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The H1N1 flu vaccine is now being shipped to each state and will soon be made available to the public.

Priority Populations

The H1N1 flu can pose a serious threat to certain people. The Center  for Disease Control (CDC) has identified certain groups to get the vaccine first, with other less risky groups to follow as the vaccine is made more available. Those who should get the vaccine right away are:

· Pregnant women

· Caregivers for children younger than 6 months

· Health care and emergency medical personnel

· Children and young adults from ages 6 months to 24 years

· People ages 25 through 64 who have other health conditions that might increase their risk for flu-related complications

Getting the Vaccine

Workforce Solutions, Inc. and UMR, have worked with a lot of different partners to make it easy for you to get the vaccination.

Public Health Clinics

You can get your vaccination for free at your local public health clinic

Doctors’ Offices

You can go to your doctor’s office or local clinic. The vaccination is free. There are no co-pays, deductibles or co-insurance fees.

Retail Pharmacies

Most major retail pharmacies will offer the vaccinations at no cost to you. Just show your medical ID card and identification, such as a driver’s license.

You should contact your public health clinic, local pharmacy or doctor ahead of time to be sure they have the H1N1 vaccine and enough supplies to give you the vaccination.

Visit UMR.com

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions—you’ll find answers to common questions about the H1N1 flu and the vaccine

Tips to Prepare You and Your Family for Flu Season

Links to the CDC and U.S. Health and Human Services Websites—for the most up-to-date information on the flu

Are your employee not motivate — and enthusiastic about — their jobs, here are three ways to get more from them:

Shine the spotlight on them

In general, the more frequently employers reward workers, the more those workers will aim to please.

The key is making sure rewards fit the size of employees’ accomplishments — and that the rewards vary.

Example: Don’t always give away the same $10 gift cards. Instead, hold a public recognition ceremony or send out a company-wide e-mail praising the employee. Be sure to focus on what the employee did that saved others time, boosted profits or otherwise helped the company.

Offer decision-making power

Another good way to show employees they’re appreciated and make them feel valuable: Encourage supervisors to allow employees to make small financial decisions.

Example: Let employees choose which new desk chairs everyone will get or which prizes will be given away at the next employee appreciation meeting.

Solicit employee ideas

Welcoming ideas from employees about new benefits is a great way to get them plugged into your programs.

Sure, a few suggestions are bound to leave you scratching your head. But if you can use just one, it’s worthwhile.

As firms continue to fight for their survival in the current recession, an increasing number of their employees have moved up a weight class – or two.

According to a recent Workforce Solutions, Inc. survey, 43% of our client companies workers have gained weight in their current jobs.

A combination of stress over the current economy and poor eating habits seems to be spurring the increased weight gain in the U.S. workforce.

Just how much weight are employees packing on? According to the study:

* 25% have put on more than 10 lbs., and
* 12% have put on more than 20 lbs.

• The study also dissected people’s eating habits and found:
  • 39% of employees eat out for lunch two or more times per week
  • 12% of employees buy lunch from a vending machine at least once a week
  • 67% of employees snack at least once a day, and
  • 24% of employees admit to snacking twice a day.

There’s a good deal of research that proves unhealthy staffers carry significantly higher healthcare costs. Taking a proactive approach to helping these employees can benefit their overall well-being, as well as your bottom line. This has been a proven fact in keeping the annual Health Insurance Premium increase below the national trend.

Fortunately, reversing bad habits doesn’t take a complete lifestyle overhaul. Experts stress that little things can have a tremendous impact in halting the weight gain, including:

  • bringing a lunch to work
• making it a point to get up from your desk several times throughout the day
• taking walks during lunch breaks, and
• biking to/from work

Find out how Workforce Solutions, Inc. can help your company manage Employee Health and minimize Health Insurance Premium increases.

With the sharp increase in layoffs nationwide, many benefits departments are swamped with COBRA paperwork. At Workforce Solutions, Inc. we process all the necessary COBRA paperwork for our clients, just another benefit of working with us. However, many clients are confused about how the new Stimulus Package, that President Obama signed into law yesterday will impact their company when it comes to offering COBRA to terminated employees.

At least there’s a little good news about COBRA and the stimulus package. Many companies are relieved by the scaled-down COBRA subsidy that accompanied the economic stimulus package passed by Congress. Under the original House version of the bill, there was provision to allow eligible workers to maintain COBRA coverage – at their own expense – until they became Medicare eligible (age 65) or received coverage from another employer.

The rule would’ve applied both to former employees age 55 and older and to workers who worked for the same employer for 10 or more years.

The final bill that President Obama signed into law doesn’t change the COBRA coverage time limit.  If the other bill had passed, it would’ve created a lot of extra burden on employers.  Even though workers take on the direct cost of COBRA coverage, employers are left to deal with legal compliance headaches, increased utilization of their health plan resulting in increased premium costs as well as administrative time.

Even experienced benefits pros can struggle to keep on top of the feds’ crazy 401(k) reporting requirements and special-case distribution rules.

Here’s how to handle four areas where people often get tripped up:

1. Year-end 401(k) enrollment

Suppose you hired an employee in late December and he enrolled immediately in the 401(k) plan.  His first contribution to the plan likely came out of a January check.

So should you count him in your 2008 plan report or wait until you file your 2009 report?

Answer: The feds say to wait until 2009 for record-keeping purposes, because he had no 2008 compensation from which he could make a salary deferral.

2. Distribution without consent

Generally speaking, you must contact a former employee for verification before making any 401(k) distribution over $5,000. But there are exceptions:

• distributions of under $5,000 made after age 65 (although best practice is to notify the retiree anyway), and
• situations where you’re unable to get current contact information for the person after at least four unsuccessful contact attempts.

In the latter case, keep in mind that your firm has limited choices for distributing the money. One legal option: transfer the money to a state unclaimed-property fund.

3. Contributions not withheld

What if an employee signs up for the 401(k) but, due to a clerical error, the money was never deducted from the person’s paycheck?

Here’s how to straighten it out: The IRS requires your firm to make the missing contribution on behalf of the employee, plus any related matching contributions.

Finally, you must also make up for any lost earnings on the money the employee intended to invest.  Bottom line: This is a very expensive mistake to fix, but once its done, your firm is back in ERISA’s good graces.

4. Small refunds

Suppose Payroll accidentally took out a little too much money. Example: The department took out an extra $10 per check for three checks before someone caught the mistake.

Are you required to issue a $30 refund to the employee? Yes.

Prescription drug use in the United States is on the rise, both for acute and chronic issues. Workforce Solutions, Inc. reports the number of people with at least one prescription increased from 67% to 74% between 2000 and 2007, while Caremark estimates that more than half of the insured U.S. population took prescription medication in 2007 for a chronic health condition.

According to Workforce Solutions’ Geographic Variation in Prescription Drug Utilization study, in addition to the increase in the number of Americans using prescribed medications, the intensity of use rose, too. In 2000, the number of prescriptions per person using a prescribed medication was 10.8, and this increased to 14.3 by 2007. The drug therapy classes experiencing the most growth were antihyperlipidemics (for controlling cholesterol and triglyceride levels), antidiabetics (diabetes) and antihypertensives (blood pressure).

Workforce Solutions’ Health study found that 51% of insured U.S. adults and children were being treated with prescribed medication for a chronic condition in 2007. Additionally, this study reports that 20% of the population uses three or more prescription drug treatments for chronic conditions. The most widely used drugs were those prescribed to battle high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

Both reports point to obesity as a key factor in explaining their findings. For example, the Express Scripts report, which examines geographic variations, found a high correlation between state level obesity rates and use of medications for diabetes and high blood pressure, and a medium correlation between obesity rates and use of medication for high cholesterol.

Other factors that could be contributing to increased prescription drug use, as suggested in the Caremark report, include greater compliance rates, more dual therapy, higher screening rates for certain conditions, earlier initiation of drug treatment, and growing willingness on the part of physicians to use drug therapy instead of other types of treatment. Additionally, due to various advances in medical care, many once-fatal conditions have evolved to become chronic conditions, treatable by maintenance medications. Add the growing number of drug therapies now available for conditions that previously went untreated (erectile dysfunction, sleeping disorders, a variety of mental health-related issues), along with direct-to-consumer advertising by drug makers, and this trend of increased prescription drug usage seems sure to continue.

The increased prescription drug usage is one of the biggest factors in the annual health insurance premium increase seen by most small businesses.

Need assistance in assessing your prescription drug benefits? Contact Workforce Solution’s Inc today.

Temporary insurance can be a money-saving alternative to COBRA for  employees or dependents no longer eligible for your health plan.

For employers, it’s a no muss, no fuss way to reduce your COBRA rolls and paperwork and also save cost increases during Health Insurance renewals. The COBRA notice recipient simply declines COBRA and lines up his or her own temporary coverage. This is another benefit of doing business with Workforce Solutions, Inc. The health insurance experts at Workforce Solutions, Inc. can help your employees find the most cost effective alternative to COBRA.

But the plans aren’t right for everyone. Here are four need-to-know issues:

• Plan expiration. Coverage under a short-term plan runs out faster than COBRA. While some policies offer coverage for up to a year, the majority run out within six months. The ideal temporary coverage enrollee is someone who expects to have a source of full-time coverage available in a month or two.

• Intended for major medical issues. In most cases, short-term plans health plans aren’t designed to meet routine healthcare needs. Rather, they are there to cover serious injury or sudden illness.

• Service limitations. While the plans often cover an array of high-cost medical issues (hospitalization, emergency surgery, etc) and prescription drugs, some major services most notably pre-natal care may be excluded.

• Deductibles. While the plans often carry much lower premiums than COBRA, they often come with high deductibles. Once deductibles come into play, it may cost the employee less money out-of-pocket to accept COBRA.

If you would like to help reduce your COBRA paperwork and cost, contact one of our HR Benefit Specialists today or tell Workforce Solutions, Inc. how you manager your COBRA by leaving a comment below.