Archived Webcasts and Podcasts

As health insurance costs continue to spiral upward at an alarming rate, it has become painfully clear, that the “traditional” strategies of changing insurance carriers, changing plan designs, and changing employee contributions will not and cannot provide any form of sustainability or predictability over the long term. All these strategies do is shift risk from one insurance carrier to another, or shift costs and liability from the insurance carrier or employer onto the employee.
Employers must change their thinking from that or RISK TRANSFERENCE to RISK MANAGEMENT when it comes to their employee benefits program. This presentation will outline the three areas of risk in an employer sponsored health insurance plan, and how to effectively manage that risk.

Especially including incentives, you are spending a lot of money on wellness and related “soft” programs aimed at improving employee health. And you are being told these programs generate a high ROI. But chances are, you’re wasting your money. This webinar offers the opportunity to learn why this is the case before your CFO starts asking uncomfortable questions. All your CFO has to do is ask you what your company’s utilization trend is in preventable health-sensitive medical events (heart attacks etc.), and you’re stuck…because neither your vendors nor even your consultants are measuring or even identifying these events. Wellness isn’t magic and most medical events are unrelated to completing an HRA and being coached: when was the last time you yourself had a medical event that you could have avoided if a wellness program had been in place? This webinar will pull the curtain away from the magic of alleged wellness ROIs…and show you how you can estimate your real savings without expensive consultants or fancy actuarial calculations…using only fifth-grade arithmetic and “ingredients you already have in your kitchen.” Further, in addition to the standard HRCI eLearning credits, this webinar counts towards professional certification in Critical Outcomes Report Analysis http://dismgmt.com/certs/cora/self-study, the field’s only recognized credential in wellness/disease management analytics.

What does your CFO need to approve an effective wellness budget that will create a positive ROI? Do Health Fairs, Health Risk Assessments or Lectures create the evidence you need to get a wellness budget approved? What needs to happen in order to create a positive return on investment? The answers are more basic than most corporations realize. We will show you what actions you can take to create a measurable ROI with your wellness program, how to create sustainable behavioral change and how to get CFO approval for your next budget. Not tricks, no gimmicks! Just a workable and repeatable system that will create the behavior change that is measurable, sustainable and provable: the basic on the chain for creating positive ROI.

Nobody- not Congress, the US Supreme Court, the President or any Wellness Initiative- can immediately impact the cost of health care better than a Dependent Eligibility Audit. Dependents are responsible for over 70% of most company’s health care costs, but on average, 4-8% of those dependents are ineligible for coverage and cost individual employers a FORTUNE annually. Whether your company has 50 employees or 5,000, this session will de-bunk universal myths surrounding Dependent Audits like “We don’t have fraud” (yeah, right!) and share best practices and worst mistakes. Attendees also receive an ROI calculator tool to determine expected savings in their own company.

Organizations are continuing to tighten their belts and HR professionals are being pressured to find ways to lower costs on the same medical expense benefits they need to attract and retain the best talent. Meanwhile, increased insurance premiums, extensive paperwork, coverage restrictions and unexpected out-of-pocket expenses are making employees feel disenchanted with their current benefits. Is there a way to lower costs while increasing coverage? Health Spending Accounts (HSAs) are the answer. Either as a stand-alone offering, or integrated with other group benefits, HSAs give employers’ greater control over their medical expense benefits while making their employees happier with their coverage. This presentation covers the basics of this 25 year old non-insurance product. It explains just what HSAs are, how they work, who benefits from them, what services they cover, and their limitations. The latter part of the presentation addresses how HSAs, when combined with Internet technology, are easier to manage and provide easy access, improved coverage and increased control over your medical expense benefits.

Especially including incentives, you are spending a lot of money on wellness and related “soft” programs aimed at improving employee health. And you are being told these programs generate a high ROI. But chances are, you’re wasting your money. This webinar offers the opportunity to learn why this is the case before your CFO starts asking uncomfortable questions. All your CFO has to do is ask you what your company’s utilization trend is in preventable health-sensitive medical events (heart attacks etc.), and you’re stuck…because neither your vendors nor even your consultants are measuring or even identifying these events. Wellness isn’t magic and most medical events are unrelated to completing an HRA and being coached: when was the last time you yourself had a medical event that you could have avoided if a wellness program had been in place? This webinar will pull the curtain away from the magic of alleged wellness ROIs…and show you how you can estimate your real savings without expensive consultants or fancy actuarial calculations…using only fifth-grade arithmetic and “ingredients you already have in your kitchen.” Further, in addition to the standard HRCI eLearning credits, this webinar counts towards professional certification in Critical Outcomes Report Analysis http://dismgmt.com/certs/cora/self-study, the field’s only recognized credential in wellness/disease management analytics.

It’s not that we don’t have the data; it’s that we haven’t found an efficient way or technology that connects it with our Health Care Providers and Wellness Activities to make it useful. Sound familiar? Well, you’re not alone. In this 45 minute fast-paced Webinar, we’ll show you how leading companies are utilizing the latest technologies to integrate health screening and Wellness data to optimize the success of their Wellness Programs. BioIQ’s 2012 Wellness and Screening Survey of over 270 national employers, brokers, and wellness companies discovered that data integration was the leading factor when considering a screening or wellness vendor. The US Department of Health and Human Services’ has been on a decade-long quest to create portability and greater usage of electronic health data, and human resource professionals are increasingly in need of this data to actually quantify the results produced by their wellness efforts. These facts substantiate the need for better application of technology and strategies in order to make sure that you are getting the most bang for your buck in your wellness efforts. In this 30 minute fast-paced Webinar, we’ll show you how leading companies are utilizing the latest technologies to integrate health screening and Wellness data to optimize the success of their Wellness Programs. BioIQ’s 2012 Wellness and Screening Survey of over 270 national employers, brokers, and wellness companies discovered that data integration was the leading factor when considering a screening or wellness vendor.

This course reviews the Affordable Care Act. The first part of the course discusses the general requirements of the Affordable Care Act, including those requirements that apply to companies today. Specifically, the course discusses the extension of dependent coverage to age 26, limits on pre-existing conditions and essential health benefits, coverage of emergency services, cost-sharing restrictions on certain preventive care coverages, the new appeals process, initial authorization by primary care physician restrictions, limits on reimbursements of certain medications, automatic health plan enrollment, additional preventive services, non-discrimination requirements, and more. The second part of the course discusses requirements that take effect in 2012 and beyond. Specific topics include health FSA salary reduction contribution limits, Medicare Part D subsidy elimination, changes to waiting periods, limitations on pre-existing conditions and essential health benefits, restrictions on cost-sharing, clinical trial requirements, wellness programs, new Summary of Benefits and Coverage regulations, new HIPAA certification requirements, state Exchanges, the individual mandate, and more. Penalties and taxes associated with non-compliance are also reviewed. Among the penalties and taxes that are reviewed are: the Code section 4980D health plan non-compliance excise tax, the excise tax on HSA distributions for non-medical purposes, the annual fee assessed on plan sponsors, medical loss ratio rebates, medical expenses deduction limit, additional FICA and SECA payroll tax, new investment income tax, $2,000 penalty for each full-time employee who seeks coverage through Exchanges, $3,000/$2,000 penalty for each full-time employee who receives a subsidy because employer’s coverage is unaffordable, annual fee on certain entities that provide health insurance, reinsurance fee, 40% excise tax on “cadillac” insurance plans, and more.

The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Score, which highlights the country’s safest hospitals and warns against the least safe, allows consumers to make informed decisions about where to seek care. Over 2600 hospitals across the country were given a letter grade analysis of their hospital’s ability to keep patients safe, based on publicly available data. The score can be used by employers in encouraging employees to seek care at the hospitals where they are least likely to experience harm or error. This presentation will give an overview of the Hospital Safety Score and detail opportunities for use of the score by employers.

There are three developments that have made communicating benefits harder than ever:

• The increasing complexity of benefits, especially health benefits
• The general difficulty in getting anyone's attention
• The need to master multiple communications channels

Fortunately, there are new ideas and methods for communicating during the open enrollment period that will help you battle past these challenges.

This webinar will look at the thinking that lies behind successful open enrollment communication programs and shares some specific tips and techniques. Among the techniques we will explore are the use of video, social media, and “federated” creation of content. We can do better communication than ever, but we have to embrace the right tools and right mindset.