How Does Your Organizational Mission Support Employee Healthcare?
Photo: Huffington Post
Photo: Huffington Post
Photo: smallbiztrends.com
Every day we hear again about how rising healthcare costs, especially deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs, are impacting consumers. But the real dilemma isn’t necessarily just rising deductibles and the trend of cost-shifting more and more costs to employees. It’s all of that in comparison to wage growth. Or rather – a lack of wage growth. Consider these staggering statistics:
Photo:UNOmaha
We all know how employee benefits can affect the bottom line in not-so-positive ways (read: rising healthcare costs eating away at budgets). But what if we choose to walk on the sunnier side of the street, and look instead at how providing high-quality, affordable healthcare to your staff can actually support your operating funds?
With new laws around minimum wage being debated across the country, along with new regulations around overtime pay under the FSLA, many nonprofits are feeling the budgetary burn and wondering how to cover all of these costs while still supporting programming and staff development.
Today we welcome Jim White, Executive Director of the Nonprofit Association of Oregon, to the Nonstop Wellness blog. We discuss with Jim the importance of employee healthcare and why – and how – nonprofits should continue to offer benefits even in the face of ever-tightening budgets.
Photo: engagingleader.com
Perhaps more than in any other industry, nonprofit organizations are strongly vested in keeping their employees happy, healthy, and productive. After all, nonprofits have some of the highest turnover rates in the US workforce, which can cost 20% (or more depending on the skillset being replaced) of total salary to replace.
It’s probably no surprise to hear that healthcare benefits matter to your employees. How much they matter is more likely the bigger question.Eighty-nine percent of surveyed employees*think that employer-sponsored healthcare is equally as important as getting a salary. What’s more, 63% of surveyed employees said that benefits play a factor in their choice to stay with their current job.
It’s the season for mid-year healthcare plan renewals. As such, many organizations are likely re-examining their current healthcare plans (and possibly brokers) to determine if there’s any room for improvement and/or more savings. But while a large percentage of small-to-midsize nonprofits typically opt for traditional fully-funded employee healthcare, partially self-funded healthcare might actually be a better option.
Photo: HCW Benefits
This week the Kaiser Family Foundation released an insight brief on actual employee cost-sharing data for healthcare spending as reported between 2004-2014. By analyzing a sample of health benefit claims over that decade, researchers were able to identify how consumer spending on deductibles, copays, and coinsurance has changed.
Photo: verticalresponse.com
Physician shortages. High turnover rates. Noncompetitive compensation packages. These are just some of the challenges community health centers face when trying to staff their valuable and much-needed clinics. And when challenges like those listed above interfere, the communities served by these health centers don’t receive the healthcare they so desperately need. In fact, health centers estimate that if staffing needs were met they could collectively serve an additional two million people.