Navigating the healthcare labyrinth

Why is it so expensive?

Many of us can remember a time when you went to the doctor for a service, asked what the service would cost, and were told that they wouldn’t know until they submitted your claim to your insurance. Essentially, we have a healthcare system where we consume the product or service before we know what the bill will be. Almost every insurance plan offers different levels of coverage and payment structures, so we don’t have much transparenThis makes “cost controls” almost impossible to institute.

Because the baseline for costs is so obscure, it is difficult for an insurance company to assess their potential exposure to paying claims, so they must estimate high to make sure they can cover all incurred claims. Related to this “exposure,” is a requirement in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires insurance companies to pay claims to an unlimited dollar amount and cannot discriminate cy on the actual costs of products and services. on preexisting conditions. With fewer ways to limit their liability, the cost of coverage goes up each year. Some other important drivers of cost increases can be related to rising administrative and drug costs.

Can health benefits be a tool for employee recruitment and retention?

Most landscape companies don’t offer employees any health benefits. Employers can gain a competitive edge simply by offering benefits to their employees. Employees are looking to their employers to help them secure affordable healthcare.

In 2018, Forbes published an article outlining the connections between employee benefits and employee health, engagement and loyalty. Employees often value the quality of their benefits as much or more than their salary. Similarly, employees are more likely to stay with an employer that offers benefits because they depend on their employer for quality coverage.

One of the most exciting developments in recent years has been the ability to use alternative funding strategies to help manage the costs of health insurance. Alternative or self-funding strategies have commonly only been available to very large companies but are now available to many small businesses. Self-funding solutions may be available for your company with as few as four participating employees.

If you are an employer, investigate securing a health insurance plan for your company. If you are an employee, talk to your employer about options; if they do offer a plan, then be sure t o participate. Did you know that insurance premium rates tend to be cheaper for employer plans than for individual plans?

If you already offer a plan, then you are ahead of the curve. It may be well worth your time to review your plan design with a broker to make sure you are getting good value and have a plan that aligns to your company’s unique needs. If you do not have a company benefit plan, reach out to a trusted broker to

learn more about how to get started. | CG

—Kevin Wood is a Benefits Consultant with Quandary Insurance.

Hunter Industries social responsibility

By Bryce Carnehl

a steward of the environment and communities in which we live, work and play, Hunter AS Industries feels a strong sense of responsibility for our operational decisions and the impacts of our actions. Our core value of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) creates a framework around these responsibilities to help us find a balance between the people we influence, the planet we impact and the profits we earn.

While CSR has always been a driving force of our business, in 2011 we published a roadmap to help us accomplish our vision. Our facilities in San Marcos, California, and Tijuana, Mexico, set targets around several key areas. Since that time, we have reduced paper consumption, conserved significant amounts of water and increased employee training. We also boosted solar power generation, included more recycled materials in our products and gave more charitable contributions to local communities.

While realizing many of our CSR targets over the course of the past eight years, we have also undergone rapid growth and restructuring. Through acquisitions and strategic partnerships, we have added five facility locations. Our employee population has grown significantly and so have our environmental impacts. While our goal of achieving balance among people, planet and profit has remained the same, our roadmap needed a redesign.

Transparency is key

The crucial ingredient to a successful CSR program is transparency. Rather than setting targets internally, we decided to include external stakeholders as well, since their concerns help drive our business. Fourteen categories emerged: • biodiversity • climate resilience • community development • economic performance • employee training

Update is a

• energy consumption • health and safety • human rights in our supply chain • minimum wage policies • procurement practices • product safety • use of recycled materials • waste to landfill • water

With these topics in mind, we asked our Board of Directors and nearly 1,500 employees to rank the categories in order of importance. We also held group discussions to further dissect the survey responses.

Photos courtesy Hunter Industries

Carnehl leads a stakeholder discussion