Benefits Archives - Page 18 of 26

Virtually every company in America is bound by the Federal Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA).

This law “regulates the status of employees (versus independent contractors) and provides for a minimum wage and overtime unless the employee meets an exempt classification.” However, the scope of this law is not simply limited to employees’ wages.

Protecting Whistle Blowers

Did you know that an added feature of the FLSA is the protection of employees who may be labeled “whistle blowers”?

Under the FLSA, an employee cannot be retaliated against for filling an official complaint against their employer with a government agency. According to an article on JD Supra’s legal website, a recent 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling has expanded this law to include “intra-company” complaints. They have also stipulated that this complaint can be in written ororal form.

Forming a Written Policy

As with any kind of employee-related issue, the best protection for an employer is the proper documentation of any employee events. By documentation, I don’t just mean that a supervisor should write it down and file it. All the documentation in the world doesn’t mean a thing unless the employees know what the rules of the game are.

That’s why every company should have a written policy on how to handle employee complaints—and every employee should know exactly what that policy is. The tricky part is knowing just how much is too little and when you may have gone too far in setting up your company rules.

Avoiding FLSA Issues

Companies with the strongest Human Resource infrastructures in place are the ones who are least susceptible to FLSA penalties or potential employee lawsuits. To help protect themselves from ever-evolving government regulations, companies are looking for assistance in employer liability management.

For many companies, a Professional Employer Organization like GMS can help.
With the waters of healthcare becoming murkier every day, employers and employees abdicate many of the cost-auditing responsibilities regarding their healthcare to their insurance company. Unfortunately, placing this level of trust in your company’s health insurance carrier leaves the proverbial fox to mind the hen house.

Those who purchase health coverage through a commercial provider mistakenly believe their insurance company is actively advocating for them and monitoring the costs incurred for healthcare services. While this is far from the case, the shocking part of this reality is that the insurance companies are forcing you to pay more than you should for your company’s coverage.

Benefits of Self-Insured Plans

A self-insured health plan can reduce healthcare premiums for your small business by reducing overhead and other management costs charged by big insurance plans. When you have a third-party administrator like Group Management Services manage your self-insured plan, you ensure your employees receive everything promised to them in their plan and limit you from spending more money than anticipated.

Negotiate prices: Insurance companies are billed by the hospital based on what the hospital thinks they should charge for their services. On the other hand, TPAs look at what the hospitals pay Medicare – which is often considerably less than what the hospital would bill to an insurance company – and negotiate healthcare costs from there. This can have significant impact on healthcare costs (in your favor). To learn more about this business model, I encourage you to read this article from the New York Times about the “$1,000 toothbrush.”

Eliminate Price Secrecy: The practice of provider and hospital consolidation in the marketplace creates an uneven playing field for insurance companies to negotiate true cost-savings for their members. A TPA like GMS will underwrite a custom policy for your group so you don’t pay for coverage that the group doesn’t need and monitors all claims to reduce your financial risk.

Audit bills: TPAs have the resources and knowledge to help your employee check each bill to ensure there is no double billing for equipment or health care services. A TPA can challenge prices for services that are beyond “reasonable and customary,” substantially reducing patient bills and keeping your claims down.

Employee peace-of-mind: With the changing landscape of healthcare, you can assure your employees have job security along with quality and affordable health coverage. A TPA’s main concern is you and your employees, ensuring a more personable and attentive service experience.

Increased cash flow: Self-insured plans managed through a TPA brings the control of processing of health claims back in-house, minimizing losses and reducing administrative costs.

Self-insured plans through a third-party administrator like GMS can give you more control of your coverage and help cut costs, while still providing quality coverage to your employees. Interested in how a self-insured plan could help your business? Get a quote now or speak with one of GMS’ TPA experts.
More than 60% of employees in the USA are paid by direct deposit, and the number will only continue to grow.

Here’s why:

Benefits for Employees
1. Quick: No more waiting in line to deposit your check at the bank, or sending the paper check to your bank through the ATM or your phone app. Now you can be sure the money gets to where it needs to be.
2. Convenient: Employees don’t have to worry about being in the office to get paid. If they are on a vacation or out sick, they can be assured the deposit will be made. They can also control which account the paycheck goes into- maybe they choose to direct funds to a retirement savings plan or a checking or savings account. Bills can be paid immediately online as soon as a deposit is made.
3. Green: Reduces a company’s carbon footprint, and offering online pay statements that are available 24/7 would also contribute to the green impact.
[more]

Benefits for Employers
1. Cost Savings: Per-check amounts saved can add up quickly once the accounts are set up. You will wonder why you didn’t make the switch to direct deposit sooner!
2. Peace of mind: Knowing your employees are getting paid on time and the money is going exactly where it needs to go.
If you own a small business but haven’t yet offered direct deposit, the only question left to ask yourself is why, with so many benefits, you haven’t switched yet!
A recent NIH funded study looked at medical expenditure bills that represented more than 8,303 emergency room visits and came up with two startling conclusions:
1. There are huge variations in prices.
  Bills sent out for sprained ankles ranged from $4 to $24,110.
2. Prices overall are really high.
  The average emergency room visit cost 40 percent more than an average month’s rent (or $1,233 as the average rent is now $871 per month).
The Washington Post shared a chart that broke down the top 10 most common reasons for visiting the emergency room—designated by billing codes—and how much each one cost. Just a quick glance confirms the high prices and vast variations. A headache could cost $15 – or $17,797.

So how do you protect yourself (and your employees) from having to pay these radically high prices or extreme variations? Education and Supplemental insurance may be an option.

Education

The most important thing you can do, as an employer, is educate your employees on when / WHEN NOT to use the Emergency Room. This education is not meant to discourage an employee from seeking medical attention, rather it is meant to educate that a sore throat is not the reason to see an ER doc.

What is supplemental insurance?

Supplemental insurance typically refers to supplemental health insurance, insurance policies that pay out cash directly to the person insured. Other types of supplemental insurance include accident & disability.

How supplemental insurance works

Payment is often event-based. So the insurance pays the insured a set amount if you visit an emergency room, or for each night you spend in a hospital. In no case is the benefit sufficient to cover the cost. What it does is reimburse you for expenses your existing insurance does not cover. Supplemental insurance should NOT be your only form of insurance.

Why should I offer supplemental insurance to my employees?

If you are looking for a way to attract and retain more talented employees, offering a competitive benefits package with supplemental insurance can convince them to join and remain part of the team.

GMS can help you build a better benefits package

GMS can help you offer supplemental insurance plans and special benefits to your workforce. As one of the largest employers in Ohio, GMS has the buying power to secure great rates on supplemental insurance. That means through GMS you can gain access to high-quality supplemental insurance plans for low prices.

We offer a range of supplemental coverings, including:
- Life
- Dental and supplemental dental
- Accident, disability, and short-term disability
- Cancer and special disease
- Hospital indemnity and intensive care
- Long-term care
If you have questions about supplemental insurance for small businesses or how GMS could help your business, contact us today.
According to a Wells Fargo study, 37% of people expect to work until they die. That’s an alarming number, but one that you can use to your advantage.

Most people would rather spend their later years comfortably enjoying their retirement, so by offering a quality 401k plan, you give your business a step up in attracting and retaining quality employees.

Avoid Financial Confusion: Educate Your Group

Before we give you the key elements to a great 401k plan, it’s worth taking a moment to remind you that financial choices can be intimidating and confusing for many employees. One way you can help is by making an effort to ensure employees are educated about their choices. These resources will help make sure everyone is on the same page.

What is a 401(k) Plan? [Infographic]

Guide to your 401(k): Everything you need to know about 401(k)s.

A handy guide from CNN Money that shares:
- Top things to know about 401(k)s
- The virtues of a 401(k)
- How to invest in a 401(k)
- Early withdrawals and loans
- Rollovers
- Taking distributions in retirement
7 Things Employees are Looking for in a Good 401(k) Plan

1. Generous Employer Match

According to findings from a 2013 survey by trade publication PlanSponsor.com, the common match amount increased to be $1 per $1 on the first 6% of employee deferrals, with 19% of employers reporting this formula, which is up from 10% in 2011.

Previously a match of $0.50 per $1 on the first 6% was the most popular.Increasing the amount employers are willing to contribute may help encourage those employees to save at more robust rates, and shows employees you care about investing in their future.

2. “Day One” Eligibility

The PlanSponsor.com survey also showed that 76% of plans now allow workers to begin making pre-tax contributions immediately upon hire, which is up from 71% in 2011. In addition, 53% of plans have corresponding immediate eligibility for employer-matching contributions, while 50% of plans that offer a non-matching employer contribution allow immediate eligibility. Providing new hires with immediate eligibility helps ensure they don’t lose ground in terms of saving.

3. Immediate Vesting Schedule

The best plans offer immediate vesting of employer contributions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics only 22% of employers offer immediate full vesting. Nearly half of those use a graded vesting schedule in which the employees’ right to company contributions increases gradually (say, 20% per year) until they are fully vested.

4. Low, Transparent Plan Fees

Administrative fees cover record keeping, accounting, legal services, marketing and investor education services. Typically employees will see these fees in a hard dollar amount on their statement.

Investment fees cover expenses associated with managing the plan’s funds. Investment Managers usually report their performances net of these fees. Both types of fees are taken from your employees’ 401k assets.

Finding plans with lower fees and educating your employees on what the fees are being applied to can help set your company’s 401k package apart from your competition.

5. Investment Options-But Not Too Many

Select only a handful of solid investment options. This can include individual mutual funds, asset allocation funds, and target-date funds, many of which automatically become more conservative as the employees approach retirement.

“Study after study shows the more investment choices a company gives their employees, the less likely they are to participate because they feel overwhelmed,” says Veronica Lee, Senior Vice President of Client Services with 401k Advisors in Aliso Viejo, Calif., an independent consulting firm.

6. Automatic Enrollment & Raises

91% of plans offer automatic enrollment to new employees, unless they opt out, which helped boost participation rates in 401(k) plans nationwide. Especially among younger workers who may not feel an urgency to contribute.

Automatic escalation provisions, in which the amount of pretax money that employees contribute toward their 401(k) plan automatically increases annually, also shows that a company is looking out for their employees.

7. Give Employees Access to Expert Financial Resources

Many employees have limited investment knowledge, so employers have significantly increased the availability of outside investment advisory services. Three out of four plan sponsors now offer access to such services, the most popular being one-on-one financial counseling (59%), online guidance (55%), managed accounts (52%) and online advice (46%) according to a survey from PlanSponsor.com.

What else do you look for when considering the 401k plan you’d like to offer your employees? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
As a small business owner, you probably rely on the services of other organizations to accomplish a range of tasks, services and other duties. Your health insurance broker or policy provider is one you expect has your best interest in mind. The reality is, they may not, especially when it comes to premium and individual claim costs.

With all your other responsibilities, you don’t have time to keep tabs on everything your health insurer does, however, there are some key questions you need to ask in order to effectively evaluate just how much they are working for you:

What does the plan cover?

Many health insurance providers add in coverage for care you and your employees may never need. By providing an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink plan, insurers are able to increase the overall cost of the policy, meaning you and your employees are paying for benefits that don’t match their needs. Alternatively, using a third-party administrator (TPA) can help you secure group coverage that fits the needs of your employees, which can help you keep your healthcare-related costs down.

How do you negotiate costs?

Healthcare is expensive. While some insurance companies claim to negotiate lower costs on your employees’ claims, they are not revealing the entire truth. The discounts are taken from the astronomically expensive costs doled out by the hospital or physician’s office. With a TPA and other services, there are many other ways to negotiate costs. Multiple negotiation strategies keeps claims in line with more realistic pricing.

How do you audit medical bills?

Health insurance companies have little transparency when the final bill for medical care comes in for a claim. Generally, they do not ask for details related to costs or challenge prices. Instead, they pay their portion and turn the balance over to your employee. TPAs have the resources and knowledge to help your employee check each bill to ensure there is no double billing for equipment or health care services. They will challenge prices for services that are beyond “reasonable and customary,” substantially reducing patient bills and keeping your costs related to medical claims down.

What type of customer service do you offer?

With most insurance companies, you and your employees are a number in a huge system. You are at the mercy of the representative who takes your call when you have a question about your policy or have an issue with a claim. Navigating through red tape and other administrative obstacles can be frustrating and can lead to paying for unnecessary expenses. With a self-insured health plan managed by a TPA, each person’s needs can still be handled with personalized customer service to ensure issues are resolved and costs are minimized.

Asking these questions of your health insurance carrier or broker can expose issues you may not have known existed. With a self-insured plan managed by a third-party administrator like GMS, you have more control over the type of insurance you need. Ultimately, this can cut your healthcare costs and enable you to provide better, more customized coverage for your employees and their dependents.

With today’s challenging economy, employees are often finding themselves searching for a better paying job. A recent survey states that 47 percent of top-performers are looking for jobs. That statistic could be earth shattering for any business. “Whenever there’s a shift in talent, it’s the ones you want to keep that leave first.”

Little do they know, they may be making more than they think. Employees typically only see their take home pay and not the cost of the additional benefits you as the employer are offering.

As an employer, it is imperative to make sure your staff feels valued. A great way to accomplish this is to show employees everything they are being offered besides what they put in the bank. By presenting your employees with these facts, it will encourage them to stick around. Turnover rates can not only bring morale down, it is also a huge cost to you. With costs like unemployment taxes, job ad placements, background checks, training, and administrative costs during the process, it could cost you thousands of dollars each time an employee quits.

What you can do

If only there was a way to show to employees their base pay plus all that your business offers. That’s where GMS comes in. We have the resources to create a Benefit Summary for each employee. These summaries will show your employees that their services are valued and they are getting more than just their take home pay.

“Our employees were unaware of how much we invest in them until they saw the Benefit Summaries. Many expressed that they felt valued as an employee and were happy to see the summary”

– Jennifer H., Current GMS client

What is included on a Benefit Summary?Benefit Summaries can include benefits including but not limited to:

Health Insurance	Short-Term Disability	Retirement / 401k	Company Cars
Dental Insurance	Bonuses	Vacation Time or Paid Time Off	Tuition Reimbursement
Vision Insurance	Cell Phone Reimbursement	Holiday Pay
Life Insurance	Long-Term Disability	Flex Time

If you offer any of the above benefits, we can obtain the information to create these summaries. Benefit Summaries provides your employees with a snapshot of the above incentives. Below is an example of what a Benefit Summary looks like.

Example Benefits Summary

The Next Step

By having GMS has your Professional Employer Organization, we have access to the data used to assemble these summaries. Our Account Managers will collect the data, generate the reports, and present them to you. If you’re ready to make a move, contact your Account Manager today and we can get started.

If you are not currently using GMS, this is a great reason to consider. These summaries will help retain your employees and as a result, save you money.

Next to salary, employee benefits are a key asset to attract and retain talented workers. While most companies offer standard health, 401(k) and other supplemental benefits, there are some non-traditional benefits that can set you apart from the competition and help you sign the best and brightest to your staff.

Paid parking: If your company is in an urban location or one where parking is limited, secure monthly passes to a local lot to alleviate the stress and inconvenience of having to find parking each day. Designated parking can help employees get to work earlier, increasing their available production time.

Wellness programs: Work with a local fitness club to offer discounted memberships, or offer an incentive to employees who participate in smoking cessation, weight loss, exercise classes or other health programs. Having healthy employees can minimize the occurrence of sickness, injury or other claims to your health plan.

Extra vacation time: Offer free vacation days for employment anniversary dates or birthdays.

Education/Career Advancement Opportunities: Offer some type of reimbursement to encourage your employees to pursue programs or training which can help them advance their education or enrich their professional skill set.

Telecommuting or flex time: With many employees juggling work and family, having flexibility to work from home or work outside of traditional hours can help boost employee loyalty and increase productivity.

Benefits outside of the traditional employee bundle are becoming more important to employees as they weigh their career options. In fact, CNN offers a tool called Perkfinder that enables job seekers to compare the benefits of multiple companies to find which is the best for their next place of employment.

If you like the idea of providing non-traditional benefits, but don’t know where to get started, give us a call at 330-659-0100. GMS can help you secure standard benefits at competitive rates and advise you on other options that will attract the best candidates for your open positions.
Maneuvering through federal rules and tax regulations has never been an easy task, especially when you are simultaneously trying to grow your business. The Affordable Care Act makes those waters murkier to navigate with the various stages of implementation and rules for different sized companies.

As a small or medium sized business owner, there are some significant dates to keep in mind in 2014 as the Affordable Care Act begins to take effect.

January 2014
- The Health Insurance Marketplace coverage begins January 1, 2014
- The tax credit for small business will only be available if you buy coverage through the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Exchange
- The tax credit can be as much as 50% of your contribution toward health insurance premiums
- Individuals who are eligible for employer-provided health coverage will not have to wait more than 90 days to begin coverage
- The Transitional Reinsurance Program begins and runs through 2016. This program reimburses insurers in the individual insurance marketplaces for high claims costs. The program is funded through fees which will be paid by employers (for self-insured plans) and insurers (for insured plans)
- The maximum reward to employers using a health-contingent wellness program will increase from 20% to 30% of the cost of health coverage. Programs designed to prevent or reduce tobacco use could increase to as much as 50 %.
- Those with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied health coverage
- Medicaid coverage is expanding in many states
- Small businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employees making an average of about $50,000 a year or less may quality for employer health care tax credits
- Individuals without health care will be charged a fee based on household income or on a per person basis
March 2014
- Open enrollment for health insurance marketplace ends
October 2014
- Open enrollment begins again
If you are not yet sure how the changes brought on the Affordable Care Act will impact your business, or if you’re considering making major changes to your employees’ health plans (including eliminating it altogether) to combat rising group premiums, contact us today. We provide solutions that enable you to provide quality health insurance to your employees while limiting increases to your healthcare costs.
If pressed, most employers would say that having a “rich benefits package” is a great way to attract and retain top quality employees. The more perks the better, right?

Those same employers would also probably say that they can’t afford the richest of plans, but try to offer the best that they can afford. Well, if you believe those two statements, you’re going to love reading this.

According to an article at benefitspro.com, they’re right. Of 1,000 respondents to a survey, almost three-fourths of those said that “they carefully compared benefits packages when weighing offers from prospective employers. And the health care components of the benefits package is the one they examine most closely.” Most of those said that they were more likely to take a package heavy on health benefits than one that emphasized non-health benefits.

Here was the most interesting part: Two-thirds of that group believed that keeping employees healthy was one of the top priorities of a company benefit program. About two-thirds of the respondents felt that their employer was more interested in the cost of the plan than in it being a functional plan in keeping them healthy.

Do You Have a Wellness Program?

If you subscribe to the belief that a benefits package should help keep employees healthy, how good is your wellness program? Don’t have one? Is it because you don’t believe that a wellness program doesn’t work or is it because you think you can’t afford one?

Wellness programs come in many shapes, sizes and components. They can include on-site health screenings, company-sponsored vaccinations, fitness benefits, etc. That’s good news on two levels. The first is that each of those is less expensive than health insurance. The second is that in a survey of employees over 45 years old, 75% of them valued a comprehensive health benefits package more than other perks.

What Else Can I Do For My Employees?

Take a look at some of our older posts for additional ideas that can keep employees happy.

4 Affordable, Practical Benefits That Will Attract the Best Employees

Benefits of Direct Deposit

What’s In a Good 401(k) Plan?

Non-Traditional Benefits Your Staff Will Love

Keeping Top Talent

What’s Next?

If you’ve implemented a wellness program, let us know how it went in the comments below.

If you haven’t implemented one yet, or you’re just not sure how to put together a successful wellness program, give us a call at 888-823-2084. We’d be glad to help!

Protecting Whistle Blowers

Forming a Written Policy

Avoiding FLSA Issues

Benefits of Self-Insured Plans

Benefits for Employees

Benefits for Employers

Avoid Financial Confusion: Educate Your Group

7 Things Employees are Looking for in a Good 401(k) Plan

1. Generous Employer Match

2. “Day One” Eligibility

3. Immediate Vesting Schedule

4. Low, Transparent Plan Fees

5. Investment Options-But Not Too Many

6. Automatic Enrollment & Raises

7. Give Employees Access to Expert Financial Resources

January 2014

March 2014

October 2014

Do You Have a Wellness Program?

What Else Can I Do For My Employees?

What’s Next?