The Healthcare Survival Guide

The Healthcare Survival Guide

Importants of HR in a down economy

In this down economy, HR faces some serious risks as employees are worried about money and the possible loss of their jobs. Nonetheless, HR managers can be proactive to protect their companies from harm.


Here are just a few things to consider:



1. The Pilfering Privilege. The risk of employees accessing company documents and trade secrets is high, because employees have access to much of the company's data through computer usage.



2. Txtul hrsmnt--no lol (Translated: Textual Harassment--not laughing out loud). Inappropriate texting leading to harrasement claims.



3. $how Me the MONEY! Wage and Hour claims.



4. We Shall Overcome. Possible unionization of workplace.



5. Will You Still Love Me When I'm 64? Age discrimation claims on the rise.



This is only a partial list where employers may want to cosider the need of an HR program to help answer questions, defense againest problems, and help ease the consequence of a problem.



OUR value added resources are available to clients of AMS.

Medicare Changes will still be good business for carrier's even with changes

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Insurers led by United Health Care Group and Humana Inc. rose in New York trading after UnitedHealth Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hemsley said Medicare will stay a profitable business even with cuts in government payments.

Higher premiums and other benefit changes will keep up Medicare profit margins even with U.S. plans to cut insurer payments by 5 percent, Hemsley said on a conference call. That optimism, along with UnitedHealth’s success at holding down medical costs, bodes well for other insurers, said Jason Nogueira, an analyst at T. Rowe Price Group Inc. of Baltimore.

Small Business and Health Care Reform

Small businesses around the country have rallied around legislative measures that would force insurers to accept all applicants and offer government subsidies to low-income workers, they've winced at mandates to provide coverage for every employee or pay a penalty equal to as much as 8 percent of payroll.

“They really want reform, but then there are the ones thinking, ‘How much will this cost me, and will it hurt my business?’ ” said Amanda Austin, the lead Washington, D.C., lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Business. “It's a little bit of a mixed bag.”

About 70 percent of the small-business owners in California who provide health coverage to workers are straining to continue the benefit, while 86 percent of those who don't blame high premiums, according to a poll published in August by the nonprofit Small Business Majority, a national group based in Sausalito.

In a separate study, the organization concluded that he

Health reform legislation as currently envisioned in Washington could cut small businesses' medical costs by as much as $855 billion nationwide over the next decade.
“The basic framework in D.C. is certainly much more helpful to small businesses than doing nothing,” said John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority.
Overall, the small-business community's mixed reactions help to explain why its voice largely hasn't been heard in recent months amid intense debates on Capitol Hill and in town hall meetings nationwide.

Unlike big corporations and generously funded special interest groups, most small-business owners are too busy running their shops, bakeries, salons, restaurants and professional firms to study proposals that fill thousands of pages.
“It's an incredibly complex issue,” said Marshal Scarr, a partner in the downtown San Diego real estate law firm Peterson & Price. “It's hard to know what is the best thing to do, and it's hard to know what is realistic and effective.”

Small businesses, the self-employed and those with fewer than 500 workers number 26.9 million. They employ roughly half of the nation's work force — or more than 60 million people, according to the National Small Business Association.

California had 637,730 companies that each employed fewer than 20 workers in 2006, the most recent year for statistics from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The figure accounted for 88 percent of all companies in the state that year.

Health care analysts generally agree that small businesses have fewer options than large corporations for dealing with ever-rising medical costs, including the ability to use large numbers of potential enrollees as leverage during negotiations with insurers.

Forty-nine percent of U.S. companies with three to nine employees and 78 percent of businesses with 10 to 24 workers offered health coverage last year, according to a July report from President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.

In contrast, the council reported, 99 percent of companies with more than 200 workers provided health insurance.

Health Insurance Carriers not imune to the economy.

Like many companies Wellpoint, Inc. (the countries largest health insurer) has just anounced some lays and changes to there employees health plans. This change means higher dedcutibles and costs with more premium comming out of there pay checks. As enrollments have shrunk from higher unemployement and costs reducing the number of people covered by health inurance like other businesses a change comes about in income and benefits.

Does your business need to trim costs, check with us and we can help you in the small business market with 2 to 50 employees.