Benefits Archives - Page 12 of 63

January 11, 2019June 29, 2023

Employers See Palliative Care as Option to Cut Health Costs

When George Schwartz’s late wife was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer in 2002, he faced the task of managing her care while working as a financial advisor in a small brokerage firm.

He accompanied her to appointments, researched treatment options, coordinated her care and struggled to manage the fears that came with the dire diagnosis.

The experience was both physically and emotionally draining. It wasn’t until the couple turned to palliative medicine, a fairly new subspecialty recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties in 2007 that helps patients manage serious illnesses, that the load became bearable, he recalled.

“It provided us relief from anxiety, starting with a clear explanation of the course of the disease, what end of life would be like and how a palliative care doctor would deal with her deteriorating health,” said Schwartz, 66, whose firm, Gilbert, Doniger & Co., is based in New York. “I had a lot of interaction with the health care system and I hadn’t heard of it. My wife found out about it in a magazine article.”Palliative medicine, which is practiced by specially trained doctors, nurses and other health care professionals, provides care for patients with life-limiting conditions such as cancer, advanced heart disease, dementia, and kidney failure, among others. The goal of palliative care is to improve quality of life through pain management, stress relief, treatment for fatigue and depression, and by offering support for caregivers.

It is also associated with lower health care costs and better outcomes for patients and their caregivers, who are vulnerable to stress and illness, according to Lea Tessitore, a researcher with Catalyst for Payment Reform, a nonprofit organization that works on behalf of large employers.

“Cost savings can come in a variety of ways,” she said. “If you lead with a focus on quality of life then cost reductions will follow. For example, having a conversation around the goals of care with a provider can help to avoid aggressive and potentially harmful treatment that isn’t necessary.”

In September, CPR and the Center to Advance Palliative Care released a guide to help employers develop a palliative care strategy and educate them on what it is and how it can help patients and caregivers. Tessitore said that it could also help employers approach a topic that can be difficult to talk about.

“Many people think that palliative care is synonymous with hospice care and that creates a barrier to having these conversations,” she said. “They think that this is the type of care I get when I’m ready to give up. But palliative care is a high-value way to make an impact on the lives of employees with serious illness and their caregivers. It can improve the quality of life and it can reduce costs.”

Also read: Organ Transplant Innovations Can Save Health Care Dollars

It is associated with shorter hospital stays and lower health care costs due to a decreased need for 911 calls, emergency room visits, hospitalizations and the elimination of costly and ineffective treatments. In fact, patients with serious illnesses who received palliative care saved an average of $3,237 over the course of a hospital stay compared to patients who did not receive it, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2018.

These costs savings are catching the eye of employers, who recognize that while just a small fraction of employees have serious illnesses, most of their health care dollars are going toward their treatment, according to Allison Silvers, vice president of payment and policy at the Center to Advance Palliative Care.

“About 2 percent of the commercial population is facing a serious illness and the care they get is often avoidable. … That percentage sounds tiny but it’s where employers are spending most of their money.”

One employer who recognized the costly gaps in care for seriously ill patients is Dow Chemical, which worked with insurance giant Aetna to launch a hospice program in 2004 that allows patients to pursue treatment through palliative care. Typically, insurers will not cover hospice care if the patient continues to seek “curative treatment,” said Silvers. Dow is featured in the CPR toolkit.

She hopes that more employers will see the potential of palliative care to improve the lives of employees with serious illnesses.

“We really want purchasers to demand from their health plans that they make palliative care available to participants,” she said. “We’re hoping to drive demand. It’s not a hard thing for health plans to do, but they don’t have much impetus. Employers need to demand this.”

January 4, 2019June 29, 2023

Value-Based Care: Making Health Plans Work Better

Health care is costly. That’s nothing new.

Consider this: The average annual cost of health care has increased from $146 per person in 1960 to more than $10,000 per person in 2016, and care costs are expected to increase by six percent in 2019. So, while offering high-quality health care is a great way to take care of your employees, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to juggle the cost of their care with your company’s bottom line.

An option that’s become more available in recent years is the value-based health plan. In value-based health plans, payors share data and analysis to help providers improve their patient care outcomes. Through enhanced reporting and collaboration, doctors can identify areas to gain efficiencies, reduce unnecessary care, and most importantly, improve patient satisfaction and health.

Then, providers earn additional reimbursement based on their performance on cost, quality and outcomes measures. In value-based payment arrangements, health plans pay doctors more for improved patient outcomes and higher quality, and the total cost of care is better controlled.

Many companies are moving away from traditional fee-for-service agreements and toward these value-based payment arrangements. According to an analysis, the number of available alternative payment plans grew from 67 in 2011 to 823 in 2017.

Value-based payment arrangements get to the heart of the major drivers of health costs — hospital stays, ER visits, over treatment and chronic conditions like diabetes. So, when patients get the care they need at the right time, in the right setting, they have fewer complications, and require fewer hospital stays, ER visits and readmissions. These improvements help reduce costs paid by employers and insured members.

Nationally, the Michigan Blue Cross plan shares data and analysis with other Blue plans across the United States, so they can not only measure performance on a national scale, but use the data to create tailored, value-based health plans for companies with employees in multiple states.

For example, value-based Blue plans nationally have shown a 10 percent decline in ER visits, 2 percent decline in hospital stays, and an increase in prevention and chronic care management.

When it’s time for companies to decide on health plans for their employees, they should first ask their health plan some important questions.

Are value-based plans available where you have employees? Does your plan have enough value-based providers and programs to benefit your team? Make sure to check the geographic distribution and depth of services available, so your employees can realistically use the services of these value-based providers.
How long has your plan’s value-based program been in place? Find out if the program is mature, and whether they have a measurable trend in value. Programs that are older or more established typically have data that demonstrates the results they’ve been able to achieve.
Do the health plan and its providers collaborate? This will show whether they understand the local dynamics, and whether the plan supports the providers in achieving improved performance.
How extensive is the plan’s member base and value-based network? The larger the plan, the greater its ability to share meaningful data and influence care delivery practices.
Does the plan offer flexible options? A one-size-fits-all approach to value-based networks doesn’t necessarily fit the unique needs of your employee base. Take some time to ask your plan how it measures provider performance and how it rewards members for choosing high-performing providers.

Value-based payment arrangements and value-based network design are two trends that have been demonstrating results for companies. Health care is costly. But now, there are strategies that help companies manage health costs while improving health care for employees.

Also read: Performing a Check-up on Value-based Health Care

December 17, 2018June 29, 2023

New Trends in Health and Wellness Benefits

This past year we’ve reported on many aspects surrounding employee benefits, from the shifting retirement landscape to workplace stress and beyond. As we approach 2019, several employee-benefits experts shared with Workforce what trends they’re expecting next year.

Encouraging employees to map out their individual work-life balance strategy:

Employees should make a point to consciously create a harmonious balance between their work and non-work lives, according to Rick Hughes, head of service at the University of Aberdeen’s Counselling Service and a co-author of the book “The Wellbeing Workout,” along with Andrew Kinder and Cary L. Cooper. Their work life can have a positive influence on their non-work life and vice versa.

“For example, a walk or fresh-air break at lunchtime can boost energy and generate a feel-good factor to aid afternoon productivity,” he said. “Or managing problems before leaving work may help to prevent thinking about the issues at home. It’s about getting things into perspective.”

Becoming more holistic in your wellness approach:

One trend that is emerging now is the need to incorporate all dimensions of health into well-being programs, according to Joyce Young, managing director for the High Health Network. Research has found that to achieve the highest level of total well-being, one must focus on physical, mental and emotional wellness as well and one’s purpose in life.

In practice, this means that just focusing on an illness isn’t enough. For example, depression screening has value is some ways, but, ultimately, it’s just a disease search, Young said. It’s not a holistic approach.

“We need to provide the techniques and methods for the everyday person who’s not seeking treatment to be able to build their capacity and strength in the mental, emotional and purpose in life directions,” Young said.

Cecile Alper-Leroux, vice president of human capital management innovation at Ultimate Software, agreed that this is a major trend for HR leaders to be aware of and gave some practical suggestions on how to pursue it.

Employers should design work with overall employee well-being in mind, she said. They can also offer transformative technologies to help monitor and interact with employees to support and reinforce positive behavior.

Also read: Is Wellness Just an Employee Perk?

Creating a workplace where people feel like their total well-being is supported is no easy task, she said. But it will “increasingly set apart the workplaces where employees will want to stay and be their most productive selves, and those that will struggle to retain the best talent.”

Reconsidering your conceptual understanding of health:

According to early trends in a survey she’s involved with, Joyce Young said, 90 percent of people find that the messaging of health frames it as a problem, not a resource. That is, when people see health-related communications, most of it is about getting treatment for an existing problem rather than general self-care.

“It’s not a surprise, but if the mindset is that way, then we don’t have as much motivation to cultivate [health as a] resource because we’re thinking more, we need to get this treatment or solve this problem,” she said.

Alternatively, if people thought of health as a resource, they could benefit in several ways. One, the health care system will deliver more for them. Also, the risks of the kinds of health problems by which people are preoccupied will decrease.

“We must bring our conceptual understanding into the 21^st century,” Young said. “If we think differently, that will help us act differently as well.”

Considering onsite health care:

This year saw a few Silicon Valley powerhouses like Apple and Tesla develop their own worksite health centers, and these weren’t the only organizations bringing health care onsite, said Michael Huang, national medical director of Marathon Health. In 2018, one third of organizations with 5,000 or more employees provided a general medical clinic at or near the worksite, up from 24 percent in 2012, according to Mercer’s “2018 Worksite Medical Clinics Survey.”

The onsite health care model has proven results, with employers who measured their ROI last year reporting “returns of 1.5 times or higher,” Huang said. He expects momentum to continue in this area in 2019, with companies of all industries and sizes working with providers to create customized plans and programs that fit their budgets and the unique needs of their employee populations.

“By inserting the health system into the existing workplace, physicians are better able to forge lasting relationships with patients through face-to-face, personalized interactions,” he said. “This individualized care encourages regular visits to the health center, allowing employers to better track health trends, and improvement on those trends, by an employee population.”

Mental health is one area in which onsite care can be particularly beneficial, he said, as employers can utilize onsite care to give employees direct access to resources like counseling and therapy from licensed counselors, addressing barriers to mental health care like long waits for appointments and poor quality of care.

In addition to streamlining access to quality behavioral health care, “bringing these resources onsite signals that employees’ needs are understood and supported, reducing the mental health stigma in the workplace,” Huang said.

Providing cancer support services as an employee benefit:

The number of cancer patients and survivors will reach almost 18 million in the next decade, according to the CDC. And according to a recent survey that nonprofit Cancer and Careers commissioned The Harris Poll to conduct, 79 percent of the respondents said that patients/survivors that receive support from their employer are more likely to thrive in the workplace.

The poll — which surveyed 882 cancer patients/survivors who were either employed or unemployed but looking for work — also found that 53 percent of respondents feel that resources or support programs are needed to address cancer survivors’ workplace concerns, and 64 percent believe that working through their cancer treatment helped them cope.

Penn Mutual Life Insurance is one example of an organization seeking to expand its cancer care services. It began offering services this October through Cancer Guardian’s Comprehensive Cancer Support Program, which includes advanced DNA testing, dedicated cancer support specialists and digital medical records management.

Penn Mutual President and Chief Operating Officer David O’Malley said that a year before the launch of this program, the company began talks with Wamberg Genomic Advisors to learn about the changing genomics landscape and from there spent the next year deciding how to best leverage the cancer benefit.

What the company ended up deciding was offering the benefit to its 1,000-plus associates as a supplemental, employer-paid benefit, available to associates regardless of if they’re on Penn Mutual’s health plan. Also, the company does not track utilization. “Privacy is important to us,” O’Malley said, adding that the company didn’t want employees to feel as if their medical privacy was being infringed.

“We saw this as the opportunity to have a leading benefit,” he said. While benefits surveys have data on cancer insurance at organizations — the Society for Human Resource Management, for example, found that 33 percent of organizations offered cancer insurance in 2018, up from 28 percent in 2017 — the percentage of organizations offering comprehensive cancer support benefits is not as readily available.

December 12, 2018June 29, 2023

I’ll Take Leave of Absence Policies for $5.25 Million, Alex

A: An employer must have one of these to avoid running afoul of discrimination laws when an employee is out on a medical leave of absence.

Q: What is an open-ended leave of absence policy?

Two employers recently learned this lesson the hard way, care of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Family HealthCare Network will pay $1.75 million to resolve disability and pregnancy discrimination claims stemming from its use of “rigid leave policies and practices to deny reasonable accommodations to its disabled and/or pregnant employees, refusing to accommodate them with additional leave and firing them when they were unable to return to work at the end of their leave.”

The Cato Corporation will pay $3.5 million, also to resolve claims that it “denied reasonable accommodations to certain pregnant employees or those with disabilities, made certain employees take unpaid leaves of absence, and/or terminated them because of their disabilities.”

Says Melissa Barrios, director of EEOC’s Fresno, California, Local Office, “The EEOC continues to see cases in which employers have a rigid leave policy that discriminates against individuals with disabilities or pregnant employees.”

These issues very much remain on the EEOC’s radar. Unless you want to risk being on the receiving end of an expensive enforcement lawsuit, take these lessons to heart and ensure that your leave of absence policies, both in writing and in practice, permit for extended unpaid leaves as reasonable accommodations for disabled and pregnant employees.

December 10, 2018June 29, 2023

Daily Wellness and Motivation Tips

In my experience, self-improvement is a day-to-day task. It’s a culmination of hard work that over time is accomplished by small but constant steps.

With the new year comes a good number of people whose New Year’s resolution is to get healthy. Given that people spend a good amount of time at the workplace, I’ve spoken with workplace wellness experts and others about well-being tips employees should keep in mind on a day-to-day basis in 2019. Some of them have also explained the employer’s role is in accomplishing these basic tasks.

Keep track of your achievements: Sometimes we can get caught up in the fast pace at work, getting bogged down by problems and difficulties and failing to appreciate our successes along the way, said Rick Hughes, head of service at the University of Aberdeen’s Counseling Service and a co-author of the book “The Wellbeing Workout,” along with Andrew Kinder and Cary L. Cooper. This can lead to anxiety, tension and stress.

“Toward the end of each work day, list three ‘achievements’ of the day in your diary,” Hughes suggested, adding that they don’t need to be major accomplishments. They can be as simple as “I had a good meeting with my colleague” or “I got appreciation from a customer.”

“At the end of the week you’ll have 15 achievements,” he said. “Sit back, applaud yourself and look forward to building on this further the following week.”

Work on your composure: This is a way to keep your sense of well-being strong on a daily basis, said Joyce Young, managing director for the High Health Network.

“Believe it or not, being composed is a skill,” Young said. “When you’re composed you have more control, more optimism, you make better decisions, and those decisions you make, because they’re better, help you stay in balance.”

She suggested three ways in which people can hone this skill.

Connect with something personally meaningful. “If you stop every so often and say, what is meaningful to me? It resets the idea that I’m not just wandering here. There are things in my life that matter to me, and you basically are connecting with them. If we don’t connect and reflect, then these important points in our lives get away from us,” Young said. She added that if someone spends a couple minutes reflecting on what’s personally meaningful to them, the example might not be something positive. It could be something that’s causing negative thoughts or emotions. That’s still valuable, though, since it gives people a sense of centering and takes them away from the trivial things that can take up one’s day-to-day life.
Nap. Studies have shown that even a three-minute nap can be refreshing, Joyce said. Personally, she enjoys taking 20-minute naps many days. Short naps can help someone feel more refreshed and composed.
Connect with nature. This can help with something called “attention fatigue,” Joyce said. One’s sense of attention gets tired, much like a muscle, and experiencing nature can help restore that attention, for example by looking out the window at the office at the park across the street or keeping plants at the desk.

HR has a role in this, too. First, if decision makers in the HR community actually engage in the practices, they get the benefit of the practices, Young said. Also, if they engage in practices like this then it’s easier and more apparent to them what specific things they could do to help support their employees in similar endeavors.

Get fresh air: Expanding on Young’s “connect with nature” idea further, Tracy Hultgren, the creator of the blog Trail Tracing, advocates that people take a little time out of their day to get fresh air and take a walk. Hultgren spoke with Workforce earlier this year, and his ideas are worth revisiting.

For one, his notion to walk outside every day is simple and applicable to most geographies, from the middle of a city to a suburb close to local parks. Walking is a simple form of exercise that most people can do, Hultgren said. While many people have an “all-or-nothing” approach to working out — an attitude like, “If I’m not going to run a marathon, I’m not going to run at all” — allowing oneself a short, stress-free daily workout like walking lets them have a little time every day to take care of themselves in a low-key and not stressful way.

An employer’s role in this is simple. Basically, they just have to be open to allowing employees a short amount of time each day to leave their desk.

Scrap the resolutions: This one is coming from me. A while ago, a friend suggested that having a “goal” for the year was better than having the traditional resolution. So instead of telling yourself to go to yoga once a week, make a theme like “tranquility.”

It’s something more flexible, realistic and creative, because instead of doing one specific task every so often, you have a general vibe you’re striving for, and a lot of different activities fit in it. You might to yoga to calm down and feel more at peace, but you could also go on a long walk, spend a little time pampering yourself, or cook yourself a dinner that makes your apartment smell good.

This is also something realistic to fit in your everyday life, I believe.

Any other wellness tips you find valuable in your workplace? Comment below or reach out to me on Twitter @Andie_Burjek. I’ll add them to this list post-publication.

December 10, 2018June 29, 2023

Help Workers Save for Rainy Days, Not Just Golden Years

There is a savings crisis in America. Eight out of 10 workers are living paycheck to paycheck, and though many employers have started to prioritize financial wellness in recent years, they are doing little to prepare employees for financial emergencies that could end up affecting their performance in the workplace.

While it’s true that a lot of companies offer 401(k)s to help employees save for retirement, they aren’t a feasible option for many U.S. workers, regardless of employer contributions. The Federal Reserve Board’s 2018 “Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households” shows that 40 percent of people can’t even afford a $400 emergency, much less afford to set money aside for retirement.

401(k)s have their place in financial wellness, but that place is not savings for events prior to retirement. There are substantial fees associated with withdrawing funds before retirement.

These fees impact a lot of people: 44 percent of Americans report having to tap into their retirement before they hit age 59 and a half for things like grad school, debt reduction and unexpected hospital visits.

There is a 10 percent penalty for early withdrawals. On top of that, employees must also pay income tax on the money they withdraw, making these accounts even less useful for unexpected expenses prior to retirement.

Financial Worry Hurts the Bottom Line

But early withdrawal fees are just one symptom of the larger problem of ongoing financial stress. Last year, nearly 60 percent of people surveyed said they were anxious about their future financial state. And even more concerning, more than 30 percent reported being worried about how they’ll make ends meet in the present.

Also read: What Ails Financial Wellness Plans

This financial stress leads to big problems in the workplace. For example in 2017, financial worry caused employees to miss an average of 3.4 work days, and nearly a third of financially stressed employees say their money concerns carry over into their job, affecting their productivity and focus.

SafetyNet asked thousands of workers what they would like from their companies, and most noted they wanted help saving money, especially for unexpected emergencies. But few employers are offering help when it comes to rainy day savings.

Also read: Assessing the Value of Financial Wellness for Your Employees

Employers Can Help by Offering Short-term Savings Programs

The good news is that improving employees’ financial security is solvable.

Some companies, like Aetna, have started using incentive-based financial programs to educate employees on basic money management. Still, only 17 percent of large companies offer these types of programs and employees want financial tools in addition to education.

Prudential Financial is throwing their hat in the ring by helping employees set up an after-tax savings option within their 401(k)s. This model enables employees to gather after-tax contributions from their paycheck and have a lower withdrawal fee than the pre-tax contributions do, making these funds easier to use as emergency savings if needed.

One option becoming popular for employers is a short-term savings program, which holds funds that people can access at any time.

Different from traditional savings accounts, these programs (sometimes called “rainy day funds”) are typically sponsored by employers. They work by stowing funds in dedicated savings accounts. A few varieties already exist.

CookieJar, for example, is an employer-sponsored savings account that rounds up spare change from employees’ debit card purchases and gives companies the option to match those contributions. This type of program is low-cost — far below those of a 401(k) for the employer, and free to the employee.

And with Congress attempting to make it easier for employers to set up these types of programs, you can expect to see more in the future.

Given the amount of time and energy currently lost to financial stress, these programs could have a major impact on the well-being — and the bottom line — of your company.

November 28, 2018August 3, 2023

Taming the Wild West of Health Care Navigation

As I prepare to write an in-depth article on health care costs for Workforce’s March-April issue, one of the topics that has come up regularly is health care navigation among employees. That’s what I found the Deloitte “2018 Survey of US Health Care Consumers” to be interesting.

The survey broke down the types of consumers in the health care market as “Wild West” tropes and gave suggestions for how different stakeholders could appeal to these consumer segments. Corny? Sure. But corny little bits like this, at least to me, make it way more fun to write about health care navigation, which can be a pretty dry topic. Personally, I would have gone with the space theme, since my roommate and I have been rewatching the early 2000s futuristic space western drama “Firefly” recently, but the historical Wild West works, too.

Health care navigation is a term that refers to helping patients navigate their way through the often complex health system by giving them as much information as possible to make their own decision and guiding you to the most appropriate health professional. Different patients navigate different ways.

Their four categories Deloitte highlighted were: Homesteaders, who are reserved, cautious and traditionalist; Prospectors, who rely on recommendations from family and friends, find their health care providers to be trusted advisers and are willing to use technology; Trailblazers, who are tech-savvy, engaged in wellness and willing to share data; and Bystanders, who are unengaged, tech-reluctant and resistant to change.

The report compared these groups in several different categories, but the two that stood out to me were shopping behavior and willingness to share health information/data.

Let’s start with health data. The older, poorer groups (bystanders and homesteaders) were least likely to share tracked health information with a doctor or to use technology (like wearables) to monitor fitness. The younger, richer groups (trailblazers and prospectors) had the opposite tendencies toward health data.

Now, I know health companies and employers love have their own incentives to get health data, but, from the point of view of an employee, I would just like to point out that not everyone needs to be reliant on technology to keep track of their health. It’s not how everybody functions best, and trying to push wearables or health apps on someone who’s perfectly content in a more manual workout routine is silly.

Also, the data privacy laws in the U.S. aren’t necessarily promising for consumers yet. People should be able to feel like they have control of what happens with their own personal health data.

Not to say that patients/employees shouldn’t be open with their doctors. But, as I’ve written about before, although it’s great if a company genuinely wants to create a program that will improve the well-being of its employees, it should stay voluntary, and people who don’t participate shouldn’t be shamed, penalized or seen as backward or stubborn.

Shopping behavior is the other area of comparison, and this is the meaty part because it gets to the inherent differences in people and who they trust for advice on something as personal as health — and something as complicated and not-necessarily straightforward as choosing a doctor.

It also taps into the reality of how people in different socioeconomic situations make these decisions. Bystanders, the group with the lowest incomes, consider out-of-pocket costs and convenient hours when choosing a doctor and are less likely to change doctors or health plans even if they’re dissatisfied. Compare them to Trailblazers, the highest income group, who are the most likely to do their research on physicians, hospitals and health insurance companies and are the most likely to change doctors if they’re dissatisfied.

Using basic logic, this makes sense. Having a higher paying job with reliable hours and access to paid time off would make it much simpler to make health care provider changes. Meanwhile, if you’re living paycheck to paycheck and have a busy schedule, basing your medical off out-of-pocket costs and hours is perfectly rational.

The report also gave employers and other stakeholders like health systems and insurers suggestions on how to engage employees/patients in each segment.

Employers can begin to engage the tech-savvy, wellness-engaged Trailblazers by offering virtual health visits and creating a seamless technology experience. For those employees who rely on family, friends and trusted doctors for medical advice, employers can push online patient forums and patient advocacy groups.

I was most interested in stakeholder strategies for the two less tech-centric groups, mostly because those segments seem more like a challenge for employers. Connecting with these people and getting them engaged with health care can happen a number of ways, depending on what their barriers are.

A patient who makes health care decisions based off convenience of hours and location could benefit from having access to a physician or health system that offers off-hour appointments.
A patient who is open to trying tech solutions but still intimidated by it could benefit by having a nurse or clinician spend a few minutes at the end of a doctor’s visit and help set up a virtual appointment, as well as answer any questions about how virtual appoints work, how to access them, etc.
For a patient who isn’t likely to engage with the health care system on their own, stakeholders can address this by involving a caregiver, if applicable, who can encourage this person to get the care they need.
For the least engaged patients, what could also help is if community organizations like their local grocery store or place of worship encourages healthy behaviors. For example, a church could hold a healthy food potluck.

Now, none of these are employer-based actions, but I still think they hold some value to employers. For example, employers may have an employee with a chronic condition whose spouse and kids act as a caregiver; maybe they could consider how to engage spouses and children in chronic-condition care in their health plan. Also, employers could offer healthy good in the office, where employees spend a large chunk of their time, and think about partnering with health systems that offer appointments off-hours.

What do you think? What does your organization do to appeal to employees/patients with different preferences?

November 27, 2018June 29, 2023

Tuition Reimbursement Appears to Be Paying Off

Health care giant Abbott Laboratories launched its Freedom 2 Save program in June, which helps employees save for retirement while paying off student loans. Employees contribute 2 percent of their pay toward their student loan debt, and Abbott contributes 5 percent of their pay into the employee’s 401(k) plan.

This benefit, along with Abbott’s long-running tuition assistance benefit, contributes to the Chicago-area company’s mission of taking care of its workers.

With Abbott’s tuition assistance benefit, employees — including new hires with at least one year of full-time business experience — get reimbursed for business-related classes they take in college. Abbott supplies reimbursements as high as $7,000 per year for undergraduate classes and $10,000 per year for graduate classes.

Abbott Divisional Vice President Mary Moreland said her company’s role is to understand what their employees need, as well as coming up with innovative ways to address them. Moreland addressed both programs and how they factor into getting the job done.

Also read: Sample Tuition Reimbursement Policy

“Our tuition reimbursement program supports our goal of allowing employees to continue to grow and develop while they’re working here,” Moreland said. “With our student loan program, we discovered that the people we hired straight out of college were struggling with the amount of debt they were bringing into the workplace, which is on average about $40,000 for the typical graduate.”

Rariety Monford, 27, utilizes the tuition reimbursement program at Abbott Labs.

Rariety Monford, a 27-year-old engineer at Abbott, takes advantage of both programs.

Since Monford has in-state tuition in the state of Texas, her master’s degree from the University of Houston-Clear Lake will be fully covered by Abbott’s tuition assistance program. Monford has roughly $60,000 in student loans. With Abbott’s Freedom 2 Save program, she can put her earnings, that she normally would use for her 401(k), into her student loans. Monford appreciates having both programs in her back pocket while she takes classes online.

“It really means a lot to me,” Monford said. “It shows me that Abbott cares about me as a person and as an employee. It definitely factors into me building a long-term career here.”

Tuition.io works with companies including Hewlett-Packard and Staples and public entities such as the city of Memphis to offer student loan repayment assistance and financial wellness tools as an employee benefit.

The company has saved employees with these benefits approximately 30,000 years of student loan payments and helped employees save $42 million, according to CEO Scott Thompson, including the amount of loans principal paid down by their employer and the interest they save over time by having the loan paid down faster. The average turnover is 40 percent lower for workers who receive the debt assistance compared to those who don’t, Thompson added.

Thompson also said he has received positive feedback from people he’s unfamiliar with.

“I once got an email from a single mother who has two children and has been struggling for years with student loan debt,” Thompson said. “She said that now that her company has a benefit, she can see the light at the end of the tunnel. She thanked me for helping her and convincing her employer to do this.”

Also read: Verizon Wireless Gets a Strong Signal on Tuition Reimbursement

According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, 3.8 percent of corporations offer tuition reimbursement, marking a 1.1 percent increase from 2016. Even though there has been a 1.4 percent decrease in public employers offering student loan repayments, there has been a 0.9 percent increase in overall offered student loan repayments, according to the foundation’s research.

While the number of companies participating in student financial aid is low, certified employee benefit specialist Julie Stich believes the number will increase in the coming years. Stich cited employees paying student loan debt being called a common financial challenge by 43 percent of employers in the International Foundation’s “Financial Education for Today’s Workforce” survey report. In 2016, it was 21 percent.

“As long as [student debt] financial challenges exist for employees and continues to impact employer hiring and retention, I think we’ll continue to see an increase in employers offering student loan repayment benefits,” Stich said. “It will be interesting to see how companies may get creative in designing their plans.”

November 26, 2018June 29, 2023

Avoiding Pregnancy Discrimination in the Workplace

News broke in early 2018 that Walmart was facing a potential class-action lawsuit in New York for allegations of pregnancy discrimination.

This lawsuit is one of several nationwide that claim that some of the nation’s largest businesses are systematically punishing pregnant employees with discriminatory policies.

Employers are facing increased exposure and liability for pregnancy discrimination in the workplace claims. The number of pregnancy discrimination claims filed annually with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been steadily rising for two decades and is hovering near an all-time high. In 2017, more than 3,174 cases of pregnancy discrimination were filed with the EEOC.

The federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act is an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and it makes discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions unlawful. The act covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. Women who are pregnant or affected by related conditions must be treated in the same manner as other applicants or employees with similar abilities or limitations. The law’s protections include:

Hiring and working conditions: An employer cannot refuse to hire a woman because of pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, or based on the prejudices of co-workers or customers. The act prohibits discrimination when it comes to working conditions, including pay, job assignments, promotions, layoffs, training, firing and any other condition of employment.

Pregnancy and maternity leave: An employer may not single out pregnancy-related conditions for special procedures to determine an employee’s ability to work. For example, if an employer does not require its employees to submit a doctor’s statement concerning their inability to work before granting leave or paying sick benefits, the employer may not require employees affected by pregnancy to provide this documentation.

Pregnancy and temporary disability: An employee that is temporarily unable to perform her job due to pregnancy must be treated the same as any other temporarily disabled employee.

Health insurance: Any health insurance provided by an employer must cover expenses for pregnancy-related conditions on the same basis as costs for other medical conditions. Pregnancy-related expenses should be reimbursed exactly as those incurred for other medical conditions.

Fringe benefits: Benefits must be the same for pregnancy as other medical conditions. If an employer provides any benefits to workers on leave, the employer must provide the same benefits for those on leave for pregnancy-related conditions, including accrual and crediting of seniority, vacation calculation, pay increases and temporary disability benefits.

Further, it is unlawful to retaliate against an individual for opposing employment practices that discriminate based on pregnancy or for filing a discrimination charge, testifying or participating in any way in an investigation, proceeding or litigation under Title VII.

Although pregnancy itself is not considered a disability, some pregnant workers may be eligible for additional protection under the amended Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act due to conditions related to pregnancy. The ADAAA applies to employers with 15 or more workers.

Affordable Care Act

Under the Affordable Care Act, employers must provide two things to employees for one year after a child’s birth: (1) a reasonable amount of time to express milk each time that she needs to express milk; and (2) a location to express breast milk (not a bathroom) that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public.

Employers are not required to compensate nursing mothers during breaks to express milk, but if an employee has compensated breaks and she uses them to express milk, then she must be compensated in a similar way.

The ACA provides an “undue hardship” exemption for certain employers that employ fewer than 50 employees. An undue hardship will be found if the requirement imposes on the small employer significant difficulty or expense when considered in relation to the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the employer’s business.

Importantly, the ACA provides a “floor” not a “ceiling” for regulation in this area. States remain free to adopt laws that provide additional protections beyond those provided in the ACA.

Best Practices

In some instances, employers may claim that excluding pregnant or fertile women from certain jobs is lawful due to a bona fide occupational qualification defense, or BFOQ. This defense, however, is extremely narrow and the employer must show that pregnancy actually interferes with an employee’s ability to perform the job based on objective, verifiable skills required by the job.

Employers have rarely been able to establish a pregnancy-based BFOQ. Liability under the federal and state laws can be avoided with the following best practices:

• Effectively train managers on applicable laws, workplace policies, and how to respond to requests for assistance and accommodation.

• When complaints occur, respond promptly.

• Implement strong policies against pregnancy discrimination and harassment.

• Evaluate leave policies to ensure restrictive provisions or practices do not discriminate on the basis of pregnancy or related medical conditions.

• Evaluate any workplace accommodation policies and ensure they are available to workers with pregnancy-related impairments.

• Never require — explicitly or constructively — a pregnant employee to take leave, light duty or other work accommodations that she does not want or did not request.

• Make sure policies and facilities comply with breastfeeding requirements under the ACA.

• Check state and local laws for additional requirements.

Jay Starkman is the CEO of Engage PEO, a professional employer organization providing HR outsourcing to small and mid-sized businesses across the United States. Camille Cooper is the assistant general counsel and HR consultant for Engage PEO.

November 15, 2018June 29, 2023

Handling the Workplace Holiday Rush

For some businesses beyond retail, the holiday season — November through February — is the busy season.

This means heavy workloads, tight deadlines and the need for collaborative teamwork more than ever as many companies are winding down. Research from my company’s research arm, the Limeade Institute, shows that burnout happens when employees have high stress but low well-being. So we’ve come together as a company to keep our people balanced, productive and healthy during this time.

Here’s what we found works best:

Reorganize annual events to alleviate employees’ schedules: Like most companies, we launched annual employee reviews at year-end. Now we’ve moved our annual reviews to February, so employees can approach them thoughtfully and reflect on all they’ve accomplished. We also pushed our holiday party to midyear so our employees can spend their time with family and friends. And while most companies send customers holiday gifts in December, we send gratitude gifts just before Thanksgiving.

Push for real PTO: We encourage employees to use their vacation time by year-end. In fact, our research shows those who take all of their vacation days are more engaged. Some employees prefer to take a long break just after the busy season. Because of this, we roll over up to 160 hours of PTO per year.

Support employee well-being: Throughout the busy season, we developed a Refresh Yourself campaign that promotes employee well-being — something often neglected when the pressure is on. We’ve offered chair massages, fruit-infused water, smoothies, yoga and meditation sessions, stretching stations, brain games and had the leadership team cook breakfast for employees. An optional office decorating contest and ugly sweater competition brings spirit to the office. In the meantime, remote employees receive care packages so they feel included and supported.

Help employees manage stress: Stress is inevitable during the busy season, so we help employees feel energized and motivated versus run-down or overwhelmed. We coach managers on how to help their team deal with stress and bring in guest speakers on how to stay positive in stressful times.

Our advice to those whose holiday rush ramps up during the holidays? Test new ideas, measure success and improve every year.

— Laura Hamill is chief people officer at Limeade and chief science officer of the Limeade Institute.