Employee Benefits Blog

While we've fielded thousands of questions these past few weeks about the COVID-19 pandemic, the vast majority of inquiries most recently have been about emergency financing relief for small business.

Here is what we know about three financial relief programs, each made possible by the CARES Act recently signed into law; 

• CARES Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)
• CARES Business Debt Relief Program
• CARES Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) & Emergency Economic Injury Grants (EEIG)

As a reminder, we update both of our COVID-19 Download Resource Centers daily with regulatory briefs, legislative summaries, newsletters, flyers, and posters for you to use as you see fit.

Make sure to bookmark this resource area for ease of reference later.

CARES PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM (PPP)

What is the Paycheck Protection Program?

The PPP is a program designed to minimize layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic. The PPP provides businesses with fewer than 500 employees with 100 percent federally-guaranteed loans, which may be forgiven, if borrowers maintain their payroll during this pandemic.

Must a PPP loan be paid back?

No, providing an employer maintains their payroll, the loan will be forgiven. We'll address the amount of loan forgiveness available later in this article.

To say that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has put a significant strain on every aspect of daily life around the world would be an understatement. As the spread of the disease shows no sign of slowing down, there remains steadily increasing concern in this country, not only about the health of our citizens, but also our economy, which is now in tatters, through no fault of its own.

In response, on Friday, the United States Congress passed a $2 trillion package to provide a jolt to our economy, reeling from the deadly virus. This is the third aid package from Congress and is it designed to keep businesses and individuals afloat during an unprecedented freeze on the majority of American life.

This will most likely not be the last stimulus package Congress will have to enact. This is especially true given that President Trump, just yesterday, extended his administration's social-distancing guidelines through the end of April, as the peak death-rate from the virus is expected to hit in two weeks. (The death toll from COVID-19 past 2,000 over the weekend.)

Most economists are in agreement that last Friday's $2 trillion package isn't a stimulus plan at all, but rather a relief package. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) described the legislation this way; "No economic policy can fully end the hardship, so long as the public health requires that we put so much of our commerce on ice. This isn't a stimulus package. It is emergency relief. Emergency relief. That's what this is."

All Americans would do well to understand the provisions of this latest stimulus/relief package, as it will offer direct relief to businesses and individuals alike. Here are the details.

The American history of medicine and organized healthcare is quite a bit different than that of most other first world countries.

While the Civil war propelled the progress of American medicine much faster than what would have probably transpired without it, our staunch belief in capitalism has prevented us from developing the kind of national healthcare the United Kingdom, France, and Canada have used for decades.

As a result, we have our own unique system that has evolved drastically over the past century into something that is both loved and hated by its citizens.

Whichever end of the spectrum you lean toward, there’s no doubt about it: the history of medicine and organized healthcare in America is a long and winding road. How we've gotten to where we are today is quite a story, so let’s dive in...

The History of Medicine and Organized Healthcare: From the 1700’s to Now

The 1700’s: Colonial Times

Medicine was fairly rudimentary for the first few generations of colonists who landed in the new world, primarily because very few upper-class physicians emigrated to the colonies. Women played a major role in administering care in these early days, most especially when it came to childbirth.

Mortality in those early days was extremely high, most notably for infants and small children. Malaria was particularly brutal, as was diphtheria and yellow fever. Most of the sick were treated with folk remedies, though smallpox inoculation was introduced earn-on (long before it was embraced in Europe.) In these early days, there was virtually no government regulation or attention paid to public health.

“As frightening as yesterday’s unemployment numbers were, it’s merely a preview of how bad things are going to get.” That’s a quote from today’s Wall Street Journal, and it’s probably an understatement.

With businesses all around us temporarily shutting down, and some outright going out-of-business, the U.S. economy is headed off a cliff, into uncharted territory, and our leaders know it.

With Senators on both sides of the isle disagreeing over how best to help individual Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, they are at least unified in the pressing need to get something more done - and as fast as possible.

If met, tonight’s midnight deadline, declared just an hour ago by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, would make it possible for the legislation to be drafted at breakneck speed over the weekend. This would allow Senators to vote as early as Monday on what is sure to be a wide-ranging stimulus package which is likely to top $1 trillion.

Here's what they are considering.

Note: Since publishing this post (as seen below), the FFCRA legislation has been revised. While it's been billed as a "technical correction" by Democratic leaders, the changes are substantial. The new measure will still provide two weeks of paid sick leave to workers affected by the pandemic, but the next 10 weeks paid leave will be limited to only those workers caring for a child whose school or day care has been shut down. (Workers who had been in quarantine, or caring for a family member affected by the crisis, will not be eligible for the additional 10 week of paid leave.)

In a press conference just a few hours ago, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced that the Senate will, in fact, pass the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives over the weekend.

Senators had been critical of the House legislation, describing it as a “non-comprehensive bill” that simply doesn’t do enough to help small business. Earlier today Senator McConnell went so far to say that the the Senate would not pass the bill unless it included “significant and bold new steps”.

Realizing that changes to the bill would result in the measure having to go back to the House for approval, the Senate reversed course this afternoon, anxious to show the country bipartisanship in the face of a global pandemic.

"A number of my members think there were considerable shortcomings in the House bill. My counsel to them is to gag and vote for it anyway," McConnell said.

McConnell then pledged not to adjourn the Senate until passing the House bill, as well as a third stimulus package, which is expected to top $850 billion and focus on small business and industry.

Here are the details of the "phase two" package the Senate looks to pass as early as this evening.

Yesterday, in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) on its campus, Eli Lilly became yet another high-profile U.S. company outside the state of Washington to ask some of its employees to work from home.

This comes on the heels of similar actions last week by several Seattle-based companies; Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and Google have all told their employees to remain home.

With a prediction by Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Mark Lipsich that 40-70 percent of the global population will eventually become infected with Covid-19, U.S. companies are all taking note. And with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar acknowledging that this is now a public health emergency, government and non-governmental agencies are finally in lockstep.

Accordingly, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued Covid-19 preparedness guidelines which call for, among other things, stockpiling a 2-week supply of water and food, and obtaining "a continuous supply in your home of prescription medications".

Having Extra Medications on Hand Is An Excellent Idea

The advice of having an emergency supply of medications on hand "is excellent," according to Peter Jacobson, with the University of Michigan's School of Public Health. In an interview yesterday with National Public Radio, Mr. Jacobson went on to say, "People should not be caught short of having enough heart medication, diabetic medication, and anything potentially lifesaving, that they need on a routine daily, weekly, or monthly basis."

That said, and as you and your employees are probably finding out, stocking-up on prescription medications is not as easy as it sounds. Here's why.

"It has a 9/11-like feel." That's how the CEO of Southwest Airlines last night described the impact of coronavirus on its business. While this might not be a surprising assessment from a global carrier like United Airlines, it's somewhat shocking to hear from Southwest, since it doesn't even serve Asian and European markets.

So what's going on here? Is this coronavirus (Covid-19) really something to fear here in the United States, or is this mass hysteria nothing more than a media-driven panic, as Dr. Drew suggested as recently as this morning on Fox News?

So much distrust of the mainstream media and our government institutions has been sewn into the fabric of our country these past few years that it's admittedly very hard to tell. At this point, it probably doesn't really matter if it's real or not. The perception is that it's real, and as we've been taught for decades now, perception is reality.

In fact, just moments ago, while writing this blog post, the first U.S. college announced it was closing down for the semester, moving 50,000 students to online learning. And as I was adding this to my post, I received an alert that the Mayor of Austin just cancelled the South by Southwest music festival and conference.

I don't know about you, but this feels pretty real to me.

It's not a matter of if, but when. That's what Federal authorities finally said yesterday regarding the likelihood of the coronavirus spreading across the United States.

Infectious disease experts are now calling on businesses, schools, and communities to brace themselves for what they see as the inevitable outbreak of the coronavirus across the country.

"The disruption to everyday life might be severe," said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Strategies to contain the virus on our shores, now officially named Covid-19, have thus far been based on isolating those who have contracted the virus, as well as quarantining those who may have been exposed to those individuals.

Authorities now admit that as the virus becomes more widespread, containment strategies will likely expand to the closing of schools, the canceling of mass gatherings, and the implementation of widespread telework for employees.

With financial markets across the world tanking and President Trump now scheduled to address the nation tonight, it now appears as if the threat of a global pandemic can no longer be ignored nor minimized by those who have thus far claimed that talk of a pandemic was nothing more than fear-mongering by the media.

So what exactly is behavioral economics and why is it a useful tool for motivating behaviors?

Behavioral economics is the use of psychological, social, cognitive, or emotional factors to influence a person's behavior when it comes to making economical decisions. 

An excellent example of this in workforce wellness is when employers use incentives to encourage or discourage a specific thought or action.

In a blog post earlier this year, Compensation Cafe used smoking as an example of a behavior that many employers may want to discourage, since it's both unhealthy and disruptive. The challenge is doing so in an effective and non-offensive manner.

The following are five different types of behavioral economics to facilitate change, using smoking cessation as an example.

Today the first official votes will be cast, both in Iowa and California, for the 2020 presidential election. A hot button topic in the discourse leading up to this moment has been whether the country should migrate to a single-payer healthcare system commonly referred to as "Medicare-for-all."

While every Democratic candidate still in the running supports some level of change to the current healthcare system, Medicare-for-all is a solution championed primarily by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Both are pushing for a single-payer solution where Americans would be enrolled automatically in a government-run medical insurance plan. Both of their policies call for essentially disbanding private insurance, or relegating it to something only needed to supplement care outside of the provisions provided in their single-payer solutions.

Should Employers Embrace Medicare-for-all?

Would this transition to Medicare-for-all be a good thing for employers, 4.5 million of which are providing employer-sponsored group health insurance to over 160 million Americans representing 49 percent of the country's total population?