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Healthcare Reform: Does Finger Point at You?

"Even though it's apparent the increased cost for insurance has been shifted on the shoulders of working Americans, CEOs and the benefits managers charged with designing coverage plans outside of the health insurance exchanges are beginning to question and identify future strategies that reconcile healthcare offerings with financial goals of the business.... [I]nstead of looking for a scapegoat and pointing blame, insurance entities and the companies they provide for are learning how to move from denial and deception to reshape the healthcare conversation into benefits and even expanded employee coverage they can both boast about."

Employee Healthcare Cost Containment -- A Strategy that Works

"Despite countless incremental solutions such as wellness programs, consumer driven healthcare and provider payment reform there has been very little impact on both the quality and the price of healthcare for employers.... So how do employers move towards a value based healthcare delivery system within their organization? The strategy involves four interdependent and fundamental components.... [1] Population Health Management; [2] Directing Care to Maximize Value; [3] Bundled Case Rates; and [4] Measure Outcomes and Costs." [Updated Jan. 2019]

The Contrarian Approach to Health Care Reform and Group Benefit Planning

"Not since the passage of ERISA (1974), and later HIPAA (1996), has there been a more compelling piece of federal legislation that will change the landscape for such a wide audience ... [E]mployers, employees, HR professionals, insurance companies, providers and agents are all affected simultaneously. Questions have been raised about the survival of the employer sponsored marketplace. Should a defined contribution approach take its place? If [ACOs] grow and thrive, are there still a need and a market for insurance companies and agents? [The authors] believe there is."

The Four Worst Features of the Health Care Reform Legislation

"The Bizarre Subsidies. Look at it from the employee's point of view. The new law says that an employee must have insurance costing, say, $15,000 for family coverage in 2016. Remembering that employee benefits are a dollar-for-dollar substitute for wages, that implies that a previously uninsured $30,000-a-year worker will get a 50% cut in pay."

Carefully Choosing the Right Benefits Package Pays Off for Employees -- and Employers

"There are a few important tips that can increase the success of employers as they create a balanced and cost-effective benefits package that will appeal to current and future employees. Ask questions-and the important ones.... Choose a customized benefits plan over an off-the-shelf package.... Build it around the workforce.... Start a healthcare literacy program to help employees help themselves."

The Value of Private Health Exchanges

"Private exchanges may not be a panacea for rocketing healthcare costs.... [E]mployers will seek approaches such as private exchanges to transition health benefits from an employer driven model to a more consumer driven one.... If executed thoughtfully and deliberately, launching or joining a private exchange could be a critical strategy for payers to adapt and thrive."

A Failure to Communicate: How Cultural Incompetence Leaves Many Wellness Programs Incomplete

"Without improving cultural competency, the inability of minority wellness program participants to effectively communicate with healthcare providers and vendors is likely to worsen.... Poorer health outcomes may result when sociocultural differences between employees and providers, like language are not reconciled in the clinical encounter. This can lead to: [1] Increased likelihood of mistakes in collecting medical histories, [2] Decreased use of preventative services, [3] Increased use of diagnostic testing, and [4] Increased risk of drug complications affecting work or home life."

Wellness: Not Just About Health

"The simple truth of the matter is that healthier employees cost less. Employees with chronic health conditions often cost the bulk of healthcare costs. In reality, companies that have effectively developed a wellness culture also realize cost savings in reference to retention, recruitment, reputation, and employee engagement."

Are 'Minimum Essential Coverage' Health Plans the Game Changers for Employers in ACA Countdown?

"While [Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC)] plans can eliminate the $2,000 penalty, employers should be aware that these plans do not protect them from the ACA's $3,000 penalty per each employee who goes to a public exchange and qualifies for a federal subsidy. Also, because MEC plans offer only the most basic level of benefits required under ERISA, employees might view them unfavorably unless combined with other benefits policies." [Updated Dec. 2018]

Achieving Corporate Wellness Through the Art of Presentation: Why the Medium Is the Message

"When making the case for corporate wellness, when advocating specific policies that can promote a culture focused on health and worker retention, there are facts aplenty -- more statistics, charts and graphs than we can remember -- but few intelligible presentations about this issue.... Without an easy-to-follow, informative series of PowerPoint slides (to illustrate a proposed plan) or a professionally designed Excel spreadsheet (to calculate savings) even the grandest idea will be nothing but indecipherable babble. Why? Because health care is a complex issue, perhaps the most complex social, economic and political matter to confront this country in the last few decades."