only a minority of employees will take advantage of (like an onsite gym), and more on changes in the workplace environment that impact all employees (like air quality and access to light).

The number one environmental factor cited in our survey was better air quality. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said that fresh, allergen-free air would improve their wellness. Fifty percent said they would work and feel better with some view of the outdoors, while one third said they would want the ability to adjust the temperature in their workspace. Only one in three survey respondents characterized their office temperature as ideal.

Noise distractions bothered more than a third of those surveyed, impacting their ability to concentrate. Employees said sounds like phones ringing, typing on keyboards, and distractions from coworkers all impacted their concentration.

Almost half of our respondents wanted to see their companies improve these environmental factors, and in many instances, more than they wanted to be offered office perks. The first step, then, is to take a look at where you are spending your money, and consider cutting expenses that aren’t worth the cost.

2. Personalize when possible. We’ve all gotten used to personalizing our outside-of-work lives. We binge the shows we want to watch and listen to the music we like to hear, even if our partners or friends have different preferences. We adjust our thermostats without having to get up off our couches, and dim our lights to our level of satisfaction.

Employees are beginning to expect these same privileges in the workplace. Our survey revealed that employees, by a margin of 42% to 28%, would rather be able to personalize their work environment than opt for unlimited vacation. Specifically, what employees want to personalize:

  • Workspace temperature: Nearly half want an app that will let them set the temperature in their workspace.
  • Overhead and desk lighting: One-third wants to control their overhead and desk lighting, as well as the levels of natural light streaming in.
  • Noise levels: One-third would like to “soundscape” their workspace.

While these asks may sound exclusive to the personal offices of higher-ups — they’re not. Hewlett Packard Enterprise headquarters is just one example of a company that has managed to help employees control the noise level in an open floor plan. Their building was actually designed to manage ambient sound in order to reduce worker distractions. Some companies like Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, have gone a step further, allowing employees to control the amount of natural light streaming in through the glass of their office windows with a cell phone app.

But for organizations that don’t want to invest in a completely new building, there is a more organic route. Cisco, for example, has managed the acoustic levels in their space by creating a floor plan without assigned seating that includes neighborhoods of workspaces designed specifically for employees collaborating in person, remotely, or those who choose to work alone.

This same strategy applies to light or temperature. You can position employees who want a higher temperature and more light around the edge of your floor plan, and those who like it quieter and cooler in the core.

3. Create a holistic view of workplace wellness. When deciding what changes to make to your organization, remember that workplace wellness is not just about the physical health of your employees. It includes physical wellness, emotional wellness, and environmental wellness. To create a truly healthy work environment, you must take all three of these areas into consideration:

  • Emotional wellness: Give employees access to natural light, and quiet rooms where they can comfortably focus on their work.
  • Physical wellness: Provide people with healthy food options, and ergonomically designed work stations.
  • Environmental wellness: Make sure your workspaces have adequate air quality, light, temperature, and proper acoustics.

Companies that adapt to a more holistic view of workplace wellness will soon realize no one department alone can solve the puzzle. Our study results, along with the results from the World Green Building Council report,  push organizations to take a closer look at what changes they can make that will actually matter. My suggestion: consider how you can get back to the basics employees want, and invest in the core areas that will have the most impact.

SOURCE: Meister, J. (26 August 2019) "Survey: WHat Employees Want Most from Their Workplaces" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2019/08/survey-what-employees-want-most-from-their-workspaces

Employer-sponsored savings programs could be the future of financial wellness

An estimated 43 percent of hourly workers have less than $400 set aside in their savings for emergencies. For those workers, an accident or unexpected expense can be financially devastating. Read this blog post from Employee Benefits Advisor to learn more about employer-sponsored savings programs.


For 43% of hourly workers who report having less than $400 in savings set aside for emergencies, an accident or unexpected expense can be financially devastating.

But employer-sponsored savings programs could be a viable solution. Low- and middle-income employees who are more financially secure have been shown to be less stressed and more productive when they have an employer-sponsored savings program, which may lead to lower healthcare costs, better customer service and stronger attendance, a new survey from nonprofit organization Commonwealth finds.

The national survey of 1,309 employees earning less than $60,000 a year found that employers offering workers savings interventions at the time of raise, can positively impact their employees’ personal finances. Three-quarters of hourly employees surveyed believe that if their employer offered savings options at the time of a raise, they would be less stressed and more confident about their finances.

“There's a lot of talk about financial stress, but when you're really living paycheck-to-paycheck, that stress is about being able to pay your bills on time,” says Commonwealth’s executive director Timothy Flacke. “It's about cash flow, and that's a particularly acute form of anxiety.”

The report analyzes the potential effects of savings programs including split direct-deposit paychecks, low-interest loans and savings accounts — and compares how those programs alleviate employees’ financial stress. Workers surveyed believe if their employer-provided savings tools they would be happier and more productive. Moreover, the survey found individuals with more in savings were less likely to have financial worries than those with little savings.

One of the companies partnered with Commonwealth to link raises with savings is Minnesota-based education company New Horizon Academy. In the beginning of the year, the company piloted a new savings program that gives its employees the option to have the raise diverted through the payroll system to a savings account each pay period, instead of having it go into their normal checking account.

“Through this, our employees are beginning to build up some financial reserves in case of an emergency, or life circumstances that requires them to dip into a savings account,” says Chad Dunkley, CEO of New Horizon Academy. Although it’s too early to state results from the pilot program, the company hopes it will have a positive long-term impact on the financial health of its employees, Dunkley says.

“This is just one of those additional ways [to] stabilize our employees, so they can come into the classroom without the financial stress that certain situations cause when you're not prepared for an emergency, whether it's new tires on your car or health issues,” he says.

SOURCE: Nedlund, E. (19 August 2019) "Employer-sponsored savings programs could be the future of financial wellness" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/news/reduce-stress-increase-productivity-with-financial-wellness


IRS Confirms W-2 Safe Harbor to Determine Plan Affordability

Originally posted by assuredskcg.com.

The employer mandate, effective beginning in 2014, requires employers with 50 or more employees to pay a penalty if certain conditions are not met. One of these conditions is to provide affordable coverage. Coverage is considered to be affordable if an employee’s required contribution does not exceed 9.5% of the employee’s household income – something that is not readily accessible by employers. As previously reported, the IRS proposed a safe harbor that would allow employers to use the W-2 wages of an employee to determine whether coverage is affordable for purposes of the employer mandate, instead of using household income. In Notice 2012-58, The IRS confirms that the Form W-2 safe harbor will be available to employers to determine affordability with respect to the employer penalty provisions, at least through 2014. To take advantage of the safe harbor, employers must offer full-time employees and their dependents the opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage under an employer-sponsored plan, and ensure that the employee portion of the self-only premium for the employer’s lowest cost coverage that provides minimum value does not exceed 9.5% for the employee’s W-2 wages. Application of the safe harbor would be determined after the end of the calendar year and on an employee-byemployee basis, taking into account the employee’s particular W-2 wages and contribution. The safe harbor can also be used prospectively, at the beginning of the year, by structuring the plan to set the employee contribution at a level that would not exceed 9.5% of the employee’s W-2 wages. It is important to note the safe harbor only applies for purposes of determining whether an employer’s coverage satisfies the affordability test for purposes of the employer mandate – it would not affect an employee’s eligibility for a premium tax credit, which continues to be based on the affordability of employer-sponsored coverage relative to an employee’s household income. Thus, in some cases, this means that an employer’s offer of coverage to an employee could be considered affordable based on W-2 wages for purposes of determining whether the employer is subject to a penalty under the employer mandate, and the same offer could be treated as unaffordable based on household income for purposes of determining whether the employee is eligible for a premium tax credit (i.e., no penalty even though the employee receives subsidized coverage in the Exchange). Although the guidance is helpful to employers and will make it easier to look at contribution structures for benefit programs in 2014, further guidance is still needed in several areas, including what constitutes a “minimum value” plan, and what constitutes providing coverage to “substantially all” full-time employees in order to avoid the application of the penalty that applies with respect to not offering coverage.


Employers up estimated costs of health care reform law

Original article from https://www.businessinsurance.com

By Jerry Geisel

Employers are upping their estimates of how much the health care reform law will increase costs, according to a Mercer L.L.C. survey released June 12.

Two years ago, 25% of employers thought that complying with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would increase their health care plan costs by less than 1%. But now, just 9% of nearly 900 employers surveyed by Mercer expect a cost increase that small.

Similarly, 15% of employers in 2011 expected the health care reform law to increase costs by at least 5%. Now, 19% of employers expect cost increases of at least 5%. In addition, 21% are projecting 2014 health care reform law related cost increases of 1% to 2%, while 18% expect cost increases of 3% to 4%; 32% of respondents said they didn't know the cost impact.

Mercer executives said there are several reasons why more employers are increasing their cost estimates.

“As employers get closer to implementation, they have a better idea of how many additional employees will become eligible for coverage. Some that thought they would cut hours have changed their position on that,” Beth Umland, Mercer's director of research for health and benefits in New York, said in an email.

Under PPACA, employers will be liable for a $2,000-per-employee penalty if they do not provide coverage starting next year to full-time employees, or those working an average of 30 hours a week.

In addition, Ms. Umland said, some employers in 2011 didn't know about the various fees that the health care reform law imposes. For example, employers will have to pay a fee of $63 per health care plan participant in 2014 to fund a program that will partially reimburse health insurers for providing coverage to high-cost individuals. While there was some awareness of the Transitional Reinsurance Program, it wasn't until last year that regulators announced the size of the fee employers would have to pay.

Check out our HCR Central for FREE PPACA Downloads, FAQ's, and compliance news to help you and your company prepare for PPACA requirements that take effect later this year and in 2014.

 


CHANGING TIMES

Companies are seeking alternate health coverage offerings in the face of a shaky economy and the potential impact of the health care reform law, according to a new report by J.D. Power and Associates. The study found that employers are considering such options as defined contributions, vouchers and exchange purchasing in an effort to control spiraling health care costs. Employers, however, seem committed overall to continuing to offer health benefits. The study found that only 13 percent of fully insured employers and 14 percent of self-insured companies said they probably or definitely will not offer employer-sponsored benefits in the future.