Do your employees really understand what they’re worth?

If you asked your employees how much they are compensated, they’d probably reference the salary or hourly rate they earn. However, the true essence of a compensation package encompasses more than just wages. This is like a “Hidden Paycheck”.

Moore Benefits provides clients with The Hidden Paycheck report, which is a line-itemed summary of an employee’s entire compensation package.  It includes an employee’s health plan costs, ancillary benefits such as dental and life insurance, paid time off, and paid holidays. Plus, many employees forget that as an employee, the employer pays half of their FICA tax burden.

This report, when given during salary discussions, becomes a timely reminder of what an employee is actually earning.  When given throughout the year, it can be a way to continuously market your business to current employees, and can be a real eye-opener.

One of our major initiatives at Moore Benefits is educating employees on their benefits, which includes sharing the full scope of their compensation package. Providing employees with a Hidden Paycheck report is a great way to communicate the true value of working for your company. Here’s a sample benefit summary that we provide our clients for each of their employees:

Additionally, one of the new provisions in health care reform requires employers to report the cost of health care coverage on employees’ W-2 wage and income statements.  Since we already provide our clients with this information, it will be incredibly easy for them to comply with the mandate by just turning over the data to their accountants.

Open Enrollment: What You Need to Know

Open enrollment season is here and you’ve probably made the unpleasant discovery that insurance rates are on the rise. But fear not, there are still opportunities for you to maximize the value your benefit plan in 2012 and ensure your employees are well covered. Here are a few tips:

Consider coverage options: Typically your carrier has a multitude of coverage plans available to choose from, so get in touch with your broker to talk about what the best options are according to your specific needs.

Gauge your employees’ needs: Your specific needs are tantamount to your employees’ needs, so if increased rates means you have to make changes to health plans, ask your employees what coverage matters most to them. This will give you a better idea of what types of plans to offer to keep your employees most satisfied.

Offer options to your employees: No two employees are alike and what satisfies the health needs of one may not meet the needs of another, so offer them different plans. Your broker can help identify plans that require the same financial contribution from you but allow employees to choose from a diverse sampling of plans.

Offer some perspective: Most employees are appreciative of health insurance but aren’t really aware of how much employers pay toward their coverage. If increased costs result in changes to employee plans, make sure they understand that this is the reason behind the changes.

Encourage your employees to understand their new plans: Enrolling in a new plan could mean that deductibles, prescription coverage, etc. have all changed. (Moore Benefits offers employee education programs on a year-to-year basis to ensure employees understand the ins and outs of their plans.)

Open enrollment ends on December 31, so feel free to contact us with questions about your 2012 plan options. We can help you select a plan that is friendly to your budget and your staff.

Health Care Reform – Small Business Tax Credits

One of the first impacts of the new health care reform law is actually a tax credit, rather than a tax increase. Small businesses with 25 or fewer FTE (full time equivalent) employees who offer health insurance to their employees may be eligible for some tax relief. A tax credit for up to 35% of the cost of providing coverage will provide an incentive for small businesses, the drivers of our economy, to help reduce the uninsured in America. After all, group health insurance already has protections for guaranteed coverage, pre-existing conditions, and the inability to cancel your coverage if you become sick. The same cannot be said for individual and family plans.

The tax credit calculation is explained in detail on the IRS website via this link:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=220839,00.html

One thing to be established before these credits actually start hitting our balance sheets is what is an average premium for small group in a given market? A list of average premiums by state is to be published by the IRS later this April.

If you would like to see how simple and affordable it is to offer group health insurance to your employees, please feel free to give us a call.

Kelly D. Moore, CEBS
Moore Benefits, Inc.
(877) 872-2080

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States Consider Their Own Health Reform Ideas

Medical News Today covers some news about states considering their own health reform ideas.

Drug Company CEOs Under Pressure

Medical News Today covers this issue:

In a separate article, Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal reports on a high and “generational” turnover among pharmaceutical CEOs. “The new leaders are taking over an industry under pressure. The past decade has brought heightened scrutiny of drug safety, government probes of sales and marketing practices, and greater pricing pressure from drug-benefit plans and generic competitors. Drug makers feel compelled to control costs and do more to get results from the billions of dollars they pour into their research labs”

Poll: Health care bill won’t help Democrats

Politico writes about this issue:

“At this point, it looks like the political damage for Democrats on health care has been done, whether they end up passing the bill or not,” said PPP President Dean Debnam. “Republican support for this fall is identical with, or without it.”

The Debate Over Selling Insurance Across State Lines

Kaiser Health News writes about this issue:

Congressional Republicans have proposed the concept in the past and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., embraced it as part of his 2008 presidential campaign. Advocates – including some insurers and small business groups – say it would give the more than 17 million Americans who buy individual coverage a greater choice of plans and the possibility of lower prices. (The measure does not apply to the 159 million non-elderly Americans who obtain insurance through their employers.)

But critics — including consumer watchdog groups and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners — say the provision would erode many state government consumer protections, leave policyholders with inadequate coverage and could actually lead to higher premiums for some people.

New Study Raises Questions about Government-Run Public Insurance Plan

A government-run public health insurance option for middle-class families could help cover the uninsured, but it may well put private insurers out of business, a respected consulting firm concluded in a study released on April 6.The report by the Lewin Group, a public policy firm that serves government and private clients, stated the outcome of a public health insurance system depends on details that lawmakers are far from deciding. Nonetheless, the report could provide ammunition for critics who say a public plan would move in the direction of government-run medicine.President Obama and many Democrats want to create a government insurance plan to compete with private plans that now cover about 170 million Americans. The issue is a major sticking point for Republicans and the insurance industry.The Lewin study found that if such a plan were open to all employers and individuals and paid doctors and hospitals the same as Medicare, the government plan would quickly grow to 131 million members, while enrollment in private insurance plans would plummet.“The private insurance industry might just fizzle out altogether,” said John Sheils, a Lewin vice president and leading author of the study.By paying Medicare rates, the government plan would be able to set premiums well below what private plans charge. The study estimates that monthly premiums for family coverage would be $761 in the government plan, compared with an average of $970 in private plans. Employers and individuals would flock to the public plan to cut costs.President Obama has not spelled out in detail what he would like to see in a public plan. As a candidate, he said it would only be open to small employers, individuals and the self-employed. When Lewin ran the numbers for that limited scenario, the results were not as sweeping.A government-run public plan for small employers and individuals that paid Medicare fees would have nearly 43 million members. If it was designed like a private plan and paid higher fees to doctors and hospitals, it would only enroll 17 million members.The study found that a public plan would help reduce the number of uninsured to 28 million people, cutting the current uninsured population by nearly 50%, depending on how it was designed. The main reason not all the estimated 48 million uninsured would be covered is that President Obama’s health care proposal does not require all Americans to obtain coverage.Sheils said the study is meant to give lawmakers a feel for the options. “Our paper is more or less written as a ‘how to’ manual,” he explained.

Full Speed Ahead for Bill To Expand Eligibility for Cal-COBRA Coverage

The Assembly Health Committee has approved a measure (AB 23) that would expand COBRA eligibility to workers at California firms with fewer than 20 employees and forwarded the measure to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the Los Angeles Times reports. The measure was introduced last week.

Currently, only workers at firms with at least 20 employees are eligible for health insurance coverage through COBRA, a federal law that permits laid-off employees to maintain the health insurance coverage they had through their employers so long as the laid-off workers cover the full cost of the premiums.

The bill, by Assembly members Nathan Fletcher (R-San Diego) and Dave Jones (D-Sacramento), would expand eligibility for California’s COBRA program, Cal-COBRA, and require health insurers to inform previously insured workers about a federal subsidy for COBRA coverage.

A provision in the federal economic stimulus package would subsidize 65% of the cost of COBRA coverage for some laid-off workers for up to nine months (Zwahlen, Los Angeles Times, 3/31).