• Fewer people injured in highway crashes every year, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters announces
• Life insurance premium financing explained
• Supreme Court rules on age discrimination and conflict of interest in benefit plans
• Wellness programs boost employee, company health
• Blue Cross offers no-co-pay plans for generic drugs
• Growth of employer medical costs projected to accelerate
• Survey reveals gender gap on attitudes about health care costs
• What to bring to stay healthy on vacation
• SHRM's 2008 Benefits Survey: Employers adjust benefits in a slow economy
• Benefits used to lure part-time workers, survey shows
• Exercise Corner: Be flexible! The real scoop on stretching
• Recipe Corner: Campfire Mac ‘n’ Cheese

The number of people injured in crashes on our nation’s highways has declined every year since 1995, Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced in May, noting that there were 4.8 percent fewer injuries in 2006 (2,575,000) than in 2005. The trend also extends to teenaged drivers, with a more than 6 percent decline from 2005 to 2006.

Still, the new data released by the U.S. Department of Transportation indicates that teen injuries make up more than 16 percent of overall crash-related injuries, even though they represent only 8 percent of the driving public, Peters noted after meeting with the Severna Park Senior High School chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions.

“In the test of life, teenage drivers are failing at twice the rate as the rest of us. That’s a safety grade none of us is willing to accept,” Peters said. “Just as you hit the books to turn things around in class, we’re going to redouble our efforts to make our roads safer and our teenagers healthier.”

To help improve teen road safety, Peters announced a nationwide competition to develop the next generation of advertising and educational materials with a fresh focus to encourage teenagers to drive safely. The winning campaign will receive $5,000 and broad distribution to where it can do the most good with the help of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

She also announced that the Department of Transportation will award $300,000 each to two states to promote seat belt use in their local communities through creative and highly visible law enforcement efforts. She also said two states would each be awarded $100,000 to help combat drunk driving through the use of promising technologies that would disable a vehicle if a driver is legally impaired.

“You are not invincible,” Peters said to a group of 50 juniors and seniors at Severna Park Senior High School. “Take your driving seriously. Put down your cell phone and stop text messaging. You can get back to your friends once you’ve turned off the ignition, but you can never get your life back."

Source: Insurance Headlines, June 4, 2008

Premium financing is an uncomplicated nevertheless so poorly understood financing tool. For high net worth persons in business getting a higher value life insurance policy, premium financing would be possibly a helpful financial instrument. When appropriately appreciated, its intent and profit are plain and understandable. In spite of all that, it has been a much used financial tool for many years, business people even now consider premium finance an ambiguity. Many people get the wrong end of it on the whole. As a result, a lot of high net worth customers fail to benefit from it.

Keep hold of your wealth: All high net worth persons strongly understand the importance of maintaining their funds aggressively in use. In reality a lot of high net worth people have lot of assets yet they do not have liquid cash to pay out for hefty premiums on hefty life cover policies. And selling the rising funds; or taking away capital from investments ahead of ripening is a losing proposition. A business person well appreciates the idea of leverage and arbitrage. They use them every day in their business decisions.

Are you looking for an exclusive life insurance premium financing plan? This will make possible for customers to buy bigger face price life insurance plans, without effecting your liquidity, cash flow, or standard of living. As well as barely nominal risk, persons who meet the criteria for lender company Premium Finance Programs may bestow millions of dollars for the look after of their beloved family members in the shape of a life insurance bereavement advantage. The Premium Finance Plan takes in no out of pocket costs and no individual undertaking. If you meet the criteria for the plan it is an easy way to make available money for your dear ones.

You are a winning business proprietor; you have produced sizeable assets over your life span. All the same, you might not possess the liquidity on hand to pay for a very high premium and value life insurance plan. What is more, it might not be prudent to sell property for liquidity as it would increase the tax burden that is inevitable when you sell asts to pay for an insurance premium. Financing a life insurance premium is the best alternative in such situation.

Meaning of financing for life insurance premium?

Premium financing for life insurance is a technique to add to your insurance requirements by putting money into the premiums. This facilitates persons, businesses and big corporations to pay for insurance with no selling off or mortgage of property.

The modus operendi?

Provided you own a life insurance policy, you shell out premiums on a policy which is valued say at X number of dollars. Premium funding allows you to use the worth of your policy as security for financing additional insurance. That way you increase the variety of life insurance alternatives approachable by you.

Cost effectiveness of life insurance premium financing?

Yes, your funding alternative resolve will work pretty advantageous to your objectives for the reason that you will be able to get your hands on loan money at the on hand life insurance policy. You are likely to have oh offer, to a large extent, better interest rate and also loan tenure with secured funding vs. unsecured funding. On the other hand, your specific personal economic situation requirements to be considered at cautiously and you ought to absolutely get guidance before choosing the premium finance alternative.

Is it necessary to buy another life insurance policy?

While premium financing originally came into existence, purchasing a new life insurance policy, was on the whole right. It was a technique to pay for a bigger sum of life protection that has got its own rewards. Corporations now are moving on furthering their array of leverages. A few of them would offer you loan or finance depending upon your present strategy. It will give you again most appropriate financing alternative without putting your prized property up for as a guarantee.

Benefits from the financing of premium:

Wealthy investors and or business owner quite often take advantage of premium financing for life insurance. It works the same way for them except with a much larger amount. Companies that don't want to sell or tie up assets to purchase life insurance policies can use premium financing. Quite often they want to purchase a large amount of life insurance. Possibly to offer as part of an employee’s wages and benefits. Premium financing enables them to do this which works to attract new employees and /or keep highly valued ones.

The additional benefits of premium financing:

Yeah, there are couple of other benefit area where one can creatively use the financing of premiums such as planning of estate, business development and safeguard in addition to the already talked about desirability and preservation of human resources.

Premium financing is here to make it possible for people to buy additional life insurance in addition to raising money against an already in existence insurance policy. Well-to-do investors and persons may always gain benefits by using the financing of premium to be paid. It could be possible that you happen to be an owner of a company who is looking to draw the most excellent and the brightest and keep your on the whole precious human resources, or you are an individual person entity who is willing and planning to make your life coverage choices larger, premium financing would give you a way out to achieve your financial ambition. The entire gamut of such loans must be taken from a life Insurance Premium Finance Plan from a government chartered bank which should be a FDIC member so that the bank is subject matter of the FDIC supervision and control. This is necessary to be sure about the steadiness of the lender Life Insurance Premium Finance company program.

Source: Insurance Headlines, May 29, 2008

On June 19, the Supreme Court handed down two decisions that go to the heart of benefit plan design. One deals with the potential conflict that exists when a claims fiduciary has a financial interest in claims decisions, and the other with age discrimination in pension plans.

In the case of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. vs. Glenn, the high court justices were asked to decide whether a conflict of interest exists when the company that determines the validity of claims under a benefits plan also is responsible for paying benefits under the plan. "Yes," they said, and other courts should take this into account when adjudicating ERISA cases involving claims disputes.

Steven D. Spencer, an attorney with Morgan Lewis and Bockius, LLP, said that this decision has broad implications.

"In Glenn, the court concluded that such a [plan administration] structure creates an inherent conflict of interest that should be considered by courts in assessing whether the plan administrator abused its discretion in denying plan benefits. Employers must take note of this decision and consider whether a similar conflict in the administration and payment of claims under their benefit plans could diminish the protection usually afforded by the deferential standard of judicial review."

Of course, having a single administrator is not necessarily improper, and many insurers have procedures in place aimed at avoiding a conflict of interest, Spencer noted.

If after reviewing the plan structure, a sponsor decides to continue with it, Spencer recommended several steps to reduce potential bias and promote accuracy.

"Wall off the fiduciary from the financial," he suggested. This might include establishing an independent claims fiduciary whose decisions are subject to an independent auditor or including wording in a claim fiduciary committee's charter that makes it clear that the committee is free to make independent decisions without any repercussions from the plan sponsor.

This advice extends to self-insured employers as well, he added.

State pension plan does not discriminate

In Kentucky Retirement Systems v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the high court ruled 5-4 that the state's pension plan for disabled workers, which treats employees differently based on pension status, does not violate the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Kentucky's retirement plan permits "hazardous position" workers, such as policemen, to receive normal retirement benefits after working either 20 years or five years and attaining age 55 and pays "disability retirement" benefits to workers meeting specified requirements. The plan calculates normal retirement benefits based on actual years of service. Disability benefits are calculated by adding to an employee's actual years of service the number of years that the employee would have had to continue working in order to become eligible for normal retirement benefits, adding no more than the number of years the employee had previously worked.

The employee in this case, Charles Lickteig, continued working after becoming eligible for retirement at age 55, became disabled and retired at age 61. He filed an age discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after the plan based his pension on his actual years of service without imputing any additional years. The EEOC filed suit against Kentucky, arguing that the plan failed to impute years solely because Lickteig became disabled after age 55.

The justices sided – narrowly – with the employer. Harking back to the court's 1993 decision in Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, they said that a plaintiff must show that the differential treatment was actually motivated by age and not pension status to bring a disparate treatment claim under the ADEA.

"The court ruled that age and pension status are distinct concepts, and that decisions made under the plan are based on pension status rather than age," Spencer said. However, employers should be cautious about reading too much into this decision, he added.

"The court emphasized that this [decision] was a special case of differential treatment based on pension status, which lawfully turns, in part, on age, and that its decision 'in no way unsettles the rule that a statute or policy that facially discriminates based on age suffices to show disparate treatment under the ADEA."

Source: Employee Benefit News, June 24, 2008

Large Kansas City employers have taken an active role in providing their employees with information on smoking cessation, weight loss and other wellness topics.

But effectively supervising employee health and productivity can be an overwhelming task for human resource and employee benefit managers.

Large employers increasingly depend on a partnership of insurance brokers and care providers to help them administer a comprehensive series of wellness initiatives, which can include corporate fitness centers, disease management and on-site nutritionists.

It’s a significant change from 15 years ago, when most insurance companies didn’t see the benefit of supporting wellness programs.

Now, however, all major carriers have extensive services and programs available to clients, said Jack Bastable, practice leader for health and productivity for Cbiz Benefits and Insurance Services in Kansas City.
 
“We’re able to develop a strategy around health for the organization and then use their benefit plan to support that strategy,” Bastable said. “The overriding strategy is to help business owners be more profitable with happier and more productive employees.”

Cbiz clients, which include Kansas City, typically have more than 100 employees. The company brokers health coverage with several large carriers, including Coventry, Humana, United Healthcare, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Cigna and Aetna.

Offering wellness programs can help business owners offset their health claims and costs, according to industry studies.

The discounts offered by carriers are getting more similar compared with previous years, however. The old business of negotiating a lower rate is becoming less important than building a long-term relationship with a carrier, Bastable said.

Wellness programs have become the engine behind the growing demand for consumer-driven health-care products, said Andrew Carter, vice president of benefits consulting for the Haake Cos. in Overland Park.

They also have given the broker a more integral role in wellness delivery.

Overland Park-based HRH recommends biometric screenings or blood profiles for employees that can be done in conjunction with a company-sponsored health fair. The brokerage also helps collect employee data with health-risk assessments.

The tools give baseline information that will help employers develop programs and gauge changes in employee health, said Ames Stetzler, HRH co-president.

Small-business owners, ones that generally have fewer than 50 employees, frequently have interest in health savings accounts, or HSAs, consumer-driven health plans that typically are sold with a high deductible.
 
Mike Lewer, president and CEO of the Lewer Agency in Kansas City, said that his firm introduced an HSA program for its 46 employees earlier this year.

Understanding the HSA element, he said, gave them more of an interest in minimizing their health costs.
 
“We feel that the consumer-driven health area is a significant development in the small employer marketplace,” Lewer said. “It can be a very good fit for small business.

Source: kansascity.com, June 23, 2008

To encourage the biggest users of medical care to take cheaper medicines and stay on them, Independence Blue Cross will waive co-pays for 75 generic drugs used to treat chronic conditions, the insurer said yesterday.

The program, called Rx for Better Health, will be in effect from July 1 through Dec. 31 for IBC and AmeriHealth of Pennsylvania subscribers. It will not apply to people who have Medicare Part D, Medicare discount cards, and members of the Federal Employees Health Benefits program and AmeriHealth of New Jersey or Delaware.

The new initiative is a follow-up to last year's broader No Pay Copay program, which waived $50 million worth of co-pays for all generics. The company credits that program, which stopped at the end of 2007, with increasing generic use from 47 percent to 62 percent of prescriptions filled.

IBC began offering employers plans with zero co-pays this year. Rx for Better Health likely will waive about $12 million in co-pays.

Paul Urick, senior vice president of FutureScripts L.L.C., a for-profit IBC affiliate that is administering the new program, said he believed the new effort would drive even more customers to try generics and save everyone money.

In typical plans, subscribers pay higher co-pays for brand-name drugs - $20 to $35 - than for generics - $10.
Together, IBC and subscribers pay $25 to $40 for a month's supply of a generic medicine. Brand-name drugs average $150 to $170, Urick said. With that kind of price differential, the insurer and its customers - employers who provide insurance - can save money even if the generic co-pay is dropped.

Getting people with chronic illnesses to stay on their medications is a continuing problem. While cost is only one reason that patients stop, anything that helps keep them taking their medicines is likely to also help reduce more serious medical problems and worker absenteeism, Urick said.

The new program applies to more than 200,000 subscribers with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, depression, acid reflux, heart failure and heart disease.

Source: philly.com, June 19, 2008

After five years of steady decline, the growth rate of medical costs will level off at 9.6% in 2009, followed by a possible increase in growth rates, predicts a new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Although it is not a perfect barometer, the growth of medical costs is often considered a good predictor of the growth of premiums.

"With medical cost growth already exceeding the overall inflation rate and inflation heating up in so many other sectors, healthcare providers, insurers and employers will have to monitor medical costs carefully if we are to avoid a resurgence of the double-digit annual [percent] increases seen in the past," said David Chin, M.D., leader of the Health Research Institute.

Cost management strategies display an increased focus on cost-sharing by workers, substitution of lower-priced treatments and generic drugs, and plan designs that encourage workers to engage in healthy behaviors through incentives. This represents a change from so-called cost-shifting strategies used by employers, such as increasing co-payments or deductibles.

Some of the key factors that will drive the projected increases are increases in personalized employee wellness programs, new construction in the health care, and increased cost-shifting to private payers, according to the study.

Nearly one in four dollars spent by private payers in 2009 will be attributed to increased cost-shifting. This increase occurs because amount of government money allocated for public medical insurance programs is not enough to cover the costs, the study reports.

Source: Employee Benefit News, June 24, 2008

More women than men say paying for health care is a challenge, according to a survey by the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, a provider of employee and voluntary benefits.

For example, 58% of women were more likely to find paying for health care premiums and out-of-pocket costs a struggle, compared to men (47%).

"As women continue to make strides in the workforce and gain earning parity with men, this may help to lessen the gender discrepancy we see with paying for health care," says Tim Bireley, vice president of group medical at Guardian.

In the survey, however, women (51%) are more likely, compared to men (42%), to have done some retirement health care planning.

Despite the findings, Bireley believes that the need and opportunity to educate consumers about health care transcends gender.

"We have to make sure that employees are fully absorbing information. We have to consistently surround the consumers and share information with them at several touch points until they have a solid understanding of their health care benefits, he adds.

Guardian, which surveyed 473 individuals employed either full-time or part-time, also found that two-thirds of workers admit that health care plans, coverage and benefits are difficult to understand.

Moreover, respondents believe that the rising costs of health care, in part, can be contributed to: profits of drug companies (28%), lawsuits against physicians (14%), physician fees and salaries (9%), poor health of the population (10%) and obesity (9%).

Source: Employee Benefit News, June 20, 2008

If the price of traveling hasn't derailed your vacation plans, you'll need to pack a small arsenal of health items to protect your well-being. These items are listed in a new Harvard Medical School report.

Among the essentials listed in the report are your prescription medications (with at least a week's supply in your carry-on in case your luggage is lost), over-the-counter gastrointestinal medications (antacids, laxatives, anti-diarrheal medications), and motion sickness medication.

Depending on your personal medical history and your destination, you might want to consult your doctor about anti-malarial and anti-diarrheal prescriptions.

Allergy medications, such as antihistamine and 1% hydrocortisone cream, are also critical travel accessories. Don't forget a prescription EpiPen or other epinephrine auto-injector if you have a history of severe allergic reaction.

Other vital items include pain relievers (ibuprofen, aspirin, acetaminophen), cold-symptom medications (including lozenges), antifungal and antibacterial ointments and lubricating eye drops.

A first-aid kid, containing items such as adhesive and elastic bandages, gauze, antiseptic, tweezers, scissors, cotton-tipped applicators and a first-aid book should also go in your travel bag.

Traveling with kids? Make sure to bring water, snacks, alcohol-based hand sanitizer and oral rehydration salt packets for dehydration caused by diarrhea. With infants, bring diaper rash ointment, baby formula and any necessary medications.

Source: Employee Benefit News, June 24, 2008

Employee benefits remain stable in 2008, even as the economy slowed down, reveals new data released by the Society for Human Resource Management at its 60th Annual Conference in Chicago.

"Rising health care costs, combined with the state of the economy, are causing more employers to adjust health care and financial benefits," said Susan Meisinger, president and CEO of SHRM. "But in return, employers are offering other valuable but less costly benefits, such as telecommuting, cross-training for non-job-related skills development, and allowing employees to bring children to the office in emergencies," she added.

In the survey, which reflects the responses of 996 randomly selected employers, the HR association found that employers are scaling back on benefits tied to health screening programs; stock options; paid family, adoption, paternity leave and legal assistance.

While at the same time, they are beefing up on benefits that allow personal use of company-provided cell phones and communication devices; on-site vaccinations; fitness center membership reimbursement or subsidy; and Roth 401(k) saving plans.

SHRM also notes that HR professionals indicate that benefits costs to employers average 39% of payroll. Of those costs, 21% are attributed to mandatory benefits, and 18% to employee-selected benefits.

Key findings in the 2008 Benefits Survey include:

• Thirty-six percent of respondents offer health care coverage for both same-sex partners and for dependent grandchildren. In addition, 30% provide health care benefits for foster children, and 15% give paid adoption leave.
• Approximately 62% of companies pay for long-distance calls home during business travel; 37% offer a compressed work week; 24% offer such benefits as postal services, legal assistance, and food services or a subsidized cafeteria; and 5% offer concierge service.
• Also, 72% of employers provide wellness resources and information; 40% offer smoking cessation programs; 31% offer weight-loss programs; and 21% offer bariatric procedure coverage.

Source: Employee Benefit News, June 24, 2008

If part-time work is a winning arrangement for both employer and employee alike, employers can sweeten the pot and offer benefits to lure and retain employees.

A recent online survey provided exclusively to EBNC by Hewitt Associates shows most part-time workers are receiving some level of benefit coverage:

• Only 9% of the 259 Canadian organizations that responded to the survey don't offer benefits to part-timers.
• While 45% of respondents require part-time workers to work at least 60% of full-time hours to be entitled to benefits, 39% only require them to work between 40% and 59% of full-time hours.
• 8% of employers offer part-timers benefits even if they work less than 20% of full-time hours.

One solution to address the growing talent shortage is to entice those who have left the labour market to rejoin it on a part-time basis. If the employment "deal" is sufficiently alluring, it may persuade stay-at-home parents, retirees, students and others to return to the workforce.

"As the labour shortage becomes more acute, employers are finding that it may be easier to fill a vacant full-time role with part-timers," says Christopher Westcott, a senior benefits consultant with Hewitt Associates in Toronto.

"Not only does this ensure that the work gets done, but data from the latest "BestEmployers in Canada" study indicates that offering flexible work arrangements, including part-time work, often has a positive impact on overall employee engagement. Employees appreciate opportunities to achieve better work/life balance," he continues.

However, if part-time work is becoming increasingly prevalent as a means to fill the labour shortage, perhaps changes to benefit coverage for part-timers will follow suit.

"The survey data indicates that, while the majority of Canadian employers (64%) have no plans to alter their benefit coverage for part-time employees, almost a quarter of them (23%) are on the fence, without a clear idea of whether or not to make changes," Westcott says.

Organizations that appear most frequently on the list of those that are not yet sure of whether to amend benefit programs for part-time workers include those from governments/Crown corporations, manufacturing, retail, and the food and beverage industry.

Source: Employee Benefit News, May 5, 2008

Do your muscles feel stiff and inflexible? Can’t touch your toes? Not really certain when or how to stretch? Read on: You may find that you’ve been stretching incorrectly all along! Stretching for injury prevention and improved sports performance is misunderstood and steeped in tradition.

First off, you may be surprised to know that there are actually four different types of stretching:

1. Static -- A sustained stretch that is held and leveraged with another limb or against gravity in order to deepen the stretch. Example: Lying on your back and using your arms to pull your legs to your chest.

2. Ballistic -- Your body is placed in a stretched position and then followed with small bounces performed in an attempt to deepen the stretch. Example: Doing the last move and then gently bouncing your legs to your chest. This is NOT recommended, though, because it can cause micro tears in the muscle.

3. Active -- A stretch in which the opposing muscle group contracts and pulls the body into a stretch. Example: Reaching your arms up overhead and pressing back to stretch the upper body.

4. Dynamic – A stretch in which the body or a limb is moved through a range of motion. Example: Extending your arms and then moving them in full circles.

Previously, it was believed that static stretching before exercising would prevent injury. However, many recent studies have demonstrated that this is not the case. Furthermore, it has been established that performing a static stretch prior to any type of muscle contraction slows down and weakens the muscles involved, and thus worsens performance.

For warming up, active and dynamic stretching are actually better techniques than traditionally performed static stretches, because they prepare the body for exercise. They move the body through large ranges of motion to mobilize the joints, warm up the body and “wake up” the nervous system. Some additional examples to try: squats, lunges, hip circles and ankle circles.

The best time to stretch for flexibility improvement is at the very end of your workout when you are finished with your cardio and strength exercise. Relaxing, comfortable static stretches are a perfect way to complete your workout. Think of holding each stretch for 30 to 60 seconds, and repeat each stretch two to four times for best results. Better yet, get on a foam roller, which is a physical therapy device that has recently become very popular in mainstream fitness. Foam rolling is simple to learn, and is a highly effective way to reduce muscle soreness and tightness.

Flexibility is an often overlooked component of fitness, but it’s important to take time for a good stretch. Stretching helps overcome postural problems – such as the hunched-over letter “C” look -- found in people who spend a large amount of time sitting. Stretching is also critical for people with active lifestyles, and especially where the activity is very repetitive, like cycling, running or swimming.

So remember, for optimal flexibility, warm up with dynamic and active stretching, and finish your workout with some key, relaxing static stretches and foam rolling.

Source: The Fit List, March 4, 2008

With some adult supervision, young campers can cook one of their favorites over a campfire or grill. Just have each camper collect a stick that’s sturdy and not too dry.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:

Per serving:
1 (4 3/8 inch) disposable aluminum pan
½ cup cooked elbow macaroni
¼ cup shredded Cheddar
1 tablespoon Parmesan
1 tablespoon milk
½ tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper to taste
12 x 16 inch piece of foil

1. Let the kids combine all the ingredients in their pan. Then seal it in foil (a double layer if you're cooking over an open flame), folding over the extra foil at the top to make a sturdy handle to poke a stick or tongs through.

2. Hold the packet over a campfire or set it directly on a grill to melt the cheese, about 7 minutes. Let the pack cool briefly, then open it carefully. Stir the mac and cheese before eating it.