In the world of human resources, there is nothing like a top quality benefits package designed to attract the high end and quality talent that one's company needs in order to thrive. Putting together a suite of employee benefits is the top job in benefits management, from which all else...
A company had a huge data warehouse that was consolidated from various systems using an ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) tool. Infosys, which was asked to reengineer the data warehouse and make it modular, delivered a solution that reduced the batch processing time by 70%. As a result of the...
The cost of providing workers with health care is rising faster than that of any other component of employee benefits. Many companies have tried to address this problem by shifting costs to their employees or improving their sourcing, but a more comprehensive approach is needed. Companies can control their benefit...
Once deemed a bothersome ? and costly ? byproduct of cheese manufacturing, whey finally is enjoying some well-deserved respect. In reality, few other food ingredients can match it in terms of functionality and health benefits. Despite all this progress, as much as 30 percent of whey still is disposed of....
Benefits administration has many elements, not the least of which is one's group medical plan. First, a person should decide whether he or she should assign the group medical plan administration to an existing employee or whether the person will need to hire someone. In order to decide, the person...
Differences in utilization of health care services across the country have been well documented, but less has been reported on geographic variation in price. As health care spending is the product of utilization and price, information on health care prices and factors contributing to price differences provides an additional perspective...
Differences in utilization of health care services across the country have been well documented, but less has been reported on geographic variation in price. As health care spending is the product of utilization and price, information on health care prices and factors contributing to price differences provides an additional perspective...
Human Resource HR professionals are under increasing pressure to contain employer health benefit costs without negative workforce consequences, demonstrate Return on Investment ROI on current benefit programs and related interventions, and further engage employees in managing their health care. To tackle these challenges, HR executives in leading organizations are applying...
Since 2003, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program FEHBP has offered "Consumer-Directed" Health Plans CDHP to federal employees. A CDHP is a high-deductible health plan coupled with a savings account enrollees use to pay for health care. Unused balances may accumulate for future use, providing enrollees the incentive to purchase...
This paper reports findings on the state of job-based health insurance in spring 2005 and how it has changed during recent years. Premiums rose 9.2 percent, the first year of single-digit increases since 2000. The percentage of firms offering health benefits has fallen from 69 percent in 2000 to 60...
To broadly examine the potential health and financial benefits of health information technology HIT, this paper compares health care with the use of IT in other industries. It estimates potential savings and costs of widespread adoption of electronic medical record EMR systems, models important health and safety benefits, and concludes...
This report examines the state of employment-based health benefits among workers with respect to offer rates, coverage rates, and take-up rates. It also examines how the state of employment-based health benefits has changed since the mid-1990s, reasons why workers do not have employment-based health benefits from their own employer, and...
This report examines prices and spending in FEHBP Preferred Provider Organizations PPOs to determine the extent to which hospital and physician prices varied geographically, which factors were associated with geographic variation in hospital and physician prices, and the extent to which hospital and physician price variation contributed to geographic variation...
This article examines the relationship between health benefits and union status. Union workers are much more likely to have employment-based health benefits than nonunion workers. In September 2003, 86 percent of union workers were covered by health benefits through their own job, compared with 59.5 percent of nonunion workers. The...
Retiree health benefits are yet another piece of the historic industrial landscape that will soon slip over the horizon. The plans have long outlived their original purpose as a tool to help regulate turnover, but they continue to generate huge liabilities for the companies that provide them. Employers are aggressively...
Nearly 18 million people rely on employer-provided retiree health benefits to fill gaps in Medicare's coverage or to provide basic insurance until they reach Medicare age. Rising costs have led many employers to limit benefits, require participants to pay a larger share of the costs, or stop offering coverage at...
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 MMA created a prescription drug benefit for beneficiaries, called Medicare part D, beginning in January 2006. The paper determines the trends in employment-based retiree health coverage prior to the MMA and which MMA prescription drug options plan sponsors said they...
Other stakeholders and events will influence whether health insurers' current post merger prosperity will lead to U.S. health benefit programs that are predominantly sponsored by the private or public sectors. Large employers are encouraging three complementary health benefit innovations to improve the affordability and quality, or "Efficiency," of clinical services:...
This paper is directed primarily to policymakers within DoD and in Congress, but it may also be of interest to individuals at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and to other readers interested in health insurance for the DoD/Medicare population. This paper was undertaken in the months preceding implementation...
