For many in Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas, shopping and eating are contact sports. Retailers and restaurants often test new store concepts here to see if the they can handle the stiff competition before rolling out into other markets. For example, about twenty years ago a retailer by the name of Wal-Mart introduced its first mega food and discount combination store, and a restaurant by the name of Chili's first opened its doors in Dallas.
Health care and retail observers should therefore take notice of a new specialty hospital that recently opened in the Dallas Fort Worth suburb of Plano, TX, and is applying discount retail concepts to health care. The hospital clinic is promoting lap band surgery at a hot $9,995 price point that it is promoting in newspaper ads.
It seems like a "can't miss" proposition. The hospital's location is in one of the most obese markets in the country, and its 75093 zip code places it in one of the most affluent markets in the country. And it has priced the extremely popular and controversial lap band weight loss surgery at less than two thirds below the price of competition from area general hospital competitors. We fully expect the hospital to be extremely successful, and it is probably poised to book its availability of surgeries for months in advance. A chain or copy cat hospitals cannot be far behind.
We are not going to comment on the ethics or safety of the clinic or of lap band surgery. And we don't intend to to debate whether insurance companies should cover the surgery. (In spite of what you may hear, most insurance companies will not cover it no matter what, even if patients get a "note from their doctor" stating that the lap band surgery is medically necessary.) Lap band surgery is simply not something offered by Texas employers as an employee benefit.
The facts are, obesity is a growing public health problem, and lap band surgery is a popular way that individuals who can afford to pay can lose weight. There are no less than ten general hospitals within ten miles of the new specialty hospital offering the lap band surgery at prices much higher than $9,995. Four of these hospital have been open less than three years, and three others have had major expansions.
This not only represents a lot of fat shed in Plano, but a lot of higly profitable surgeries by the GH's that are now under price pressure from the startup hospital. Insurance generally doesn't pay for these surgeries so insurance carriers cannot control what hospitals get reimbursed for this surgery. This new specialty hospital stands to siphon off much of this very profitable lap band surgery business from the general hospitals, just as several area cosmetic and orthopedic surgery specialty hospitals have done.
And this specialty hospital will siphon off more than local patients. At $9,995, many individuals who may have been reluctant to become medical tourists and travel to a foreign country like India, Mexico or South America for cut rate lap band surgery can now take a short and safe flight into Dallas Fort Worth Airport, drive a half hour to the hospital and then fly home a few days later and lighter.
Employees with Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Savings Accounts, or Health Reimbursement Arrangements won't get any break from Uncle Sam for lap band surgeries either. Section 213d of the IRS code specifically disallows cosmetic surgery, and you can be almost guaranteed that if you hand your CPA a note from your doctor stating that the surgery is medically necessary, he or she will advise against writing off the expense or of using qualified health funds.
A possible strategy would be for a weight loss clinic to give away the lap band surgery but charge extra for weight loss counseling, because therapy is a Section 213d deductible medical expense and is also often covered under group health insurance plans. But the "Usual and Customary" rule would likely close this loophole for individuals hoping that insurance or Uncle Sam will defray the cost of lap band surgery.
Yes, diet, exercise and wellness initiatives are more cost effective, safer, and can be often be claimed on insurance and/or on your income tax. But to the growing numbers of morbidly obese in this country, the monthy payments on a $9,995 procedure now make this a viable option.
So for the present time, the $9,995 blue light special for lap band surgery is flashing in Plano, Texas. And those that can afford to pay and who are willing to take the risks will be keeping this clinic very busy, for some time to come.
For more information and strategies of how Texas employers and employees can lower the cost of health care and find affordable health insurance and employee benefits, subscribe to the newsletter at GroupBenefitsAdvisors.com or contact Mike Chapman at Group Benefits Advisors, (888) 398-6246.
Ed Housewright, the Collin County columnist for the Dallas Morning News published a jewel of a column on August 5th in the Dallas News about the "shape" of local city government employees in Plano, Richardson, Dallas, and especially in the Collin County government.
Mr. Housewright reported on the unbelievably generous group health benefits offered to employees of these cities, and the truly unbelievably poor health condition of the city and county workers.
Some of the highlights of his column: Collin county employees have a group health insurance plan with no deductible! And a worker for the city of Plano has a $500 deductible, Richardson a $350 deductible, and Dallas workers a deductible of $300.
What's even more astounding is that these local governments are picking up almost all of the cost for the group health insurance plan. A Collin county worker pays only $30 bucks a month for "double platinum" group health insurance coverage, a Dallas worker only $137.
This makes me so glad to know that I have a $5,200 family deductible consumer driven health plan with no copay benefits so I can afford to pay taxes to my city that offers a no deductible health plan for government workers.
Of course, no tax paying business in these communities could ever afford the premiums for this type of plan for its employees. But somehow local governments see nothing wrong about offering unheard of level of benefits to municipal employees, and are fatalistic and almost acceptant about the expense. Mr. Housewright reported that Collin county spent almost as much to run its entire judicial system as it did on medical claims last year.
The result of local government largesse? Government employee largeness, and runaway medical expenses, much of which is obesity related, and all paid for by the tax paying public.
United Healthcare, the second largest health insurance company in the country, cited Collin county as having 104% more cases of congestive heart failure than other governement bodies insured by the insurer.
Not only that, but Collin county had 81 percent more cases of coronary disease, and 127 percent more cases of digestive problems.
To make matters worse, up until 2006, Collin County picked up the entire tab for lap band or stomach staple surgery; now the employee has to try a year's worth of doctor-supervised dieting before getting the free $10,000 surgery. In 2005, the county spent about $600,000 in surgery cost (plus lost wages and productivity of at least that much.) The lap band and stomach staple surgery procedure just is not covered in 99% fully insured private sector group health insurance plans.
There is no doubt that obesity is a rampant epidemic among adults and children of Texas. The Texas Comptroller estimated that obesity cost Texas employers $3.3 billion in 2005, and no doubt that number is now about $4 billion per year. Now, it appears that this number was greatly underestimated, as obesity among Texas municipal workers is totally off the charts, and guess who picks up the tab? Yup, taxpaying businesses.
The only defense in Housewright's article for the poor health of the county's employees was from Judge Self, who heads the Collin County Commissioner's Court and took office in January. Self was quoted as saying "We have a bunch of sedentary jobs." EXCUSE ME??? What Texas business in non-agriculture and non-manufacturing does not have mostly sedentary jobs!
However, Collin county taxpayers should not worry; the new County Court building is hoping to open up a workout room, and the County now pays each employee $125 to go get an annual physical. Now that's progressive thinking from government officials with bold plans on how to stem a health epidemic among their own employees!
Several problems occur in many government and non-profit organizations that don't occur in profit businesses. First, there is no true measure of a government organization's profitability nor of employee productivity, and there is principle of "tenure," in which employees can often expect to have a job for life, regardless of how great a job they do, or how much they cost their employer.
Second, there is no market-driven force to balance what the organization can afford to spend for benefits on a cost per employee basis, so whatever it costs is okay with public officials. City and county employees get fatter each year, city and county budgets in Texas go up every year, homeowner's get higher assessments every year, and taxpayers get taxed more every year.
Imagine what type of response you get if you asked a Texas small business owner or a self-employed person if they felt that it was fair that their municipality's employees get $30 per month health insurance with no deductible, that they get free lap band surgery with sick pay, that they can accumulate weeks and months of vacation, and they get a better and lower cost retirement deal than social security which they don't have to pay for.
Let's not even consider the retirement benefits issue. Half of all small businesses in Texas can no longer afford to offer any group health insurance plan at all for their employees, and if they do, you can be sure that the employee is paying their fair share, and is grateful to have the benefit.
Perhaps the main difference between public and private sector that is causing this unprecedented employee health crisis is the organizational culture. In a for-profit business, the cost per employee, revenue per employee, and profitability per employee are key measures for every department and every employee.
And in a right to work, "at will" state like Texas, any employee working for a Texas business can pretty much be terminated at a moment's notice, even if they are doing their job. "Profitability correctness" is a known fact among the employee and management culture.
Public sector employees are much more likely to get terminated for "political correctness" errors than "profitability correctness." Thus an obese, "tenured" public employee who knows his or her "rights" knows that a manager is fairly powerless to do anything about it, since obesity is a "protected" condition under the American Disabilities Act.
A well-intended municipal manager can't use the "shape up or ship out" approach with an obese employee without incurring discipline, temination and/or a possible lawsuit.
Instead, public sector managers can only offerup weak initiatives like workout centers and free checkups that end up costing taxpayers more money. Frankly, I doubt many obese Collin county employees would want to go to the gym to work out, though they might want visit a doctor for a checkup if they get time off and a chance to pocket $125.
So we have a public sector employee health crisis and group health insurance conundrum that is costing taxpayers and businesses in North Texas communities like Dallas, Plano, Richardson, Allen, Frisco and Collin County and Dallas County hundreds of millions of dollars, and no public sector manager can really do anything about it.
Here's a suggestion that will cause change: First, a taxpayer-lead initiative that limits each government to spend no more in municipal employee benefits than the average of what comparable taxpaying companies located in the same municipality pay for employee benefits.
In North Texas, this would mean that for group health insurance, the government would pay no more than 60 to 75% of group health premiums that would cost about $400 per month for each employee. Of course, that wouldn't buy a very good plan since the municipality's employees are so obese the rates would be much higher.
I'd bet my tax dollars to their donuts that if municipal employees in Texas were held responsible to "real world" healthcare costs, there would be such peer pressure for employees to take care of themselves, that personal health accountability would soon become the new political correctness. Fewer donuts, fewer lap band surgeries, and lower health insurance and healthcare costs.
Once North Texas municipal employees are forced to "get it" that there is no more public sector health care gravy train, managers could then implement programs that are proven to lower the cost of healthcare if employees engage in them. Presently, there is no incentive for employees to change, and it is apparent that self initiative isn't working.
For example, HIPAA regulation changes that took effect in July of this year now allow employers to reward employees monetarily on a tax-free basis, up to 20% of the cost of group health insurance premiums for engaging in wellness programs that encourage employees to exercise, reduce weight, and stop smoking. So a municipal employer in Texas with a $400 per employee premium that an employee must pay 35%, or $140, but could be offered incentives of up to $80 per month if they enrolled in the wellness program, and lost some pounds, exercised, and stopped smoking.
As a taxpayer, I'd rather be shelling out tax dollars for a wellness plan knowing that municipal employees had some skin in the game, and that they are now accountable for improving their own health, rather than have my tax dollars go toward free lap band surgery with paid sick leave for grossly obese workers.
This approach would then be a tremendous carrot for managers to change behavior among municipal employees. Employees would now have a "real world" health plan with a "real world" high deductible and monthly premium payments.
And since each municipal employee's monthly premiums would then be tied to the overall health of the employee group, employees might even urge their self-indulgent fellow employees to improve their health because it costs them money, without the need for managers to intervene.
It might be a taxpayer's wishful thinking, but I could envision a day when the office cubicles of local municipalities have embroidered signs on the desks that read, "Thank You for Not Eating Donuts."
If your Dallas company's open enrollment period for your Texas group health insurance plan is at the end of the year, you will soon be facing tough economic decisions. Your Dallas group health insurance broker will soon be delivering the bad news to you: Your rates will likely be somewhere between nine to fifteen percent higher next year for the same level of coverage.
If you are have a Texas small group health insurance plan (with fifty or less employees), by law, Texas group health insurance carriers cannot raise your premiums by more than fifteen percent. If your company has more than fifty employees in your Texas group health insurance plan, there is no limit to the potential increase.
The most obvious budget options are for you to reduce the coverage offered to employees by raising deductibles and reducing benefits, hold employees accountable for a greater portion of their group health insurance premium, charge more for your company's products or services to recoup the cost increases, or perhaps budget to sell more of your company's products and services, or show a lower profit.
Perhaps to deflect part of the criticism, some group health insurance brokers in Dallas Texas may also recommend changing insurance carriers. Be cautious if your broker recommends to you that you change group health insurance carriers in Texas because of rate differences alone.
Our experience is that this is a very competitive market, and group health insurance rates in Dallas usually do not vary much from one company to another for comparable coverage, so unless your company or employees have have received poor service, a rate increase is usually not a good reason alone to change group health insuarace companies.
Group health insurance carrier changes can cause frustration and disruption among employees and dependents who must at times change their doctors to ones that accept the plan's PPO, and any rate difference between companies is usually short lived.
So what can a budget-challenged company administrator to do to reduce the impact of inflationary Dallas group health insurance rates?
First, consider asking your employees. Employee input into budget choices at this time of year can be an empowering and a motivating force. Employees are smart, they read the newspaper and watch television and they know that providing group health insurance for employees is expensive. Let them know how much the rates will increase for the next year, both overall to the company, and per employee. Get their input on some of the options that your company has to cover the cost increase.
Second, ask your Dallas group health insurance broker for recommendations. Any broker can deliver the bad news, and show comparison rates from other Texas group health insurance companies. A smart broker can show you group health care insurance solutions that you can implement without changing group health insurance companies. Often, a smart broker can recommend strategies that allow an employer to provide similar or possibly even better benefits to employees at a reduced rate.
Keep in mind that a broker earns a commission on the premiums you pay, and a broker who has put their own self-interest over your company's best interests may not want to recommend strategies that could reduce your group health insurance premiums, as that reduces their income.
Some possible strategies for you is first to consider implementing a Texas consumer driven health plan as an option for employees. These plans are very inexpensive because they have high deductibles and many plans also do not have Rx or doctor visit copay benefits until the employee meets their high deductible. The premium that the employer and employee pay for coverage in one of these plans is much lower than a traditional plan.
Since most employees (over two thirds) never meet their deductible, a consumer driven health plan can be a good option for healthy employees who rarely go to the doctor. An employee with one of these plans can then set up a health savings account (HSA) that works like an IRA to save money tax-free for future health dental and vision care expenses. The employee or the employer can choose to make periodic contributions into the HSA so that the cmployee has funds available to meet out of pocket expenses from the occasional doctor visit.
Another option for your company may be to couple a high deductible health plan with a health reimbursement arrangement, or HRA for employees. Since the deductible is high, the premiums are low. You set up the HRA to reimburse employees for eligible medical expenses after they pay for a set amount of expenses, say $1,000 to $1,500. The group health insurance plan then pays after the higher deductible is finally met. But unlike HSA plans above, the health insurance plan can have Rx and doctor visit copay benefits before the deductible is met.
Both the HRA and the HSA are great devices to lower insurance premiums, and give employees incentives to be careful about their own health and spending the health care benefits wisely. And because over time the insurance carrier pays fewer claims, future inflationary rate increases will be less.
Another strategy in controlling the cost of health insurance for your employees is to give them the tools and the incentives to improve their own health.
Tobacco, poor nutrition and sedentary lifestyles among employees leads to chronic, debilitating, and expensive diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart attack and stroke to name a few. Encouraging and rewarding employees to maintain healthier lifestyles can have a direct impact on the cost of your company's group health insurance rates in Texas and can improve employee productivity by lowering absenteeism.
Ultimately, the only way for a company to control their group health insurance costs is to improve the health of their employees. A smart broker can show you how you can implement a corporate wellness plan for free that can be paid for out of savings from implementation of a consumer driven health plan.
So if your Dallas group health insurance broker has never recommended or discussed in detail solutions that your company can use to help control group health insurance rates, and if your broker has recommended changing insurance carriers for the sake of a minor insurance rate difference, then you should discuss the above suggestions with your broker and get their input. If the suggestions are rejected out of hand, then perhaps it is time to put your interestes ahead of your broker's.
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If you would like a no-obligation consultation for your company's dalllas employee benefits plan, including Texas group health insurance quotes, contact Mike Chapman at GroupBenefitsAdvisors.com, 214-764-6315 or (888) 398-6246.
Filed under Consumer Driven Health Plans, 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, Texas large group health insurance plans by on Aug 7th, 2007. Comment. 
Businesses in Dallas Fort Worth Texas walk a fine line between having a group health plan that will attract and retain valuable employees, and one that the employer and employees can afford. Businesses have fought the rise in group health insurance premiums by increasing deductibles and dropping payment for coverage of dependents.
In spite of these moves, most Texas businesses can no longer realistically increase deductibles and the amount that employees must contribute to pay for their group health insurance. This is is most often the case with small businesses in Dallas Fort Worth.
Yet, there is one very powerful tool that employers and employees can use that will reduce the long term cost of group health insurance. A corporate wellness plan added to a company's employee benefits program can save a company four dollars in lower group health insurance premiums and lower absenteeism for every dollar spent by the employer. And the up front costs for a wellness plan are minimal, and can usually be offset by changes in the group health insurance plan.
The Wellness Driven Health Plan designed by Group Benefits Advisors for Texas businesses is simple to implement, requires no additional personnel or specialized ttraining, and rewards employees and dependent spouses for maintaining or iinitiating healthy lifestyles. Healthy employees and dependents have fewer health care expenses, and have lower absenteeism. This translates directly into lower health insurance premiums and reduced lost wages to to illness the employer.
Unlike more complex and expensive employee wellness plans, Group Benefits Advisors' Wellness Driven Health Plan concentrates solely on weight loss, tobacco cessation, and exercise. Under this plan, employees and dependent spouses that abstain from tobacco, who maintain an acceptable weight and body mass index, and who exercise are rewarded monetarily and are recognized; those employees who don't are not.
Ultimately, employees who do maintain an acceptable weight and BMI, who exercise, and who refrain from tobacco will cost the employer less by having fewer health claims and and costly diseases such as diabetes, heart and circulatory conditions, stroke, and cancer.
Ultimately, those employees who do not maintain an acceptable weight and BMI, who exercise, and who refrain from tobacco will cost their employer more by having more health claims and and costly diseases such as diabetes, heart and circulatory conditions, stroke, and cancer.
Since those employees who do not maintain an acceptable weight and BMI, who exercise, and who refrain from tobacco also cost the their fellow employees more by having more health claims and and costly diseases such as diabetes, heart and circulatory conditions, stroke, and cancer. This is because a single major health claim from one employee or dependent for a preventable disease can amount to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in health insurance claims and lost wages.
A single preventable health insurance claim can result in major increases in health insurance premiums that can haunt the employer and healthy employees for years to come. It seems unfair that a single employee that does not feel accountable for maintaining a healthy lifestyle can have this impact on their fellwo employees' and their employer's health insurance premiums, but that is the reality.
Group Benefits Advisors' Wellness Driven Health Plan helps add back accountability and fairness to group health plans by rewarding (and thereby lowering the cost) to employees who hold themselves accountable for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and to not rewarding (and therefore increasing the cost) to employees who do not maintain a healthy lifestyle.
For more information about Group Benefits Advisors' Wellness Driven Health Plan and for a no-obligation employee benefits consultation, employers are encouraged to contact Mike Chapman at Group Benefits Advisors, or (888) 398-6246.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.