The ABCs of Employee Benefits Jargon and Acronyms

by David Rook on Jan 06, 2016

The ABCs of Employee Benefits Jargon and Acronyms

In this, the era of “consumer-driven healthcare”, employees are expected to know more and more about healthcare in order to make well-informed decisions. But the employee benefits industry’s over-reliance on jargon and acronyms doesn’t exactly make it easy on them.

Less than a quarter of Americans (about 14%) are confident that they understand basic insurance terminology like “premiums” and “maximum out-of-pocket expense”. And of those who are insured, less than half are confident in their knowledge of insurance terminology. Even tech-savvy Millennials struggle with their understanding of insurance lingo.

Chances are very good that your employees don’t have a clue as to the difference between an HSA and HRA, let alone know the difference between a co-pay and co-insurance. To assist you with the education process, we’ve assembled a collection of more than fifty of the most frequently used insurance and employee benefits-related terms.

Topics: Employee Benefits, Education, Employee Communications

Four Tips for Taming Runaway Emergency Room (ER) Expenditures

by David Rook on Dec 15, 2015

Four Tips for Taming Runaway Emergency Room (ER) Expenditures

The average cost of an urgent care visit is almost 71% less than a typical visit to the emergency room ($155 vs. $583) for treatment of the same illness or injury. (It’s also cheaper than a typical primary care visit, albeit not by much ($155 vs. $165.) In another study in 2013, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) showed the median cost of an emergency room visit was $1,233, though in some localities it rose as high as $2,168.

With such a dramatic difference in the cost of care by facility, employers have a vested interest in making sure their employees know when they should use Urgent Care vs. the ER vs. calling 911 or an ambulance. But that’s simply not happening.

Topics: Employee Benefits, Cost Containment, Education, Employee Communications

Preventative Care: A Win-Win For Employers And Employees

by David Rook on Dec 08, 2015

Preventative Care: A Win-Win For Employers And Employees

When it comes to taming employer-sponsored healthcare costs, virtually nothing tops a workforce that takes advantage of fully covered preventative care benefits and age appropriate screenings. Unfortunately, current estimates indicate that Americans use preventive services at about half the recommended rate. There are a variety of reasons for this, but perhaps the largest reason involves a misconception about what constitutes covered preventive care.

Topics: Employee Benefits, Cost Containment, Education, Employee Communications

Employee Perks That Make The Holidays Merry

by David Rook on Dec 04, 2015

Employee Perks That Make The Holidays Merry

It’s that time of year again: the time when employers ponder ways to show their employees appreciation for a job well done and employees hope for a little something extra under the tree. How can you ensure that the holiday perks you have in mind are the ones that will really resonate with your employees?

Giving the Gift of Time

Around the holidays, one of the scarcest commodities anyone has is time. Savvy employers discern that employees highly prize generous holiday leave policies.

Some small, locally owned industries manage to arrange their production schedules in such a way that they can close their doors between Christmas and New Year’s every year. While juggling the production schedule requires forethought and fine planning skills, companies that manage this perk reap the rewards of high employee morale as the holidays near.

Topics: Employee Benefits, Company Culture, Education

Employee Revolt: The Rise and Fall of Black Friday

by David Rook on Nov 20, 2015

Employee Revolt: The Rise and Fall of Black Friday

Black Friday has become an enormous "tent pole event" for both retailers and consumers. The day after Thanksgiving has become synonymous with outrageous deals – but also outrageous lines, all-night camp outs, poorly-staffed stores, and sometimes violent confrontations between shoppers vying to be the first to the shelves.

For a long time, Black Friday was seen as simply a good day to get a jump on Christmas shopping and save some money. However, in recent years, store openings have crept earlier and earlier, even into Thanksgiving itself, and viral videos of stampeding shoppers, brawls, and even some deaths have contributed to a growing sense that the “holiday” has gone too far. Add to this the complaints from employees on social media and the rise in popularly of online/mobile shopping, and one gets the sense that the importance of Black Friday is finally waning.

Topics: Employee Benefits, Company Culture, Education

The Pros and Cons of Consumer-Driven Healthcare

by David Rook on Nov 06, 2015

The Pros and Cons of Consumer-Driven Healthcare

For the past fifteen years, a relatively small but growing number of businesses have been offering an alternative to traditional employer-managed health care: consumer-driven health care.

Consumer-driven health care is a name for the practice of setting up employee health plans with low premiums, high deductibles, and savings accounts. The goal of these plans is to reduce costs for employers, prompt employees to make more educated decisions about the care they seek, and increase the percentage of employees that have access to insurance. The reality, however, is not that simple, and there are a number of pros and cons to consumer-driven health care.

When consumer-driven health care was first introduced in the early 2000s, it was wildly unsuccessful. It was simply a way for employers to shift the cost of health care onto their employees. Sure, consumers had more options, but none of them were good. The high deductible and tax-exempt nature of the savings account meant that both the employer and the employees were spending less money on health care upfront, but if the employee got sick the majority of the cost was deferred onto them, whereas with a plan with a lower deductible the employee and employer would share the costs more evenly.

Topics: Employee Benefits, Cost Containment, Education

The Origins of Labor Day

by David Rook on Sep 04, 2015

The Origins of Labor Day

As experts in the field of employee benefits, it seems only fitting that we share with the curious the origins of Labor Day, most especially as we enter this holiday weekend. Labor Day is, after all, a celebration of the American labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of workers.

We have President Grover Cleveland to thank for the getting the first Monday of September as a holiday every year. Several factions lobbied for the holiday to be on May 1st, to link up with International Worker’s Day, which is celebrated in over 80 countries worldwide. But for President Cleveland, May 1st was too close to the date of Chicago’s Haymarket Massacre, which occurred on May 4th, 1886.

Topics: Paid Time Off (PTO), Education

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