January 5, 2022
While we spend time here discussing healthcare and cost trends impacting group health plans, we do also spend quite a bit of time working with our group clients to keep them compliant with the various federal, state, and local laws and regulations surrounding employee benefits. Webinar on 1/20: Benefits Compliance in 2022: Preparing for a …
December 22, 2021
Healthcare is a massive part of the US economy and a major expense for most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). And many organizations can best steward their health plans by looking past current year costs to trends over the next 3 to 5 years. Between 2014 and 2019 (before the pandemic), the US population increased …
December 16, 2021
The Kaiser Family Foundation released its 2021 Employer Health Benefits Survey in November. This is a very robust survey and always chock full of helpful information on the state and trajectory of employer health plans in America. Our clients always want to know what other employers are doing when it comes to benefits in their …
December 8, 2021
The health insurance industry is typically behind the overall economy when it comes to innovation. This is a major problem since insurance premiums and costs are on an unsustainable trajectory. Employers often find themselves stuck in the cycle of increasing annual renewals with their only option being to spreadsheet other carriers and plans. But what …
October 20, 2021
Surprise medical bills have received a good amount of attention recently and for good reason. Sarah Kliff, a health policy reporter for the New York Times, has written extensively on this topic recently. Surprise medical bills cost Americans millions each year. After years of debate, Congress is now set to ban most of them. https://t.co/3eoeez9Ina …
September 22, 2021
There are still a few days left before the September 30th deadline for the California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant program. There is a dedicated website for the program here: CAReliefGrant.com. These grants do not need to be paid back and can range from $5,000 to $25,000. If a business is in one of the following industries, …
September 22, 2021
September is Suicide Prevention Month and World Suicide Prevention Day was recognized on September 10. The LBL Group is committed to helping our clients create save workplaces that support employees across the spectrum of health needs, including mental and behavioral health. To this end, our consultant John Hansbrough was quoted by Going Digital: Behavioral Health …
August 24, 2021
The Commonwealth Fund released their periodic comparison report of various national health systems this month entitled “Mirror, Mirror 2021: Reflecting Poorly.” The report is a series of comparisons performed every 4 years, with prior entries in the series below: 2017: International Comparison Reflects Flaws and Opportunities for Better U.S. Health Care 2014: How the U.S. …
August 19, 2021
We’ve been closely watching reports on how Americans have been consuming healthcare as the COVID pandemic has evolved. In 2020, we saw drastic decreases in services, leading to worry about the impact of skipped screenings and doctor’s visits such as preventative services. Previous conversations with our friend Josh Axene (July 2020, January 2021) centered on …
August 4, 2021
Grant Thornton, a large accounting company, conducts a survey of CFOs every quarter and their second-quarter survey of 2021 yielded some insights on how finance leaders are thinking about talent shortages and rising employee benefit costs. CFOs and People Leaders See Rising Health Plan Costs as a Challenge The key takeaway is that human capital …
