Category Archives: Uncategorized
Sick Time: The "Ferris Bueller Syndrome
Despite the difficulty of finding a job if unemployed, more and more Americans are risking termination by playing hooky. Corporations are clamping down — and even hiring detectives. Kronos, a time clock manufacturer and workforce productivity firm in Chelmsford, Mass., recently reported that 57 percent of U.S. salaried employees take sick days when they’re not [...]
Mea Culpa
I haven’t blogged in a Loooonnnngggg Time… I apologize and will attempt to make up for it. I have some good stuff that I’ve compiled. Promise.
Strategic Advice for Renewing Your Health Plan (Part 1)
Renewing your health plan in Massachusetts has been knocked off kilter by the Patrick administration, and you need to think carefully about how to proceed. This series of pieces will give our thoughts on the challenges Mass businesses face in 2010. History In February Gov. Deval Patrick announced that he was going to zero in [...]
Sorry for Not Posting
Sorry, but I’ve missed the last 10-12 days. I was at a marketing seminar for five days and in Mexico because of the death of my sister for three days. So I haven’t blogged. I’m starting with this apology today, and I’ll post some more stuff over the weekend and into next week. Jim
Group Health Self Funding – Companies from 50 – 200 Employees
In this post a couple of days ago, we talked about stop loss policies. (If you are just stumbling across this, you may want to go back to the beginning of the self-funding series so that you’ll be) By the way… this is fourth in a series on Group Health Insurance Self-Funding for employers of [...]
Medical Tourism Growing… Rapidly
Last year Americans spent about $1B dollars on medical tourism. That’s $1,000,000,000 — about what the Government spends in 30 seconds, but pretty large for you and me… even for insurance companies. Here’s the deal. In countries all over the world there are American-trained physicians turning out medical procedures at a level of quality that [...]
So Why Do We Need Tiered Networks??
I’ve been writing about the new Blue Cross Massachusetts Tiered Network product (that’s the most capitals I’ve EVER used in one sentence). Some of the feedback I’ve gotten, both within the blog and verbally from others is, “So what? What’s the big deal? How much difference can it make?” Good, valid questions. And I’ll start [...]
Tiered Medical – How Does BCBS Decide Who Goes Where?
Over the last few days I’ve been talking about the new Blue Cross plan, generally available April 1, in which you pay less or more, depending on your selection of doctors or hospitals. Let me reiterate what I’ve said before — I think it’s cool and I hope other carriers emulate BCBS. This isn’t BCBS [...]
Medicare Cuts Under Health Care "Reform"
The Senate has gagged insurers from telling their OWN customers the truth about the Medicare portion of Health Reform. Humana and others were letting insureds know that cuts proposed under reform ($123B over ten years in the Senate bill and $175B in the House) would result in seniors having their health care benefits cut. Apparently [...]
On to Santorini
After our third day in the Greek Islands, we traveled to Santorini. We decided to take the ferry, a delightful way to go from place to place in the islands. At first I was bummed out that there was no way to stand outside on the ferry, which is a catamaran that holds well over [...]