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www.starnewsgaonline.com IStarJMews December 11,2022 Page 19
A comprehensive employee benefits package
•<21
A
Marcy
HEATH
678-821-3508
marcy@beinoventive.com
The key to any organization’s success is the
quality of its people. By employing the most
qualified people, organizations ensure their
employees are passionate about the work they
do, understand their client base, and respond
quickly to any needs that arise.
One of the ways organizations attempt to
attract and retain the most talented individuals
is with a comprehensive employee benefits
package. Sadly, most employees find them
selves financially exposed in terms of health
insurance.
Deductibles have risen so much that employ
ees now pay for insurance they can’t use aside
from illness and real emergencies where they
have no choice such as cancer, heart attacks
and stroke. With just 23% of Americans able to
cover a $ 1,000 emergency expense with sav
ings, many employees find a $1,500, $3,000, or
$5,000 health care deductible simply insur
mountable to accessing needed care.
A joint study from Harvard Medical School
and Harvard Law found that over half of bank
ruptcies in this country involve unpaid medical
bills. Of those who filed bankruptcy over medi
cal debt, 75% had health insurance when they
became ill or injured.
While the “status quo” practice is to shift
more health care costs to employees, compa
nies that take control of their second largest
expense, health insurance, and manage the
costs, can provide healthcare to their employ
ees with lower or even zero out-of-pocket
expenses. Imagine an organization’s competi
tive advantage in recruiting and retaining top
shelf talent with low insurance premiums and
“free health care.” What is the result of C-
Suites managing their health care supply chain?
More affordable and sustainable health care
spending for the employer; much better bene-
BILL BOURIS from page 24
starts with the electric car. In particular, an elec
tric car that becomes driverless when it senses a
sizable traffic jam. From recent news stories,
we in Georgia may very well experience such
developments earlier than other states, since we
are inviting at least two major manufacturers in
the electric car business to set up shop here.
There is a Wikipedia article about driverless
cars. It describes the 7 levels of car-control,
from 0 (only the driver is in control) to 6, where
the driver doesn’t pay any attention (and there
might not even be a steering wheel). There
have been experimental successes from levels
1-6. Personally, I wouldn’t trust any system,
other than myself, i.e. level 0. But, if you limit
the driverless stuff to 5-10 mph or less, reliable
technology may already be here!
However, this kind of progress is no excuse
for those working for us in the public sector to
forget about improving our roads and traffic
controls. But it gives them, and all of us, some
breathing space.
P.S.:While writing this piece, I recalled a
movie from France that I saw back in 1968. It is
by a guy named Godard, titled “The Weekend”,
in which a married couple go to the country for
the weekend and get stuck in an endless nation
wide traffic jam. In his review of that movie,
which was full of praise, the great film critic
Roger Ebert pretty much said it was an allegory
for the end of modem civilization. Well, such a
thought never entered my mind when we were
stuck on Peachtree, but it was, nonetheless,
something worth thinking about.
fits for the employees; and an ROI measurable
in easier recmitment, higher retention and
greater productivity.
The secret to making health care a controlla
ble cost and lowering that cost is as simple as
treating your health care spend as a capital allo
cation, providing oversight of the health care
spending by an Executive with P&L responsi
bility, moving to alternative funding to take
control of your health care plan and spending,
and managing your health care supply chain to
reduce the frequency and severity of claims.
This concept of managing health care costs
is no different than how you manage the cost of
raw materials or office supplies although the
process is a bit more complex.
Why have major carriers failed to stem the
growth of healthcare costs or even address the
dysfunctional pricing in the system? It’s not
that they are incapable of reducing the cost of
health care; the carriers certainly know how to
bring down health care costs. The two middle
men in health care, the insurance carriers and
the insurance brokers, financially benefit from
rising health care costs. Carrier revenue is
largely the health insurance premium dollars
paid by employers and individual policyhold
ers. Rising health care costs force carriers to
increase the premiums they charge to reflect
the higher cost of goods and services.
As medical trends drive premiums higher,
the higher premiums boost carrier revenue
exponentially. A carrier’s profit margin on a
higher revenue number is...MORE PROFIT!
Insurance brokers who are compensated with a
per member per month fee instead lack aligned
incentives with zero financial incentive to do
the additional work necessary to control and
reduce their client’s healthcare cost. Both of
health care’s middlemen - carriers and brokers
- have financial incentives misaligned with the
employer that is paying the healthcare bills for
its employees.
Inoventive Benefits Consulting is part of the
largest Nationwide Partnership with benefit
firms located across the United States. With a
national footprint, we service employers across
the nation with exemplary service that is sec
ond to none.
Our team makes decisions that add value to
your employee benefit and risk management
programs with the result being outstanding cus
tomer service at a reasonable cost from talented
people you can tmst. We pride ourselves on
delivering the highest quality, client-focused
service which has led to creating a meaningful,
positive employer/employee relationships. I
welcome the opportunity to discuss your
employee benefits package!
Call Marcy at 678.821.3508!
STRONG.
SUSTAINABLE.
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