» Amazon and One Medical, Why People Quit, Digital Nomads, More M&A, and more!

(credit: Nikhil Krishnan @nikillinit)

Amazon buys One Medical: This was the big healthcare news last week and people have a bunch of takes around “What this means for healthcare” etc. like ones from Nikhil (including the image above) and Lizzy Lawrence for Protocol.

My friend Alyssa Alsheimer (@alyssaalsh) made the point that Amazon has owned Goodreads since 2013 and Audible since 2008, and they still don’t sync. So don’t expect a connection between One Medical and Whole Foods anytime soon.

Most touch on how Amazon bought PillPack, they’ve been building Amazon Care, and they have a large possible distribution network through Whole Foods.

Top reasons people quit their previous jobs: The leading reason is now a lack of career development and advancement, according to research by McKinsey.

Lack of career advancement and development is now the top reason why people leave their job according to a new McKinsey study. pic.twitter.com/duMKhwtD1n

— Julia Stiglitz (@juliastiglitz) July 23, 2022

Other top reasons include:

• 36% – Inadequate total compensation
• 34% – Uncaring and uninspiring leaders
• 31% – Lack of meaningful work
• 29% – Unsustainable work expectations
• 26% – Lack of support for health and well-being

One of their findings is that voluntary quit rates are up 25% over pre-pandemic levels. The big takeaway IMO is to invest in your people and think very seriously about what work looks like between remote and hybrid models.

What’s your policy towards digital nomads? 15.5 million American workers (over 10% of the labor force) consider themselves digital nomads, a rate that has doubled since 2019. How are you treating them and if you aren’t currently employing a digital nomad, how will you treat one when you inevitably hire one? SHRM published a good guide on what to know about digital nomads and the risks to address.

You’ll have to answer questions and define policies around things like “workcations” and “geoarbitrage”. You’ll also need robust solutions to manage financial risk (taxes and withholding, for example), cybersecurity, employee risk, impact to operations, and more.

M&A Pitfalls for the CFO to Avoid: CFO.com puts out some good stuff and I am sharing this article as a follow-up to our M&A webinar last week, as it touches on the pitfalls in the M&A process that a CFO can anticipate and avoid.

The post addresses the analysis paralysis you can experience in an inherently uncertain situation like M&A due diligence, the impact of early skepticism on the deal process, and the need to financially integrate organizations early after the acquisition closes.

Copay assistance programs are kind of weird: When we design group health plans, we help companies set different copays for generic and name brand drugs because their costs vary. But copay assistance programs mess things up, and are in the spotlight lately as drug costs spiral out of control. Let’s look at an example of how this works.

Let’s say a generic drug costs $50 and the name brand costs $500 to the plan, so we set the generic copay to $10 and the name brand to $100. Our thinking is that people will choose to pay $10 instead of $100, thereby saving the plan $360 per fill. Copay assistance programs are basically a subsidy from drug companies to undo that incentive and get people to buy the more expensive drug. This increases plan costs over time and arguably for no benefit to members.

But these practices are being challenged in court. Pfizer lost in a federal appeals court this week after it tried to challenge a US anti-kickback law after it was not allowed to directly cover co-pays for patients taking certain drugs. In this case, Pfizer was covering copays for members to obtain a $25,000 per month drug. A drug that expensive can wreck a smaller employer’s health plan.

Idea – create a Family Manual: Clint Fiore (@ClintFiore) wrote a thread recently on why and how to create a manual for your family, and I really liked it.

As someone who lost a parent when I was young, I think often about what it would be like to have my dad’s words and thoughts written down so I could refer to them as I go through life. The Family Manual is an interesting concept of writing down values, principles, mission statement, and whatever else fits your belief and vision for your family.

As always, schedule time with me to chat about anything above that resonates with you, and make sure to subscribe to this newsletter on LinkedIn, where I regularly post other content around business strategy, benefits, and more!

Posted by John Hansbrough in Business Strategies, Digital Health, Employee Benefits, Health Insurance, Healthcare Spending, Human Resources, News, Prescription Drugs, Research