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7 Employee Benefits That Won't Bust Your Budget

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In addition to the standard health insurance or 401(k), find out what you can offer without breaking the bank. Reported by FOXNews.com 9 hours ago.

Paychex Earnings Preview: Health Insurance Demand, Job Environment To Drive Results

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Paychex is scheduled to announce its fiscal first quarter earnings on Wednesday, September 30, before the market opens. The company had a strong end to its fiscal 2015 which ended in May, with its Human Resource Services segment driving much of the top line growth. the HRS segment is likely to continue to boost top line figures owing to a new health insurance offering, which contributed 6 percentage points to the revenue growth in the most recent quarter. Meanwhile, the company’s Payroll segment has witnessed steady growth in the number of clients and realized revenue per client over the last few quarters. Reported by Forbes.com 8 hours ago.

If You Liked 10 Years Of The Roberts Court, You'll Love The Next Republican President

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There were plenty of terrifying moments in this month's Republican presidential debate on CNN, but one of the most terrifying, to me, was when the candidates started to complain that the current U.S. Supreme Court isn't conservative enough.

Specifically, Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz went after Chief Justice John Roberts, who has led what law professor Erwin Chemerinksy has called "the most conservative court since the mid-1930s" but whose appointment the conservative far-right Cruz nonetheless called a "mistake." What Cruz objected to was Roberts' two votes to save the Affordable Care Act from frivolous conservative lawsuits. What he didn't mention is that a less conservative right-wing Court would not have even entertained those politically motivated cases in the first place. In fact, the Court under Roberts has taken a stunning turn to the Right.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the day Chief Justice Roberts was sworn in to the Supreme Court. In that decade, aided by the confirmation of fellow George W. Bush nominee Samuel Alito, he has led a Court that has radically reshaped vast swathes of the law, undermining constitutional protections for civil rights and voting rights, reproductive freedom, workplace fairness, the environment, gun violence, consumer fairness and representative democracy as a whole.

As People For the American Way explains in "Judgment Day 2016," a new analysis of Roberts' decade at the head of the Supreme Court, under his leadership the Court "has issued more than 165 5-4 decisions, many of which have bent the law and defied logic, seriously harmed the rights of ordinary Americans, promoted the interests of powerful corporations, and damaged our democracy."

The most infamous of these is probably Citizens United v. FEC, which, along with a set of related cases, gutted the country's campaign finance system, allowing wealthy individuals and corporate interests almost unchecked influence over American elections. But the Roberts Court's gifts to Corporate America did not end there. Among the cases decided by the court's five-justice conservative majority were Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., which undermined women's ability to seek equal pay for equal work; Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which upended religious liberty protections to allow corporations to deny full health insurance coverage to their employees; and AT&T v. Concepcion, which protected corporations that cheat large numbers of customers out of small amounts of money.

The Court's conservative right-wing bent has extended to civil rights cases, most stunningly its 5-4 ruling gutting the enforcement mechanism of the Voting Rights Act, which had allowed the Justice Department to review changes in voting laws in areas with a history of racial discrimination in election practices. In other cases, the court has been just one vote away from wreaking havoc on civil rights laws, including the 5-4 decision in which Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the four moderate Justices to preserve the ability to effectively enforce the Fair Housing Act, another critical achievement of the Civil Rights Movement.

This Court will rightly be remembered by many as the one that guaranteed gays and lesbians the right to marry in Obergefell v. Hodges. But that landmark case, in which Justice Kennedy joined the moderate Justices, was a one bright spot in a very bleak landscape.

It's important to remember as well that Chief Justice Roberts, whom Republicans are now attacking as too liberal, wrote the conservative justices' scathing dissent in that case. If conservatives get one more vote on the Supreme Court, Obergefell could be in danger. If there is one thing the Roberts Court has taught us, it is that there is no such thing as settled law. Despite predictions that the Republican Party would just fold up its tent on the marriage issue, its presidential candidates are campaigning with promises to appoint Justices who will overturn the decision.

Whatever issue you care about most in the upcoming election - civil rights, health care, reproductive freedom, LGBT rights, or others - it will almost certainly end up before the Supreme Court. And the composition of that Court, and whether it will protect our rights or defer to big corporations and right-wing interests, will depend greatly on whether a Democrat or Republican is elected as our next president.

By the end of the next president's first term, four of the current Supreme Court Justices will be in their 80s, past modern Justices' average retirement age of 78. This means that the next president will likely have the power to either turn back the Court's rightward swing ... or preserve or worsen it for decades to come.

-- 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.

SEC plans compensation clawback for financial restatements

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*Cut Costs on Employee Healthcare.*
Your company's healthcare costs don't have to rattle your budget to be effective. RightOpt^®, a private health insurance exchange from Buck Consultants at Xerox, helps you shrink spending to a more manageable size while keeping employees happy and healthy. So you can keep both costs and complexities to a minimum. *>Discover more* Reported by SmartBrief 8 hours ago.

United States: 10 Million Affected By Sophisticated Cyberattack - McGuireWoods LLP

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The latest major health insurance data breach of 2015 reported by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield is considered one of the top 20 worst reported breaches of a healthcare organization. Reported by Mondaq 7 hours ago.

House Republicans advance bill to undo health law

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Under Senate rules, minority Democrats can block most legislation because it requires 60 votes to advance a bill, and Republicans have only 54 senators. Democrats note that official congressional estimates say that gutting the law will result in 15 million fewer people with health insurance by 2025. The Ways and Means Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to repeal two mandates — that most Americans get health insurance and that large companies provide health benefits to workers. Two other House committees are working on legislation to repeal other parts of the health law, as well as to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Reported by SeattlePI.com 7 hours ago.

Tuesday Sector Leaders: Life & Health Insurance, Precious Metals

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In trading on Tuesday, life & health insurance shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 5.1%. Leading the group were shares of The Phoenix Companies (PNX), up about 151%. Reported by Forbes.com 6 hours ago.

Unacceptable Rise in Health Insurance Premiums Will Lower Take-Home Pay for Federal Employees, Retirees

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Unacceptable Rise in Health Insurance Premiums Will Lower Take-Home Pay for Federal Employees, Retirees WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Federal employees and retirees will pay 7.4% more for health insurance premiums next year, an unacceptable increase that will eat away at their already modest take-home pay, American Federation of Government Employees National... Reported by PR Newswire 6 hours ago.

Softheon Launches Private Exchange, Offering Capabilities to Serve the Subsidized Population with 32,158 Plans from 249 Carriers

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Softheon Launches Private Exchange, Offering Capabilities to Serve the Subsidized Population with 32,158 Plans from 249 Carriers STONY BROOK, N.Y., Sept. 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Softheon™ a proven leader in health insurance marketplace integration and certified Web Broker Entity, today announced its private exchange platform, Welltheos. Designed to provide relevant health plan information, while... Reported by PR Newswire 5 hours ago.

Universal Rx Celebrates 20 Years in Prescription Benefit Management

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Universal Rx Celebrates 20 Years in Prescription Benefit Management ROANOKE, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Universal Rx of Roanoke, Virginia celebrates a major milestone this month, 20 years of service in the Prescription Benefit Management industry. Established in 1995, Universal Rx started with a vision to provide companies with pharmacy benefit solutions that offer business value alongside unsurpassed customer service and improved outcomes. As the health insurance marketplace continues to change, Universal Rx recognizes that adaptive and distinctive solutions are pa Reported by Business Wire 3 hours ago.

Feds to diagnostics companies: We're here to help (you lose money)

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A federal plan to cut Medicare reimbursement rates for medical diagnostics as much as 91 percent sent the market value of Bay Area test developers plunging. The Wall Street shakeout couples with investor concerns over potential regulation of drug prices, combining to whack the life sciences sector and send stocks as much as 40 percent lower on Monday alone. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal agency that administers the health insurance programs, on Friday released proposed… Reported by bizjournals 3 hours ago.

Autism Society of North Carolina Celebrates Health Insurance Legislation Passing NC General Assembly

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North Carolina is expected to become the 43rd state to mandate coverage of autism treatments under health insurance.

Raleigh, NC (PRWEB) September 29, 2015

The North Carolina General Assembly has passed SB676, “Autism Health Insurance Coverage.” The bill now goes to the Governor’s desk for his signature, which would make North Carolina the 43rd state to enact autism insurance legislation.                

“This is a historic day for North Carolina and the 65,000 plus families affected by autism in our state,” said Tracey Sheriff, CEO of the Autism Society of North Carolina (ASNC). “Senator Apodaca and Representative McGrady’s leadership in the passage of SB676 has been invaluable. Our organization, numerous families, and many partners have worked for many years to make autism insurance a reality in North Carolina. We are excited, humbled, and grateful to see bi-partisan support across chambers for this issue.”

Highlights of the bill include:·     Represents a balanced North Carolina-based solution developed by North Carolina organizations.
·     Provides a clear definition of Adaptive Behavioral Treatment that is not limited to one type of therapy, but includes Applied Behavioral Analysis as well as other evidence-based interventions, including ones that were developed here in North Carolina by TEACCH.
·     Provides access for children living across the entire state by supporting a range of professional disciplines to implement intensive interventions with necessary oversight.
·     Balances concerns about providing quality treatment with a cost-effective model. Provides a benefit through age 18.
·     Treatments covered by the bill deliver intensive interventions that will significantly improve functional outcomes for many affected children.

Sharon Jeffries-Jones, ASNC Board Chair and mother of a young man with autism, stated, “As a parent, I know this legislation will help families across our state get treatments that their children with autism desperately need to have better lives. We applaud the legislature and the insurance industry for realizing that the time was now for autism insurance in North Carolina.”

About Autism:·     Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. As many as 1 in 58 children may be diagnosed with ASD in North Carolina, according to a prevalence study by the CDC of 8-year-old schoolchildren.

About the Autism Society of North Carolina:·     For more than 45 years, the Autism Society of North Carolina has worked to address areas of need and expand services for the autism community in North Carolina. ASNC works to directly improve the lives of individuals affected by autism by providing advocacy, education, and services. For more information, call 1-800-442-2762 or visit http://www.autismsociety-nc.org. Reported by PRWeb 1 hour ago.

Hillary Clinton Calls For Eliminating Obamacare's 'Cadillac Tax'

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Hillary Clinton on Tuesday announced she wants to eliminate the “Cadillac tax,” a key feature of the Affordable Care Act that economists love and pretty much everybody else says they hate.

White House officials, who fought to include the tax in its health care overhaul, won’t be happy about the news, first reported by Maggie Haberman of The New York Times. But many interest groups, particularly labor unions, will be ecstatic. And that probably has a lot to do with why Clinton's taking this position.

The tax, set to take effect in 2018, is a levy on the most expensive health insurance plans. It is basically an effort to roll back an existing tax break for health insurance, one that’s been around since the middle of the 20th century and that many experts believe contributes to rising health insurance premiums.

As the thinking goes, the existing tax break on health insurance makes a dollar of health insurance worth more than a dollar of income, giving employers and employees alike artificial incentive to spend extra money on health care. The Cadillac tax is basically a roundabout way of undoing at least part of that incentive. Once it takes effect, most economists believe, employers will respond by finding ways to spend less on health insurance -- a change employees would see as lower premiums and higher take-home pay.

These arguments weighed heavily on the White House in 2009, when President Barack Obama decided to endorse the Cadillac tax, even though he’d spoken out against similar proposals previously. The Congressional Budget Office basically made it clear that, without something like the Cadillac tax, the health care law was unlikely to reduce health care spending. 

The Cadillac tax will also generate revenue for the federal government. That money will partly offset the cost of the the expansions of Medicaid and health insurance tax credits that are helping so many millions of people to get health insurance.

But the name “Cadillac tax” implies that it applies only to insurance plans of the well-to-do. That’s not true, because not everybody with an expensive insurance plan is rich.

Teachers and autoworkers tend to have expensive plans, for example, because their unions have successfully negotiated for good health benefits. Companies with older, sicker workers can also have unusually expensive policies, since their employees tend to run up the highest medical bills.

Critics worry the tax will have the effect of encouraging companies to skimp on insurance for these people, even though many of them are the very ones who need more comprehensive coverage. Of particular concern is that companies will respond to the tax simply by increasing out-of-pocket costs, in the form of higher co-payments and deductibles. Their premiums might be lower, but people with serious medical conditions will end up owing more. Shifting costs onto the least healthy people in this way would be directly at odds with the goal of health care reform, which is to protect people from punishing medical bills.

An analysis by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation suggested that, by 2018, 1 in 4 employers would be paying the tax unless they adjusted their insurance offerings. And the effect would grow over time, since the tax is formulated so that it would begin to affect less expensive plans later on.Pressure to reduce or eliminate the tax has been building for a while. Employers don’t like it because it means paying a new tax and insurers don’t like it because it puts pressure on them to lower premiums. But the most intense opposition has come from organized labor. Labor unions reluctantly accepted the tax as the price of securing health care reform, a goal they’ve long pursued, but they always hoped to revisit it (and, depending on whom you ask, had a promise from the White House to do so). 

Labor has been prevailing upon Senate Democrats and, more recently, the Democrats running for president, to endorse repeal. Just this week, presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) that would eliminate the tax. Now Clinton has joined their call. In a carefully worded statement that praised the Affordable Care Act for a historic reduction in the number of uninsured Americans, Clinton on Tuesday said, “I encourage Congress to repeal the so-called Cadillac Tax, which applies to some employer-based health plans, and to fully pay for the cost of repeal.”

That last part is important: The tax is supposed to generate $91 billion over the next decade. The health care law as a whole appears to be coming in much cheaper than projections originally suggested, but that’s still a lot of money for the federal government to give up.

Equally critical is whether Clinton will also propose measures that would restrain health insurance premiums as effectively as the Cadillac tax would. If not, then repealing the tax could mean a return to higher health care inflation in the future.

Democrats aren’t the only ones calling to eliminate the Cadillac tax. Several Republicans have too. In fact, the “Obamacare” repeal bill that the House Ways and Means Committee passed on Tuesday included a provision to get rid of the tax.

Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, summed up the situation this way:

As with so many health care issues, the Cadillac plan tax comes with difficult trade-offs. It raises a substantial amount of revenue to help cover people who are uninsured and has a powerful effect on the health spending trajectory, but all of that comes with cutbacks in health benefits that would anger workers. There is now substantial opposition to the Cadillac plan tax, but before its epitaph gets written there will need to be a consensus around how the replace the revenues it raises and how to constrain health spending in some other way.

-- 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 27 minutes ago.

Free drive-thru flu shots

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 Bon Secours is offering FREE flu shots (while supplies last) from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, at several locations. (For those with health insurance, flu shots are free everywhere as a mandate of the Affordable Care Act.) Reported by dailypress.com 7 hours ago.

Prevent a Health Crisis From Becoming a Financial Catastrophe

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*Prevent a Health Crisis From Becoming a Financial Catastrophe*

What if an accident or illness leaves you unable to manage your financial affairs or tell your doctors how you’d like to be treated? Three documents can inform your spouse, partner, or trusted friend of your preferences in a health crisis and give them the power to act on your behalf.

Think of a financial power of attorney, health care proxy, and living will as an “Open, sesame!” that gets things done when you can’t do them yourself in a health crisis. Without them, even your nearest and dearest may be shut out of decision-making conversations with doctors or lack the means to pay the mortgage without going through time-consuming and stressful court proceedings. With those documents, they can make sure your finances stay healthy as you recover.

The good news is that the process is simple and inexpensive. In general, all you need to do is properly complete a fill-in-the-blanks form that’s a few pages long and sign it in front of a notary public. Because some states have their own health care proxy forms, it’s best to Google the name of your state and “health care proxy” to download the proper form. Some banks and brokerage companies also have proprietary forms; in that case, you may need to prepare both your state’s official form and the form provided by your financial institution. Forms can be downloaded for free; Nolo’s award-winning WillMaker Plus software costs $54.99 but also includes all advance directive and estate planning forms.

There’s one catch, though, and it’s key: You have to sign and officially stamp these documents before a health crisis happens. Once a health crisis occurs, it’s too late. 

*Financial Power of Attorney: Paying the Bills *

The last thing you want in a healthcare crisis is to get better and find that your finances are a mess. A financial power of attorney gives the person you designate—called “your agent”—the legal authority to tap your assets to take care of such important money management tasks as: paying your bills and mortgage, operating your small business; filing your taxes; collecting your Social Security benefits; handling transactions with your bank and brokerage. You can give your agent as much or as little power as you wish.

A financial power of attorney can be drafted so that it goes into effect as soon as you sign it. Many couples have an active financial power of attorney for each other in case something happens to one of them. If that’s your choice, be sure to specify that you want the power of attorney to be “durable,” otherwise the authority will automatically end if you become incapacitated—exactly when your spouse needs it.

You can also specify that you want to maintain control over your affairs until a doctor certifies that you have become incapacitated. This “springing” durable power of attorney—so-called because it springs into effect only under certain circumstances—can be reassuring if you prefer to be completely in charge. 

*Health Care Proxy: Acting on Your Wishes*

With the healthcare industry’s emphasis on patient privacy, it is critical to appoint a health care proxy. Also known as a durable power of attorney for health care or, less commonly, a medical power of attorney, this directive appoints a proxy to oversee your medical care and make health care decisions for you if you are too ill or injured to speak for yourself.

A health care proxy affects your finances by permitting or declining what can be very costly forms of treatment. She can also make choices— such as where you do rehab—that can help you achieve a full recovery.

“It’s critical to have a health care proxy, even for married couples,” advises Mantell, because the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) Privacy Rule prevents medical professionals from sharing information or allowing you to implement a loved one’s wishes without that piece of paper. The proxy also gives someone who’s not your spouse access to the information they need to make medical decisions on your behalf. “It just makes things easier,” Mantell says.

*Living Will: Explaining What You Want*

To make your wishes clear, you need a third legal document: a health care directive, also called an advance directive or “living will.” This is where you articulate how far you want the doctors to go in preserving or prolonging your life. For example, do you want cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or other extraordinary measures? Do you want to be intubated to assist in breathing or nutrition? Or would you prefer only palliative care to decrease pain and suffering?

The proxy and the living will depend on each other. “The health care proxy gives you access to information but it doesn’t tell you what your loved one wants to happen. And the health care directive doesn’t do any good unless you have the proxy,” notes Mantell.

“It’s hard to talk about these topics but do it anyway,” Mantell says. “You can’t figure this stuff out when you’re in the middle of an emergency. That’s too late.” 

*Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2015 Consumers Union of U.S.*

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Americans Love 'Death Panels.' Sorry, Sarah Palin!

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WASHINGTON -- Despite the best efforts of politicians like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), more than 8 in 10 Americans think it's just fine for Medicare and private health insurance companies to pay doctors for end-of-life counseling, a new poll shows.

According to survey results published Wednesday by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 81 percent of respondents believe Medicare should pay for these discussions, and 83 percent think health insurance companies should do so. 

Doctors' groups including the American Medical Association, seniors' groups like the AARP, and patient organizations such as the Alzheimer's Association have long endorsed end-of-life counseling sessions between patients and their physicians, and they support Medicare and insurance coverage of these consultations.

Discussing treatment options in advance with a physician can help patients declare their wishes while they're still healthy -- such as whether they want intensive medical care at the end of their lives -- and helps ensure their families don't have to make those decisions without their input. When Congress was writing the Affordable Care Act in 2009, Palin infamously equated an end-of-life counseling proposal to a government "death panel" that would decide how long elderly and sick people would be allowed to live, leading to its removal from the legislation. PolitiFact later deemed Palin's statement the "Lie of the Year," although this didn't stop her from reviving the charge in July, when the federal government brought back the plan in a proposed regulation. Enabling Medicare to pay doctors for their time is "bribing" them, Palin wrote on Facebook.

Under the pending federal rule, physicians who treat Medicare patients would be allowed to bill the program when they discuss end-of-life planning, which ranges from helping a person decide if they wish to receive intensive medical treatments near the end of their life to spelling out what limitations they prefer. Currently, a doctor only gets paid if she and a patient talk about end-of-life planning during the patient's initial physical upon enrolling in Medicare. 

However, just paying doctors probably won't be enough to get more people to plan for the ends of their lives, the Kaiser Family Foundation survey's other findings suggest. 

Even though 89 percent of respondents said doctors should have this conversation with patients -- and just 9 percent said they shouldn't -- only 17 percent of people reported having done so. And 4 in 10 of those who haven't yet had the discussion said they didn't want to. That's despite the survey also showing that 84 percent of people would be comfortable talking to their doctors about the topic.

-- 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 16 hours ago.

Clinton Calls for Repeal of 'Cadillac Tax' on Healthcare Plans

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U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called for the repeal of the "Cadillac tax" on premium health insurance plans that were created under President Obama's sweeping healthcare law. Reported by FOXNews.com 9 hours ago.

Great Place to Work(R) Releases the List of "100 Best Workplaces for Women"

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Analysis of 100,000-Plus Employee Surveys Leads to First-Ever List Published by Fortune Magazine

(PRWEB) September 30, 2015

Great Place to Work(R) Institute, Inc., the global authority on high-trust, high-performance cultures, analyzed employee surveys from 637 companies and is proud to announce the resulting list of the 100 Best Workplaces for Women published today by Fortune magazine.

"Companies on this list are, first and foremost, outstanding places for employees to come to work," said Kim Peters of Great Place to Work(R). "The workforce at the 100 Best Workplaces for Women averages 53 percent female and its leaders offer women a more consistently fair and inclusive workplace, especially around decision-making."

At no. 1 on the list, TrueWealth rewards employees with profit-sharing, premium-free health insurance and company-sponsored happy hours to create a work environment where the vast majority of women employees feel they receive a fair share of the company's financial success. Likewise, organizations on the list as diverse as CHG Healthcare Services and boutique PR firm Kulesa Faul demonstrate the benefits of regular interaction between team members and senior leaders through training and day-to-day feedback on employees' workplace experience.

A closer look at the companies that made the list also reveals:

-- Women hold a larger share of management positions at the 100 Best companies compared to their peers. Among the 100 Best, women held a grand average of 52 percent of management roles, compared to 45 percent among all eligible companies. In the C-suite, women at companies on the list held a grand average of 39 percent of executive roles, compared to 34 percent among all eligible organizations.

-- When compared to their peers at eligible companies that didn't make the list, women at the 100 Best are 19 to 23 percent more likely to feel treated fairly when it comes to challenging issues surrounding, involvement and pay:·     Management involves people in decisions that affect their jobs or work environment. (23% higher at winning companies)
·     I feel I receive a fair share of the profits made by this organization. (23% higher at winning companies)
·     Managers avoid playing favorites. (21% higher at winning companies)
·     Promotions go to those who best deserve them.     (21% higher at winning companies)
·     Everyone has an opportunity to get special recognition.    (19% higher at winning companies)
·     People here are paid fairly for the work they do.     (19% higher at winning companies)

"In analyzing surveys across a wide range of industries, we found that female employees working at the 100 Best Workplaces for Women were more likely to feel managers genuinely listen to their team members' ideas and involve them in decisions affecting their jobs," said Peters. "There's no single solution to make a workplace more welcoming for women. But creating a culture that's respectful and a management team that listens well to all employees regardless of their gender or other difference can go a long way."

About the list: The 100 Best Workplaces for Women ranking is one of a series of rankings based upon employee survey feedback from published Great Place to Work Reviews. To create this list, Great Place to Work(R) surveyed 135,689 women at 637 companies, who answered a detailed questionnaire considering everything from the fairness of their company's promotions, to who has access to information and leadership, the level of support for employees' personal lives, and the degree of inclusiveness and connection they feel with colleagues. To be eligible, women's survey results for each company needed to meet a 95 percent confidence level and a margin of error of 6.5 percent or less. Two-thirds of each company's score is based on women's surveys. The remaining third takes into account how well-represented women are within the workforce overall and in management and executive positions. Companies also received higher scores when not only the most women reported the organization performed well on an index of fairness-related questions, but also just as many or more women had that experience as their male colleagues.

About Great Place to Work(R)
Great Place to Work(R) is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and employer branding programs, including Best Companies lists and workplace reviews, Great Place to Work(R) provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. In the United States, Great Place to Work(R) produces the annual Fortune, "100 Best Companies to Work For" list and the Great Place to Work(R) Best Small & Medium Workplaces list. Follow Great Place to Work(R) online at http://www.greatplacetowork.com and on Twitter at @GPTW_US. For information about global operations at Great Place to Work(R), visit http://www.greatplacetowork.net Reported by PRWeb 12 hours ago.

Despite Flat Salaries, Blues Plan CEOs Collectively Earned $102 Million in 2014, AIS Newsletter Reports

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Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish was the highest-paid Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plan CEO in 2014, according to reporting in the October 2015 issue of The AIS Report on Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) September 30, 2015

Based on data supplied by state regulators in response to Atlantic Information Services, Inc.’s (AIS) The AIS Report on Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans’ Freedom of Information Act requests and other inquiries, Blues plan CEOs collectively earned more than $26 million in salary and about $102 million in total compensation, the newsletter reports in its October 2015 issue. While some top executives saw substantial overall compensation increases, salary levels remained relatively flat in 2014 compared with prior years, according to The AIS Report. Published independently by AIS, The AIS Report is not affiliated with or sponsored, endorsed or approved by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association or any of the independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies.

Donald Gallo, a leader in Towers Watson’s health insurance team in its executive compensation practice who works closely with Blues plans, tells The AIS Report CEO compensation levels were fairly consistent between 2013 and 2014, and didn’t move much in 2015. From 2014 to 2015, base salary among all not-for-profit health plan CEOs increased 2.6%, total cash compensation grew 2.9% and targeted total direct compensation was up an average of 4%, according to Towers Watson data.

According to AIS data, Joseph Swedish, CEO at Anthem, Inc., earned the most of any Blues plan executive — despite earning 20% less than in 2013 — taking home $1.2 million in salary and more than $12 million in other compensation.

Due to tax regulations, only a handful of not-for-profit Blues plan CEOs had a base salary in excess of $1 million, according to The AIS Report — including Patricia A. Hemingway Hall from Health Care Service Corp., Daniel Loepp from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Richard L. Boals from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, and Daniel J. Hilferty from Independence Blue Cross.

Visit https://aishealth.com/archive/nblu1015-01 to read the article in its entirety, which includes a table ranking 33 Blues plan CEOs by 2014 total compensation.

About The AIS Report on Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans
The AIS Report on Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans delivers timely news and insightful analysis of new products, market share, strategies, conversions, financing, profitability and strategic alliances of Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, which are major players in every U.S. health insurance market. The 12-page monthly newsletter is designed for plan managers and others who consider BCBS plans to be partners or competitors. Visit http://aishealth.com/marketplace/ais-report-blue-cross-and-blue-shield-plans for more information. A thoroughly objective publication, The AIS Report is published independently by AIS and is not affiliated with or sponsored, endorsed or approved by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association or any of the independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies.

About Atlantic Information Services
Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) is a publishing and information company that has been serving the health care industry for more than 25 years. It develops highly targeted news, data and strategic information for managers in hospitals, health plans, medical group practices, pharmaceutical companies and other health care organizations. AIS products include print and electronic newsletters, websites, looseleafs, books, strategic reports, databases, webinars and conferences. Learn more at http://AISHealth.com. Reported by PRWeb 12 hours ago.

Stop the Bureaucracy Project Sees Steady Gains

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The Ministry of Public Administration and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia have processed over 300 proposals submitted by entrepreneurs. The Stop the Bureaucracy Project is one way by which the government of the Republic of Slovenia implements its firm commitment to improve the business environment and enhance the impact of entrepreneurship on the process of drafting and adopting regulations.

Ljubljana (PRWEB) September 30, 2015

The Ministry of Public Administration and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia have processed 388 proposals, of which 31 have now been realized.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (GZS) and the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA) initially from March 2015 on, through various channels, urge the entrepreneurs, to communicate via portals Business SOS and Stop the bureaucracy challenges they are detecting in general dealings with the government or in specific procedures.

The objective of the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (GZS) is to establish a closer link between the economy and public administration and through the specific proposals of commercial entities and citizens, to achieve a reduction of existing administrative barriers, simplification of procedures and easier and more transparent legislation.

“The Stop the Bureaucracy Project is one of the ways by which the Government of the Republic of Slovenia implements its firm commitment to improve the business environment and enhance the impact of entrepreneurship on the process of drafting and adoption of regulations,” says Boris Koprivnikar, Minister of Public Administration. “We are aware of the necessity of bureaucracy, since it significantly affects the performance of the business environment, but on the other hand in many cases it’s becoming an obstacle that government officials often do not even recognize. Such projects are strongly supported by the government, since they create a dialogue resulting in concrete solutions. Activities and proposals of entrepreneurs are monitored via various channels and portals. In the future, the dialogue with business will become even more intense, with special focus on the monitoring of the proposals’ realization.”

Thus, in addition to the Stop the Bureaucracy portal, intended for the citizens who wish to submit an initiative to improve the regulation or propose the amendment of the existing regulatory framework, commercial entities can also use another communication channel – Business SOS. Through Business SOS entrepreneurs can communicate a specific problem they have encountered in doing business in specific procedures when dealing with the government. The task of the Ministry is to address the communicated problem and, in cooperation with other competent authorities, find the optimum solution.

Six months after the campaign commencement, Business SOS and Stop the bureaucracy received over 50 concrete proposals ranging from the building permits and ownership of plots of land, road traffic regulations, the health insurance application issues, the handling of hazardous chemicals, registration of supplementary activities, work code amendments, amendments in the field of legal transaction in agricultural land, reducing the number of sub-accounts, etc.

The MPA and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (GZS) were anticipating that the majority of messages would refer to the difficulties arising from the excessive length of adjudication of cases, supplementation of the applications, mishandling of the authorities, among other issues. So far it can be concluded that in the majority of cases there are no easy solutions, as it involves more than just inappropriate conduct of authorities; the reason lies primarily in the inadequate laws. Regardless of the fact that the amendment of regulations takes more time, as it involves inter-ministerial coordination and decision-making of various branches of power, the results are starting to show.

For example, one company proposed an amendment to the rule that refers to the indoor driving speed of forklifts, a law that was adopted in 1967 and is still enforced. The law stipulates that indoor speed should not exceed 5km/h, which was at the time a relevant decision, but 50 years later, this provision is absurd. It is not possible to purchase or rent a forklift on the market which has a maximum speed of only 5km/h, so users in Slovenia had to readjust new forklifts. The company has proposed to increase the speed limit to 10km/h due to technological evolution. The Government has acknowledged the case as suitable for further adjudication and included it in the Single document to ensure a better regulatory and business environment and increased competitiveness and proposed to the competent authority high priority in realization of a measure. Another initiative of entrepreneur, which refers to the regulation of the proportionality level of fines (according to the ratio on the market) in the field of real estate brokerage, has been placed in the Single Document and proposed to the competent authority with high priority in realization of a measure.

The Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning has also realized measures in the field of water records management. In 2015 they established and upgraded numerous water records, and e-Waters, a new information platform where all water records are kept, has been established. In the last three-month period Government approved two new measures on the basis of submitted proposals, which are included in the Single document to ensure a better regulatory and business environment.

The Director General of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (GZS), assessed the cooperation between the Ministry of Public Administration and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Business SOS project as an example of good practice and an effective approach to improving the business environment. He pointed out that Business SOS showed that businesses wanted to participate in forming the proposals for the improvement of legislation and cutting red tape in the legislative process. "I believe that the Government should continue with gathering the proposals and problem solving under the brand name Business SOS," he concluded.

The Ministry of Public Administration, in cooperation with the interested public, will continue using the communication channels Stop the Bureaucracy and Business SOS to speed up problem-solving and responsiveness in regard to the proposals by citizens and businesses, and in this manner contribute to an improved reputation of public administration. Reported by PRWeb 9 hours ago.
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