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Employee Surveillance Doesn’t Boost Productivity, but Breeds Resentment: Study

As more people have been working remotely over the last few years, some employers have turned to employee-tracking software to ensure that these staff are working while on the clock, and to boost productivity.

Tools like activity monitors and locations trackers, however, do not actually increase productivity and they can instead cause a backlash among workers, affecting job satisfaction and stress levels, according to a new poll.

Additionally, 26% of tracked employees said they distrust their employer and half of them feel pressured to work more hours, the survey by review website Software Finder found.

These findings cast doubt on the effectiveness of remote-employee monitoring and tracking, in light of the fact that one in four remote or hybrid workers are tracked.

What employers are tracking

Companies are mostly tracking workers to ensure they are staying productive and working their schedules. They employ a myriad of methods, including:

  • Time-tracking software — Helps monitor when employees log in and out of work systems, and how they distribute their time across tasks.
  • Screen monitoring — Offers real-time insights into employees’ screen activities, providing a glimpse into their work habits and efficiency.
  • Keystroke logging — Tracks every keypress, offering data on productivity and potential security risks.
  • Communication monitoring— Analyzes team messaging platforms to understand communication patterns, collaboration and information sharing.

Some employers also track a worker’s company-issued phone and computer locations.

Employee resentment

The survey found that:

  • 53% of employees believe it’s a privacy violation for employers to track their activity.
  • Three in four employees believe it’s a privacy violation for employers to track their location.
  • 64% of untracked employees would recommend their company to others, while 58% of tracked staff would do the same.
  • 36% of employees whose activity is tracked are currently looking for a new job, compared to just 18% of those who are not tracked.

Some employees have gotten wise and try to thwart software that tracks mouse movements by using “mouse jiggling,” a device or software that mimics mouse movement, or other software.

This prevents tracking software from detecting inactivity and makes employees appear active when they aren’t. The survey found that 17% of workers use mouse jiggling and that 12% don’t, but want to.

What you can do

All of the above said, remote-worker tracking can be a good thing if it’s implemented with care.

Insightful.com has this advice for companies that aim to track their employees’ work:

  • Don’t track remote workers’ time outside work hours.
  • Don’t install monitoring software on their personal devices.
  • Don’t track remote workers without consent.
  • Don’t use data to micromanage your employees.
  • Don’t ignore signs of burnout in your staff.

If you do plan to implement tracking, it is important that you are transparent about the process. The review website recommends the following:

Set standards for remote staff. Make sure they are treated equally and entitled to the same break schedules and hours as their peers. Also, if you allow your office workers to chat with one another around the water cooler, you should allow the same deference to your remote workers who log into a social media account for a few minutes.

Encourage staff to raise questions/concerns. If you are implementing remote-employee monitoring, your staff will have many questions and concerns. It’s important that you keep an open line of communication with those who may feel that their privacy is being invaded.

Be transparent about the implementation of monitoring software, and cover the program in meetings with your staff and address their concerns.

After you’ve started using tracking software, you should hold a few meetings a year to check in with your workers about issues they may have. This will give you the chance to also adjust your tracking metrics.

Train remote employees. Your workers, supervisors and managers should know how to use the software properly and be familiar with its features and understand why it’s being used.

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The Top Five Health Conditions Driving Insurance Costs

A new study has identified the top five health conditions that are driving the overall cost of group health plan outlays, and without which spending would actually be falling.

The report is enlightening, and employers can use the findings to offer programs aimed at education and prevention to help control their employees’ health care costs and cut into health insurance premiums paid by both employers and workers.

Inspecting its study data for trends, the Health Action Council (HAC) determined that 63% of its covered lives had at least one of five conditions that were driving health care costs. Most of these top five conditions are preventable or treatable with lifestyle modifications that employers can encourage. 

Here’s a look at the five conditions and the burden they put on your employees and your company:

Asthma

Average costs paid per member of the HAC for asthma treatment are increasing on average 6.4% a year. This is one of the most prevalent health conditions in the country. Three important stats:

  • The incidence of asthma was 31% higher among women than men.
  • The incidence of asthma among African American covered lives was 20% more prevalent than among other races.
  • The average age of HAC members with asthma was 31.9, two years younger than the overall membership average age of 33.9.

Diabetes

Average costs paid per member of the HAC for diabetic treatment are also increasing 6.4% a year. Three important stats:

  • Diabetes was 20% more common in men than women among the HAC’s enrollees.
  • The average age of HAC plan enrollees with diabetes was 52.
  • Although Asian covered lives amounted to only 3% of the HAC enrollees, they had the highest incidence of diabetes of all racial groups.

Hypertension

Average costs paid per member of the HAC for hypertension treatment are increasing 6.3% a year. Three important stats:

  • Hypertension was 23% more common in men than women.
  • The average age among HAC enrollees with hypertension was 53.1.
  • The risk of African Americans developing hypertension was 63% more than for other races.

Back disorders

Average costs paid per member of the HAC for back treatment are increasing 3.4% a year. Three important stats:

  • Back disorders were 27% more common in women than men.
  • The average age among HAC enrollees with back disorders was 43.3.
  • Caucasian HAC members had 14% higher back disorder prevalence than other races.

Mental health, substance abuse

Average costs paid per member of the HAC for mental health and substance abuse treatment are increasing 2.7% a year. Three important stats:

  • Mental health and substance abuse problems were 39% more common in women than men.
  • The average age among HAC enrollees with mental health and substance abuse issues was 32.8.
  • Caucasian HAC members had 20% higher mental health and substance abuse issues than other races.

The takeaway

To help workers with these conditions, the report recommends:

  • Creating and implementing simple education and targeted wellness programs to address common conditions among your employees.
  • Instituting an exercise, stretch or meditation program at the beginning of a work shift to improve safety and decrease injuries. These types of practices are preventative and may decrease the severity of an injury if one occurs.
  • Evaluating benefit plan design for opportunities to implement continuum-of-care protocols. For example, employers can make chiropractic care or physical therapy mandatory for back disorders before moving to more aggressive treatments.
  • Covering medications for specific common chronic conditions as preventative care. Another option is to promote the use of patient assistance programs for medicines that may be excluded in your plan’s drug formulary.
  • Promoting virtual care for specific conditions; for example, mental health support if you have staff in rural areas.
  • Working with your health insurer or medical expert(s) to identify opportunities for provider outreach and education to your workers.
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Many Group Health Plan Users Make Costly Mistakes

Employees who are unfamiliar with how to access care using their group health insurance can inflate your plan costs and how much they pay out of pocket.

Those who may not use their health plan much, or at all, may end up going to the emergency room for an issue that could have been handled by a general care physician in their plan network. While they may not think much about the added cost when they seek non-emergency care in the emergency room, they do when they get a bill in the mail later.

The average cost of an ER visit with insurance in 2024 was around $400-$650, with the typical copay after meeting the deductible being around $412 nationwide, based on US Department of Health information. But some visits can go into the thousands of dollars for serious cases.

With health plans absorbing a portion of ER costs, decisions like this can negatively affect your plan as well.

The key to helping your staff avoid this is educating them on the health insurance they have, how to use it and also the importance of keeping up on vaccinations and checkups, particularly if they have children covered under the plan. 

Everyday conditions

With common conditions like headaches, sore throats or flu-like symptoms, employees often have access to more affordable care options than the emergency room. Virtual visits, for example, typically cost between $40 and $80, while retail clinics range from $20 to $100.

These options provide fast and convenient care, often with shorter wait times. Urgent care clinics are another excellent alternative, offering treatment for non-life-threatening conditions at a fraction of the cost of an ER visit.

Also, appointments with their primary physician in person for other issues are significantly less costly than the emergency room, particularly for plans with low copays.

One way your employees can find the best care for their needs is to check out FindTheRightCare.org, a resource created by the non-profit Health Action Council that’s designed to help employees explore health care options that fit their symptoms and budget.

Shopping around for scheduled procedures

For planned medical procedures like knee replacements or imaging tests, you can encourage your employees to shop around within their insurance network. Costs for these services can vary widely depending on the provider, and selecting a facility with lower cost-sharing can lead to substantial savings.

One way to simplify this process is by directing employees to cost-comparison tools offered by their health insurer or external resources, like the Health Action Council’s website. Transparent pricing information allows employees to make well-informed choices while staying within their budget.

Preventive care and vaccinations

Encourage your staff to schedule regular checkups with their primary care physicians, who provide comprehensive care, monitor ongoing health concerns and offer guidance on vaccinations.

For families with children, well-child visits are essential for tracking growth, monitoring developmental milestones and staying current on vaccinations. These visits protect children from serious diseases like measles and whooping cough, which are highly contagious and can have severe consequences, particularly for young children.

Education is key

Provide training and resources from your health plans that explain how employees can use their health benefits effectively.

A 2024 poll by Employee Benefit News found that 89% of employers surveyed were taking steps to control health care costs, with a majority focusing on improving preventive care access. They were incentivizing preventive care in a few ways:

  • 39% hosted vaccination sessions at the office,
  • 32% hosted educational talks or webinars about preventive care, and
  • 31% hosted disease screenings.

By equipping employees with knowledge, tools and resources, you can help them save money on their health care outlays without compromising their care or health.

That helps your bottom line as well, particularly if your health plan is not paying for expensive care when it could be delivered at a lower cost.

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Group Health Plan Trends for 2025

As health insurance costs continue to rise at an uncomfortable pace, employers in 2025 plan to shake up the status quo with their health care vendors, particularly those focused on reducing pharmacy spend, a main cost driver, according to a new report. 

To address spiraling costs, they will also focus on educating their staff about the importance of prevention and immunizations and guiding them to use specialized services that focus on managing chronic conditions, says the “2025 Trends to Watch” report by the Business Group on Health (BGH). 

Companies will also demand more data from their health plans and other health care vendors and look to float requests for proposals if they aren’t seeing results. 

Here’s a look at the main strategies employers told the BGH they were likely to pursue this year. 

Pharmacy spend

According to the report, if employers want to control their overall health care costs, they will have to address growing pharmacy expenditures, which now account for more than 25% of their health care budgets. 

That percentage is forecast to increase with the advent of GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, as well as specialized costly medications that can bust a health plan’s budget. 

One-third of employers surveyed said they planned to revisit and reassess their pharmacy benefit manager relations, potentially holding new contract bids to get better pricing from current vendors or from new ones that offer competitive pricing and more transparency in their contracts. 

GLP-1s loom large. Some employers are only willing to cover these drugs for diabetes and other Federal Drug Administration-approved indications like heart disease. Few will cover them for weight loss unless the patient is obese and with diabetes. Even then, they may require step therapy before prescribing them, which includes: 

  • Trying other established and proven anti-obesity medications.
  • Engaging in lifestyle management programs. 

Chronic conditions

Besides rising pharmaceutical costs, chronic and serious conditions such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and autoimmune diseases are major contributors to high health care costs. 

The report recommends a two-pronged approach to helping employees with chronic conditions: taking advantage of specialized integrated care networks, and wellness programs.

Specialty care — Many workers with chronic conditions are often not aware of the specialty care available to them through their health plan and as a result, don’t take advantage of these valuable services. The problem is that both employees and employers are often not aware of these specialty solutions that can improve staff health through care that provides valuable clinical support.

Employers surveyed by BGH said they would be focused on holding health plans, specialty insurance products and navigation partners accountable for helping their employees access this care. 

“The first and most critical step is to address the lack of awareness of these new network-based solutions among employers as well as employees,” the report states. 

Wellness plans — Chronic conditions are also prompting employers to revisit and evaluate their current wellness initiatives to ensure they are helping their employees manage these conditions and make lifestyle changes that can improve their illness. 

Employers may start requiring vendors to agree to outcomes-based contracts that set expectations for results. “These agreements should require that vendors demonstrate improvement in health outcomes and deliver promised returns,” the report states. 

The most popular wellness programs focus on helping employees lose weight and lead a healthier lifestyle through more exercise and healthy eating and habits. 

To be successful, weight-management programs should use best practices and integrate treatments like anti-obesity medications and mental health services in their care models, the report says.

Getting control of plan costs

Employers will look to hold their health plans’ and benefits vendors’ feet to the fire for producing better health results at lower prices. 

The key to this is employers having access to data from their health plans and other vendors that provides insights into cost and outcomes. This will be an evolving trend and some plans will be better than others in providing the desired information. 

“Transparency of cost, quality and outcomes data is critical to both employer and employee decision-making; vendors will need to show how they enable access to this information in 2025,” BGH says in its report.

Additionally, employers that have sway with their insurers will push their health plans to get control on unit prices they pay for services, and press them to accept value-based contracts that reward for positive outcomes and quality of care. 

Businesses that can afford it may contract directly with centers of excellence that provide very high quality or low-cost care, oftentimes for a particular service. 

The takeaway

We know that the high cost of health care is weighing heavily and we are here to help you keep your health plan costs under control. It requires an integrated approach of pushing wellness and chronic condition management among your staff and evaluating your current vendors’ results.

"Affordable
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Laws Reduce Plan Sponsor ACA Reporting Burden

Two new laws which took effect Jan. 1, 2025 will ease the Affordable Care Act annual tax reporting burden on health plan sponsors.

In a bipartisan effort, Congress recently passed the Employer Reporting Improvement Act and the Paperwork Burden Reduction Act, both of which outgoing President Biden signed into law.

The laws are aimed at making it easier for sponsors to comply with ACA requirements on Forms 1095-B and 1095-C, which provide information about health insurance coverage to workers and the Internal Revenue Service.

Both laws take effect immediately.

Forms explainer

Form 1095-C is issued by “applicable large employers” (ALEs) — those with 50 full-time or full-time-equivalent workers — to report the offer of health coverage, while Form 1095-B is issued by insurance providers, self-insured employers or small employers to report actual coverage.

Prior to 2025, plan sponsors were required to send these forms to all of their employees covered by their health plan by March 2. The due dates for transmitting the forms to the IRS are Feb. 28 (if filing on paper) and March 31 (if filing electronically).

Both forms help workers prove they comply with the ACA’s mandate that they carry health insurance and that an employer is complying with its obligations to provide coverage under the law.

What’s changing

There are four changes that benefit employers under the two new laws:

1. Forms upon request — Plan sponsors are no longer required to send Forms 1095-B and 1095-C to all full-time and covered employees. Instead, they will only be required to furnish them upon request from an employee.

Importantly, plan sponsors who want to go this route are required to notify their staff about their right to ask for a form.

2. Electronic forms — Starting this year, employers may furnish the forms to their employees electronically rather than on paper. The new law also makes it easier for employers to use a worker’s birth date instead of their Social Security number if the number is missing.

3. Reponse times to IRS letters — Another provision expands the time employers have to respond to a “employer shared responsibility payment” letter (Letter 226J) from the IRS, to 90 days from 30.

These demand letters are sent to employers if one or more full-time employees listed on the company’s Form 1095-C received a premium tax credit on his or her federal income tax return, meaning they secured insurance on an ACA exchange like healthcare.gov.

Employers have found it challenging to  provide a response and a defense to the IRS within such a short window of 30 days. An additonal challenge has been that these letters are sent by U.S. mail, and it may take some time to reach the appropriate person in an organization after being received. Filing a response late can result in the employer being assessed a penalty when one isn’t warranted, in addition to further penalties.

4. Statute of limitations — One of the new laws imposes a statute of limitations for how far back the IRS can go to try to collect assessments for 1095-B and 1095-C reporting failures and mistakes. Prior to this, there was no statute of limitations.

The takeaway

The above changes will benefit plan sponsors by reducing the reporting burden as well as give them more time to respond if the IRS thinks an ALE failed to provide coverage as required by law.

Your HR department should be aware of these changes in order to take advantage of the them.