Health Insurance Benefits Kick In

Well we have hit one of the milestones along the affordable health care highway. Effective September 23rd there are a few new benefits that kick in

• Life time maximums no longer exist
• children can now stay on their parents policies until age 26
• Annual limits no longer exist
• 100% of preventive care costs will be paid for in-network claims

As you might expect each of these will come with a cost and that cost will soon become apparent once the insurance companies begin raising their rates in the next few months.

Of all of these benefits the only one I think deserves to be mandated is number four. Preventive care can go a long way to lowering the long term costs of health care. If we catch the problem before it becomes a problem then we can avoid the catastrophic event. What a great innovation in thinking!! So I am all for number four

As far as numbers 1, 2 & 3 why didn't we make them OPTIONS!!!! Options that those who want them can PAY for them instead of everyone having to pay for them across the board.

I have never had a client ask me why the Lifetime benefits were so low.

I have had very few ask me why their annual maximums were so low.

I have had a few ask why they could not keep their children who are still in school on their policies, but most of the insurance companies had already put this into effect without the help of the Federal Government.

The sad reality is now due to large government intervention we will have some changes that were probably not even necessary. They were certainly not necessary as MANDATED benefits, and they will come with cost increases that will never be rolled back even if the Heath Care Reform package is repealed in the next Congress.

When we ever learn to really tell Washington to stay out of our pockets!!

Health Insurance Reform - The Final Lap

Well we finally made it. After a full year of promises from one side of the aisle that the country would have health insurance reform we are down to the last few days before the vote is taken. We are down to the FINAL LAP!!

Let's talk about what we will have once the FINAL LAP is completed. We may have a health insurance reform program that will cost US (as in the United States) or US (as in you and me) over a TRILLION dollars in new debt. This is debt that those of us over 50 can probably live with because we will probably not be around long enough to see the devastating effect it will have on our children and our children's children.

We will definitely have hundreds, who knows maybe thousands of pork barrel programs buried in the health insurance reform program that have absolutely nothing to do with reform, but in fact are the results of Washington D.C. "horse trading" for votes. I am not even sure that any of these programs are included in the debt number that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) came up with for the program. I tend to doubt it since these little ditties fall outside the purview of the CBO audit.

Oh and by the way if the bill does pass on the FINAL LAP all of you folks who are in desperate need of health insurance coverage will have it available to you in 2014 or there abouts. Meanwhile the insurance companies will have about 4 years to raise their rates high enough to cover any additional costs they will experience when this whole thing is finally in place.

So far this whole thing sounds like it might have been instigated by the insurance lobby in order to allow insurance companies to raise their rates, and increase their profits during a period of escalating health care costs which they have been desperately figuring out how to deal with.

The sad part about is this whole conspiracy theory would make a heck of a lot more sense than the reality. The reality sadly enough is just another misplaced desire by the government to walk all over our personal freedoms, and convince everyone they are doing it in our best interest.

If this bill passes on the FINAL LAP I am afraid it will become the FINAL STRAW that will ruin our society for years to come.

And believe me no one in the insurance industry, no one in government who truly cares to look at the ramifications, and no one of US is in agreement with what might happen this week, BUT if it does every single one of us will have to live with it for the rest of our lives and sadly so will the generations that follow us.

Vote NO on the Health Care Reform Bill!!

Government Bail Out Proposal

It has been awhile since I have posted to my blog. For those of you who know me you are aware that I have expanded my activities to include Health Insurance, and I am working with an associate to provide Life and Annuities.

My focus is on Florida, but my associate can write Life in multiple states so if you are in need give a shout. (407) 593 2243.Enough of the sales pitch.

The reason for the current posting is that I came across a wonderful plan that the government can enact over the next six years and will save all of us (taxpayers) some good money. The person who proposed the plan suggested 8 years, but honestly there is no reason why we can not speed it up to 6 years. After all the House members are elected every two years, and Senators every six years. So within that time we should be able to produce a tremendous cost savings. The plan is posted below. Please comment and let us know how you feel about. Congresspeople are welcome to comment as well.

THE PROPOSAL

When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen is they reduce their staff and workers. The remaining workers need to find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well. Wall street, and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of "tough decision", and his board of directors gives him a big bonus. Our government should not be immune from similar risks. Therefore: Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to 218 members and Senate members from 100 to 50 (one per State). Also reduce remaining staff by 25%. Accomplish this over the next 8 years. (two steps / two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting.Some Yearly Monetary Gains Include:$44,108,400 for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165,200 pay / member / yr.)$97,175,000 for elimination of the above people's staff. (estimate $1.3 Million in staff per each member of the House, and $3 Million in staff per each member of the Senate every year)$240,294 for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%. $7,500,000,000 reduction in pork barrel ear-marks each year. (those members whose jobs are gone. Current estimates for total government pork earmarks are at $15 Billion / yr)The remaining representatives would need to work smarter and would need to improve efficiencies. It might even be in their best interests to work together for the good of our country? We may also expect that smaller committees might lead to a more efficient resolution of issues as well. It might even be easier to keep track of what your representative is doing.Congress has more tools available to do their jobs than it had back in 1911 when the current number of representatives was established. (telephone, computers, cell phones to name a few)Note: Congress did not hesitate to head home when it was a holiday, when the nation needed a real fix to the economic problems. Also, we have 3 senators that have not been doing their jobs for the past 18+ months (on the campaign trail) and still they all have been accepting full pay. These facts alone support a reduction in senators & congress.

Summary of opportunity:

$ 44,108,400 reduction of congress members.$282,100, 000 for elimination of the reduced house member staff.$150,000,000 for elimination of reduced senate member staff.$59,675,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members.$37,500,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members.$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork added to bills by the reduction of congress members. $8,073,383,400 per year, estimated total savings. (that's 8-BILLION just to start!)Big business does these types of cuts all the time.If Congresspersons were required to serve 20, 25 or 30 years (like everyone else) in order to collect retirement benefits there is no telling how much we would save. Now they get full retirement after serving only ONE term.

IF you are happy how the Congress spends our taxes, then just ignore this message. IF you are NOT at all happy, then send a copy to your Congressperson and tell them we have decided to offer an EARLY RETIREMENT BUYOUT. Are they interested? If we do not get enough volunteers we will need to begin layoffs in November!!
Posted by Joe (Mac) McQuaid at 12:03 PM 0 comments Links to this post

How Do You Manage The “Millennials” (Born between 1980 and 2001 you are a Millennial)

There was a time when authority was virtually unquestioned. No one would dare to tell their Captain on the battlefield that they disagreed with the “game plan” and would not follow orders. To a great extent that is still true when troops find themselves in battle and the old axiom of blindly following orders is still the rule by which soldiers live so hopefully they will continue to do so. Live that is!!

For the rest of us this has changed dramatically. One high profile example of this is with our professional athletes. I could tick off dozens of examples where high profile athletes have flaunted authority and made life miserable for everyone around them in an effort to get their way. And the sad part is they get their way more often than we care to think about.

I have always viewed sports as a metaphor for real life. Whether it is how the game is played or how winning and losing defines who you are, or how the personalities that play the games tend to represent the best and worst of what we see in everyday life. From this starting point I think all of us who are professional managers can take some lessons on how we might better prepare ourselves for the current and future stars in our own organizations.

We are experiencing a major change in the workforce which is seeing the exodus of millions of “Baby Boomers” and the emergence of a new generation known as “Millennials” labeled as such since they will be the first generation of the new millennium to leave their mark on the future. Figuring out how to manage this new crop of young people in the work force -- the millennial generation is a worthy challenge. Born between 1980 and 2001, the millennials were coddled by their parents and nurtured with a strong sense of entitlement. In a recent new book "The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaking Up the Workplace," by Ron Alsop, a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, describes the workplace attitudes of the millennials and employers' efforts to manage these demanding future leaders.
More than 85% of hiring managers and human-resource executives said they feel that millennials have a stronger sense of entitlement than older workers, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com. The generation's greatest expectations: higher pay (74% of respondents); flexible work schedules (61%); a promotion within a year (56%); and more vacation or personal time (50%).

Although millennials have high expectations about what their employers should provide them, companies shouldn't expect much loyalty in return. If a job doesn't prove fulfilling, millennials will forsake it in a flash. Indeed, many employers say it's retention that worries them most.
In the Michigan State/MonsterTrak study, about two-thirds of the millennials said they would likely "surf" from one job to the next. In addition, about 44% showed their lack of loyalty by stating that they would renege on a job-acceptance commitment if a better offer came along.
Companies have a vested interest in trying to slow the millennial mobility rate. They not only will need millennials to fill positions left vacant by retiring baby boomers but also will benefit from this generation's best and brightest, who possess significant strengths in teamwork, technology skills, social networking and multitasking. Millennials were bred for achievement, and most will work hard if the task is engaging and promises a tangible payoff.
In the final analysis, the generational tension is a bit ironic. After all, the grumbling baby-boomer managers are the same indulgent parents who produced the millennial generation. Ms.Subha Barry, managing director and head of global diversity and inclusion at Merrill Lynch sees the irony. She is teaching her teenage daughter to value her own opinions and to challenge things. Now she sees many of those challenging millennials at her company and wonders how she and other managers can expect the kids they raised to suddenly behave differently at work. "It doesn't mean we can be as indulgent as managers as we are as parents," she says. "But as parents of young people just like them, we can treat them with respect."
As professional managers we must strive to know our people better than they know themselves This is a supreme challenge when what they believe in, how they respond to authority, what motivates them, and what is important to them maybe significantly different than any expectations the managers who work with them may have had about themselves as they developed in their careers.

This gap, which by the way sounds eerily similar to the “Generation Gap” of the 60s and 70s, will be managed successfully if today’s managers are willing to take the time and make the effort to find out more about their people and how they can motivate them to achieve success. One thing is for certain the tools and technology that made the last generation of individuals and collectively companies successful are not the same as what will make companies of today successful. Millennials possess what is needed so it is up to managers to tap into it.Want to understand more give us a call and let’s start talking. www.OakHillTechnologyConsultants.com


Thanks to Ron Alsop’s The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace” copyright 2008 by Ron Alsop. Published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint

Win Back?? Does It Mean They Have Already Lost

“Win Back” has become a commonplace term in business today. The phone companies, who have consumers use their services for 100 years, and had no real reason to proactively try to keep them since they had no real alternatives, have been coining the phrase “Win Back” in a big way. This has more to do with the competitive landscape than anything else. After all if you can not lose them why worry about winning them back.

The phone companies are not the only service providers that are embracing the term “Win Back”. You see it with automobile dealers, airlines, retail stores. Just about any entity that has lost sight of what it takes to win and keep a customer has introduced some type of “Win Back” program. Now it is important to realize that these are not “Customer Retention” or “Customer Loyalty” programs.

“Win Back” is different. This suggests you have lost the customer. That begs the huge question WHY. What I have found mystifying over 30 years of sales, marketing, and business development experience is that somehow there is a large group of executive managers out there that truly believes it is much more critical to bring in “New” customers than it is to Retain “Existing” Customers.

The sad part about this is that the philosophy comes from the people who should know better. CEOs, Finance Executives, Investors (not the general public who owns stock, but the VCs, the Angels) and some other stakeholders who should clearly understand the old proverb of “A bird in hand is better than two in the bush.”

Let’s just talk pure economics. Every new customer will cost hundreds of dollars, and in some highly competitive businesses thousands of dollars to attract and close. Existing customers require excellent service, and just a little bit of hand holding when they have a problem. And sometimes the amount of effort you put into that hand holding might cost you hundreds of dollars, but you have already extracted a sizable profit, and the hand holding is really an investment in extracting more sizable profits. The return on investment for keeping an existing customer is a no-brainer!! Isn’t it??

Let me give you an example. There was a situation where I had a problem with my bill, and I reached out to the customer services team to get a resolution. I personally have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get resolution to billing issues and in this one instance explained to the customer service rep I would cancel the service over a $20 charge. They politely told me there was nothing they could do for me and that there was no supervisor available for me to speak with. They wished me luck and sent me on my way. (Believe me this really happened). In this particular case I knew an executive at the company, and called to ask them if they wanted to let me leave over such a small amount. Within 24 hours I was contacted by a senior executive from Customer Service and not only was the $20 charge forgiven there was an additional $200 of back billing which I was not claiming that they forgave as well. There are thousands of these cases every day where there is no mechanism in place to save the customer, and thus they become part of a very expensive “Win Back” program. Or even more hysterical management uses the focus on gaining new customers as some kind of remedy for losing previously loyal ones.

I could go on and on about situations where I did go through with a cancellation only to get a call or letter inviting me back with an array of incentives that just do not make sense. If we spend the time and energy to empower our employees (and yes they better be up to the job) and make managers accountable for losing customers then we will have a significantly more profitable organization, and with the lower churn will magically have more “Customer Loyalty”
Please feel free to share some examples of how you became a “Win Back” statistic, or like me were saved before you left the fold. It is not that important who the company is as much as it is important that we share ideas on how important it is (if you think it is) to create a culture of maintaining long term relationships with customers, and developing a culture that supports that

Poor Customer Service - Is It Technology or Management To Blame

I have come across some pretty interesting articles since our last newsletter which were both enlightening and alarming at the same time. The first had me roaring with laughter at first, but as I read deeper into the article I was not enjoying the read. The premise was a new technology that can be utilized in Call Centers which will (I guess using similar technology to a Lie Detector) determine the emotional and mental state of customer service representatives as they respond to calls. On the surface one might say, "Wow what a wonderful tool." Quite dehumanizing, but also quite efficient as the system will without any emotion make a recommendation as to when a Customer Service Representative is up to the job or not. What is the manager's role in the process? Make sure the system is powered up? Deliver the report to the employee? Talk about delegation of authority!

I was reading another article just the other day that spotlighted a major Retail chain that recently introduced a real time sales measurement device that can track sales associates every activity over certain periods of time and use the information to schedule work times for high sales achievers to work peak periods and lower performers to work off hours. Again on the surface, "Wow what a wonderful tool."

My concern is not that we are finding more and more ways to technologically replace our managers with machines (robots) but that we are not giving enough thought to what it is doing to the human element of Human Resources. Are we finally reaching a point in our employee relationships where the employee is going to be treated exactly as that one in one million computer chip that is unceremoniously taken out of the production line? If the employee does not reach the metric then terminate!

I would highly recommend that for any of you who are managers be aware of the technology that is being developed to replace your skills, and do your best to work with your executives to develop the tools to assess your people to know their strengths and weaknesses, and feed their strengths and train for their weaknesses. If you know them you can improve them, and they will respond appropriately. I sincerely believe there is no replacement for skillful managers who use technology to better the human interaction.

Employees should embrace an employee engagement approach as well. If it is designed to evaluate strengths and weaknesses for a given role objectively, and more importantly offers a program for improvement that feeds the human side of what managers are paid to do then it can be a win-win. Your future career may depend on the knowledge and mentoring a well designed assessment program will allow management to share with you.