Managing A City 's Health Benefits The City No Longer

What’s next? Some experts say that if the consumer-directed approach doesn’t succeed, em wash their hands of health care altogether. A recent study by the Employee Benefit Researc showed that the proportion of U.S. residents covered by employment-based health benefits d percent in 2000 to 60 percent in 2004. Decades from now, observers may conclude that a counter- revolution in employer coverage began in these early years of the 21st century. —Terence F. Shea

The memorandum from Salvador Monella to the Board of Directors addresses the rising costs of employee healthcare benefits at Penn-Mart. His communication includes an explanation of his purpose in addressing the healthcare costs, findings regarding Penn-Mart’s benefits costs, a recommended program to implement for cost reduction, and a discussion containing support for their recommendation. While some business people may be tempted to simply accept the information presented in Mr. Monella’s memorandum, it is my opinion, after reading Browne and Keeley’s Asking the Right Questions (2012), that adopting a critical thinking approach is the most effective way to evaluate the document.

Employers are continuing to face rising health benefit costs and are constantly looking for alternatives to control these escalating costs. Health benefit premiums continue to increase at a double digit pace for employers and employees (Poor, Ross & Tollen, 2004). This escalation is putting environmental pressures on all impacted stakeholders. Companies and insurance providers are squeezing this industry to get a handle on cost while still providing an appropriate level of care. This cycle puts the patient front and center as the ultimate stakeholder who incurs changes in health benefits. This mandate of cost control, efficient operations and market share has facilitated a constant analysis of the dynamic health

A series of events has recently occurred to cause the passage of PPACA. Economics are explicitly linked to health care. In the United States, health care coverage is provided primarily through an employer-based system. This system began in the depression era when pay was federally frozen. Companies, in an attempt to lure scarce workers, used benefits packages including health care as bait. Described as a “uniquely American” “private social security” health care system, the employer-sponsored system is the “cornerstone” of United States health care system (Blumenthal, 2006). This system has left many un- or under-insured. Blumenthal states (2006), “The United States’ dependence on employer-sponsored insurance means that the protection of its citizens against the costs of illness depends directly on the ability of private businesses to manage and absorb health care expenses that have defied all efforts to contain them.” Recently, economic downturn and the need to reduce expenses to better compete on the global market has caused many companies to both reduce their insurance benefits package and their work force causing many to lose their health care coverage. The employer-based system merged with the economic downturn, unaffordable health care costs for businesses, and

In America, we not only have the problem of the non-insured but the under insured which causes just about as much problem as the underinsured. Each group has contributed to the vast growing cost of healthcare. Over the last decade or two, the amount of uninsured has risen due to the job market in the economy and the fact that most insurances are tied to employment, which is also a problem as the unemployment rate rises. The purpose of this paper is to explore this issue.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, was a major overhaul to the healthcare system, affecting both employers and employees. The ACA, along with rising healthcare costs, means employers have had to make changes in their healthcare plans and as a result, employees are seeing the affects, good or bad. As Fitzgerald (2014) points out, as the ACA gets closer to full implementation, more organizations will begin backing away from providing health care coverage. Part of the problem that organizations are facing in the future is the so-called Cadillac tax. As explained by healthaffairs.org (2013), the Cadillac tax is an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans and will mostly be paid for by the organizations. The tax, beginning in 2018, is a 40% excise tax on the cost of coverage for health plans that exceed a certain annual limit (healthaffairs.org, 2013). Because of this high tax, many companies are scaling back on coverage and finding ways to shift the cost to employees (Angle, 2014). The analysis presented will describe what ACA is, the problem GMFC faces, possible options, and finally, a solution for GMFC in this case.

The probable impact of the Cadillac tax is causing employers to reassess the health care plans they offer their employees and reconsider their role in providing health care benefits to their employees in the future. Currently, this excise tax is proving to be a catalyst for change. However, regional differences in the cost of healthcare and unrelenting medical inflation is going to make the ability for employers to continually reduce benefit costs in an attempt to avoid the tax extremely

The following paper will use a set of 10 critical thinking steps recommended by Browne & Keeley to objectively analyze the memorandum sent by Salvador Monella who is the Senior Vice President of Human Resources to the Board of Directors at Penn-Mart. Mr. Monella has conducted a review of Penn-Mart’s healthcare strategy involving a number of issues including cost to the company and employee involvement, to name a few. The purpose of the review, findings, discussion and recommendations will all be analyzed using critical thinking skills in an objective manner.

Soft infrastructure is another important aspect of city’s construction while Detroit’s bankruptcy partly resulted in healthcare. It is surprising that the amount of healthcare premiums payment was much larger than the pension. There was $6.4 billion of the liabilities in other post-employment benefits(OPEB). However, Detroit is not the only one. The unfunded healthcare obligations of other cities are also larger than the unfunded pension obligations while other cities choose to slow down the growth of retiree unfunded healthcare debt (Pozen, 2013).

Recession was a great nightmare for recession brought with it multiple ideals of a troubled economy with regards to the community sufficiently offering services to the public. Cities across the United States have faced the toughest times in recent years with regards to healthcare service provision which has equally lead to closure of several hospitals. Focus for paper will reflect on the situation in the cities of Philadelphia, New York and Chicago; an look into the economic impact of the closure of the hospitals will be expounded upon in-depth as to establish an economic inference reference point economic levels in the said cities. The effect of tough economic times for the United States is evident in the closures of hospitals with some speculating that the facilities have fallen deep into debt as well as the situation is at the tipping point of getting worse in the near future with some cities even going to the extent of invoking the ideals of Chapter 9 bankruptcy (Dixon, Robertson, Appleby, John , Burge , & Delvin , 2011). The outline of this paper will be build upon analysis of individual hospital cases in the respective mentioned cities. The analysis will be founded on a critical point of view so as to culminate into a comprehensive economic analysis, together with the impact of the closure of city funded hospitals in the United States of America. The analysis on the impact will be narrowed particularly to the local communities.

One of the must have necessities of a human being is the provision of sound health care and every government, both national or local is obligated to offer this essential service to all the citizens without favor or any discrimination of any kind. Where else it is paramount that every employer to make sure the health and the safety of the employees are given the first priory. This will make sure the employees who are injured during the work are taken care of, and they are relieved the burden of the cost of health care. Thus, it is common to find most companies get the services of insurance companies and other organizations which provide health care programs for workers such as IndUShealth to make sure the welfare of the employees is in safe

There is no denying the fact that the cost of health care in the United States has been on a constant rise than the wage of the employees that pay to have access to better healthcare. There is the general fear among these employees that if the rising cost of the health care is not brought under control, there will come a time, and some analyst think, the time is already here, when those employees will not be able to afford health care for themselves and their families. This fear of the unknown is particularly evident among those closer to retirement. Employers of labor have for quite sometimes now, been shifting the burden of the high cost of affordable health care to their employees, and that has significantly reduced employee standard of

Overall, the role of health insurance as a financial channel will be mentioned. Monetary business objectives will be contrasted with the altruistic goals of health care as a humanitarian service. The benefits of shifting health care management altogether to the government will be discussed, emphasizing its positive effects on the businesses of the employers and the performances of the employees in the United States.

For several decades health care has been tied to the economy and with the current downturn we see continued efforts to control and reduce over-head costs. Health care organizations in their effort to become more efficient and address changes in the industry have altered their strategic business plans. Lee & Alexander (1999) researched organizational change in hospitals and their survival, in this paper I hope to discuss their findings and add other examples to validate their conclusions.

In the following case study we will review the case “Managing a City’s Health Benefits “. We will be discussing how Herzeberg’s satisfiers and dissatisfiers seem to be demonstrated. We will also be reviewing how unfriendly the state laws are to the labor force and how it should influence the management’s decision. Lastly we will discuss the best way to lead organizational change and how it can be applied effectively to this case.