Worksite Wellness. Health Management. Employee Health Promotion.

It really doesn’t matter what you choose to call it – you either “get it” or you don’t; if you don’t, you will have to at some point. Healthcare in the United States is making this concept a necessity.

 

Our employees are not the healthiest, but yet up to 75% of illness are preventable. Out of 100 employees…

 

• 25 have cardiovascular disease
• 12 are asthmatic
• 6 are diabetic
• 26 have high blood pressure
• 30 have high cholesterol
• 38 are overweight
• 21 smoke
• 31 use alcohol excessively
• 20 don’t wear seatbelts
• 24 don’t exercise
• 44 suffer from stress or depression

Source: Department of Health and Human Services, 2007

 

Why implement a comprehensive workplace wellness initiative?

 

• Encourages employees to take responsibility in maintaining their health, as well as their families health 
• Health risks in a population translate into increased health care costs in the future
• 50 -75% of health claims are lifestyle related and are CONTROLLABLE
• Properly implemented workplace wellness programs have a favorable impact on organizations through:  Employee engagement, Worker absenteeism and morale, Productivity, “Employer of Choice” culture. 
• Improve the quality of life for our employees and their families.

Below is a Seitlin Wellness Client comment made by the Director of Human Resources of a major law firm during a recent meeting, because it truly inspires us to keep doing what we’re doing and drives us to keep working harder so that every client we service will realize the same benefits.

 

“Despite the fact the firm had experienced two years of increased premiums at renewal, I am happy to announce that not only will our premiums NOT increase this year, but they will actually decrease. The programs brought in by (the Wellness Department of) Seitlin Benefits have impacted the lifestyle choices made by staff and this change has increased not just productivity and moral, but discounted the amount of overall healthcare claims". L.T.

 

For more information, please contact:

Kirstie Settas-Jones

Director of Wellness Services

Tel:  954.903.1629

Email: ksettas@seitlin.com

Health Reform Law Seminar on September 27, 2011

Experts Address What Employers Need to Be Doing Now to Prepare for the Future

Health Reform Law is now over one year old. It’s future is still uncertain, but employers must understand the Law’s requirements and prepare for future changes.

Seitlin invites you to join us for a panel discussion with national health care leaders to address the latest developments under Health Reform Law and discuss strategies for responding to the Law’s many changes. The following experts have been invited as presenters:

Proskauer Rose Peter J. Marathas, Jr. Esq., Compliance and ERISA Attorney

Nathanson + Hauck Melanie Nathanson and Megan Hauck, Lobbyists

Aetna, Inc. Mohit M. Ghose, Vice President of Public Affairs

Humana, Inc. Paul Herrington, Associate General Counsel

National Association of Health Underwriters Janet Trautwein, CEO

 

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Fort Lauderdale

Nova Southeastern University

Carl DeSantis Building

3301 College Avenue

Fort Lauderdale - Davie, FL 33314

Breakfast from 7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.

Seminar from 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

Parking pass will be provided

Miami

The Hilton Miami Airport

5101 Blue Lagoon Dr.

Miami, FL 33126

Lunch from 11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Seminar from 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Parking will be validated

 

This program has been approved for:

 

• 2 Strategic Business recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR re-certification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI)
• 2 Technical Business CPE credits

 

There is no charge to attend this event. If you wish to attend, please RSVP for a session by contacting Theresa Dutko at tdutko@seitlin.com by Tuesday, September 13, 2011.

 

For more information about the event and presenter biographies, click here.

 

We regret that we cannot accept reservations from Insurance Agencies, Benefit Consultants or other benefits vendors due to limited seating.

 

What Can I Do To Protect My High Value Possessions During Hurricane Season?

As we approach the peak of Hurricane season, it is important that we understand how to better protect our assets. Damage to your home and surrounding areas during a storm are inevitable but what can you do to help reduce the exposure of your high value personal property and/or make the claims experience a good one? A little bit of organization and due diligence can go a long way in protecting your personal property and make for a much more efficient claims experience should the need for a claim arise.

To help prevent a loss during hurricane season or make sure a claim on your personal property goes smoothly we suggest the following strategies and best practices to help safeguard your possessions:

• Regular review- You should meet with your agent at least once per year to make sure that your policies are up to date and are ready to respond if and when a storm approaches.
• Update your inventory- Keep a comprehensive list of your possessions and update it regularly in order to receive fair compensation. It is advisable to keep any important documents in a safe deposit box.
• Make sure you have flood coverage- Many people are under the impression that flood insurance is covered by their homeowners or windstorm policy. That is not the case and the only way to get flood coverage is to make sure you have a proper primary and excess flood policy in place.
• Video walkthrough- We suggest that you take a video walkthrough of your home or condo showing all the rooms and what contents are inside of each room.  Include a dated newspaper in the video to verify the date the video was taken. This and any receipts you have will go a long way in making sure the claim goes smoothly and in your favor. 
• Take advantage of carrier provided services- Some luxury carriers offer a complete array of services that are meant to help you protect your most valuable assets. These include services such as, pre and post hurricane assessments, onsite evaluations, as well as fine art retrieval and removal services should damage occur. Some offer vulnerability assessments which will provide useful information regarding the placement, protection, and maintenance of high value art.
• Storage facilities- If you are uncomfortable or unsure about leaving certain high value items in your home during a storm, there are storage facilities that cater to high priced valuables such as cars, jewelry, and fine art. Some of these are category 5 hurricane rated so you can rest assured that your valuables will be protected when the wind blows or the water rises.

When choosing a trusted insurance advisor, make sure they understand your complex needs and the perils that come along with owning high valued possessions. Are you prepared?

For more information, please contact:

 

Chad Rustici

AVP - Seitlin Private Client Services

Tel:  954.267.8574

Email:  crustici@seitlin.com

Technology – Cited as a Critical HR Service Delivery Issue for 2011

Technology is changing the way Human Resources is managed and administered. It can allow you to automate workflows creating faster information exchange and streamline your HRIS, Benefits Administration and Payroll operations.

Technology can significantly reduce administrative costs, paperwork and errors. According to CFO.com, the average cost for an HR staff to manually enroll an employee is $109.48; the average cost for an employee to enroll online is $21.79 - an 80% savings! According to Towers Perrin, online employee enrollment results in a 15% time savings by HR staff. According to Risk and Insurance, manual administration and billing processes can cause a 7% error in premium billing and a savings opportunity of nearly $11 PEPM occurs by eliminating overpayment due to ineligible dependents, wrong tier coverage, and processing errors.

According to the 2011 Towers Watson survey, the top 3 service delivery issues for HR are 1) talent/performance systems, 2) streamlining HR processes and systems, and 3) greater involvement in strategic business-driven issues. The survey found that companies are making greater investments in HR technology. More than one-third of respondents (34%) said they are planning to spend more on HR technology this year.

“We haven’t seen this level of increase in investment in HR technology since before the economic downturn. The fact that technology spending is up this year is a clear indication of the high level of return that companies are seeing when it comes to technology as a means for improving both HR efficiency and effectiveness,” says Tom Keebler, global leader of Towers Watson’s HR Service Delivery and Technology practices. The 14th annual HR Service Delivery Survey polled HR and HRIT executives from 444 organizations.

In the past several years, Seitlin Benefits has positioned itself to become a significant strategic partner working with employers to bring this value added service to their organizations. With over 100 vendors in the technology sector, it can be quite challenging to determine who and what is the right solution for your organization. That’s where Seitlin comes in. Below are the steps we will take to find the best technology solution to fit your needs and structure:

1. Discovery and needs assessment – we want to fully understand your current structure and what you would like to accomplish with a new system. We will perform an in-depth analysis of your processes and systems you are using now. Among other things we will be sure any system you consider has effective integration with your general ledger, benefits administration and HRIS components to assure “seamless one touch entry.”
2. We will then prepare a “RFP – request for proposals” - to review with vendors that potentially could be a match. We have access to the entire marketplace of payroll, HRIS, and benefits administration vendors. With over 100 vendors in the marketplace we can assist in narrowing down the list to only those that are a fit for your firm, your needs and your criteria.
3. We will obtain, compare and analyze the proposals from the vendors based on your criteria.
4. We will schedule demo’s with those vendors and participate alongside you. It is important to see the systems in action and determine what you like and don’t like to help narrow the selection. We can help you compare important differences in the systems according to functionality, security, pricing, and data integration.
5. We will assist you with the vetting and decision making process. We will make sure the system you select accomplishes your objectives and that each vendor can meet the implementation timeline you and we determined in the beginning.
6. We will oversee and manage the implementation. Once the right vendor is selected we will stay engaged to be sure the implementation goes smoothly and you have a technology advocate on your team to hold the vendor accountable.
7. We will become a permanent ongoing part of your service team to be sure the system continues to perform properly after the implementation.

To summarize, why automate? Technology increases accuracy and minimizes data errors with singular online entry, reduces printing costs and legal risks, and eliminates duplication and overpayments with data management controls.

Why wait any longer? Let Seitlin come in to determine your needs and help you find the Technology solution that is best suited for you!

For more information, contact:

Ramona Fiumara

VP & COO - Seitlin Benefits

Tel:  954.903.1622

Email:  rfiumara@seitlin.com

2011 Towers Watson 14th Annual HR Service Delivery Survey

2011 Financial Analysis for Companies in Employee Leasing Relationships

Significant changes in the health insurance and Workers’ Compensation insurance markets over the last several years make review of your Employee Leasing/Professional Employer Organization (PEO) relationships a worthwhile exercise in 2011.

Employee Leasing has been, and for some continues to be, an appropriate solution for employers with particular needs. Seitlin brokers for a number of Professional Employer Organizations so as to provide this solution to our clients when it makes sense. We are often finding, however, that what made financial sense several years ago no longer does.

There are three basic changes in the landscape that have eliminated much of the cost-savings that used to drive employers toward the PEO package:

1. Health Insurance - PEOs no longer have the latitude they had in the past to artificially reduce the health insurance rates they deliver to their clients. Insurance carriers realized they were often seeing the same employee groups shift to PEOs at much lower premiums; not a very profitable outcome for the carriers. Today, most PEO contracts with health insurance carriers severely limit the variance between PEO health rates and the carrier rates for the same group.
2. Workers’ Compensation – rates in Florida have decreased nearly 65% since 2003, primarily due to changes in tort law with respect to Workers’ Compensation claims. The current low rates leave less room for PEOs to provide discounts that translate into meaningful premium reductions.
3. Payroll technology - PEOs were often an administrative solution for companies that did not have strong internal payroll and benefits administration systems. Advances in payroll technology now allow payroll companies to offer robust and varied administrative options at a fraction of the cost of PEO fees.

Seitlin has found significant cost savings for a number of our clients by unbundling the employee benefits, Workers’ Compensation and payroll services previously provided as a package by Professional Employer Organizations. We recently reduced annual cost for a group of approximately 100 employees by $130,000 while improving their benefits offering. Seitlin has the expertise in house to provide your client with unbundled options in all these areas and perform the analysis to determine the financial impact of unbundling. Cost efficiencies usually become meaningful with groups of 50 employees or larger.

We would be happy to help any company involved in employee leasing review their options to determine the most cost effective way to operate as employers moving forward.

For more information, please contact:

Steve Light, MBA, CIC

Vice President

Tel:  954.267.8559

Email:  slight@seitlin.com

Personal Lines - Hurricane Claim Post-Loss Resources

Carrier Claim Phone Numbers

AI Risk/LexElite 877-244-0304
American Bankers 800-358-0600
Burns & Wilcox 800-282-5675 ext. 2201
Chartis 888-760-9195
Chubb 800-252-4670
Citizen’s Wind 866-411-2742
Citizens Property Insurance 866-411-2742
FAIA Member Services/RLI 800-444-0406
Fidelity National Flood 800-725-9472
Fireman’s Fund 888-347-3428
Florida Family 888-486-4663
Florida Peninsula 877-944-8368
Gabor Insurance 786-924-7034
Gulfstream Property & Casualty 866-485-3005
Hartford Insurance Company 800-787-5677
Hull & Company 800-678-4855 ext. 276
John Handel & Associates 800-282-7729
Lexington Insurance 800-931-9546
Navigators 866-408-1922
Progressive Insurance 800-776-4737
Seacoast Underwriters 800-637-3846
Southern Oak 877-900-2280
Swett & Crawford 727-536-1006
Towerhill 800-216-3711
Towerhill Preferred Flood 877-254-6819
Travelers Flood 800-505-0193
Travelers/First Floridian 800-252-4633
Zurich Construction 877-928-4531

Post Loss Clean-Up and Temporary Repairs

Air to Go 305-776-6076
• Rental of generator, portable a/c, light towers, etc.

All American Glass, Inc. 954-968-5229
 Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach
• Full service glass, including 24 hr emergency service and board ups

All-Clean 877-925-3266
• Fire, water, restoration, including mold

Blue Team Restoration 855-522-2583
• Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach
• 24 hours
• Fire, water, restoration, including mold, document and media recovery and art restoration

Documents Reprocessor 800-437-9464
• Documents drying

Puro Clean 866-859-7876
• Fire, water, restoration, including mold

Puro Clean 305-752-4019
• South Miami
• Fire, water, restoration and clean up

Riteway Insurance Repair Service 800-834-0558
• Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach
• 24 hours
• Fire, water, restoration, including emergency board up

Service Master 800-737-7663
• Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach
• 24 hour, will be directed to nearest service center
• Fire, water, restoration, including emergency board up

Servpro 786-293-7545
• Fire, water, restoration, including mold

Super Restoration 800-516-8059
• Fire, water, restoration and clean up