Blog

• Benefits Education 101 for Employees

  June 29, 2022

  Tags: Benefits Communication, employee benefits

  Com­pa­nies spend a large amount of time and mon­ey cre­at­ing valu­able ben­e­fits plans for employ­ees.  But after all that work, they often get low par­tic­i­pa­tion.  Good ben­e­fit choic­es require an effort from employ­ers to ensure that employ­ees have help in under­stand­ing their ben­e­fits options.  To make things even more com­plex, employ­ers are hav­ing to con­sid­er options for a span of 4 gen­er­a­tions in the work­place which can look very dif­fer­ent.  Pro­vid­ing ben­e­fits for a multi­gen­er­a­tional work­place can be chal­leng­ing but it is impor­tant for employ­ers to sim­pli­fy the process by deliv­er­ing edu­ca­tion through the right chan­nels while avoid­ing a one-size-fits-all approach.

  Under­stand­ing your audi­ence and how to effec­tive­ly com­mu­ni­cate with them is the first step in cre­at­ing your ben­e­fits mes­sag­ing. For exam­ple, what are the demo­graph­ics of your work­place? Do you need to pro­vide mul­ti­ple mes­sages across var­i­ous chan­nels? Does your work­place speak Eng­lish, or will you need bilin­gual messaging?

  A recent sur­vey indi­cates that 83% of employ­ers believe that com­mu­ni­ca­tion, employ­ee edu­ca­tion and engage­ment are key for employ­ee participation.

  Here are 5 tips on edu­cat­ing your employ­ees about their ben­e­fits to encour­age ben­e­fits participation:

  1. Break Down Health Insur­ance Options

  • Dis­trib­ute a sim­ple guide that explains the key things employ­ees should know about their health insur­ance and basic ter­mi­nol­o­gy
  • Explain in sim­ple terms about provider net­work, cov­ered pre­scrip­tions, month­ly pre­mi­ums, deductibles, and addi­tion­al plan ben­e­fits, if applicable
  • Have an effi­cient way for employ­ees to man­age ben­e­fits and ask questions

  2. Auto­mate the Process

  • Use an auto­mat­ed ben­e­fits admin­is­tra­tion sys­tem to keep your employ­ees informed
  • Pro­vide the option for employ­ees to ask ques­tions pri­or to choos­ing a ben­e­fits plan 

  3. Make Plans Customizable

  • Pro­vide plen­ty of ben­e­fits options includ­ing med­ical, den­tal and vision from lead­ing carriers
  • Offer a lifestyle ben­e­fits pro­gram that allows employ­ees to per­son­al­ize their plan accord­ing to their needs
  • Con­sid­er offer­ing perks like com­muter ben­e­fits or health club mem­ber­ships to reduce finan­cial bur­dens and encour­age a healthy lifestyle

  4. Pro­vide Mul­ti­ple Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Strategies

  • Offer edu­ca­tion­al tools and chan­nels pre­ferred by employ­ees so they can stay informed year-round to make bet­ter pur­chas­ing decisions
  • Uti­lize effec­tive ben­e­fits edu­ca­tion tools that include in-per­son and vir­tu­al meet­ings, dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ca­tion or print media
  • You can uti­lize a short video to explain key con­cepts; use graphs and images or cre­ate short quizzes for employ­ees to ensure they have read and under­stand the material

  5. Make it Easy to Sign-Up

  • Invest in updat­ed HR and Ben­e­fits tech­nol­o­gy that includes easy mes­sage capa­bil­i­ties such as email, text mes­sage alerts, video sup­port, and live chat integration
  • Pro­vide a Ben­e­fits mobile app
  • Offer a ben­e­fits web­site which hous­es ben­e­fit infor­ma­tion, HR infor­ma­tion, and enroll­ment mate­r­i­al such as “Ben­e­fit­sEasy”

  Although you may use one or more of the tips above, it is vital to keep the infor­ma­tion flow­ing through­out the year. A fun way to do this is to pose a month­ly triv­ia ques­tion to your staff relat­ed to the ben­e­fits and well­ness pro­grams you offer and award a prize to the per­son who sub­mits the cor­rect answer. High­light­ing dif­fer­ent fea­tures of your ben­e­fits or well­ness pro­grams each month will keep your employ­ees engaged and informed!

   

• How to Build a Learning Culture

  June 20, 2022

  Tags: education, Learning Culture, Lifelong Learning

  

  Most HR lead­ers agree that build­ing a strong learn­ing cul­ture is the foun­da­tion for achiev­ing pos­i­tive busi­ness out­comes and effec­tive­ly con­fronting the future of work. In addi­tion, a younger gen­er­a­tion of work­ers is demand­ing more of employ­ers, and they expect career devel­op­ment and con­tin­u­ous learn­ing to be the norm. As a result, learn­ing cul­ture influ­ences employ­ee engage­ment and expe­ri­ence, too.

  There­fore, no one is sur­prised that cre­at­ing a learn­ing cul­ture is a top pri­or­i­ty for CHROs and their teams. Recent­ly, learn­ing experts have shared their best advice on devel­op­ing such a cul­ture with HR Exchange Network:

  Get Leadership Buy-In

  At the HR Exchange Net­work Cor­po­rate Learn­ing Spring online event, Rashim Mogha, Skill­soft Gen­er­al Man­ag­er, Lead­er­ship & Busi­ness Port­fo­lio, talked about how to effec­tive­ly train peo­ple to be bet­ter lead­ers. One of the moti­va­tions for focus­ing on this kind of edu­ca­tion is to ensure lead­ers mod­el the kind of behav­ior that rever­ber­ates in the orga­ni­za­tion and encour­ages oth­ers to spend time on learning.

  In fact, at the Cor­po­rate Learn­ing Spring event, Mogha sug­gest­ed hav­ing lead­ers be the first among those using the organization’s learn­ing pro­grams. She pre­sent­ed the idea of launch­ing a new learn­ing pro­gram by offer­ing it to the lead­er­ship bench, for example.

  “Even­tu­al­ly, you have to scale it,” she added. “That’s how you build a cul­ture of con­tin­u­ous learn­ing, but you have to start small.”

  Make the Case

  Get­ting lead­er­ship to under­stand the ben­e­fits of edu­ca­tion is a great first step. HR lead­ers, how­ev­er, must also help them under­stand the impact of pro­vid­ing learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. After all, any time learn­ing pro­fes­sion­als can demon­strate a link between tal­ent receiv­ing upskilling or reskilling and then going out and mak­ing more mon­ey for the com­pa­ny, edu­ca­tion is winning.

  “In order to pro­mote a healthy, busi­ness-focused cul­ture of life­long learn­ing, per­for­mance and inno­va­tion, an orga­ni­za­tion needs to trans­par­ent­ly and clear­ly under­stand, rec­og­nize and pro­mote the impor­tance of learn­ing and inno­va­tion in regard to busi­ness per­for­mance and suc­cess,” says Markus Bern­hardt, Chief Evan­ge­list at OBRIZUM and learn­ing expert, who is active on LinkedIn. “This link is key. Learn­ing and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment needs to be viewed as busi­ness crit­i­cal, and learn­ing needs to move from being a ‘cost cen­ter’ to being a ‘valu­able busi­ness per­for­mance investment.’”

  Provide Learning Opportunities

  Get­ting lead­ers to under­stand the impor­tance of learn­ing and devel­op­ment is not enough. They also have to be will­ing to allo­cate resources to L&D. Sonia Malik, Glob­al Pro­gram Lead, Edu­ca­tion and Work­force Devel­op­ment at IBM, says that beyond mod­el­ing the growth mind­set and life­long learn­ing behav­iors, lead­ers must “pro­vide an infra­struc­ture and the abil­i­ty to become a life­long learner.”

  “You can’t say we want you to learn stuff and not pro­vide access to infra­struc­ture, con­tent, or time to learn,” she says.

  Focus on Curriculum

  Large com­pa­nies are cre­at­ing their own pro­grams that run like small uni­ver­si­ties. The Dis­ney Insti­tute and AT&T Uni­ver­si­ty come to mind. What is impor­tant is to deter­mine the organization’s skills gap and try to fill those holes. Being inten­tion­al and strate­gic helps ele­vate the cul­ture of learn­ing. It could also fac­tor into moti­vat­ing peo­ple because they may expe­ri­ence suc­cess of their own, too. In addi­tion, it could pre­vent them from becom­ing redundant.

  “Our com­pa­ny has had to rein­vent itself time and time again across 140-plus years of exis­tence,” says Robert Sto­janows­ki, Direc­tor of Learn­ing and Inno­va­tion Labs at AT&T. “Con­tin­u­ous learn­ing and reskilling is embed­ded in the cul­ture because it has to be. Mov­ing from tra­di­tion­al phone ser­vice to the inter­net to mobil­i­ty ser­vices, cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, or con­sult­ing requires a vast set of skills.”

  Convince the Employees

  Cer­tain­ly, employ­ees are show­ing an inter­est in career devel­op­ment and learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties more than ever before. How­ev­er, some might not feel as moti­vat­ed as oth­ers. Or they may feel chal­lenged by hav­ing to divide their time between their work tasks and learning.

  As a result, per­son­al­ized edu­ca­tion is becom­ing more pop­u­lar. Giv­ing peo­ple the chance to grow in a way that sup­ports their own per­son­al goals as well as those of the orga­ni­za­tion can improve job sat­is­fac­tion and performance.

  “Tying that learn­ing curve with that earn­ing curve and per­son­al­iz­ing the learn­ing jour­ney for indi­vid­u­als are keys to estab­lish­ing that learn­ing cul­ture,” says Malik.

  Learning while Working

  Among cor­po­rate edu­ca­tors, a phi­los­o­phy about learn­ing while work­ing is emerg­ing. Basi­cal­ly, the sug­ges­tion is to build learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties into people’s day-to-day jobs. Some of this learn­ing hap­pens organ­i­cal­ly. After all, employ­ees might need to learn a par­tic­u­lar pro­gram to com­plete assign­ments or tasks. There may be oppor­tu­ni­ties to shad­ow a men­tor or leader. In oth­er cas­es, learn­ing lead­ers might have to allow for the allot­ment of time nec­es­sary to com­plete a les­son, for exam­ple, and imme­di­ate­ly try to apply it on the job.

  Ulti­mate­ly, life­long learn­ing is going to sep­a­rate the win­ners from the losers in the work­force and among orga­ni­za­tions. The future of work has arrived in many ways, and the skills gap is catch­ing up to every­one. There­fore, devel­op­ing a learn­ing cul­ture is not just a nice thing to do for employ­ees. It’s a busi­ness necessity.

  By Francesca Di Meglio

  Orig­i­nal­ly post­ed on HR Exchange Network

• 5 Tips to Save Money on Health Care: Part 2

  June 13, 2022

  Tags: Health Care Cost, Health Insurance

  

  Smart spend­ing can keep your health care from cost­ing an arm and a leg.  With costs ris­ing on every­thing from gas to food, every pen­ny counts. It pays to shop smart – that is why it helps to learn how to take steps to lim­it your out-of-pock­et health care costs.

  1. Save Mon­ey on Prescriptions

  • Go gener­ic – Always ask your doc­tor or phar­ma­cist if you can switch to gener­ic med­i­cines. They have the same active ingre­di­ents but cost less than brand name drugs.
  • Split pills – ask your doc­tor or phar­ma­cist if your pre­scrip­tion comes in a high­er dose that is safe to split. You may be able to get a 2‑month sup­ply of med­i­cine in dou­ble the dose that you need for the price of a 1‑month sup­ply, cut­ting your pre­scrip­tion cost in half.
  • Use a pre­ferred phar­ma­cy – A pre­ferred phar­ma­cy has pre-nego­ti­at­ed low­er prices on pre­scrip­tions for a par­tic­u­lar insur­ance plan. You can also sign up for home deliv­ery on pre­scrip­tions that you take on a reg­u­lar basis.

  2. Tune in to Telehealth

  With telemed­i­cine, you don’t have to dri­ve to the doctor’s office or sit in a wait­ing room when you’re sick.  Vir­tu­al vis­its can be eas­i­er to fit into your busy sched­ule and you may not even have to arrange for child­care.  Doc­tors also can use tele­health appoint­ments to lessen expo­sure to oth­er people’s germs.

  3. Brush Up on HSA & FSA Eli­gi­ble Expenses

  You can with­draw HSA and FSA mon­ey tax-free to pay for deductibles and co-pay­ments or coin­sur­ance, as well as for a vari­ety of oth­er expens­es includ­ing vision expens­es and ortho­don­tia.  You can also use it for every­thing from sun­screen and con­tact solu­tion to baby mon­i­tors and over-the-counter med­i­cine like Ibupro­fen or cold medicine.

  4. Save for Retire­ment with Your HSA

  HSA funds don’t expire which makes an HSA a great way to put away mon­ey for med­ical expens­es in retire­ment.  An HSA offers a hat trick of tax advantages:

  • Con­tri­bu­tions to your account are made pre-tax, low­er­ing your tax­able income today
  • Invest­ments grow tax-free while they are kept in the account
  • With­drawals are free of income tax, as long as you use the mon­ey for qual­i­fied med­ical expenses.

  Age 65 is when you can use HSA mon­ey to pay for non-med­ical expens­es — includ­ing day-to-day costs or for home ren­o­va­tions.  Those pay­outs aren’t tax-free but are taxed at the same rate as dis­tri­b­u­tions from a tra­di­tion­al IRA.  You’ll sim­ply owe income tax­es on what­ev­er you withdraw.

  5. Review Bills and Insur­ance Expla­na­tions of Benefits

  Billing mis­takes can hap­pen.  In fact, did you know that up to 80% of med­ical bills con­tain at least one error?  Billing mis­takes hap­pen eas­i­ly when deal­ing with large num­bers of patients, ever-chang­ing med­ical codes, and pay­ments crossed in the mail and health insur­ance companies.

  The por­tion of your bud­get devot­ed to med­ical care is always on the rise so it’s nev­er a bad idea to find mon­e­tary short­cuts where you can.   Knowl­edge is POWER and when you spend time find­ing ways to save mon­ey on health care, you are empow­er­ing your­self!  Exer­cis­ing due dili­gence to plan for you and your family’s med­ical needs will save you mon­ey and give you con­fi­dence in your deci­sions for care.

• 4 Ways Inflation and Higher Costs Impact HR

  June 6, 2022

  Tags: Cost-of-Living, Economy, Inflation

  U.S. Pres­i­dent Joe Biden recent­ly laid out his plans to com­bat infla­tion and the high cost of liv­ing. The aver­age fam­i­ly is spend­ing an addi­tion­al $327 per month com­pared to pre-pan­dem­ic costs, accord­ing to a CNN broad­cast May 10. At the time, the nation­al aver­age price of gas was $4.37. While the Fed­er­al Reserve can do more to influ­ence infla­tion than the Pres­i­dent, his announce­ment is wel­come because peo­ple are suf­fer­ing and some econ­o­mists believe a reces­sion is looming.

  Under nor­mal cir­cum­stances, the econ­o­my can cause bur­dens for HR lead­ers. In this case, busi­ness­es are still con­fronting uncer­tain­ty that comes from an ongo­ing pan­dem­ic, war in Europe, and a labor short­age. This is not to men­tion a men­tal health cri­sis and increased oblig­a­tions for employ­ers when it comes to employ­ee engage­ment and expe­ri­ence.

  The first step in address­ing the neg­a­tive impact of the econ­o­my is being real­is­tic about the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion and under­stand­ing how it impacts HR:

  Some Can’t Afford RTO

  Many com­pa­nies are final­ly deploy­ing their return to office (RTO) plans from 2020. Employ­ees and lead­er­ship are at odds, in many cas­es, about whether to return or con­tin­ue to work from home. One of the argu­ments work­ers have about WFH is that it is cheaper.

  Some employ­ees are quit­ting because they can­not afford the com­mute or lunch costs that come with return­ing to the office. Child­care, which has always been a prob­lem for work­ing par­ents, is anoth­er huge expense. In some cas­es, peo­ple end up pay­ing to work, and it becomes more afford­able to quit. HR must keep this in mind when con­sid­er­ing wages and salaries.

  Compensation and Benefits Packages

  Dur­ing this time of his­toric labor short­age, HR lead­ers are reassess­ing their com­pen­sa­tion and ben­e­fits pack­ages because they want to be com­pet­i­tive. Employ­ees have lever­age and high­er wages has been one of the most request­ed ben­e­fits for obvi­ous reasons.

  “The tal­ent short­age has boost­ed pay, but not enough to keep up with infla­tion,” accord­ing to The New York Times. “Wages grew 5.6% in the last year.”

  Anoth­er obsta­cle for HR pro­fes­sion­als is that increas­ing offers for new hires end­ed up cre­at­ing an uneven divide between them and their vet­er­an coun­ter­parts. Now, in some cas­es, loy­al employ­ees who stayed with their employ­ers are earn­ing less than new hires. With this kind of infla­tion, they may be lured by the prospect of high­er pay else­where, which could con­tin­ue the cycle of the Great Res­ig­na­tion.

  Budget Concerns

  Mon­ey is obvi­ous­ly not going as far as it used to go. There­fore, HR pro­fes­sion­als should wor­ry that this eco­nom­ic real­i­ty could cause bud­get cuts. For now, 79% of cor­po­rate finance exec­u­tives say their bud­gets will be larg­er in 2022 than in 2021, accord­ing to Billing Plat­forms annu­al 2022 Trends in Finance Sur­vey. With infla­tion as high as it is, they should pre­pare for cuts at some point. This could mean few­er resources for learn­ing and devel­op­ment, employ­ee engage­ment and expe­ri­ence ini­tia­tives, com­pen­sa­tion and ben­e­fits pack­ages, and more.

  Travel Constraints

  At the moment, most head­lines point to Amer­i­cans’ desire to get back on the road and see peo­ple face to face for per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al meet­ings. How­ev­er, with gas prices and infla­tion this high, many bud­get con­scious employ­ers may pull back on trav­el budgets.

  The Unit­ed States is also prepar­ing to con­front anoth­er surge in COVID-19 cas­es. RTO pos­es risks, espe­cial­ly for vul­ner­a­ble employ­ees with comor­bod­i­ties or those who live with at-risk peo­ple. In addi­tion, par­ents of chil­dren under 5, who are not yet eli­gi­ble for vac­ci­na­tion, have expressed con­cerns about both RTO and hav­ing to trav­el for work.

  Solutions

  Every depart­ment in every busi­ness must face the real­i­ty of infla­tion and high­er costs. HR is no excep­tion. In the case of HR lead­ers, ris­ing costs is a peo­ple prob­lem. Employ­ees will need more mon­ey to sup­port their fam­i­lies and to make work valu­able to them. In addi­tion, the busi­ness itself will have to con­strain spend­ing in areas like trav­el and perks. Maybe those free lunch­es will have to stop.

  Still, there are some solu­tions avail­able to HR. Pro­mot­ing peo­ple from with­in the com­pa­ny as opposed to hir­ing new employ­ees is a way to save mon­ey and improve reten­tion. Being trans­par­ent about the lim­i­ta­tions on wage increas­es and offer­ing oth­er less expen­sive ben­e­fits to com­pen­sate are oth­er ways to address the problem.

  Of course, trav­el can be replaced with video­con­fer­enc­ing and dig­i­tal events that can be con­duct­ed from home. HR lead­ers have had to stretch resources before and will cer­tain­ly have to do it again in the future.

  By Francesca Di Meglio

  Orig­i­nal­ly post­ed on HR Exchange Network

• Best Practices for Employee Appreciation

  May 30, 2022

  Tags: Appreciation, Employee Appreciation, Rewards

  

  As HR lead­ers work hard to retain tal­ent dur­ing a his­toric labor short­age, they are try­ing to show employ­ee appre­ci­a­tion. At the HR Exchange Net­work Employ­ee Engage­ment and Expe­ri­ence online event, Mary Shel­ley, Chief Peo­ple Offi­cer at Tan­go Card, shared best prac­tices for reward­ing employ­ees to inform them of their val­ue to the organization.

  In the ses­sion, 5 Ques­tions to Ask When Build­ing an Employ­ee Appre­ci­a­tion Strat­e­gy to Last, Shel­ley admit­ted there are chal­lenges to cre­at­ing a rewards pro­gram. In fact, a poll revealed that 31% of audi­ence par­tic­i­pants feel their inad­e­quate bud­get is an obsta­cle. Near­ly 30% said no orga­ni­za­tion­al enage­ment was pro­hib­i­tive when try­ing to launch a rewards pro­gram. Oth­er prob­lems includ­ed being time inten­sive (12.1%), too com­pli­cat­ed (13.8%), or some­thing else (13.8%).

  Dis­cov­er how to launch an employ­ee appre­ci­a­tion program:

  Start Small

  Shel­ley sug­gests HR lead­ers come up with one thing they can do right now to move the nee­dle. For instance, they could talk to employ­ees to deter­mine what kinds of rewards would moti­vate indi­vid­u­als on the team. The reward should be mean­ing­ful or else it won’t pro­duce that sense of incentive.

  “Learn about what each per­son finds moti­vat­ing,” says Shelley.

  Balance Informal and Formal Recognition

  Some­times peo­ple mis­tak­en­ly believe that they have to invest a lot of mon­ey or time into offer­ing a reward. But there are sim­pler ways to rec­og­nize col­leagues for their hard work and ded­i­ca­tion. For instance, some com­pa­nies leave thank you cards out in the office, so peers can write them and deliv­er them to each oth­er’s desk. It’s a small cost in time and mon­ey, and it can reap great rewards as Shel­ley, who has done this, attests.

  Diversify Rewards

  Offer dif­fer­ent kinds of rewards to appeal to a larg­er group of peo­ple. To keep peo­ple engaged in the process, there should be dif­fer­ent prizes to try and attain. As com­pa­nies diver­si­fy rewards options, how­ev­er, they should also be transparent.

  “Employ­ees and man­agers should know how to give and receive rewards,” says Shelley.

  In oth­er words, they should know exact­ly what is expect­ed of them if they want to win rewards XYZ. Employ­ees should also know how they could offer recog­ni­tion to a col­league who has impressed them with their work.

  Build in Anticipation

  “Antic­i­pa­tion is every­thing,” says Shel­ley. In fact, some employ­ees say the antic­i­pa­tion can be greater than the reward itself, she adds. Talk about what it will be like if a team or indi­vid­ual achieves the require­ments to win the reward. Dis­cuss the expe­ri­ences of those who have won before to help oth­ers dream about it.

  Automate

  Automa­tion is a great way to inte­grate rewards pro­grams in hybrid and remote work­places. For exam­ple, some com­pa­nies have a “giveku­dos” Slack chan­nel, where team­mates can give shout outs to those who have done well or helped them, and they auto­mat­i­cal­ly get a $10 gift card.

  Avoid Pitfalls

  HR lead­ers can eas­i­ly fall into com­mon traps when dol­ing out rewards. A big mis­take is to just hand out rewards as a means of “check­ing the box,” warns Shel­ley. After all, peo­ple real­ize when some­thing is giv­en to them ingenuously.

  Anoth­er error is mak­ing the pro­gram over­com­pli­cat­ed. Shel­ley shared the sto­ry of a col­league who cre­at­ed a rewards pro­gram with dif­fer­ent lev­els and lots of qual­i­fi­ca­tions. It was too cum­ber­some, and no one under­stood how to give or receive rewards. So, they had to pare it down and simplify.

  Being one-dimen­sion­al with­out giv­ing thought to all the pos­si­bil­i­ties is a pit­fall that HR lead­ers can avoid by think­ing out­side the box. Over­com­pen­sat­ing to make up for low appre­ci­a­tion scores is anoth­er way to defeat the pur­pose of a rewards pro­gram. Employ­ees should feel spe­cial and appreciated.

  Final­ly, employ­ers should assess whether they are reward­ing the cor­rect behav­iors. Shel­ley shares the sto­ry of a pre­vi­ous employ­er, who hand­ed out awards to hard work­ers who had been burn­ing the mid­night oil. But the com­pa­ny includ­ed a val­ue about main­tain­ing work-life bal­ance. It did­n’t match with their mis­sion, and it sent the wrong message.

  By Francesca Di Meglio

  Orig­i­nal­ly post­ed on HR Exchange Network

• Transparency in Coverage

  May 25, 2022

  Tags: Price Transparency, Transparency in Coverage

  

  Health plan price trans­paren­cy helps con­sumers know the cost of a cov­ered item or ser­vice before receiv­ing care. Begin­ning July 1, 2022, most group health plans and issuers of group or indi­vid­ual health insur­ance will begin post­ing pric­ing infor­ma­tion for cov­ered items and ser­vices. This pric­ing infor­ma­tion can be used by third par­ties, such as researchers and app devel­op­ers to help con­sumers bet­ter under­stand the costs asso­ci­at­ed with their health care. More require­ments will go into effect start­ing on Jan­u­ary 1, 2023, and Jan­u­ary 1, 2024 which will pro­vide addi­tion­al access to pric­ing infor­ma­tion and enhance con­sumers’ abil­i­ty to shop for the health care that best meet their needs.

  Mak­ing pric­ing infor­ma­tion avail­able to the public

  In three stages, most group health plans and issuers of group or indi­vid­ual health insur­ance are required to dis­close pric­ing information.

  1.    Machine-Read­able Files con­tain­ing the fol­low­ing sets of costs for items and services

  • In-Net­work Rate File: rates for all cov­ered items and ser­vices between the plan or issuer and in-net­work providers.
  • Allowed Amount File: allowed amounts for, and billed charges from, out-of-net­work providers.

  2.    Inter­net-based price com­par­i­son tool (or dis­clo­sure on paper, upon request) allow­ing an indi­vid­ual to receive an esti­mate of their cost-shar­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty for a spe­cif­ic item or ser­vice from a spe­cif­ic provider or providers, for 500 items and services.

  3.    Inter­net-based price com­par­i­son tool (or dis­clo­sure on paper, upon request) allow­ing an indi­vid­ual to receive an esti­mate of their cost-shar­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty for a spe­cif­ic item or ser­vice from a spe­cif­ic provider or providers, for all items and services.

  Stay tuned for more! Phase 2 and Phase 3 go into effect in 2023 and 2024.

  By plan or pol­i­cy years begin­ning on or after Jan­u­ary 1, 2023, most group health plans and issuers of group or indi­vid­ual health insur­ance cov­er­age are required to dis­close per­son­al­ized pric­ing infor­ma­tion for all cov­ered items and ser­vice to their par­tic­i­pants, ben­e­fi­cia­ries, and enrollees through an online con­sumer tool, or in paper form, upon request. Cost esti­mates must be pro­vid­ed in real-time based on cost-shar­ing infor­ma­tion that is accu­rate at the time of the request.

  Read More »

• Mental Health is Wealth, So Start Saving Up Now!

  May 17, 2022

  Tags: mental health, Mental Health Awareness

  

  “Suck it up,” “cheer up,” “snap out of it,” “but you don’t look sick”- these are just some of the phras­es that well-mean­ing friends and fam­i­ly tell loved ones strug­gling with men­tal health issues. Research shows that one in five adults strug­gle with men­tal health con­di­tions.  Men­tal health strug­gles include depres­sion, bipo­lar dis­or­der, anx­i­ety, schiz­o­phre­nia, and eat­ing disorders.

  Men­tal ill­ness is also becom­ing increas­ing­ly com­mon among teenagers; stud­ies indi­cate that approx­i­mate­ly one in five teens between ages twelve and eigh­teen are diag­nosed with a men­tal health dis­or­der.  These issues deeply impact day-to-day liv­ing and may also affect the abil­i­ty to relate to oth­ers.  When your men­tal health suf­fers, every­thing in your life will suf­fer as a result.

  What is Men­tal Health?

  Men­tal health includes our emo­tion­al, psy­cho­log­i­cal, and social well-being.  It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps deter­mine how we han­dle stress, relate to oth­ers, and make choices.

  The fact is, a men­tal ill­ness is a dis­or­der of the brain – your body’s most impor­tant organ.   Like most dis­eases of the body, men­tal ill­ness has many caus­es – from genet­ics to oth­er bio­log­i­cal, envi­ron­men­tal and social/cultural fac­tors.  And just as with most dis­eases, men­tal ill­ness­es are no one’s fault.  For many peo­ple, recov­ery – includ­ing hav­ing mean­ing­ful roles in social life, work and school – is pos­si­ble, espe­cial­ly when you start treat­ment ear­ly and play a strong role in your own recov­ery process.

  What Are the Warn­ing Signs?

  Each ill­ness has its own symp­toms, but com­mon signs of men­tal ill­ness can include the following:

  • Avoid­ing friends and social activities
  • Feel­ing exces­sive­ly sad or low
  • Feel­ing help­less or hopeless
  • Extreme mood changes
  • Think­ing of harm­ing your­self or others
  • Inabil­i­ty to per­form dai­ly tasks like tak­ing care of your kids or get­ting to work or school
  • Feel­ing numb or like noth­ing matters
  • Overuse of sub­stances like alco­hol or drugs
  • Hav­ing unex­plained aches and pains such as headaches or stom­ach aches
  • Changes in sleep­ing habits or feel­ing tired and low energy
  • Feel­ing unusu­al­ly con­fused, for­get­ful, on edge, angry, upset, wor­ried, or scared

  What Are Some Things You Can Do to Look After Your Men­tal Health?

  • Talk About Your Feel­ings – Just being lis­tened to can help you feel sup­port­ed and less alone. Talk­ing with a friend or loved one is help­ful but remem­ber, ther­a­pists are not only for those in the mid­dle of cri­sis — they’re incred­i­bly ben­e­fi­cial for peo­ple in all stages of life
  • Exer­cise reg­u­lar­ly – Exer­cise releas­es endor­phins, which have mood-boost­ing effects. Aim to exer­cise about 30+ min­utes at least five days per week
  • Eat Well – Your brain needs a mix of nutri­ents to stay healthy and func­tion well, just like the oth­er organs in your body
  • Stay Con­nect­ed with Fam­i­ly and Friends – Close, qual­i­ty rela­tion­ships are key for a hap­py, healthy life
  • Take a Break – a change of scenery or pace is good for your men­tal health
  • Get Out­side to Enjoy 15 Min­utes of Sun­shine – Sun­light syn­the­sizes Vit­a­min D which experts believe is a mood elevator
  • Send a Thank You Note – Let some­one know why you appre­ci­ate them. Writ­ten expres­sions of grat­i­tude are linked to increased happiness
  • Prac­tice For­give­ness – Peo­ple who for­give have bet­ter men­tal health and report being more sat­is­fied with their lives
  • Pur­sue Your Pas­sions – Enjoy­ing your­self can help beat stress and achiev­ing some­thing boosts your self-esteem
  • Sleep – Most adults need around 8 hours of sleep each night so try to make sure you’re get­ting enough shut-eye

  Men­tal health is undoubt­ed­ly just as inte­gral as phys­i­cal health but it’s some­thing that we often don’t pri­or­i­tize.  We all expe­ri­ence times when we feel stressed or over­whelmed but if these feel­ings per­sist, it’s time to slow down and re-eval­u­ate your men­tal wellbeing.

  Most peo­ple are afraid to ask for help, but seek­ing help is actu­al­ly a sign of strength, not weak­ness.  If you or some­one you know is strug­gling with their men­tal health, please reach out to a local men­tal health professional.

• What is Mental Health and Wellness in HR?

  May 9, 2022

  Tags: health, mental health, well-being

  

  Men­tal health and well­ness in HR are becom­ing top pri­or­i­ties for employ­ers. In fact, HR lead­ers named men­tal health and well­be­ing as their third biggest prob­lem, behind the labor short­age and retain­ing tal­ent, in the lat­est HR Exchange Net­work State of HR report. In addi­tion, those sur­veyed also said burnout was the top con­se­quence of the pan­dem­ic. “Blur­ring of work and per­son­al life” and “burnout” tied, with 28% of the vote each, as the biggest chal­lenges to employ­ee engage­ment. And 30%  of respon­dents said employ­ee engage­ment and expe­ri­ence was their top priority.

  Clear­ly, men­tal health and well­ness is relat­ed to the employ­ee expe­ri­ence, and the expec­ta­tions in the new nor­mal require HR lead­ers to pro­vide sup­port, empa­thy, and guid­ance for help­ing those who need it. To begin, they need to under­stand the nuances of men­tal health and well­ness.

  

  Defining Mental Health and Wellness

  A first step for HR lead­ers is to break­down men­tal health and well­ness to under­stand the dif­fer­ences, so they can best address “men­tal health” and “well­ness.”

  What Is Mental Health?

  The U.S. gov­ern­ment defines men­tal health as the emo­tion­al, psy­cho­log­i­cal, and social well­be­ing of an indi­vid­ual. Obvi­ous­ly, one’s men­tal health con­tributes to how he thinks, feels, and acts, and it relates to his resilien­cy and rela­tion­ships with others.

  Con­sid­er­ing this def­i­n­i­tion, HR lead­ers can focus on insur­ance that cov­ers men­tal health con­di­tions and con­nect­ing peo­ple to appro­pri­ate spe­cial­ists just as they would for employ­ees with phys­i­cal ail­ments, for exam­ple. Tend­ing to men­tal health needs is slight­ly dif­fer­ent than those of wellness.

  What Is Wellness?

  On the oth­er hand, well­ness refers to the total­i­ty of health – both men­tal and phys­i­cal – of an employ­ee, accord­ing to the Soci­ety for Human Resource Man­age­ment. When employ­ers focus on well­ness, they are aim­ing to pro­vide employ­ees with pre­ven­ta­tive solu­tions to avoid ill­ness­es and long-term health prob­lems. For exam­ple, gym mem­ber­ships, yoga class­es, and med­i­ta­tion ses­sions are among the ways HR lead­ers may sup­port the well­ness of workers.

  Men­tal health refers to the con­di­tion of an employee’s state of mind, where­as well­ness refers to his or her gen­er­al health. Some­times, even those in HR use the word well­be­ing inter­change­ably with well­ness, but there is a dis­tinc­tion. Well­be­ing refers to job sat­is­fac­tion or one’s con­tent­ment at work. Cer­tain­ly, well­be­ing is relat­ed to men­tal health and well­ness. If employ­ees are expe­ri­enc­ing anx­i­ety, high stress, or burnout, which are asso­ci­at­ed with both men­tal health and well­ness, they may expe­ri­ence neg­a­tive feel­ings at work. There­fore, their well­be­ing also will be at risk.

  HR’s Responsibility for Mental Health and Wellness

  The pan­dem­ic revealed the need for men­tal health and well­ness pro­grams at work­places. Both mind and body need­ed sooth­ing, and HR pro­fes­sion­als took the lead in pro­vid­ing solu­tions to work­ers. More than two years after the start of the pan­dem­ic, they are con­tin­u­ing to enhance their offerings.

  Here are some rel­e­vant ben­e­fits that employ­ers may pro­vide, and HR lead­ers can consider:

  Medical Insurance that Covers Mental Health

  This first ben­e­fit is the most obvi­ous one, and it refers to the employ­er choos­ing insur­ance options that cov­er men­tal health as robust­ly as they do phys­i­cal health.

  Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

  The U.S. gov­ern­ment defines an EAP as a “vol­un­tary, work-based pro­gram that offers free and con­fi­den­tial assess­ments, short-term coun­sel­ing, refer­rals, and fol­low-up ser­vices to employ­ees who have per­son­al and/or work-relat­ed prob­lems.” These pro­grams may address stress, sub­stance abuse, or fam­i­ly dis­cord, for example.

  Mental Health First Aiders

  This is a pro­fes­sion­al who works on staff or on call for a busi­ness, so employ­ees always have some­one to sup­port them with any men­tal health con­cerns, accord­ing to verywellhealth.

  Training for Managers, Leaders, and Peers

  Some com­pa­nies are train­ing their teams to rec­og­nize poten­tial men­tal health issues in their col­leagues and to devel­op empa­thy and emo­tion­al IQ.

  Yoga, Meditation, Workshops, Zen Rooms, etc.

  These are a few exam­ples of pro­grams designed to help employ­ees relieve stress and stay focused.

  Mental Health Days

  Some com­pa­nies are includ­ing men­tal health days in their paid time off menu. This allows peo­ple the chance to stay home as they would for a sick day.

  Parameters around Work Hours/Flexibility/Respecting People’s Time

  Many employ­ers are shar­ing guide­lines about allow­ing employ­ees flex­i­bil­i­ty around when and where they work or dur­ing what hours they can com­mu­ni­cate with them about work, etc. The idea is to help peo­ple bet­ter bal­ance work and life to give them the time and space nec­es­sary to recharge.

  Why Should HR Leaders Care about Mental Health and Wellness?

  The answer about why any leader should care about employ­ees’ well­ness seems obvi­ous. It’s the right thing to do. But it also relates to busi­ness out­comes. Poor men­tal health and well­ness among employ­ees can pose grave risks to an employ­er. These are the threats:

  • Decreased Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty – Peo­ple are not as inter­est­ed in get­ting the job done if their deal­ing with men­tal health issues.
  • Res­ig­na­tion – Men­tal health and well­ness is clear­ly con­nect­ed to job sat­is­fac­tion and well­be­ing. Peo­ple might quit if they are suffering.
  • Neg­a­tive Impact on the Bot­tom Line – If employ­ees are not pro­duc­tive or engaged, the com­pa­ny will not be as suc­cess­ful. If there is much turnover, the com­pa­ny will lose mon­ey in recruit­ing, hir­ing, train­ing, and patient­ly wait­ing for new hires to get up to speed. All these con­se­quences can influ­ence rev­enue and busi­ness outcomes.

  How Work Can Affect Employee Wellness

  Employ­ees spend a large amount of time work­ing. Tox­ic work­places obvi­ous­ly can dam­age one’s men­tal state, where­as a psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly safe envi­ron­ment can moti­vate peo­ple. Any­one expe­ri­enc­ing bul­ly­ing or harass­ment at work may feel more anx­i­ety or stress. That’s undoubt­ed­ly true. But hav­ing heavy work­loads, tight dead­lines, and oth­er stress­ful per­son­al sit­u­a­tions can lead to burnout. Poten­tial­ly, these fac­tors cut into the psy­cho­log­i­cal con­tract between employ­ee and employ­er. This is con­cern­ing to HR leaders.

  The Mayo Clin­ic says job burnout is a type of work-relat­ed stress that results in a state of phys­i­cal or emo­tion­al exhaus­tion that can influ­ence an employee’s self-worth and sense of iden­ti­ty. The pan­dem­ic and con­se­quen­tial labor short­age put burnout in the spot­light and forced employ­ers to con­front it. Now, HR lead­ers are work­ing to com­bat and pre­vent burnout as part of their over­all men­tal health and well­ness strategies.

  Tak­ing steps to reduce hours and work­loads, man­ag­ing expec­ta­tions, and train­ing man­agers to be bet­ter, more empa­thet­ic lead­ers are among the ways they are address­ing the prob­lem. HR Exchange Net­work rec­og­nized this new oblig­a­tion of Human Resources in its recent tal­ent man­age­ment report:

  Com­pa­nies that show they tru­ly care about the men­tal health and well­ness of their employ­ees will get noticed. Those who are flex­i­ble and under­stand­ing when peo­ple are hav­ing a tough time per­son­al­ly will win hearts. “Com­pa­nies need to switch their focus on engage­ment to expe­ri­ence. Maya Angelou said it the best, ‘Peo­ple for­get what you tell them. They don’t for­get how you make them feel,’ ” says Sebastien Girard, Chief Peo­ple Offi­cer at Cen­tu­ra Health.

  HR lead­ers are helm­ing efforts to address men­tal health and well­ness of employ­ees. They are con­fronting these issues to improve employ­ee engage­ment and expe­ri­ence and the work cul­ture. Employ­ers rec­og­nize the link between the men­tal health and well­ness of their employ­ees and the suc­cess of their business.

  In addi­tion, they real­ize this is the right thing to do, which is vital at a time when employ­er brand is of the utmost impor­tance, and every­one is try­ing to bet­ter main­tain work-life bal­ance. The pan­dem­ic was the spark for employ­ers giv­ing atten­tion to these issues, but the focus on help­ing employ­ees main­tain their men­tal health and well­ness will continue.

  By Francesca Di Meglio

  Orig­i­nal­ly post­ed on HR Exchange Network

• The 4 W’s of Lifestyle Benefits

  May 2, 2022

  Tags: Employee Retention, Fringe Benefits, Lifestyle Benefits

  

  Com­pet­i­tive wages are no longer enough to sat­is­fy and sup­port val­ued employ­ees. Today, a vari­ety of ben­e­fits and perks play an essen­tial role in attract­ing and retain­ing tal­ent. Lifestyle ben­e­fits, some­times referred to as employ­ee perks, are non-salary ben­e­fits giv­en to employ­ees to improve their over­all lifestyle that go above and beyond stan­dard med­ical, den­tal and vision ben­e­fits. These lifestyle ben­e­fits are rapid­ly becom­ing the future of employ­ee benefits.

  Around 60% of employ­ees say ben­e­fit offer­ings are a sig­nif­i­cant fac­tor in their deci­sion on whether or not to take a new job. That’s why an increas­ing num­ber of employ­ers are uti­liz­ing lifestyle ben­e­fit plans to entice high-qual­i­­ty appli­cants.  In fact, stud­ies show that 80% of employ­ees would select more ben­e­fits above a pay increase. More­over, younger employ­ees, like Mil­len­ni­als, are more apt to change jobs than their old­er Baby Boomer coun­ter­parts if they are dis­sat­is­fied with the employ­ee ben­e­fits offer­ings avail­able to them.

  Lifestyle ben­e­fits are ben­e­fits to enjoy now.  These are mean­ing­ful ser­vices that meet the needs of employ­ees today.  Not tomor­row, next week or even ten years from now.  Employ­ees don’t have to be sick, deceased, dis­abled or over 65 to use them.

  In this arti­cle, we will explore the 4 “W’s”—Who, What, When, and Why—of lifestyle ben­e­fits to explain how you can use this tool to improve your ben­e­fits package!

  Who Are Lifestyle Ben­e­fits For?

  Even com­pa­nies with gen­er­ous over­all ben­e­fits pack­ages can suf­fer from low employ­ee engage­ment and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty which can be exac­er­bat­ed by the mas­sive shift to remote work. Offer­ing perks that are cus­tomized to your people’s unique needs is huge­ly ben­e­fi­cial for com­pa­nies want­i­ng to increase employ­ee engage­ment and reten­tion.  In the increas­ing­ly com­pet­i­tive job mar­ket, this real­ly sets employ­ers apart because it demon­strates a vest­ed inter­est on the part of the employ­er to pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for per­son­al, as well as pro­fes­sion­al growth.   Lifestyle ben­e­fits, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the form of flex­i­ble perk stipends, are an ide­al way to offer per­son­al­iza­tion and also pro­mote an inclu­sive com­pa­ny culture.

  What Lifestyle Ben­e­fits Can Employ­ers Offer?

  Lifestyle ben­e­fits can be cus­tomized to meet many dif­fer­ent types of needs. For instance, an employ­ee might be send­ing their child to col­lege for the first time. If they want advi­sors or finan­cial plan­ners, a lifestyle ben­e­fits account can cov­er it. Or what if an employ­ee wants to take advan­tage of a gym mem­ber­ship or health app?  This could also be cov­ered through a lifestyle ben­e­fits pro­gram. Every­one ben­e­fits from a calm, hap­py, and val­ued employ­ee!  Oth­er exam­ples of offer­ings you can include in a lifestyle ben­e­fits pro­gram include:

  • Health & Wellness
  • Learn­ing & Development
  • Cri­sis Relief for Qual­i­fied Disasters
  • Con­tin­u­ous Learning
  • Adop­tion Assistance
  • Child­care
  • Stu­dent Loan Debt Assistance
  • Finan­cial Wellness
  • Iden­ti­ty Theft Insurance

  When Should You Offer Lifestyle Benefits?

  Real­ly the answer to the ques­tion of when you should offer lifestyle ben­e­fits is-now!  Now is the right time to make the most of lifestyle ben­e­fits by set­ting employ­ees up and edu­cat­ing them of their perks.When orga­ni­za­tions offer lifestyle ben­e­fits, it’s about build­ing pos­i­tive, long-term rela­tion­ships between exec­u­tives, super­vi­sors and employ­ees.  It’s about invest­ment and ded­i­ca­tion to employ­ee well-being.

  Why Pro­vide Lifestyle Ben­e­fits at Your Com­pa­ny 

  There are so many rea­sons to pro­vide lifestyle ben­e­fits but it pri­mar­i­ly boils down to one thing: employ­ee sat­is­fac­tion.  Employ­ees want to feel val­ued by their employ­ers and if this can be achieved by help­ing them afford the lifestyle they enjoy and envi­sion for them­selves, then do it!

  We are, after all, liv­ing in the age of per­son­al­iza­tion.  Every­thing in our lives, from our Net­flix sub­scrip­tions to Spo­ti­fy playlists is cus­tomized to us and our pref­er­ences.  Lifestyle ben­e­fits can be designed in a way that address­es the var­i­ous needs of your diverse work­force, whether that means sup­port­ing a 22-year-old recent grad­u­ate liv­ing in the city, or a 45-year-old exec­u­tive with three kids in a home in the sub­urbs, lifestyle ben­e­fits are ide­al for that type of per­son­al­iza­tion and inclu­siv­i­ty, espe­cial­ly in the form of flex­i­ble perk stipends.

  If com­pa­nies want the best poten­tial can­di­dates, they have to think out­side the box with per­son­al­ized ben­e­fit offer­ings.  Every­one wins with a flex­i­ble lifestyle ben­e­fits plat­form. After all, phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly healthy employ­ees are more pro­duc­tive, which is bet­ter for the bot­tom line.

• 5 Tips to Save Money on Health Care: Part 1

  April 25, 2022

  Tags: health care costs, Health Insurance

  

  Health insur­ance is essen­tial to pro­tect­ing your health but the high cost of cov­er­age may leave you feel­ing sick.  Even after employ­ers pick up a sub­stan­tial amount of the cost, every year Amer­i­cans spend thou­sands of dol­lars on health­care while costs are con­tin­u­ing to rise. By tak­ing cer­tain steps, you can stretch your health­care dol­lars and still receive the care you need to stay healthy.

  1. Under­stand How Your Health Plan Works

  Review your plan to learn how to max­i­mize your ben­e­fits.  You need to know what is cov­ered (and what is not!) and what pro­ce­dures you need to fol­low to ensure your claims will get paid.  Know what your copay­ment, coin­sur­ance and deductible costs are before your visit.

  Most health insur­ance plans cov­er more of your costs if you use their pre­ferred or in-net­work doc­tors.  If you vis­it an out-of-net­work doc­tor or med­ical facil­i­ty, you’ll pay more and may end up being respon­si­ble for 100% of the bill.  Use your insurer’s online tools to search for in-net­work providers.

  2. Choose the Right Places to Get Care

  Run­ning to the emer­gency room when you get sick after hours could drain your wal­let. All too often, those suf­fer­ing from minor ill­ness­es or injuries vis­it the ER when they don’t need to.  The ER should be your last resort — con­sid­er using more afford­able options like telemed­i­cine or an urgent care cen­ter instead.  You can still get the care you require in off-hours with­out hav­ing to sched­ule an appointment.

  If you need surgery, you may save mon­ey by hav­ing it done at an ambu­la­to­ry sur­gi­cal cen­ter (ASC) which is a mod­ern health­care facil­i­ty focused on same-day sur­gi­cal care, includ­ing diag­nos­tic and pre­ven­tive pro­ce­dures.  Typ­i­cal­ly, these cen­ters charge less than a hospital.

  3. Use a Health Sav­ings Account (HSA) or Flex­i­ble Spend­ing Account (FSA)

  Open­ing a HSA  or an FSA is a handy way to save for med­ical expens­es and reduce your tax­able income. They are like per­son­al sav­ings accounts but the mon­ey in them is used to pay for health care expens­es. HSAs are owned by you, earn inter­est, and can be trans­ferred to a new employ­er.  FSAs are owned by your employ­er, do not earn inter­est, and must be used with­in the cal­en­dar year.

  4. Ask Your Doc­tor About Remote Patient Mon­i­tor­ing (RPM)

  RPM is the use of dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies to mon­i­tor and ana­lyze med­ical and oth­er health data from patients and elec­tron­i­cal­ly trans­mit this infor­ma­tion to health­care providers for assess­ment and, when nec­es­sary, rec­om­men­da­tions and instruc­tions. This type of mon­i­tor­ing is often used to man­age high-risk patients, such as those with acute or chron­ic health con­di­tions such as those with dia­betes, hyper­ten­sion and heart conditions.

  5. Use Your Pre­ven­tive Care Benefits

  Many health plans pay the full cost for impor­tant pre­ven­tive care.  These reg­u­lar screen­ings, exams, and immu­niza­tions help detect or pre­vent dis­eases and med­ical prob­lems ear­ly when they are eas­i­er to treat.  Annu­al check-ups, mam­mo­grams (usu­al­ly after the age of 40), flu shots and colono­scopies (usu­al­ly 1 every 10 years after the age of 50) are exam­ples of pre­ven­tive care.  These checks can save you a lot of mon­ey because they catch prob­lems early.

  Health insur­ance isn’t manda­to­ry — there’s no law requir­ing you to buy it — but, health insur­ance is an impor­tant part of stay­ing healthy, finan­cial­ly and phys­i­cal­ly.  Since most peo­ple who don’t have insur­ance made that deci­sion based on mon­ey instead of what is best for their health, they usu­al­ly don’t have doc­tor appoint­ments for the same rea­son – it’s too expen­sive.  But skip­ping rou­tine care can end up being more expen­sive than your pre­mi­ums, espe­cial­ly if you have seri­ous health issues that aren’t caught ear­ly.  Think of it like care main­te­nance: reg­u­lar­ly chang­ing your oil might be a has­sle but it is essen­tial to pre­vent a major break­down down the road.