What should Human Resource Departments be doing to prepare for 2014 Health Care Exchange implementation?

As sold to the nation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, (“PPACA”) was designed to lower the cost of healthcare and provide access to affordable care through the implementation of a system of healthcare exchanges in each state.

How will the Exchanges work?

What we know is unclear, since each state is working up their own version. The Massachusetts Connector, now operating before the PPACA law was adopted, is a good representative example.  See my prior blog link at Health care reform. There are some good aspects and problems to avoid.

The first big question every HR leader will have to ask is, “Will it be cheaper to drop the group coverage and leave employees to purchase a policy through the exchange?”

What are the consequences of that decision? Make the wrong decision and it could cost your company in loss of employee engagement, and most importantly, higher cost for you and your employees.

Make the correct decision and you could improve your plan for your employees, reduce your cost and take advantage of the new rules and your willingness to lead rather than follow.

How exchanges can affect employers?

This is a Game Changer for certain. Myth One: Employers cannot expect employees to find and select a policy. Sure it may be more difficult without some education and guidance. Remember when employers switched to 401k plans? A common misconception was centered around employees never being able to select investment funds.

Another concern expressed by employers, or Myth Two: How this benefit change will impact the company’s ability to attract “top talent” and retaining the best employees. The incorrect assumption here lies in the thought that benefits will be reduced, when they can be improved. We show clients how to do this every week. So why are these two myths so common today?

A recent Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”) survey that examined where HR leaders are in their decision-making process related to health care reform. The survey suggests that 51 percent of employers do not plan on dropping their health care coverage in lieu of moving their employees to the exchange system. While 48 percent of employers are still in a “wait and see”mode looking for more regulatory guidance before making any decision. This suggests to me that education is an important component lacking in the advisory relationship on health care reform. This survey is considerably different than the McKinsey Study and may reflect the different perspectives between the human resource community and the other decision makers found in the McKinsey study.

In addition, the SHRM Study results revealed by the low percentage of HR professionals (only 54%) who are comfortable with their understanding of the new law. Explained the other way, 46% of HR professionals are uncomfortable with their knowledge on the new law. Not having the answers (or strategic plan) won’t cut it with C-Suite leadership for too long.

The typical group benefit broker, in the past, was normally a helpful educational resource for HR leaders. According to this SHRM study, most (69 percent) of HR leaders are turning to their brokers for information on health care reform. The Your Wellness N Health Team (www.yourwellnessnhealth.com) would be happy to share our knowledge and strategy so you can create a path for managing change not reacting to change.

Why Change Occurs or Does Not Occur is up to you.

The old saying “nothing is so constant…as change”, makes one think change just happens organically. And that is true for many things, like the weather, seasons, and aging of all life forms. But, most change does not occur without some intervention and leadership. Another fact is “an object at rest remains at rest” unless some force or pressure (energy) is added or transferred to that object.

Large organizations (or systems), whether in commerce or government, need some form of leadership to bring about change most of all. We all know large bureaucratic systems would never change anything except to react to some outside pressure or event. Unless a leader can create the environment (or the culture) to encourage change, the system will naturally resist.

Want to know the formula to create change?

Change = D > R

The “D” stands for dissatisfaction of the current state and the “R” stands for the resistance to change of that state. If any thing, or one, is dissatisfied more than their fear of the new or unknown, then change will occur where it is not organically found. Therefore, knowing this formula, leaders can implement change in their organization (or system) intentionally, if they lower the culture’s resistance of the unknown (educate) or, if they elevate the dissatisfaction with the current state.

Have you ever seen a turtle fly?  Read the rest of this entry »

We decided to add a new feature to the site. Try My Favorite Food

For July, 2011, it is Martha’s Vineyard Mock Maki.

This should serve six.

• 1/2 pound of Cooked Lobster Meat, or Tuna
• 3 Whole Cucumbers
• 1 Pepper, Green or Red, cut into 1 to 2 inch sticks
• 1/4 Cup pickled ginger, drained
• 1/2 Cup Sprouts, spicy mix or radish
• a sprinkle of Toasted Sesame Seeds

To Prepare, be sure to have all the ingredients pre-prepared so when you slice the cucumbers, you are ready to roll it together immediately.

Cut off the ends of the cucumbers and using a sharp peeler, slice a full length strip. Discard the first outer peel strip and the last peel strip. Peel several strips from one side then move to the other side of the cucumbers. You do not want the seed filled slices either. After peeling lay each strip down on a piece of paper towel.

To assemble, with the cucumber strip flat, place lobster meat, a few pepper sticks, pickled ginger and sprouts at one end. Just roll up and serve with the seam down set around the outside of a platter with a Scallion Dipping Sauce in the center bowl.

This sauce includes:

• 1/3 Cup of light Soy Sauce
• 1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
• 1 Teaspoon Mirin
• 2 Scallions, including some green very thinly sliced on the bias, and the Juice from one lime.

Combine and enjoy your fresh summer treat!

Register and Share your monthly favorites at www.yourwellnessnhealth.com

A Financial Wellness blog post

Yesterday, I read the following CNN Report and quote and it got me to thinking about the country’s financial health and wellness and how that makes me feel.

“The Federal Reserve Chairman has issued a stern warning to Congress repeatedly this year: if it fails to raise the U.S. debt ceiling by Aug. 2, the economic fallout could be “catastrophic,” “self defeating” and “dire.”
And yet, here we are in mid-July, with the country only three weeks away from a possible default, and Bernanke is repeating his warning again — this time in his semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress.
“Clearly, if we went so far as to default on the debt, it would be a major crisis because the Treasury security is viewed as the safest and most liquid security in the world,” Bernanke said, indicating such an event would raise interest rates and send shockwaves rippling through the entire global system.”
“It’s possible that simply defaulting on our obligations to our citizens might be enough to create a downgrade in credit ratings and higher interest rates for us, which would be counterproductive, of course, since it makes the deficit worse,” he said.

If Congress does not pass the debt ceiling by Aug. 2, the Treasury Department will not be able to pay at least 40% of its bills — possibly including payments to Social Security recipients and military pay.
From November until June, the Fed bought $600 billion in U.S. Treasuries as a way to boost the economic recovery.
I also read that the projected deficit for fiscal year ending this Sept is estimated to be $1 Trillion dollars. See this link for more information.

So let’s do some math..

Per Wikipedia, the 2011 federal budget is $3.7 Trillion. Current deficit for the year is $1 Trillion and it is widely reported that we borrow 40% of every dollar we spend in the federal budget. So the math and reports don’t make sense. Anyway this borrowing has created a national debt of $15 Trillion. The entire U.S. GDP is only $13 Trillion so we are in bad shape. Now we are at our limit. or will be as of August. Therefore, we will not be able to borrow additional monies to operate the government. What does this really mean. In my house, we cut up the credit cards and reduce our spending by some amount or raise money, (taxes) by some amount to reduce the deficit since we cannot borrow any more.

So how much do we need? Read the rest of this entry »