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California Human Resource Blog

Archive for the ‘Health Insurance’ Category

Time to Start Planning for Benefit Renewals

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Not planning far enough ahead for two important details – the annual renewal dates of your Workers’ Compensation and your Employee Benefits insurance policies – can severely limit your options to make a complete review of how to most efficiently and cost effectively manage these potential drains on your company’s profits.

Increasing health insurance costs are a huge worry for most small to mid-sized businesses, and they feel that they have no control over this annual “surprise”. And insurance, and all of the various options, is complicated, and they really don’t know who to trust.

An experienced HR professional can not only help you sort out what’s best for your business; they can also take a strategic look at your HR practices. By carefully considering the full picture of how your company operates and where you want your business to go, you may well find that you are creating the wrong incentives for your employees or that you won’t be able to attract and retain the right kind of talent needed to support your future plans.

The result may be some relatively simple changes to your employee benefits, some work attacking your workers’ comp loss history (a very controllable expense), or some changes to your policies and procedures to create the right incentives for your employees. Or, as many small and mid-sized businesses are doing, this analysis might reveal that this is the right time to consider outsourcing some or all of your HR (not just payroll), employee benefits, and workers’ comp administration.

Included in our PEO services, YPP’s HR team negotiates for both health and workers’ compensation insurance so you don’t have to. While we don’t sell insurance, we do understand the complexities, including the impact of Health Care Reform, bringing our expertise and years of experience on your behalf. And, we are always taking into account the overall picture of your company and your employees. In addition, YPP manages workers’ comp claims and monitors your experience modifier throughout the year. In short, we work all year to manage your insurances, not just at renewal time, and we keep in mind the big picture of you, your company and your employees.

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Posted by Sandra Dickerson in Health Insurance, Uncategorized, employee benefit planning | No Comments »

The Only Constant is Change

Friday, January 21st, 2011

When it comes to being an employer in California, one thing is certain; things will always be changing.  In the key areas of Payroll, Human Resources, Employee Benefits, and Workers’ Compensation and Safety, the rules for you as a business owner are truly a moving target.

Isaac Asimov’s famous quote begins with the iconic statement that “the only constant is change” and goes on to say that “no sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be”.

Two significant challenges confront business owners in keeping up.  First, you have to be aware of what’s changed in the four key areas of employment: payroll, HR, benefits and workers’ comp.  That could be a full time job in-and-of itself.  And, let’s be honest, you are an expert in your business, not in payroll taxes, employment law, benefits administration, and insurance.  So, even if you can stay abreast of all of the changes that might affect your business, you may not know what they really mean to your bottom line or your company’s future.  Second, with some changes required and others optional, you have to decide how, when, or even if you should implement a change.

Take the Brinker case regarding meal and rest periods that is before the California Supreme Court.  A final ruling has not been issued, so each employer must assess the potential impact and make a business decision which balances the risk of the ruling going one way or the other with your needs, your customer’s needs, and your bottom line in this tough economy.

Or take, for example, the recent reduction of the Social Security payroll tax.  This change didn’t happen until early December but it appeared to be a fairly straight forward, mandated change.  But wait – for self-employed workers, who pay both the employee (worker) portion AND the employer portion, it was unclear what the reduction would be; i.e. would it only apply to the employee portion or to both the employee and employer portion?

You wouldn’t decide if your company should be a partnership or a corporation without professional advice from your attorney or your CPA.   Likewise, don’t try to stay current with, nor interpret changes in, the areas of Payroll, Human Resources, Employee Benefits, and Workers’ Compensation and Safety without also seeking the advice of a professional in the area Employer Services.

Whether it is a small, one time consulting project to review a certain area of your employment relationship with your employees, or a desire to completely offload all of the administrative burdens of being a California Employer and focus on the business of your business, YPP can help.

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Posted by Steve Wilner in Benefit Management, Health Insurance, Labor Law, employee benefit planning, employee benefits | No Comments »

Health Care Reform – The Devil is in the Details

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

By now, everyone is aware that Health Care Reform has a variety of key provisions that are phased in over time.  Everywhere you look, someone has published a calendar or a timeline of when the key provisions kick in.  Every business owner has pretty much memorized this list.  So, is that all there is to it and as long as you or your broker stays on top of that list, you are good to go?  The answer is a resounding, “NO!”  In this case, no truer words were ever spoken than “the devil is in the details”.

First, many of the procedures and regulations have not been written.  There is much lobbying and debate that will go into these final implementation instructions that could contain nuances which may directly affect you, your employees and your business.  For example, are your plans eligible for “grandfathering” and even if so, does that make sense for your business?  Are the contributions and eligibility rules of your plans discriminatory? The list is seemingly endless and the penalties can be extreme.  Therefore, you need to ensure that you or someone you trust is taking a strategic look at your plans in light of compliance, cost containment, and providing competitive benefits to attract, take care of, and retain the best employees.

So, what’s a business owner to do?  Well, what you can’t do is neither hide your head in the sand nor assume that your broker is taking care of all of this for you.  You could get yourself educated and stay on top of the details for yourself, but that takes your focus off of your number one goal of running and growing your business.  So, we don’t recommend that approach.  Or, you could assume that your benefits broker is doing that for you.  We don’t recommend this approach either since many brokers are focused on the cost reduction piece but have no interest or expertise in the compliance arena.  Therefore, what we do recommend is that you ask your broker directly to ensure that someone is tracking and analyzing the ever-updating world of Heath Care Reform and using that knowledge to ensure that your plans are in compliance, containing costs, and providing the level of benefits you need to take care of your staff, as well as attract and retain the best.

At YPP, we are doing this work on behalf of our clients and are making changes to our plans and plan offerings accordingly. And, we’ve even hired outside counsel with a specialty in the Heath Care Reform legislation and regulations to ensure we are on top of everything for our clients. So, if you aren’t sure if you are “good to go” with Health Care Reform – don’t forget that the penalties for missing a detail can be stiff – feel free to give us a call.

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Posted by Steve Wilner in Health Insurance, employee benefits, employee health care bill | No Comments »

Employee Health Insurance Programs

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Anthem/Blue Cross recently announced a 39% rate increase on individual policies, which they put on hold after the significant negative firestorm they created. Blue Shield has imposed increases on HSA plans of 20-67% in the last year. Mid-size and large group plans are faring better; however, “better” is somewhat relative when it’s still in the 13-15% range year after year. Maintaining a health insurance plan for your employees is becoming more challenging every year.

I have spent a large part of the past 20 years managing the benefit plans for YPP and it’s become more difficult each year to find that balance between affordable rates and quality of coverage. No one wants to provide a plan that employees don’t believe gives them adequate insurance benefits, but doing so has become much more difficult.

YPP’s HR Managers have spent a lot of time in recent years helping clients evaluate their benefit offerings and identify ways to manage costs. This assessment is different for each business, since it can include any of the following:

  • What is the goal of providing benefits? Retention is normally the answer, but has it really helped retention and do other companies you compete for candidates with offer them?

  • What classes of employees should you identify and provide benefits for? If you establish these correctly, you do not have to provide the same level of benefits for each class.

  • What contribution level should you provide, balancing the need to meet the carriers’ contribution and participation requirements with premium costs.

In this challenging economic environment with all signs pointing to staggering benefits cost increases your HR staff needs to take a proactive approach. It isn’t good enough to just passively shrug off the annual cost increase. Challenge your HR staff to give you a complete picture of the competitive landscape and the internal organizational dynamics driving your benefit structure. Some well spent HR creativity can minimize your benefits cash outlay and maximize your return.

Posted by Sandra Dickerson in Benefit Management, Health Insurance, employers | No Comments »