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Answer Upon - Best Bosses Reveal Small Business' Concerns About Health Insurance
Carl Lowe, a businessman who runs a computer sales company in Hong Kong, spends much of his time on business trips around the world, as well as visiting his family who live in Canada where is children go to school. His employees are hard working, honest and good at their jobs. But productivity charts seemed to show that more was being done when Carl was there. Since Carl couldn’t be there every day, he decided to do the next best thing.He set up a video camera in the corner of the front office, so he could watch what the employees were doing when he wasn’t there. He chose a larger model, one that the employees could see, and that even had a small red light on it that showed when he was recording or watching. Productivity went back up as employees wanted to make
To minimize health insurance rate increases, 63 percent of the leaders we surveyed have increased employee co-pays in the last two years. Twenty-four percent have created health savings accounts (HSAs) for this purpose. One leader who put HSAs in place at his Midwest-based staffing agency also increased deductibles. This has helped manage costs while mitigating out-of-pocket expenses for his 12 full-time and 300 part-time employees.
One link in the chain of providing health care coverage that bridges federal government- and insurer-provided solutions is st
"Success is about who you become. The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit." -Jim RohnAs a solo-entrepreneur you’re either starting a new business or intending to grow your existing business. Aside from getting the most obvious systems in place – technology, business and marketing plans, defining your product or services, and finances, what else is needed to be successful?Self-Investment!Companies have been bringing in corporate trainers for years. It’s good business to invest in programs that teach employees how to be better leaders, manage conflict, improve communication, increase sales effec
Clearly, something needs to be done to streamline or overhaul health insurance coverage nationwide. The most current federal data notes that 44.8 million Americans are without health insurance. This is nothing short of a crisis, says Andy Stern, international president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU). SEIU is partnering with AARP and the Business Roundtable in a campaign called "Divided We Fail," which is pushing for fundamental change in the health care system using the influence of their combined 50 million members.
While the "Divided We Fail" partnership seeks bipartisan solutions to the health care debate, others see solutions emerging outside the political arena. In late March, Richard Berner, chief U.S. economist for Morgan Stanley, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that he believes the solution is to "get health-care financing out of the workplace and require coverage, more personal responsibility and market incentives." Berner believes that a consumer-driven health care model with universal mandated basic coverage would provide "a safety net for the disadvantaged."
We recently surveyed some of our Best Bosses to get their perspectives on this complicated issue. Of the 16 leaders we surveyed – encompassing a wide range of industries, with IT and telecommunications being most prevalent – 63 percent feel that employees are most responsible for ensuring that they receive adequate medical coverage. Thirty-eight percent feel this responsibility falls on the shoulders of the federal government, and 25 percent say it is up to insurance providers.
The bosses' comments related to this issue appear split between wanting the government and insurance providers to take responsibility and provide real solutions. The president and CEO of a hosted VoIP phone system provider on the East Coast says he would "make transparent the crappy service of insurance providers." Meanwhile, the president of a New England-based custom publishing and creative services company says that "If the insurance and health care providers cannot solve the problem, then I do think it is the responsibility of government to do so on behalf of employers and employees alike."
Despite the fact that rising health care costs have hit small businesses especially hard, these leaders are doing what they can to offset costs and keep their health care benefits attractive enough to retain employees. Sixty-three percent of the bosses provide a PPO benefit for their employees, 21 percent provide an HMO benefit and 8 percent allow employees to choose between the two benefits.
To minimize health insurance rate increases, 63 percent of the leaders we surveyed have increased employee co-pays in the last two years. Twenty-four percent have created health savings accounts (HSAs) for this purpose. One leader who put HSAs in place at his Midwest-based staffing agency also increased deductibles. This has helped manage costs while mitigating out-of-pocket expenses for his 12 full-time and 300 part-time employees.
One link in the chain of providing health care coverage that bridges federal government- and insurer-provided solutions is sta
Like all new innovations, technology in the work environment can either work for you or against you. What is good for the employer or is not always the same for the employee.Is Technology Working FOR You or AGAINST YouWhen cellphones became available it seemed that they would fill a need for instant communication - any time, any place - that would help people be more efficient and thus save time.Then email became a mainstream method of business communication. Marvelous - now telephones wouldn't ring off the hook, messages would not have to be stored and retrieved as verbal communications, which took time. Instead, information would be clear and concise and could be retrieved and answered any time, any where - again the promise of more freedom.
While the "Divided We Fail" partnership seeks bipartisan solutions to the health care debate, others see solutions emerging outside the political arena. In late March, Richard Berner, chief U.S. economist for Morgan Stanley, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that he believes the solution is to "get health-care financing out of the workplace and require coverage, more personal responsibility and market incentives." Berner believes that a consumer-driven health care model with universal mandated basic coverage would provide "a safety net for the disadvantaged."
We recently surveyed some of our Best Bosses to get their perspectives on this complicated issue. Of the 16 leaders we surveyed – encompassing a wide range of industries, with IT and telecommunications being most prevalent – 63 percent feel that employees are most responsible for ensuring that they receive adequate medical coverage. Thirty-eight percent feel this responsibility falls on the shoulders of the federal government, and 25 percent say it is up to insurance providers.
The bosses' comments related to this issue appear split between wanting the government and insurance providers to take responsibility and provide real solutions. The president and CEO of a hosted VoIP phone system provider on the East Coast says he would "make transparent the crappy service of insurance providers." Meanwhile, the president of a New England-based custom publishing and creative services company says that "If the insurance and health care providers cannot solve the problem, then I do think it is the responsibility of government to do so on behalf of employers and employees alike."
Despite the fact that rising health care costs have hit small businesses especially hard, these leaders are doing what they can to offset costs and keep their health care benefits attractive enough to retain employees. Sixty-three percent of the bosses provide a PPO benefit for their employees, 21 percent provide an HMO benefit and 8 percent allow employees to choose between the two benefits.
To minimize health insurance rate increases, 63 percent of the leaders we surveyed have increased employee co-pays in the last two years. Twenty-four percent have created health savings accounts (HSAs) for this purpose. One leader who put HSAs in place at his Midwest-based staffing agency also increased deductibles. This has helped manage costs while mitigating out-of-pocket expenses for his 12 full-time and 300 part-time employees.
One link in the chain of providing health care coverage that bridges federal government- and insurer-provided solutions is st
I still remember what it feels like. You're all excited about your new product, and you can't wait to pitch it to someone. But no-one will give you the time of day. You make 30 calls to try to get an appointment, or you say "Hi" to dozens of customers as they come through the door, and not a single one of them want to hear what you have to say.Let's take a closer look at 'First Contact.' For some of us it means working the phone, trying to make an appointment to see a decision maker. For others it means engaging a walk-in customer in a showroom or other brick-and-mortar location. Regardless of where your first contact takes place, you have to keep in mind a few very important points:The customer is concerned with only one thing The custo
We recently surveyed some of our Best Bosses to get their perspectives on this complicated issue. Of the 16 leaders we surveyed – encompassing a wide range of industries, with IT and telecommunications being most prevalent – 63 percent feel that employees are most responsible for ensuring that they receive adequate medical coverage. Thirty-eight percent feel this responsibility falls on the shoulders of the federal government, and 25 percent say it is up to insurance providers.
The bosses' comments related to this issue appear split between wanting the government and insurance providers to take responsibility and provide real solutions. The president and CEO of a hosted VoIP phone system provider on the East Coast says he would "make transparent the crappy service of insurance providers." Meanwhile, the president of a New England-based custom publishing and creative services company says that "If the insurance and health care providers cannot solve the problem, then I do think it is the responsibility of government to do so on behalf of employers and employees alike."
Despite the fact that rising health care costs have hit small businesses especially hard, these leaders are doing what they can to offset costs and keep their health care benefits attractive enough to retain employees. Sixty-three percent of the bosses provide a PPO benefit for their employees, 21 percent provide an HMO benefit and 8 percent allow employees to choose between the two benefits.
To minimize health insurance rate increases, 63 percent of the leaders we surveyed have increased employee co-pays in the last two years. Twenty-four percent have created health savings accounts (HSAs) for this purpose. One leader who put HSAs in place at his Midwest-based staffing agency also increased deductibles. This has helped manage costs while mitigating out-of-pocket expenses for his 12 full-time and 300 part-time employees.
One link in the chain of providing health care coverage that bridges federal government- and insurer-provided solutions is st
Stories are powerful tools for persuaders. Compelling storytelling automatically creates involvement and attention with your audience. We can all think of a time when we were in an audience and not paying attention to the speaker. We were off in our own world when all of a sudden we perked up and started to listen because the speaker had begun to tell a story. We sat up, attentively listened attentively, took note of what was being said, and wanted to know what would happen next. Whenever you sense your audience is starting to wander, you should have a relevant story ready. Notice I said "relevant." You can capture attention by telling a story but you will lose long-term persuasiveness if your story does not relate to you or your topic. When y
Despite the fact that rising health care costs have hit small businesses especially hard, these leaders are doing what they can to offset costs and keep their health care benefits attractive enough to retain employees. Sixty-three percent of the bosses provide a PPO benefit for their employees, 21 percent provide an HMO benefit and 8 percent allow employees to choose between the two benefits.
To minimize health insurance rate increases, 63 percent of the leaders we surveyed have increased employee co-pays in the last two years. Twenty-four percent have created health savings accounts (HSAs) for this purpose. One leader who put HSAs in place at his Midwest-based staffing agency also increased deductibles. This has helped manage costs while mitigating out-of-pocket expenses for his 12 full-time and 300 part-time employees.
One link in the chain of providing health care coverage that bridges federal government- and insurer-provided solutions is st
Please Officer, don’t arrest me!I realize it might have looked like I was being a bit overly friendly with the guy, but honestly … I was just checking out his t shirt!Everything was fine until I asked him if I could feel the fabric. Holy cow, when I slipped my arm underneathhis t shirt I thought his wife was going to have a stroke! She turned as red as a fire engine and smoke began billowing out of her ears and that’s when her siren went off. Never heard a woman scream so loud in all my life!I was just trying to feel the underside of her husband’s printed t-shirt to see if the fabric was soft or hard from the printing process, but it was a little difficult to do with his wife making such a spectacle of herself!The nice gentlema
To minimize health insurance rate increases, 63 percent of the leaders we surveyed have increased employee co-pays in the last two years. Twenty-four percent have created health savings accounts (HSAs) for this purpose. One leader who put HSAs in place at his Midwest-based staffing agency also increased deductibles. This has helped manage costs while mitigating out-of-pocket expenses for his 12 full-time and 300 part-time employees.
One link in the chain of providing health care coverage that bridges federal government- and insurer-provided solutions is state-mandated health insurance benefits. According to recent data by the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, the number of state-mandated benefits grew by 3 percent in the last year. There are now over 1,900 such benefits nationwide. While Initiatives in Illinois, Massachusetts and California have been most visible, these benefits are quietly influencing how insurance companies cover specific health care providers and patient populations in every state.
Yet, without universal oversight and communication, many business leaders are left wondering how their employees are affected by their state's mandates. Sixty percent of the Best Bosses said they were unsure as to the impact of state-mandated benefits on their business. One leader, the co-owner of a computer and peripheral sales firm in Vermont, says that "with greater enrollments better economies of scale would help with efficiencies overall." However, he admits that state-sponsored health care is "not the ideal solution ... since the burden of paying for this would in essence be a regressive tax on businesses." The leader of the staffing firm previously mentioned, on the other hand, says he has "zero confidence" in his state's ability to manage health insurance, since they have bankrupted their own unemployment insurance program.
One thing is clear: If state governments are unable to step up their efforts on the health care front, and if the federal government does not put forth universal direction, then the onus for providing adequate coverage for employees falls fist on employers, then on workers themselves. And considering that small organizations account for 99.7 percent of all employer firms (according to the latest Small Business Administration estimates), even if they remain partially responsible, it is an unduly large burden to carry.
"Health insurance is a basic right of every citizen and should not be affected by their current employment status," the business manager of a professional services firm on the East Coast tells us.
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