More Cities Drop Spousal Coverage

“We were out of options,” City Manager Jeff Emory said. “I’ve been a city manager for 27 years, and (dealing with) the costs of health care is probably the biggest challenge I’ve ever faced.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article23411439.html#storylink=cpy

Medical Identity Theft Can Kill You!

"The Growing Problem of Identity Theft"

"It's like an unlimited credit card that gets you 'free' access to expensive services and drugs," said Bob Gregg, CEO of ID Experts, which provides breach-response services to major U.S. companies. "Everyone thinks about credit cards and bank accounts, but medical identity theft can be much more damaging and extremely hard to fix."  Full Article

Anthem's 80 Million records and now Premera, which provides health insurance to residents of Washington state and Alaska, adds 11 million more exposed records.  It's a crazy crazy world out there, and it's only going to get worse.

Medical identity theft is the number one thing we as a nation should be concerned with; it has financial implications and could even kill you!

Click here for a way to monitor and restore your true identity if you are compromised.

Wellness is More Than Dollars and Cents

Many in the benefits industry are saying that wellness doesn't end up saving money on health insurance premiums, and they are right, in many cases. But wellness programs done right, with employer buy-in, employee buy-in, and a healthy dose of fun can make a big impact in the employees lives at the very least.  Whether or not health care premiums or utilization rates and dollars are impacted is debatable, but making the employees happy and healthy has intangible benefits that are no less important.  One city in Colorado implemented different contests throughout the year, worked with their parks dept, and partnered with the local hospital to work on wellness on all fronts.

“About two-thirds of all our employees participated,” said City Clerk Linda Smith. “It was a great success.”  Spearheading the campaign, Smith explained that employees worked together in rotating three-member teams to help keep them motivated throughout the year. She said dietary lectures from hospital officials, cholesterol screenings from health department officials and exercise programs designed by park officials were all key to making the program successful.