Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health released their annual survey this month.
The report delves into cost trends, employers’ commitment to offering health care benefits, strategies to increase employees’ sense of accountability for their health and well-being, and challenges to those strategies.
I culled a few interesting points from the full report. Read more…
Bob Merberg has been providing thoughtful commentary on ShapeUp’s recently released survey data in an excellent series on his blog. His most recent post in the series, Engagement vs. Participation: Shaping Up or Just Showing Up?, ponders whether it’s enough for employers to merely strive for participation:
When I first started hearing about health engagement, the very purpose of the phrase was to set engagement apart from participation. Engagement referred to having a genuine and emotionally influenced connection to health and, in many cases, health behavior change. Participation meant merely taking some sort of action — regardless of sincerity or value (completing a program, getting a biometric screening, and so forth).
Some employees participate in programs exclusively to obtain an incentive. Are they engaged?” Read more…
Article after article tells us that we should halt our use of incentives because people aren’t motivated by money. Or because they are motivated by money, but to do the wrong things.
I can’t help feeling that many of them are missing the point.
Many of the incentive arguments centered around whether or not money motivates people reflect a wrongheadedness about the role of and reason for variable pay. This stems in no small part from the Deci/Kohn/Pink worldview that contingent rewards exist solely as blunt-headed instruments of control, as bribes, as a means of getting people to do things they would otherwise not be inclined to do.
I reject this point of view. Read more…
Dental implants are becoming a common solution to missing teeth and an alternative to bridge and crown work. However, according to WebMD.com, many dental insurance plans do not cover implants.
My husband, Dave, learned this the hard way when our dentist convinced him to replace a worn-out bridge with two dental implants. Dave has employer-provided dental coverage through a nationally known insurance carrier so our dentist submitted a pre-certification form before he began the work on the dental implants.
The insurance carrier denied the coverage but DID provide the lower negotiated rate for the procedure on the rejection letter. Our dentist wanted to charge $3,600 but the discounted PPO rate was actually only $2,800.Unlike all those magazine ads for “teeth in a day,” it took several months from start to finish for Dave to get his new pearly whites. Read more…
An audience member at my TLNT Transform session last week in Austin asked me: What do I do if I don’t have leadership support? Is my wellness effort dead in the water?
It’s a fair question. Review the checklist from WELCOA (Wellness Council of America) for a well workplace, and you’ll find senior leadership support as Numero Uno requirement.
I’m not going to dispute it as an important element. Without senior leadership support, it’ll be tough going. Read more…
Hello new 401(k) notices!
As if the new disclosures required under health care reform weren’t enough to juggle this summer, you need to wrap your head around sharing new data to your 401(k) participants. Yes, data about the fees they pay.
You may remember our article last summer suggesting you gear up for a January 1, 2012, implementation. Well, the principles still apply, and in February the final regulations were released. This is complicated stuff. Luckily, Business Legal Resources has done a lot of the legwork for you
Before you start strategizing how you’re going to take your summer vacation in the midst of all this change, let’s start with the basics: Read more…
With so many Baby Boomers facing retirement — and with so many feeling they need to keep working because they can’t afford to do it — those fears are now spreading throughout the workforce.
Here’s an example of that: The latest installment of the Towers Watson Retirement Attitudes Survey found “that an increasing number of U.S. workers say they are willing to trade some of their pay for more secure and generous retirement and health care benefits” and that “nearly half of the workers polled are worried about reductions in their retirement benefits over the next two years.”
Here are some of the key survey findings: Read more…
A couple of weeks ago, the Department of Labor (DOL) released its final regulations and guidelines for the Summary of Benefits Coverage (SBC), which provides people a standard template to compare the provisions of employer plans as well as those on the individual market.
Well, it’s about time! While it lacks in certain areas, it goes a long way in explaining and clarifying what health care coverage means so that people can make informed decisions. We’re all for that!
Here are some of the key highlights: Read more…
Since eight out of 10 Chief Financial Officers are involved in health care decisions, according to IBI (Integrated Benefits Institute)’s 2011 CFO survey brief, it’s key to know their point of view. (This post is based on the brief. Not being a member, I don’t have access to the full report.)
The IBI survey found that 30 percent of their CFO respondents rated health as a very important contributor to workforce productivity. Investing in health still lags behind more traditional productivity investments, such as retention campaigns, skills training and proper staffing levels. (It would be interesting to analyze the data to see whether there’s any correlation between those CFOs who are involved in health care decisions and those who are more likely to rate health as a very important contributor.) Read more…
Are you crystal clear on FMLA rules?
According to Employers Resource Association, Family Medical and Leave Act rules are the top concern of HR and benefits professionals based on the 8,000 calls to its hotline in 2011. An HR professional, for instance, might struggle with answering, “Can a father with a newborn child take time away, under the law?” or “How can a daughter with an ailing mother go part-time under FMLA?”
Honestly, it’s a rare HR professional who knows the answers by heart. I typically half remember these kinds of legal answers but desperately want to fact check myself before sounding the fool. Where does that leave employees? Hands thrown up in surrender, long before they even open up their SPD (summary plan description)? Read more…
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“Great point! What else will they want control over?!”
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