Medicare, then, has a big incentive to use house calls. So do hospital systems that can capture the savings. One is Sutter Health in Northern California, which runs the successful Advanced Illness Management program. Another is the Veterans Affairs system, which established Home Based Primary Care in 1972. The program has the highest patient satisfaction rate of any Veterans Affairs service, has cut overall costs for patients in the program by nearly 12 percent and reduced hospitalization of them by one quarter. Continue reading
Professional employer organizations (PEOs) began their rise after the adoption of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 cleared a path for the creation and expansion of such entities. Between 780 and 980 professional employer organizations operate across all 50 states. According to the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations, approximately three million employees work under a PEO arrangement and the PEOs industry earned, on the top end of the estimate, $156 billion in gross revenues in 2014 (gross revenues are the total payrolls plus the fees charged by the PEO).
PEO contracts are co-employment arrangements whereby the professional employer organization and the client with whom it contracts both retain some right of control over the individual worker or workers collectively. Such relationship is wholly different than a leased employee or the use of a borrowed servant. Leased employees and borrowed servants are under the absolute control of the special employer. Co-employment vests responsibility and control with both parties to the contract. Continue reading
The cost of a typical cyber breach to an American company is much less than has been generally estimated, providing one possible explanation for why companies do not invest more to improve computer security, according to a new RAND Corp. study.
The typical cost of a breach is about $200,000 and most cyber events cost companies less than 0.4 percent of their annual revenues, the study found. The $200,000 cost is roughly equivalent to a typical company’s annual information security budget. Continue reading
The new U.S. policy on self-driving cars received a mixed reaction from highway-safety advocates who acknowledged the life-saving potential though warned of a world of “human guinea pigs.”
The Transportation Department’s new guidelines give carmakers and states “the green light to innovate while keeping safety at the forefront,” said Deborah Hersman, president and chief executive officer of the National Safety Council, an Itasca, Illinois-based nonprofit that seeks to reduce injuries and deaths on the road. Continue reading
Now that the yearly task of filing personal taxes has passed, this is an opportunity to discuss another type of filing for businesses that occurs every year – the workers’ compensation and general liability audits. In comparison, insurance audits and filing taxes are similar in that both are mandatory, annually. The workers’ compensation and general liability audits are conducted at the end of each policy period to verify that the premium is correct for the exposure during the policy period. In the event there is a claim, the claim might be denied because the premium exposure for the policy term within the policy period where the claim occurred was underinsured. Continue reading
Chubb is rolling out a new business owner’s policy, Chubb BOP. Crafted for small businesses, Chubb BOP incorporates protection for property and liability exposures, a supporting umbrella liability product, and the option to add workers’ compensation, commercial auto, and management and professional liability insurance protection.
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The insurance industry is on the horns of a dilemma: how to use new technologies to improve their operations and how to insure the risks these new technologies present to their customers.
The pace of technology is changing at faster rates than ever before and continues unabated despite the associated risks. New technology startups constantly enter the field, using technologies that impact multiple industries and user groups. Additionally, new technologies are developed virtually every day and are released almost immediately. Continue reading
A growing number of U.S. workers are covered by health insurance that sticks them with a bigger share of the medical bill but also softens that blow by providing a special account to help with the expense.
Companies are turning more to these so-called consumer-directed health plans, which push patients to shop around for the best prices for care, because they can cost less than other types of coverage and help hold down future increases. Continue reading
