In a time of much uncertainty surrounding the healthcare reform, according to a June 14th PricewaterhouseCoopers, 'Behind the Numbers Report', employer costs are estimated to increase around 9%. The good news is this is a drop of 0.5% from 2010 growth rate. What are the primary contributors?
On the encouraging side, there are three areas expected to deflat or hold medical costs:
- Pre-managed care design that increases deductibles and replacing co-pays with co-insurnance.
- Drugs costs cooled by expansion of generic drug portfolio. High volume drugs such as Lipitor patents expire in 2011.
- COBRA costs expected to level off. (side note: Congress has introduced an extension of the subsidy, legislation (S. 3548), that would reinstate through 11/30/2010).
- Hospitals and Physicians move costs from Medicare to private payers/employers. This will be the top reason for higher costs.
- Care-provider consolidation. Private practices will decrease while groups emerge.
- 2011 Stimulus funds will launch electronic hospital records implementations to avoid 2015 Medicare penalties. This will be a billion dollar invest in to technology.
PricewaterhouseCoopers' report is available at www.pwc.com/us/medicalcosts2011.
During the annual inventory,your plant may be getting"cleaned" in areas normally overlooked. This can be a gold mine-or a landmine-for safety. This is a great chance to uncover hazards that have been lurking beneath the surface throughout the year., such as unlabeled chemicals, worn or broken fixtures, extension cords, etc... But you can only take advantage of these discoveries if you're physically present and have specially asked your lead people to bring these items to your attention.
Beginning in June, 2011, the Social Security Administration will begin changing the way nine-digit numbers are issued for Social Security cards. 
Supervisor intervention can be very effective in the prevention of ergonomic injuries, such as strained backs, rotator cuff injuries and carpal tunnel syndrome. Many of these injuries develop gradually over time and are proceeded by signs or symptoms that a supervisor is ideally positioned to detect. Learn the signs, symptoms and prevention techniques, and intervene early to ensure that a worker at risk doesn't actually suffer any injury.
Cell phones continue to be a popular means of communication. However, if employees use a cell phone while driving and are involved in an accident, their employers could be liable for significant legal damages. Courts have already imposed huge judgments against drivers allegedly distracted by cell phone conversations, and research shows that texting involves an even greater danger. This issue is so significant that the U.S. Department of Transportation recently enacted a law prohibiting the use of cell phones (voice or text) by drivers operating a commercial motor vehicle. The penalties are severe, and affect both the driver and employer. 
damages, interest, and penalties to more than 700 current and former employees. According to the Department of Labor, the company and its owner failed to pay employees time and one-half the regular hourly rate for time worked in excess of 40 hours a week and failed to keep accurate time and payroll records for approximately seven years. 
Every company whose employees have E-mail access should include E-mail use in its human resources policies. This policy should include the employer’s right to monitor E-mails, be signed by the employee, and retained in individual employee records. Additional tips employers should consider are including E-mails in document retention programs, limiting information in E-mails to facts rather than exaggerations, speculations and insults, and having in-person conversations to discuss sensitive situations. 
implement. The topics range from discipline, to employee medical benefits, to how long they should retain employee records. Developing these policies can be a time consuming, difficult task, especially for small employers who are busy running their business. Without these policies, however, employers can face problems such as poor productivity, low employee morale, and even costly legal issues. 
While many people think of OSHA – the Occupational Safety and Health Act – as governing hazardous materials and dangerous occupations, virtually every employer has responsibilities under the Act. The General Duty Clause required employers to ensure that their workplaces are free from recognized hazards. In addition, many companies with more than ten employees are required to post the “OSHA 300 Log,” a form used by employers to record worker injuries and illnesses, on an annual basis.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) now prohibits texting by drivers of commercial vehicles such as large trucks, buses and vans. Covered drivers who text while driving commercial vehicles may be subject to civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750. 
With few exceptions, companies today rely heavily on computers and a variety of software in their day-to-day operations. Everything from inventory, to sales records, to customer and employee information is managed and stored on computers. Even if protected from outside intrusion, this information is usually accessible by many employees. Without specific policies and procedures to protect this information from employee misuse, employers can suffer tremendous financial loss. In a recent Ninth Circuit case, a company lost a lawsuit against a former employee who had transferred a substantial amount of confidential company information to his home computer for use in his personal business. The court ruled in favor of the former employee primarily because the company had no policies restricting use of company information. 
Management 2000, a Professional Employer Organization Indiana (PEO) can generally obtain a lower cost workers' comp policy for you because, Management 2000 is better situated to do so and has more experience in negotiating policy's. Our clients don't have up front fees nor end of the year catch ups to pay. With Management 2000 you just pay as you go. M2K manages your policy...Certs, Claims, Record Keeping
Lets talk about the cost of employment..Although I can't list everything because some things would be different due to number of employees and the state the employee is in. But, here are the obvious cost: Social Security, Medicare, FUTA and SUTA. Other payroll cost I view as 'Administration,' and those would be: Preparing your earning logs, calculating regular and OT, Tracking bonuses / holiday pay/ severance/ sick leave, I-9 compliance, W-4 records, issuing checks, payroll deposits, preparing quarterly/ annual reports, maintaining payroll records/ bookkeeping, W2/ year end reports. 
I met with a client today about an employee that our Employee Records show as a voluntary resignation. The employee claims that he was laid off. The client still has the text message sent from that employee stating some... we'll just say "unkind" things about his job and that he wouldn't be coming back to work. That is not a lay off, that is a voluntary termination. We wanted to get that information on paper so that we could submit it with the unemployment paperwork. Fortunately with a little help from our college intern, we were able to send it to an e-mail address and will now be able to use that information to challenge the unemployment claim. This client walked away happy knowing that we will be able to use this information in a much stronger manner than just relying on the verbal testimony about the existence of the text message. As part of the HR support that we provide at Management 2000, we will be contesting this claim for our client.
In the past, this client had no record keeping process in place to track usage. As a result, we have found that one person has already used 16 hours more than they are entitled to this year and we're not even half way through the year. This can be very costly to employers. First thing we are doing is establishing clear Human Resource policies so that employees know what the limits are for each of these plans. Second we will use our Human Resources Information System to set up the eligibility and track usage and show that information on the employees check. That way employees will always know what they have used and what they have available. This will be an improvement that will benefit both the employer and the employees. 
At Management 2000 we have clients that have some unique HR policies. For instance we have one client whose vacation year starts May 1st each year and has a particularly involved system of pro-rating vacation for new hires. When this client came on board with us they shared their frustration that the previous Professional Employer Organization (PEO) they belonged to said it would be impossible to track their vacation accrual and usage because that PEO's system wouldn't support such a unique HR Policy. Although it was a challenge, we found a way to track vacation for them. We just completed the rollover to the start of the new vacation year and it went off without a hitch. This client is thrilled, they had previously been led to believe it was impossible to do. They said this has been a huge time savings for the HR administrator who was responsible for tracking their accruals and has improved the accuracy of employee records. We didn't let the limitations of the system force us to say "it can't be done", we found a way to do it and our client reaped the benefit. We didn't let the "
, President Bush signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) into law. The Act is intended to prohibit employers from discriminating against individual employees/candidates based on genetic conditions or predisposition to certain diseases. The Act has a lot to do with conducting genetic testing, which most employer's don't do and so they haven't paid much attention to it. However there are a couple more points you should be aware of. 
e conducting HR Management Training sessions on anti-harassment and supervisor training on-site for our clients. We maintain the Employee Records of that training. Monthly we publish a training calendar for our clients and post it on our website and include it in our client newsletter. We work with our clients to determine what their specific training needs are and then we customize our training to meet that need. At Management 2000 we know our clients well and work closely with them to strengthen their organization.
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