Should Vaping be Encouraged as a Smoking Cessation Tool?

A reader of last week’s blog post on vaping asked us if employers should actively promote e-cigarettes in their wellness programs as a smoking cessation tool. This is an excellent question. It’s admittedly tough to ascertain if e-cigarettes are going to be the next major health hazard or the most effective smoking cessation technique ever created. Unfortunately, there’s not a straightforward answer to this question, but we will attempt to answer it as best we can.

What is Vaping?

For the uninitiated, vaping is the act of inhaling atomized liquid, usually nicotine dissolved in propylene glycol plus flavoring and colors. The device used for this activity is called an e-cigarette; a battery-operated device, often shaped like a cigarette, which is designed to deliver nicotine in the form of an inhalable vapor rather than tobacco smoke.

E-cigarettes Remain a Dilemma for Employers

Electronic cigarettes, or vape pens, don’t contain tobacco and they don’t produce smoke, yet they do contain nicotine, and this has left insurers and employers in a quandary. Should “vapers”, as these people are commonly called, be categorized as smokers, and therefore be penalized with higher insurance rates?

The Categorization Quandary

Despite the growing popularity of vapers (they’ve gotten so popular that even icons like Leonardo DiCaprio are comfortable “vaping” in public), they present a somewhat troublesome gray area to insurance companies. This has left employers wondering if their employees who vape are considered smokers and if so, by whom.

Some businesses have weighed-in on the matter. According to the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart and UPS, for example, categorize vapers as smokers, and accordingly charge them higher insurance premiums. Cleveland Clinic, which refuses to hire smokers, similarly won't hire e-smokers, while CVS Caremark doesn't allow employees to use e-cigarettes at its corporate campuses. Starbucks bans e-cigarettes for employees and customers; and almost every state has enacted disparate legislation to regulate where e-cigarettes may and may not be used.

Form 1095 FAQs - ACA Reporting & Employee Benefits Compiance

If you are struggling with ACA reporting forms 1095 and 1094, you’re not alone. Form 1095 is the first new major tax form to be introduced in the U.S. in more than 70 years, making it a significant source of concern for many employers.

Rest assured, with the new deadline of March 31st, 2016 to distribute 1095 forms to your employees, you still have time, but you do need to get moving. And since the arrival of the forms in the mail may raise questions, we recommend that you proactively reach out to your workforce to help them understand what they'll be receiving.

Zenefits: Whatever Happened to "Under-Promise and Over-Deliver?"

The resignation this week of Parker Conrad as the CEO of tech darling and HR administration upstart Zenefits should hopefully serve as a wake-up call to other technology providers in the fledgling health insurance and human resources technology sectors.

The digital transformation of these industries is inarguably long overdue. Many group insurance brokers fear this disruption, still clinging to vestiges of the past. But long gone are the days when brokers could retain clients simply based on relationships: the annual round of golf, dinner out with the spouses, and a slap on the back just don’t cut it any more. Results matter.

How to Best Reach a Digital-Savvy Workforce

According to a recent Gallup poll, little progress is being made by U.S. companies hoping to improve employee engagement levels. In 2015, 32 percent of employees were classified as “engaged,” based on a number of measures such as believing their opinions count at work and having the opportunity to do what they do best every day. This figure represents only a 0.5 percent increase over 2014.

The majority of workers, 50.8 percent, were classified as “not engaged,” while an alarming 17.2 percent were classified as “actively disengaged.”

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.

4 Major Trends in Employee Benefits in 2015

Rapid adoption of consumer-driven health plans, a surge in specialty drug usage/cost, continued migration to automated benefits administration tools, and generous paid time off policies were four major trends in employee benefits in 2015.

Here's a breakdown of these trends and what you can do as an employer to maintain balance in the upcoming year.

Top 10 Employee Benefits Predictions for 2016

As 2015 comes to a close, it is time to look ahead to the future of employee benefits for the new year. It promises to be a busy year for healthcare and a time of change for employers. Here are our top 10 employee benefits predictions for 2016:

1) Insurance rates will continue to rise.

PwC’s “Behind the Numbers 2016” report states that high-cost specialty drugs entering the market will likely cause spending to intensify. Another factor is the projected increased spending on cyber security as healthcare technologies continue to evolve. After the Anthem hack earlier this year, that spending is certainly warranted.

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.

Preventative Care: A Win-Win For Employers And Employees