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SizeUp Selected an Innotribe “NYC Startup Challenge” Finalist

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SizeUp’s big data products help financial institutions better serve business clients

New York, NY (PRWEB) June 18, 2015

SizeUp (http://www.sizeup.com), a small business intelligence tool designed to help companies grow, is one of ten early-stage startups selected to present this week at the NYC Innotribe Showcase (http://innotribe.com/2015-new-york-showcase), which seeks to identify the brightest startups serving the financial services industry.

“Our software as a service technology helps banks, payment cards, accounting and other financial institutions better serve their small business customers,” says Anatalio Ubalde, CEO and co-founder of SizeUp. “We are helping financial companies create value and engagement with customers by allowing them to embed our technology directly into their websites.”

SizeUp will present before a select audience of financial service experts and global bank decision-makers attending Innotribe this week.

SizeUp helps businesses make smarter decisions through data. The web tool, which can be customized and embedded into a financial institution’s website, makes it as simple as a mouse click to access highly specific information on every industry and geographic region – including revenues, salaries, health insurance costs, customer locations and more.

The Innotribe Startup Challenge bridges the gap between the financial services industry and today’s brightest startups by organizing regional showcases around the world.

“There’s a chasm between how startups and banks practice innovation, and helping our startups understand how to communicate their value propositions to SWIFT’s community helps banks quickly evaluate new technologies and models, and helps our startups identify appropriate partners and investors,” said Mike Sigal, Lead Coach of the Startup Challenge.

About SizeUp
SizeUp (http://www.sizeup.com) is a small business intelligence website that helps small businesses become smarter, more profitable, and more competitive. It enables small business owners to benchmark themselves against competitors, find the best places to advertise, and map their competitors, customers, and suppliers. @SizeUpBusiness

About Innotribe
Launched in 2009, SWIFT Innotribe (http://www.innotribe.com/) is about innovation and connecting people, networks and ideas. We bring together global innovators and investors, strategists, and influential decision-makers from leading financial institutions across the globe, providing them early insights into innovations that could disrupt current business models and create opportunities for new ones. Through the Startup Challenge competition, we bridge the gap between the startup ecosystem and the financial service community. @innotribe Reported by PRWeb 17 hours ago.

Court's ACA-subsidy ruling could cut $1.7B flowing to North Carolina

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With the long-awaited King v. Burwell court decision expected in the coming weeks, North Carolinians are paying close attention. In real terms, it could mean $1.7 billion less flowing into this state. Nearly 460,000 people in North Carolina receive some subsidy when they buy health insurance through the federally operated exchange — the very subsidy that the Supreme Court might rule against. In addition, North Carolinians qualify for a larger subsidy than residents of many other states. In only… Reported by bizjournals 13 hours ago.

Doctors, Hospitals Brace For Larger Aetna, Anthem Or UnitedHealth

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As talk of merger-mania hits the health insurance industry, doctors and hospitals worry about potential market clout of these companies if the so-called “Big 5” publicly-traded insurers dwindle to four or even three. Reported by Forbes.com 11 hours ago.

America's Biggest Health Insurance Providers

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Reported by Forbes.com 10 hours ago.

Obamacare 101: What if Supreme Court rules against federal subsidies? (+video)

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If the Supreme Court rules against the Obama administration, 8 million Americans will lose their health insurance, two studies find. A decision is expected by the end of June. Reported by Christian Science Monitor 11 hours ago.

Trion Warns Businesses: Prepare For U.S. Supreme Court Health Insurance Exchange Ruling

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Trion Warns Businesses: Prepare For U.S. Supreme Court Health Insurance Exchange Ruling CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--How US Supreme Court ruling on federal health exchange could affect businesses/employers Reported by Business Wire 11 hours ago.

NSFW: Exercising at your office

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Working out with your coworkers is becoming an unavoidable trend in many offices around the country. It began with HR departments incentivising exercise to save money on health insurance.

 
 
 
 
 
 
  Reported by USATODAY.com 10 hours ago.

Highly Educated Yet Experiencing Discontent

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London Business School is perhaps the world's most competitive MBA program in the world, with recent acceptance rates lower than even Harvard, Wharton or Stanford. We're trained in logic, math, competition and strategy.

Like my classmates at LBS, after graduation, I went on to a high-stress job in finance. But my life changed drastically after an unexpected open-heart surgery at the age of 31. A few months ago, a book that I wrote, Heart of Miracles: My Journey Back to Life After a Near-Death Experience, was published. It is a memoir of my odyssey through the Himalayas, astrology, meditation courses, dream study, cloistered nuns on a freezing mountain, tombs, coincidences, ancient texts and holy sites. It is an unapologetically spiritual book that takes the average reader out on a limb.

Needless to say, I didn't expect that the epicenter of my readership would be my male classmates from London Business School. They don't teach mysticism there.

But classmates have been coming out of the woodwork to tell me that they related to the book, and I've heard from some of the most unexpected people. How could they relate, I wondered? Where was the resonance?

It's because the motivation behind my quest was to answer the question: How do we lead satisfying lives? It's a question that hits home, especially to the dissatisfied.

Like most people in their 30's, my friends and I held the belief system that academic and then conventional career achievement leads to happiness, or at least, happy enough. But what many of us are discovering is that it's not adding up.

The way our civil structures are right now, with high costs for health insurance, education, property, and even food, most of us choose a path that we think will keep us safe, happy and well. At the time, an office job in banking, consulting or finance with a guaranteed high salary feels like a great decision. But what happens when the straight and safe path isn't what you thought it would be?

Soon after my book came out, I got a message from a man in Canada who said that he cried his way through the first chapter of my book. It described my former life working in a corporate bank, drowning in e-mails and commuting, wondering What is the purpose of my life?

Another classmate of mine, also approaching 40, told me that he wept audibly on an airplane reading my book.

I realized life after death was not the most relevant spiritual issue of the financially privileged, well-educated person. It's: I've gone to college, maybe grad school too, I have a job and I am not satisfied with my life. It sound like an easy problem to have, as many people are much worse off, but the pain these people are going through is very real.

After my classmate wrote me about crying on the plane, we had a heart-to-heart conversation over breakfast. He admitted very frankly that a few years ago he had almost lost the will to live, and then he added "like most of our classmates."

10 years after graduation, I have quite a few friends who have dropped out of the corporate world.

One friend used to work at a major bank and when his bosses would ask him to do more work, he would very politely say, "I'm sorry, I have too much on my plate right now." He moved back to his hometown to renovate houses and he couldn't be happier.

Another friend worked in France for a major American software company. Year after year he would get stellar reviews, but his salary and his bonuses would never match what he was promised. He asked to be fired (as is customary in France) so that he could receive unemployment benefits. His bosses, valuing his stellar performance so much, refused. So he remained at work and had a standoff with his boss. He would show up and take an hour to read a page of a report. This went on for months, until he was finally fired and started the French version of The Onion.

Another friend is a stay-at-home dad. Another resigned after his boss died at a young age of a heart attack. Just recently, a classmate quite his job at a major bank, spent a year cooking and opened Alma, a cutting=edge restaurant in Madrid.

I believe I heard from so many men because they still have more expectations on them to have these kinds of jobs. But this phenomenon is definitely not limited by gender. My neighbor quit her corporate job and went to Hawaii to do yoga teacher training. Recently, an article on Cosmopolitan.com by a Yale grad who quit her city job to scoop ice cream in the Caribbean got 500,000 Likes! People just can't do it anymore.

I began to wonder if people are inherently unhappy in corporations, or if they have individual passions that need to be addressed. We are all on different paths, but I do believe satisfaction can be found only when we're living balanced lives, for a purpose greater than just financial gain, and when we are honored and treated respectfully.

And what of my friend who admitted to losing the will to live? He changed his life. He had a moment when he knew that things at work were imploding. With a very strong power of intention, he declared that he wanted X, Y, and Z to happen. At the time, it would have been a quantum leap from where he was. And yet, one year later, he was living what he declared he wanted for himself. He had moved from an apartment in a smog filled city to a large house with a yard. He was now in a different country with a different job.

He sat in his new, large house thinking about the time when it was just an idea in his mind. He told me, "We're constantly putting out intention, energy, whatever you want to call it, we're drawing circumstances to us. We all know that when we really focus on something it always happens. Yet we're always so surprised when it does. Every time."

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 9 hours ago.

Surprise! Some Job-Based Health Plans Don't Cover Hospitalization

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Better read the fine print of your health insurance policy. An unlucky woman in Minnesota learned her policy was woefully skimpy only after she fell while walking her dogs, and faced a $19,000 bill. Reported by NPR 8 hours ago.

Coverage for 300,000 New Jerseyans at stake in Supreme Court Obamacare decision

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TRENTON — If the U.S. Supreme Court decides later this month that 34 states including New Jersey are not entitled to receive subsidies to help people pay for their coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the cost of health insurance... Reported by NJ.com 7 hours ago.

These maps show just how much Americans have to lose if the Supreme Court rules against Obamacare

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These maps show just how much Americans have to lose if the Supreme Court rules against Obamacare Later this month, the Supreme Court is set to hand down a decision on the second major challenge to the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare. 

King v. Burwell revolves around whether the Obama administration is entitled to provide healthcare subsidies to millions of Americans living in the 36 states that didn't set up healthcare exchanges on their own. 

Several conservative activists brought the case after they discovered that four words in the law appear to suggest that healthcare subsidies wouldn't be allowed in states that didn't set up their own exchanges. The law itself says that subsidies can be provided through exchanges "established by the state."If the court sides with the plaintiffs, millions of Americans in states that did not set up their own exchanges will essentially forfeit or be forced off of their plans because the federal government won't be able to subsidize their insurance anymore. To illustrate which states would be hit hardest, we've collected maps that show the impact that Obamacare has had on the insurance landscape.

-More Americans have insurance now than before Obamacare-

This Metric Map shows the percentage of uninsured Americans in each state in 2010, before the Affordable Care Act passed. The red shows high percentages, while green signifies the lowest. As you can see, the percentage of uninsured people was relatively high in the Southern states. 

Before the law's passage, the number of uninsured rose to record highs. In 2006, the percentage of uninsured hit an all-time high of 16% with close to 44 million Americans lacking insurance. The ACA has vastly increased the number of Americans who have health insurance. By the end of this year's open enrollment period, 11.7 million Americans signed up for insurance under Obamacare, according to figures released by the Obama administration. As CNN notes, fewer than 12% of Americans are now uninsured.As you can see from this map, there are only a handful of "red" states with high percentages of uninsured people in a post-Obamacare world. The below map could look a lot different if the Supreme Court rules for the Obamacare challengers. 

This county-specific map by Enroll America shows the number of counties with high percentages of uninsured.

Here's what the map looked like in 2013. The dark blue areas had an uninsurance rate higher than 10%. 

The next year, the shift was huge. See the county-specific info here.-An anti-Obama ruling would likely hit the South hardest-

One of the great ironies that Obamacare advocates point out is that many of the states that stand to benefit from Obama's healthcare law also oppose it.

As The Washington Post points out, virtually no states in the South accepted money from the federal government to set up their own state exchanges.

Maps from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth show that many of the counties that stand to benefit the most from subsidies lie in poor southern states like Mississippi, which declined to set up a state exchange.This is what makes the stakes so high for the case. Many of the counties with the highest percentage of residents eligible for subsidies are also in states that have refused to set up their own healthcare exchanges.

As data mapped by the Kaiser Family Foundation show, states including Texas, Florida, and Mississippi have some of the highest numbers of subsidy recipients who would see huge increases in premium cost if the subsidies disappeared.

This would likely force thousands of healthy younger subsidy recipients to drop out, which would eventually raise premium rates for older recipients. Scroll down to view the interactive map.

Join the conversation about this story » Reported by Business Insider 5 hours ago.

2015 OpsDog Finance Benchmarking Study Commences

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OpsDog.com, a leading provider of business operations KPI definitions, benchmarking data, workflow analysis templates and other project management tools used for process analysis, has announced that it is kicking off its 2015 Crowdsourced Finance Operations Benchmark Study.

Houston, Texas (PRWEB) June 18, 2015

OpsDog.com, the web's leading resource for business process improvement data and tools, is kicking off its 2015 Crowdsourced Finance Operations Benchmark Study.

Study participants receive an in-depth, operations-focused benchmarking comparison. OpsDog data analysts typically spend a maximum of 30 minutes on the phone with participants discussing finance operations and related key performance indicators (KPIs). When the study is completed, customized benchmarking documents containing comparative finance mertics are developed and sent to respondents — free of charge. Typically, reports of this nature range in price from $500 to $5,000 or more, and traditional consulting engagements may move into the six and seven figure ranges. In addition to the free, customized benchmarking report, OpsDog is offering study participants 20 complimentary download credits (a $100 value) that can be redeemed on OpsDog.com.

All information collected and contained in the final benchmarking report is kept anonymous. The identities of study participants (individuals and company names) are never revealed.

OpsDog's team of analysts is seeking mid-to-senior level finance executives at Fortune 1000 companies: Chief Financial Officers, Chief Accounting Officers, Senior Accountants, Accounts Payable/Receivable Managers, Budgeting and Forecasting Managers, Treasurers, Controllers, Finance VPs/Directors/Managers, and Senior Financial Analysts.

The industries being targeted by this particular study include insurance, commercial banking, health insurance, pharmaceuticals, utilities, energy, media services, manufacturing and telecommunications.

The final benchmarking report is slated to include 20+ metrics, defined and compared across competitors and peers, both in and out of industry. These metrics will cover several aspects of finance operations including size (employees, revenues, assets), organizational structure (span of control, management layers), functional characteristics (cycle times, error rates, productivity), cost (total, departmental, unit cost) and work activities (work performed within the finance department).

Finance professionals looking to receive a customized, confidential finance performance benchmarking report, including balanced scorecard-style metrics, are being asked to fill out this simple contact form (or email info(at)opsdog(dot)com). OpsDog’s team of analysts is standing by to answer any and all questions related to the 2015 Finance Operations Benchmarking Study. Reported by PRWeb 4 hours ago.

7 things to do with your money when you get your first real job

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7 things to do with your money when you get your first real job Your first regular paycheck will probably buy you and your friends a round of drinks.

With the second one, though, you have a prime opportunity to start setting yourself up for success.

"I think it's a big transition," says financial planner Michael Solari. "Especially coming from college, not making any money, to coming home with a paycheck. People's heads spin about what they should do."

However, a regular paycheck and a steady income provide exactly what you need to start making good financial decisions for the future.

Here, find seven smart steps you can take with that money to start building wealth right away.

-1. Take stock of your student loans.-

First things first: If you have student loans, you aren't doing yourself any favors by waiting to see if your lender notices you've graduated.

Some loans have what's called a "grace period," or a six-month gap after you're finished with your education, ostensibly to allow you to set up an income. The thing about grace periods, though, is that interest continues to accumulate — so if you can start making payments immediately, it can ultimately save you money.

"Figure out whether you have private or federal loans," advises Solari, "and if you have federal, figure out how to consolidate them, and whether you qualify for programs like PAYE. If you have private loans that you took out when your credit score was lower, there's the potential to refinance at lower rate."

-2. Get an idea of your cash flow.-

If you're making $60,000 a year, you aren't depositing $5,000 a month into your bank accounts. Most people have taxes, some retirement contributions (more on that later), and insurance payments taken from their paycheck before they ever see it.

That's the money coming in. But what about the money going out?

The other half of your cash flow is the money you're spending, and with apps like Mint and LearnVest, which allow you to connect all of your accounts and keep track of the activity for you, keeping an eye on your outflow is easier than ever. As long as you're bringing in an amount equal to or more than you're spending, you should be able to stay out of debt.

-3. Set up a budget-

Don't panic — a budget is just a plan for how you'll spend your money. There's nothing worse than realizing $300 evaporated into burritos and phone cases, and setting a budget is a way to pre-empt that disappointing phenomenon. Once you have an idea of your cash flow, setting up a budget is simple. Use these tips to get on the right path, and check out this example of how one 20-something set up his budget.

-4. Start funding a retirement account.-

Solari admits that for many young clients, retirement is so far away that it's an afterthought.

Ironically, young people are best-positioned to save most effectively. That's because retirement accounts are invested and benefit from compound interest, which means when you wait to start saving, you'll have to contribute a disproportionate amount of cash to catch up to the early birds. And if you're lucky enough that your employer both offers a 401(k) and matches your contributions — that is, contributes the company's money to your account up to a given percentage of your own contributions — declining to use the account is essentially giving up free money.

Aside from the employer-provided 401(k), the two most common alternate forms of retirement accounts are the IRA and Roth IRA. This interactive tool can help you choose which form of IRA might be right for you.

Once you start auto-depositing a little money into your retirement account — and maybe even increasing it each time you get a raise — you're better positioned to start using your money to achieve the things you want most in the (nearer) future.

-5. Figure out your financial goals for the next few years.-

Right now, your paycheck might cover rent and brunch, but what about five years from now? Ten? You don't need to know exactly where you'll be or what you'll be doing, but thinking about some of life's biggest and most expensive milestones now gives you time to start turning them into a reality.

Do you want to buy a house? Have a wedding? Have a child? Take a trip to Bali? Setting aside some money each month towards those goals for the next few years will make them a lot less intimidating when it comes time to act.

-6. Set up auto-transfers into a savings account.-

The problem with money that goes into savings is that it feels like cash you don't get to spend, and that's not a whit of fun. But there's a way to trick yourself out of that separation anxiety: auto-transfers from your checking account into your savings. "It's easier to save what you don't think you have than to try and save what you know you have," Solari explains.

Plus, he suggests, it's a handy trick to get yourself used to living on your available cash even before you start saving a considerable amount — like if your employer requires a year's tenure before you can contribute to the company 401(k). "If you can set up an auto-transfer initially, even if you can't transfer the money into a to 401(k), have it go to an IRA as soon as possible," he says. "That way it's easier to make that transition later."

Setting it up is simple — usually, you can do it through your bank's website or with a quick phone call to customer service, and you can always change the amount sent to savings.

-7. Get the insurance you need.-

Insurance is boring until you take a trip to the hospital. Then, it's the best thing you've ever bought.

Beyond the health insurance that's hopefully subsidized by your employer (and dental and vision, if you're lucky!) there are also some worst-case-scenario insurances.

"Two things that young professionals don't really think about are potentially becoming disabled, or passing away," Solari says. "Many employers will offer some type of group life and group disability insurance, so it's affordable and cheap enough that they should be grabbing a minimum of what their employer offers. Insurance is important because it's a low probability, but it can be a really high risk it something were to happen."

Even if you're young, healthy, and single without dependents or even a mortgage, Solari would still recommend signing on, but not supplementing your coverage with a private policy outside of your employer. "That's more for people who have a home purchase, or they're married, or they might have some kids," he says.

*SEE ALSO: How To Choose Investments For Your Retirement Account*

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do Reported by Business Insider 3 hours ago.

Flash audit: 'Serious concerns' about personnel computer fix

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In a "flash audit," issued Wednesday, the inspector general for the Office of Personnel Management raised "serious concerns" about a proposed $91 million computer overhaul, saying it had not followed management guidelines and granted a no-bid contract with a single vendor. Office director Katherine Archuleta_a former school teacher who worked on President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign— told Congress this week that her agency's computer systems were so old they needed an immediate modernization. The antiquated computer architecture, she asserted, was one reason hackers were able to infiltrate the system and make off with sensitive data on millions of federal workers and security clearance holders. Many critical agency applications run on OPM's aging mainframe computers, he wrote, including those that process payments for federal retirees, reimburse health insurance companies for claims and manage background investigations. Reported by SeattlePI.com 4 hours ago.

Amazon Confirms Fulfillment Center in Shakopee, Creating More than 1,000 Full-Time Jobs

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Amazon Confirms Fulfillment Center in Shakopee, Creating More than 1,000 Full-Time Jobs SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today confirmed its plans for a nearly 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minn. Amazon will create more than 1,000 full-time jobs at the site when the fulfillment center opens. “We’re excited to become a member of the Shakopee community and create more than 1,000 full-time jobs that offer competitive wages and comprehensive benefits on Day One that include health insurance, 401(k), bonuses and stock awards,” said Mike Reported by Business Wire 3 hours ago.

Recent SLGE Summit Probes Evolving Social Contract

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Recruitment and retention concerns grow as more state and local workers retire

Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) June 18, 2015

Fiscal constraints and changing demographics are challenging the social contract between state and local governments and their employees.

Nationally recognized experts and practitioners gathered in Washington, DC, at the Retirement Security Summit hosted last week by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence (SLGE). Speakers described the effects of pension and health benefit changes, retirement income trends, and shifting demographics on the evolving social contract with employees.

The event was moderated by Peter Harkness, founder and publisher emeritus of Governing magazine, with keynote speaker Dallas Salisbury, President and CEO of Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

SLGE President and CEO Elizabeth Kellar opened the Summit with 2015 workforce trends data, noting that for the second year in a row, a majority of state and local governments are reporting increases in hiring. The good news is tempered, she said, because the sector’s employment is almost 600,000 lower than it was before the Great Recession and more employees retired last year than the year before.

SLGE’s annual survey of state and local government human resource professionals, released last week, was conducted with the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR) and the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE) and highlights the talent challenges ahead:· Recruiting and retaining qualified personnel with needed skills to public service was the top concern of respondents, followed by succession planning and staff development.
· A majority of respondents reported that their governments have made changes to their health benefits for the sixth year in a row
· Thirteen percent of respondents reported shifting their employees to a high deductible health insurance plan paired with a Health Savings Account.

She noted that virtually every state had made significant changes to its pension plans over the last decade. “You might think that these changes to benefits would be offset by increases in wages, “ she said, “but state and local revenues have not yet returned to their 2007 levels, so wage increases have been modest, at best. State and local government wages and salaries increased by 1.6 percent in the 12-month period ending December 2014, compared with a private-sector increase of 2.2 percent over the same period.”

Keynote speaker Dallas Salisbury discussed the pendulum swings and trends affecting retirement programs. He described the period from 1933-1980 as driven by the New Deal, Great Society, Health, and Well Being. Defined benefit retirement plans and social insurance were seen as good policies in that era. He contrasted that with the period from 1980 to the present, beginning with President Reagan’s advocacy of individualism, liberty, and choice. These values correlate with the movement to defined contribution plans and a more negative view of social insurance.

“There are real debates about retirement plan objectives,” Salisbury said. “Is the objective retirement income or portable savings? Is the objective to provide adequate retirement savings for long-service workers or a percentage of pay to all workers?”

At the Summit’s first session, “Retirement Income Trends and Pension Reforms,” speakers examined the fiscal health of public pension plans and discussed the implications of benefit reforms on retirement income and savings.

Moderator Peter Harkness remarked that “There is a perception in the press and the public that the sky is falling for public pensions. This perception does not seem to match the facts.”

Dana Bilyeu, Executive Director of the National Association of State Retirement Administrators noted that the good news on public pensions often is not reported. “Most states are doing a good job of funding their annual required contribution (ARC) for their defined benefit plans, but there are a few outliers. The reality is that while the costs to meet the ARC have been going up, so, too, have states’ efforts to maintain funding.”

AARP’s Director of Financial Security and Consumer Affairs Gerri Madrid-Davis stressed that employees are being asked to assume greater responsibility for their retirement as a result of state and local government fiscal constraints. “Workers are being asked to work longer and pay more,” she said, “These changes will have an impact on recruitment and retention of workers.”

The Summit’s session, “The New Social Contract with Employees,” focused on changing demographics, fiscal constraints, the growing freelance economy, and how changes to benefits affect recruitment and retention.

Joshua Franzel, Vice President of Research for SLGE noted, “The state and local government workforce is aging, with more employees now making career moves in an improving economy, while benefit costs and political environments are making it difficult to increase state and local wages. How states and localities manage these variables will ultimately determine the makeup and quality of their future workforce.”

“Investments in employees need to be a top priority, not an afterthought,” said Neil Reichenberg, Executive Director of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources. “Talent management is the number one issue reported by human resource directors, yet only 27 percent of governments engage in succession planning.”

Rebecca Hunter, Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Human Resources, echoed this trend, noting that the cost-cutting environment can prompt a conversation about the short- sightedness of reducing expenditures for training and development. A chief executive officer might object to such a cut, asking, “What if we don’t train them and they stay?”

Steve Kreisberg. Director of Collective Bargaining & Health Care Policy, AFSCME, speculated that the whole workforce dynamic may change. “The Uber model is instructive,” he said, and shows what can happen with the atomization of the workforce. “If we’re all Uberized, where do I get my benefits? Traditionally, we have gotten our benefits from the employer in the U.S. Benefits come from the state in Europe. If we don’t have regular employers in the future and we can’t agree on the Affordable Care Act, how do we provide health care?”

The final session focused on strategies to boost retirement savings with a case study of the City of Los Angeles retirement planning tool.

Ms. Kellar highlighted the importance of finding ways to make it easier for employees to increase their retirement savings. “Inertia is a big part of the savings problem,” said Kellar. “Most of us need a nudge to do something that requires discipline, whether that is an exercise program or saving for retirement. Behavioral economists have found that an effective savings nudge can be to automatically enroll employees in retirement savings plans.”

Steven Montagna, Chief Personnel Analyst for the City of Los Angeles Personnel Department gave an overview of the City’s supplemental defined contribution plan which has a 69 percent participation rate, compared to a 40 percent national average. The City established a mission for the plan to help employees achieve retirement income security, defined as 100% replacement of “lifestyle income” upon retirement. To help employees reach this goal, the City created a calculator that allows employees to calculate the gap between their current savings and their lifestyle income replacement goals. Since its implementation a year ago, the tool has been used more than 28,000 times. AARP’s Gerri Madrid-Davis said of the Los Angeles plan: “The fact that you are building this at 100 percent of replacement income is a blockbuster. For a long time, our industry has had a perception that people will need less money in retirement. Instead, what we find is that people are increasingly entering retirement with a great deal of debt.”

The Retirement Security Summit was sponsored by ICMA-RC, AARP, the Segal Group, and Gabriel Roeder Smith & Company.

“We are glad many public sector employees recognize the value of defined contribution opportunities to build retirement security and supplement pension plans,” said Bob Schultze, ICMA-RC President and CEO. “We feel it is important for public sector employees and plan sponsors to make informed choices and have the flexibility to address multiple goals, and we greatly appreciate SLGE hosting this open conversation.”

Full video of the Summit and presentations from each of the speakers are posted on the Center’s website.

For more information: Amber Snowden, asnowden(at)slge(dot)org, 202-962-3639

###

About the Center for State and Local Government Excellence
The Center for State and Local Government Excellence helps state and local governments become knowledgeable and competitive employers so they can attract and retain a talented and committed workforce. The Center identifies best practices and conducts research on competitive employment practices, workforce development, pensions, retiree health security, and financial planning. The Center also brings state and local leaders together with respected researchers and features the latest demographic data on the aging workforce, research studies, and news on health care, recruitment, and succession planning on its website, http://www.slge.org. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.

Hypocrite of the Year: Anti-Obamacare Plaintiff David M. King

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In the contest for Hypocrite of the Year, here's one vote for David M. King.

King is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, now before the U.S Supreme Court, designed to kill Obamacare. If the Supreme Court rules against it, millions of Americans will lose their health insurance. But not Mr. King.

As a Vietnam vet, he gets his health insurance from the Veterans Administration, the New York Times reported.

"When he sued the government in September 2013, Mr. King filed a declaration stating that he was not eligible for health insurance from the government or any employer," according to the Times. But in recent months he went to a VA outpatient clinic in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he lives.

King's suit challenges the federal government's authority to grant tax subsidies for health insurance to more than seven million Americans in over 30 states, including Virginia, through the federal insurance marketplace. Without those people in the insurance markets, insurance premiums will probably increase for everyone else, undermining Obamacare's financial underpinnings.

The lawyers for King and three other plaintiffs, in the suit called King vs. Burwell, argue that the 2010 Affordable Care Act only allows subsidies in states that establish their own marketplaces.

King doesn't pay for health care and isn't paying for his lawsuit either. It is being paid for by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a right-wing libertarian group funded by the Koch brothers, Sarah Scaife Foundation, and other right-wing groups with a strong antipathy toward government. Donors also include foundations sponsored by Exxon Mobil, General Motors, Verizon and many other major corporations, according to the Times.

According to a profile in Politico, King frequently uses his Facebook page to criticize Obamacare and immigration policies and to espouse support for limited government, the Second Amendment and Republican political candidates.

According to his wife Debra, King "has always followed politics. Been very opinionated. He just thought it was wrong for the government to demand that people have insurance."

The 64-year old King has called Obama an "idiot," posted altered images of Michelle Obama in Middle Eastern clothing, and voiced his antipathy toward "Democraps." He is also a fan of "Duck Dynasty" on TV.

King did not attend the arguments before the Supreme Court but listened to them on audio, according to the Times. "I thought [Chief Justice John] Roberts was supportive," King said. "[Justice Ruth Bader] Ginsburg was not. She is far left."

Perhaps King doesn't realize that the VA is America's socialized medicine. The federal government owns the hospitals and clinics, hires the doctors, nurses and other staff, and provides extensive and comprehensive medical care for over 8.7 million vets and their families at little or no charge.

VA operations include 151 medical centers, 827 outpatient clinics, and 126 nursing home care units. It employs over 312,000 people, including more than 13,000 physicians and 55,000 nurses.
*
Peter Dreier is professor of politics and chair of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College.*

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 1 day ago.

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Hawaii Gov. David Ige has signed off on the Legislature's $2 million appropriation to the Hawaii Health Connector, health insurance exchange officials confirmed Thursday. State lawmakers approved $2 million in funding for the exchange In Senate Bill 1028 on May 5, after the nonprofit’s initial request for $10 million was cut down. “The governor has signed that bill and sent us a letter stating as much,” Hawaii Health Connector Deputy Director Eric Alborg told PBN Thursday. The exchange,… Reported by bizjournals 23 hours ago.

Flash audit: 'Serious concerns' about personnel computer fix

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In a "flash audit," circulated to Congress Wednesday, the Inspector General Patrick McFarland raised "serious concerns" about a proposed $91 million computer overhaul of OPM networks, saying it had not followed management guidelines and relied on a no-bid contract to a single vendor. Office director Katherine Archuleta, a former school teacher who worked on President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, told Congress this week that her agency's computer systems were so old they needed an immediate modernization. The antiquated computer architecture, she asserted, was one reason hackers were able to infiltrate the system and make off with sensitive data on millions of federal workers and security clearance holders. Many critical agency applications run on OPM's aging mainframe computers, he wrote, including those that process payments for federal retirees, reimburse health insurance companies for claims and manage background investigations. Reported by SeattlePI.com 16 hours ago.

Hitachi Solutions and Baseline Telematics Announce Partnership

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Hitachi Solutions America and Baseline Telematics work together to help insurance companies capture and analyze driver behavior and take action on their data.

Irvine, CA (PRWEB) June 19, 2015

Hitachi Solutions America, Ltd., a leading Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner in the insurance industry, has announced the signing of a new agreement with Baseline Telematics, a world leader in the rapidly growing insurance telematics market.

Baseline’s turn-key insurance telematics platform is designed to help insurers quickly and cost-effectively implement usage-based products for their customers, such as pay-as-you-drive motor vehicle insurance programs. The policyholder simply installs an application on their smartphone, which provides real-time driving information including location, mileage, speed and sudden acceleration or braking. Insurers are able to rate and invoice insurance policies on a monthly basis, depending on usage and road safety. The system also monitors and contextualizes external factors such as ambient traffic speed, weather and time of day, and whether a driver is texting while behind the wheel.

Baseline’s technology is already being used successfully for both car and motorcycle insurance in many international markets including Canada, France, Norway and parts of Latin America. There have been trials and implementations for government insurers, commercial fleet insurers, driving schools, and graduated drivers licensing programs. Furthermore, the solution has the potential to expand into other insurance segments, such as life or health insurance (pay-as-you-live) and homeowners insurance (pay-as-you-dwell) in the future.

As a global systems integrator of Microsoft Dynamics CRM with a focus on the insurance industry, Hitachi Solutions has more than 100 insurance customers in North America alone. The company is well-positioned to take the Baseline Telematics solution to the global market to help insurers achieve even greater returns on their investment with the Dynamics CRM platform. While the Baseline Telematics solution helps insurers capture and analyze actual driver behavior, Dynamics CRM serves as the platform through which insurers can take action on the data.

“We are extremely excited about working with Baseline to offer industry-leading solutions that help insurance companies more effectively retain customers and take a more data-driven approach to new customer acquisition,” said Tap Haley, insurance industry director, Hitachi Solutions America. “The synergy between our two organizations resulting from an industry focus and a Microsoft-based technology platform makes this a very natural and strategic partnership through which our customers will benefit from our extensive industry knowledge and technological capabilities.”

Paul-André Savoie, president and chief executive officer, Baseline Telematics, stated, “With insurers and policyholders rapidly embracing new technologies and looking for smart ways to reduce costs, usage-based insurance solutions [UBI] will be on an important growth trend for the next decade. Differentiated and more personalized insurance products build stronger, more engaging and meaningful relationships with policyholders, all while improving underwriting and rating methodologies in a highly competitive, and commoditized market.”

Savoie said, “We are thrilled to be working with Hitachi Solutions, we will now be able to offer very adapted and local support for North American insurers regarding all their implementation needs. Our core policy administration system is designed on top of Microsoft Dynamics CRM; this made it logical to partner with Hitachi Solutions given that they have the most in-depth Microsoft CRM experience within the insurance industry in the U.S. This partnership will allow us to jointly deliver our innovative telematics solutions to their vast existing client-base while providing the best CRM integration expertise available on the market.’’

This partnership has also garnered the attention of Microsoft’s financial services industry director, Tom Feher. “I am excited about the establishment of a strategic partnership between Hitachi Solutions and Baseline Telematics. As insurers continue to look for competitive market differentiators, Microsoft continues to support innovative technologies such as this that are built on the Dynamics CRM platform and implemented by our trusted partner, Hitachi Solutions,” said Feher. “We see the combination of Baseline Telematics Usage Based Insurance solution and Microsoft Dynamics as a natural fit for bringing driver behavior data into the front-office where it can be used for customer segmentation and targeted marketing campaigns in a 100 percent cloud-based, turnkey solution.”

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About Baseline Telematics
Since 2009, Baseline has been a world leading provider of telematics based insurance platforms, and offers one of the most comprehensive and modular solutions on the market today. Beyond the technology, we’re a passionate team entirely focused on helping insurers around the world transform themselves beyond traditional paradigms, allowing them to design and deliver the most innovative, valuable, customer centric and cost effective telematics based insurance programs. Leveraging our highly recognized technology (Celent Innovation Award, Gartner Research), our team and our global partnerships, we’re dedicated to helping our clients creatively and cost effectively discover and leverage telematics in a way which is specific to their own strategic objectives and local business and market conditions. Website: http://www.baselinetelematics.com.

About Hitachi Solutions America, Ltd.
Hitachi Solutions America, Ltd. helps its customers to successfully compete with the largest global enterprises using powerful, easy-to-use, and affordable industry solutions built on Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM enhanced with world class Business Analytics, and Portals and Collaboration. Recognized as the Microsoft 2014 CRM Global Partner of the Year and the 2014 Dynamics Global Outstanding Reseller of the Year, Hitachi Solutions America provides global capabilities with regional offices in United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Japan, China, and South East Asia. For more information, call 949.242.1300 or visit: http://us.hitachi-solutions.com.

About Hitachi Solutions, Ltd.
Hitachi Solutions, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a core member of Information & Telecommunication Systems Company of Hitachi Group and a recognized leader in delivering proven business and IT strategies and solutions to companies across many industries. The company provides value-driven services throughout the IT life cycle from systems planning to systems integration, operation and maintenance. Hitachi Solutions delivers products and services of superior value to customers worldwide through key subsidiaries in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information on Hitachi Solutions, please visit: http://www.hitachi-solutions.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society’s challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The company’s consolidated revenues for fiscal 2014 (ended March 31, 2015) totaled 9,761 billion yen ($81.3 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com. Reported by PRWeb 12 hours ago.
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