For any Dallas Fort Worth employer, whether a small company or big business, the continuous rise in group health insurance premiums is a critical issue. Like the weather in North Texas, everyone complains about it, but noone knows seems to know what can be done to stop the rate increases which continue to out-pace inflation. This post will show forward thinking business leaders in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas how to take positive action to reduce health care benefits costs permanently and have a healthy and productive workforce.
One week you read that Mercedes AG is willing to virtually give away its Chrysler division because of unfunded health care liabilities. The next week you read that Starbucks spends more on employee health insurance than coffee beans. As a business owner or CEO, whether in the cities of Dallas or Fort Worth Texas or one of the big suburbs like Irving, Richardson or Plano, you're probably worried about whether you can continue to afford group health insurance for your employees, and whether you will be able to retain your your key employees if you reduce or drop coverage.
A Bold Approach for CEOs to Reduce Benefits Costs and Increase Employee Productivity.
If you are a president or CEO and this post speaks to your concerns, then read this entire post for a bold but simple new solution to this problem, and challenge your human resources person to give it full consideration. Unlike other approaches, this approach offers a permanent solution that reduces the cost of health insurance premiums, but significantly reduces the cost of lost wages and productivity due to sickness.
Political Platforms For Solving the Wrong Health Care Problem
The "solutions" proposed by politicians from Democrats and Republicans won't do this, they just shift who pays for health care. Neither party's plans do anything to lower health insurance and health care costs.
The Republicans, both Bush and leading presidential candidates like Rudolph Giulaini call for an expansion of consumer-driven health plans and tax breaks like health savings accounts. The concept behind consumer driven health plans is that if an employer shifts more of the cost of health insurance and health care to the employee in the form of higher deductibles and an elimination of artificially low copays for doctor visits and medications, then the employees in the plan will avoid unnecessary doctor visits and become better shoppers to find lower cost health care, since they are responsible for more of the cost.
Democrats, including the leading candidates in the 2008 elections, have various proposals that range from nationalized health care or mandatory health insurance for all citizens, with public subsidies for those who cannot afford it. Part of the thinking here is that by covering most of the 42 million uninsured Americans, rates could be reduced, since those healthcare costs are borne by private and public hospitals, and the expenses covered by the rates hospitals charge those with insurance and by taxpayer subsidies.
As often occurs in American politics, two radically different ideologies offering two totally different solutions to absolutely the wrong problem, but intended to gather votes.
Real, Actionable Solutions to Health Insurance Inflation that Dallas Fort Worth , Texas CEOs Can Implement Now
Whether you are a business owner in Arlington or a CEO in Denton, there is a solution to runaway group health insurance costs that you can implement now without any "help" from government or politicians. This solution is perfectly legal, simple to implement, and while there is plenty of documentation about how much it can save your employees, when you understand it, you'll wonder why you your employee benefits consultant or group benefits broker has not proposed it.
Filed under Consumer Driven Health Plans, Dallas Fort Worth Group Health Insurance, Employee Benefits Solutions, Employee Wellness, Group Benefits Advisors, Group Health Insurance Rate Texas, Group Health Insurance Texas, Health Insurance: Texas Small Group, Texas Group Health Insurance by on Jun 8th, 2007. Comment. 
Healthy Employees Save Dallas Fort Worth Texas Small Businesses Money
Very few Dallas Fort Worth, Texas small business owners or their employees will dispute the fact: that healthy employees are less expensive and more productive than unhealthy employees. Healthy employees have fewer medical claims, and have less absenteeism and less disability claims.
In fact, the Center for Disease Control estimates that 75% of all diseases are preventable. Imagine the tremendous savings to your business and to your employees if you could help prevent 75% of all the diseases among your workforce. Keeping employees and dependents healthy, helping employees improve their health, and helping employees with health conditions aggressively manage their conditions is smart business.
Another unfortunate fact is that only 4% of our country's health care dollars are spent on prevention, and 96% on detection and treatment of disease. This could be because the big health insurance companies reimburse big pharma drug companies, and medical providers such as doctors and hospitals are compensated for detection and treatment of disease and little attention seems to be given to prevention of illness and disease.
But the truth is that most of the diseases that are preventable are a result of lifestyle choices made by individuals. The State of
A single major medical claim from an employee or a dependent spouse in a Dallas Fort Worth small business's group health insurance plan can easily cost the company several hundred thousand dollars due to an increase in medical insurance premiums, and lost wages. These premium increases are compound, and impact a company for years. And a company with an employee with a single major health issue may be unable to find affordable group health insurance from another carrier because of the rate up on pre-existing conditions of the employee workforce or dependents.
Another major cost to small businesses is what is known as "presenteeism," or the loss of productivity of an employee with a health issue who is able to go to work, but who is not performing at capacity either due to the illness itself or due to the lack of concentration due to the illness. In other words, a major illness in the family may not keep an employee from showing up to work and drawing a pay check, but it may keep the employee from doing a satisfactory level of work. While you may think "it won't happen at my company," multi-year studies have proven that presenteeism is a more prevalent and greater expense to small businesses than medical-related absenteeism.
Big businesses in Dallas Fort Worth that can afford to self-insure their employee medical expenses can choose to implement employee wellness plans that identify at-risk employees, and can have programs that help employees and their family manage their existing illnesses and improve their lifestyles (i.e., lose weight and stop use of tobacco.)
But for small businesses, the need for a healthy employee workforce is as great or greater than in small businesses, and the consequences of an unhealthy workforce is much greater than in a big business. Small businesses usually cannot afford to have "on the bench" backup talent that big companies ovten have; the loss of a single key employer can devastate a small business.
Yet, there are very few simple and affordable solutions that a small to mid size business in Dallas Fort Worth Texas can implement that will help improve the health of the workforce. This post illustrates a foolproof solution by Group Benefits Advisors that can help small businesses build a healthier workforce and a healthier bottom line.
Filed under Consumer Driven Health Plans, Dallas Fort Worth Group Health Insurance, Employee Benefits Solutions, Employee Wellness, Group Benefits Advisors, Group Health Insurance Rate Texas, Group Health Insurance Texas, Health Insurance: Texas Small Group, Texas Group Health Insurance by on Jun 13th, 2007. Comment.
Whether or not a small business in Dallas Fort Worth Texas offers a group health plan for its employees, the company president or business owner should have a solid understanding about the overall health of their employees and their employees' spouses.
A forward thinking small business leader in today's environment must realize that they have a responsibility and a duty to the company and to all employees to promote health not only in the workplace, but also at home.
In Texas, only slightly more than one third of small businesses of 250 employees or less today offer a group health insurance to their employees. The reasons for this are many, cost and affordability being the most prominent reasons. Group health insurance premiums for a family of four costs on average more than $20,000 per year in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Even if the employer covers all of the cost for covering the employee, often the employee cannot afford to cover the cost of coverage for their dependents.
Many small businesses hope to grow and prosper to the point where they can afford to offer a group health insurance plan to retain and hopefully attract talented employees. When a business first applies for a group health plans, it may find that the rates from insurance carriers have been "rated up" because of pre-existing conditions of the employees. In Texas, group health insurance carriers can raise the rates ("rate up") the health insurance premiums to small businesses of 50 employees or less by up to 66% based on the health conditions of the employees. So the already high standard rates for small businesses can quickly become astronomically unaffordable if there are serious health conditions among employees or the employees dependents.
And if a company already has a group health insurance plan, the annual rate increase can push skyward at renewal time if a serious health condition occurs among an employee or dependent on the plan. At that point, the options are few, because other health insurance companies will also base their rates on the health of the employees.
Does this mean that a Dallas Fort Worth Texas employer should only hire and employ healthy people? Absolutely not! To do so is clearly discriminatory and illegal.
Does this mean that a Dallas Fort Worth Texas small business owner should actively promote healthy lifestyles at work and at home by employees and their dependents, and should actively encourage and incentivize employees to improve their health? Absolutely yes! By doing so, owners and presidents of small to mid size businesses in Dallas Fort Worth can save their company and their employees tons of money, and improve the quality of life for employees and their family.
According to the Center for Disease Control, 75% of all diseases are preventable. The most dreaded and costliest of diseases, the ones that cause the most suffering and devastation to families, the ones that cost small to mid size businesses in Texas several billion dollars every year, and cost individuals and families several billions more, can be traced back to two lifestyle choices: weight/obesity and tobacco use.
Over two thirds of adult Texans are overweight, and over 25% are obese, and about 20% use some form of tobacco. These are lifestyle choices that individuals make that cost money, and cause suffering and death. Obviously, this is a serious public health issue, but it is also a critical health issue for any small to mid size Texas business, and one that every business owner must address. Every Texas business must address obesity and tobacco use head on, and actively work to encourage employees and their dependents to lose weight and cut tobacco use, or they subject their company to major catastrophic health claims, as well as lost productivity.
Is it fair that an obese employee or one who smokes pays the same amount for their portion of the company's group health insurance premium as an employee that does not smoke and is not overweight? And is it fair for the healthy employee to have to pay up to 66% more for their group health insurance premium that was rated up to the maximum by their health insurance carrier because an obese or tobacco using employee contracted diabetes, had a heart attack or stroke, or contracted cancer?
Is a key person in a small business, perhaps a sales manager or a plant manager who the business depends on for its survival, being responsible to their fellow employees and to the business if they are obese or if they smoke? And since an unhealthy dependent spouse or child may have the same impact on the company's health care expense and productivity loss risk, business leaders who are willing to tackle this issue also must extend the push towards wellness into the home as well.
A simple Employee Health Risk Assessment tool devised by Group Benefits advisors is the first place a small or mid size business person should begin. This tool is a simple color coded chart that a company president can assign someone in the company to fill out, or can even do themself within an hour or two. The chart assigns each employee ( and if possible, and recommended, adult spouses), a color according to their body mass index (BMI) and also assigns each employee and dependent as white for no tobacco use or black for tobacco use.
Tobacco use is a very straight forward "black and white" issue. Tobacco use causes death, but usually not before it causes years of expensive, debilitating and painful suffering. Group Benefits Advisors' Employee Health Risk Assessment tool allows a business owner to tally up the number of employees and dependents that use tobacco so that the business owner can implement a program that encourages tobacco cessation.
The more employees who smoke, chew or dip, the more likelihood of a serious health claim and loss of valuable employee productivity. But since death from tobacco use is certain and only a matter of time, a single tobacco user among employees or their dependents is a major health risk.
Body Mass Index is a simple calculation and is one of the best measures of body fatness. It is reliable in about 95% of adults. (The primary exceptions being athletes and body builders.) BMI calculation requires only height and weight, and is a quick and reliable measure that has been found to be directly correlated with a number of obesity and overweight diseases and conditions.
The calculation for BMI is very simple: weight divided by height. The concept is simple to comprehend: a 200 lb person that is 5'1" has a higher BMI than a 200 lb person that is 6'1" tall. The higher the BMI, the more obese and at risk an individual is for a range of weight-related diseases and health conditions. These weight related diseases include the following:
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Type 2 diabetes
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Gallbladder disease
- Osteoarthritis
- Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
- Some cancers (breast, colon and endometrial)
And many of the above weight related conditions, such as diabetes, can cause a host of other diseases and conditions, such as blindness and nerve damage. Weight, and obesity, is a critical public health and private business issue, and if your small business is typical of the general Texas population, then it affects over two thirds of your employees and their dependents.
Read on to learn more about the Employee Health Risk Assessment for Dallas Fort Worth Small Businesses…
Filed under Consumer Driven Health Plans, Dallas Fort Worth Group Health Insurance, Employee Benefits Solutions, Employee Wellness, Group Benefits Advisors, Group Health Insurance Rate Texas, Group Health Insurance Texas, Health Insurance: Texas Small Group, Texas Group Health Insurance by on Jun 14th, 2007. Comment.
This is a story of how small business owners in Texas struggle to make a profit and meet the needs of their employee's families. It is increasingly difficult for small businesses to offer employee benefits like group health insurance for their employees. It is more than a dollars and cents decision. It is a decision of survival for many businesses, and a decision that impacts the lives and families of every employee.
It is also a story that shows how almost any Texas small business with a group health plan can easily save hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly in lower group health insurance premiums and in lower absenteeism simply by consulting with Group Benefits Advisors.
Statistics indicate that today only about a third of small businesses in Texas (less than fifty employees) can afford to offer group health benefits for their employees. Statistics about group health insurance and the uninsured usually miss the point of how human lives of employees and families are affected on a personal level. And statistics rarely point out the daily choices that both employers and employees make that lead to the decline in group health insurance coverage in Texas.
This is an attempt to humanize and put a face on the statistics. The last names and the name of the company are not important to this story, nor is the type or location of the business. But if you live in Dallas Fort Worth, you probably have a neighbor or friend or two that fits this description.
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Filed under Consumer Driven Health Plans, Dallas Fort Worth Group Health Insurance, Employee Benefits Solutions, Employee Wellness, Group Benefits Advisors, Group Health Insurance Rate Texas, Group Health Insurance Texas, Health Insurance: Texas Small Group, Texas Group Health Insurance by on Jun 19th, 2007. Comment.
Group Benefits Advisors often get asked by prospective small business clients how much they should spend on an employee wellness program (sometimes called workplace wellness programs or worksite wellness plans). Our philosophy is that when it comes to all employee benefits, whether group health insurance or an employee wellness program, a small business should spend as little as they possibly can in order to acheive their HR and business goals.
For starters, we suggest that a small business try to look at something we call the employee contribution factor. That is a fancy way of asking how much will each employee produce in terms of revenue, sales production, etc. From there, an employer can usually determine how much they can afford to spend in overall employee benefits such as group health insurance or a employee wellness.
Our experience is that among anything that a small business could spend cash on to attract and retain employees, an employee wellness plan has one of the greatest possible returns on investment. Each dollar spent by an employer for employee wellness will return about four dollars in reduced health insurance premiums, lower absenteeism and higher productivity. And employees save money as well, since they lower their health insurance premiums, and have fewer health care claims and less lost wages due to illess.
Since in a small business, the health insurance premiums are much higher per employee and the cost and risk to the business of the loss of a key employee is much greater than in a big business, the value of a workplace wellness program is actually much greater for a small businesses.
In spite of this, Employee Wellness Plans are very new to small businesses in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas. While there is usually a natural reluctance for a small business to try anything new that costs money, we find that employee wellness plans for small businesses in Texas make great economic sense, and are a great employee relations tool.
The reason that small businesses are still not familiar with employee wellness is that most wellness plans are geared for the needs of big self-funded large employers in the area. These wellness plans offer a virtual smorgasboard of different employee wellness benefits options that an employer can choose from, and require the kind of administrative support and budget that does not exist in small businesses.
Many of the employee wellness plans in Dallas Fort Worth are offered by health care providers like hospital networks or upscale fitness centers in the area who want to extend their services to the big employers in the area, and are not geared to the needs of small businesses.
Group Benefits Advisors offers a small business employee wellness program that is very affordable, easy to understand, and simple to administer. Rather than demanding that a small business choose from a huge menu of wellness benefits, as is the approach taken with big company wellness plans, Group Benefits Advisors' employee wellness plan focuses solely on programs that solve the three most critical lifestyle-related problems facing Texans today: tobacco cessation, weight loss, and exercise.
The health issues of obesity, tobacco and lack of exercise cause the majority of preventable diseases. It is very easy for business owners and employees to accept that employees who don't use tobacco, are not overweight, and are fit are going to be healthier, and more productive employees than those that don't.
Healthy employees also cost a small business less than unhealthy employees. They have fewer medical claims, they show up for work more often and are more productive at work than unhealthy employees. Group Benefits Advisors small business employee wellness plan rewards the employees that choose to live a healthier life, and penalizes employees who choose not to live a healthier life.
Over time, any small business workforce on Group Benefits Advisors' wellness plan will get healthier. And over time, employees and the employer won't get dragged down with higher health insurance premiums, health claims, and lost productivity because those employees who choose not to lower their weight, who continue to use tobacco, or who do not exercise will pay more for their medical benefits or leave the company. But the peer pressure that builds within the company and the rewards system will cause many "unhealthy" employees to reexamine their lifestyle and take action to improve their health.
When implementing Group Benefits Advisors' small business wellness plan, we design a group health insurance plan with a deductible increase for employees and dependents. The wellness plan then "rewards" employees who stop smoking, lose weight, and exercise with an additional HRA contribution that covers the increased deductible to employees. That way those employees who take action to improve their health pay no more than they did before or possibly less, and those employees who do not improve their health pay more or leave the company. Over a fairly short period of time, the workforce is healthier, and employees and the small business owner saves money.
After explaining this to our prospective clients, in a follow-up meeting we show them how any cost for the Group Benefits Advisors' small business employee wellness plan is more than covered by the reduction in group health insurance premiums from the higher deductible plan.
So the monetary and morale benefits derived from a healthier workforce, the lower future health insurance rate increases, and a more productive workforce with lower absenteeism that is derived from Group Benefits Advisors' employee wellness program in fact costs the employer nothing, requires no additional cash outlay on the part of the business, and which is about as close to a legal "infinite return on investment" as small businesses can achieve.
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For more information about Group Benefits Advisors and to request a no-obligation consultation, contact Mike Chapman at
Filed under Dallas Fort Worth Group Health Insurance, Employee Benefits Solutions, Employee Wellness, Group Benefits Advisors, Group Health Insurance Quote, Group Health Insurance Rate Texas, Group Health Insurance Texas, Health Insurance: Texas Small Group, Texas Group Health Insurance by on Jun 21st, 2007. Comment.
Group Benefits Advisors, an employee benefits consultant and group health insurance agency in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas has a remedy that improves the health of area businesses with less than 500 employees. It is a Corporate Wellness Program for small businesses that is based on a simple truth: Healthy employees are more valuable than unhealthy employees, since healthy employees are more productive and have fewer medical insurance claims.
In a small business, where there is less "bench strength" than in larger businesses, the loss of a key employee can have a huge impact on the firm. And a single large insurance claim can have a major negative impact on the company's group health insurance rates for years to come. Yet small businesses typically do not invest in programs that help improve the health of their employees.
Small businesses make the mistaken assumption that their group health insurance plan helps keep their employees well. In fact, only 4% of our country's health care spending go towards prevention of diseases, and 96% go toward detection and treatment.
The sad fact is that 75% of all diseases are preventable. Employers faced with ever-rising group health insurance premiums can no longer sit back and do nothing to improve the health of their employees. Employers must hold their employees and their dependent spouses accountable for maintaining and improving their own health.
Today, preventable lifestyle diseases are an epidemic. According to the Center for Disease Control, adult diabetes is now the sixth largest cause of death, affecting over 21 million Americans, or about 10% of the adult workforce Diabetes is increasing at a rate of 5% per year. There is about a one in 8 chance that any adult employee or their spouse has diabetes. Diabetes costs businesses over 132 billion dollars a year.
Obesity is the primary cause of diabetes. Over two thirds of Texans are overweight, and almost 25% are obese. Weight loss and exercise programs can control most cases of obesity. Yet such programs are not covered in a group health insurance plan. Weight loss and exercise programs also have positive impact on hypertension and cholesterol, which can contribute to heart failure, stroke, and heart attack and other circulatory diseases.
Tobacco use is still unacceptably high, in spite of being unacceptable in the workplace. Tobacco use causes cancer, emphysema, heart disease and strokes, and eventually death. Yet, not a dollar of an employer's health insurance premium goes towards helping an employee quit smoking or using tobacco.
Group Benefits Advisors' corporate wellness program is a low/no cost program for small businesses in Dallas Fort Worth that is easily to implement and will have a positive impact on their employees' and their spouses' health. The more years that an employer group is on the plan, the healthier their workforce becomes.
The program is paid for by the savings from a slight increase in the annual deductible for employees. Those employees who make changes in their lifestyle (lose weight, exercise, stop smoking, etc.), are "rewarded" with contributions toward their medical expenses; those that don't pay more for their health expenses or make a decision to leave the company. Employees who exercise, lose weight or stop smoking also are reimbursed for the programs after they meet specific goals.
The Corporate Wellness plan puts fairness back in the company's employee benefits plan by making personal health accountability a priority in the workplace. Employees and dependent spouses who make improvements in their overall health actually spend less than they would without the program, as well they should.
Employees and dependent spouses who choose to ignore their own health and that eventually cost their employers more in lost productivity and higher medical insurance premiums end up paying more for their health care expenses in this program. Or they choose to leave the company where their position can assumably be replaced by someone who is willing to be more accountable for their own health.
The plan is non-discriminatory; employees with medical issues that prevent them from participating in the plan are exempted, but are still required to enroll in alternate programs such as a stress reduction program, etc.
Long term studies have shown that adding a corporate wellness program to a compay's employee benefits plan can have a 400% return on each dollar spent. By keeping it inexpensive and simple to implement, now even small employers in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas can benefit from Group Benefits Advisors Corporate Wellness Program.
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For more information about Group Benefits Advisors' Corporate Wellness Program and for a no-obligation employee benefits consultation, email Mike Chapman or call, (214) 764-6315.
Filed under Dallas Fort Worth Group Health Insurance, Employee Benefits Solutions, Employee Wellness, Group Benefits Advisors, Group Health Insurance Quote, Group Health Insurance Rate Texas, Group Health Insurance Texas, Health Insurance: Texas Small Group, Texas Group Health Insurance by on Jun 25th, 2007. Comment.
A deviated septum surgery is usually performed in cases of Obstruction of the nose and it has been found that nasal breathing is a common finding in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. And the cause of such obstruction may be due to turbinate tissue overgrowth, deviated septum or collapse/narrowing of the nasal valve.
The only way to correct a deviated septum is through surgery. Such a surgery namely septoplasty is usually performed on an out-patient basis, with either general or local anesthesia, and usually takes 1-1 1/2 hours. Such a procedure is performed entirely through the nostrils, and if it is the only procedure performed, it does not cause any bruising or swelling following surgery.
What Is a Deviated Septum surgery and how it occurs?
The nasal cavity is divided into two halves by a partition made of cartilage and bone, called the nasal septum. The two halves are the nostrils. But in as many as 80% of all people, the nasal cavity is not divided equally. This will result into a deviated septum. For many people, this imperfection does not cause any problems, but for some, it can lead to difficulty in breathing and even chronic sinus infections.
No nasal septum surgery is required for most people but in severe cases, surgery for deviated septum may be recommended.More on deviated septum surgery
Filed under Health Insurance: Texas Small Group by on Jun 30th, 2007. Comment.