Yay or Nay: Is the employer-sponsored system worth saving?

Although President Obama has called the employer-based health care system "an accident of history that works," a recent New York Times opinion piece by Princeton economics professor Uwe Reinhardt says the system makes employers "pickpockets, so to speak, who take a chunk of the employee’s total compensation and buy with it whatever fringe benefits they 'give' their employees."



While I'm sure you don't wholly agree or disagree with either the president or Reinhardt, what are your thoughts? Should the employer-based system stand, or do you think it needs dismantling?

Yay or Nay: Is swearing at work okay?

Two surveys find differing opinions on whether it's okay to swear at the workplace, and I want to get your thoughts, pros.

According to a poll by SurePayroll, 80% of respondents believe that even seemingly innocent swearing on the job can be interpreted the wrong way and have negative consequences, even though 40% admit to swearing themselves at least occasionally and 11% actually think swearing can boost employee morale.

Another study from researchers at the University of East Anglia (in Norwich, England) finds that embracing your inner Blago can "reflect solidarity and enhance group cohesiveness, or as a psychological phenomenon to release stress," according to study director Yehuda Baruch.

The study also discovers younger workers are more tolerant of profanity, and that women swear more than you might expect of the fairer sex and execs are less profane than the rank-and-file.

So, is swearing at work okay -- yay or nay?

Yay or Nay: Can Congress produce a health care reform bill by summer?

Will the umpteeth time be the charm on efforts to reform the nation's health care system? Congress gets down to work this week tackling the difficult task of drafting universal coverage legislation by this summer.

To be blunt, the odds are stacked against them. Historically, efforts to get lawmakers to meet in the middle on health care have failed disastrously (just ask Secretary Clinton). Further, Republicans and Democrats currently are pretty far apart in their views on how and whether to provide health insurance to everyone.

But they are soldiering forth, even as Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) told the Associated Press, "This is the toughest issue we have ever taken on — every part has got a chance of blowing up."

It seems all options are on the table -- individual or employer mandates and taxing benefits among some of the proposals -- and as the debate heats up along with the weather this summer, EBN will bring you the latest updates. (Click here to troll our recent coverage.)

But can they do it? Is this year the year for health care reform? Yay or nay? Comment and let me know.

Yay or Nay: Is the Wal-Mart, Caterpillar Rx benefit model better for employers?

Wal-Mart is expanding a pilot program that eliminates copays on generic drugs purchased at its stores to more employers.

The program already operates at the construction company Caterpillar, where employees who purchase generic prescription drugs at a Wal-Mart or Sam's Club pharmacy are waived the $5 copayment. Some see the program as a way to help employers reduce health care costs tied to prescription drugs by trimming the work they have to do pharmacy benefit managers.

“The easiest thing to do is look at the number the PBMs spit out,” said Todd Bisping, pharmacy benefits and informatics manager at Caterpillar, the Chicago Tribune reports. “As more and more companies realize we just can't blindly assume what's going on is best for us, they're going to start digging into it and find the same thing.”

Have you done the digging that Bisping mentioned? If so, what did you find? Will the Wal-Mart-Caterpillar model be a better one for employers and employees on a wider scale? Yay or nay?

Yay or Nay: Is Twitter a valuable, viable benefits communications tool?

It's no secret, the world's gone a-Twitter. Whether being used to communicate with friends, colleagues or like-minded strangers, the social networking site Twitter experienced 1,382% growth between February 2008 and February 2009.

With more than 7 million registered users, no doubt you and/or many of your employees are among the twitterati. As employers continue to struggle to engage employees in benefits communication, it's hard to ignore the potential for reaching that many people at once. Stay tuned for an EBN report on one company's success in communicating via tweet.

So, does your company use Twitter (or a Twitter-esque medium) to communicate with employees? Would you consider doing so? Is Twitter just a fad -- as one of my colleagues called it, "the mortgage-backed securities of communication" -- or is it a valuable, viable communications tool with staying power? Yay or nay?

Yay or Nay: Does AIG anger affect executive benefits?

As news has spread that AIG -- beneficiaries of more than $170 billion of our money in government bailout funds -- is paying out $175 million in executive bonuses this week, the response has been unfavorable, to put it mildly.

Outrage over the bonuses have led to group protests outside the company's headquarters, possible legislation in Congress to try to recoup the money and even one Senator who bombastically suggested the executives receiving the bonuses should resign or kill themselves.

As EBN has an upcoming feature on executive benefits, I wondered if the AIG outrage does/should affect the way employers structure executive compensation and benefits or the way they communicate exec pay and perks to employees? What do you think? Yay or nay?

Yay or Nay: EFCA: A good bill? Will it pass?

A week ago today, some employers cringed as Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) introduced the Employee Free Choice Act in the House and Senate (known in less-approving circles as "card check").

If approved, the most controversial aspect of the bill amends the National Labor Relations Act to allow for non-secret union elections, letting employees vote yes or no by checking a card. Further, the measure lets employers and unions send contract bargaining to mediation and binding arbitration, and increases penalties against employers that fire or discriminate against workers for union activity.

Supporters say the bill will strengthen unions -- and by extension, benefits and wages -- and lessen employers' ability to strongarm workers against unionizing. Detractors say the bill would make unions more aggressive and employers more likely to send jobs overseas.

What do you say? Is EFCA a good bill? And either way, will it ultimately be approved? Yay or nay?

Yay or Nay?: Delta Dental is No. 1

So take this with a grain of salt here everyone, because the survey data came from Delta Dental themselves, but a press release hit my inbox recently declaring the dental benefits provider is No. 1 among consumers, dentists, brokers and benefits decisionmakers.

According to the survey, Delta Dental outperforms the competition on all attributes of importance to benefits decisionmakers who consider the brand three times more frequently than its competitors. Delta Dental holds a significant advantage with benefits decision makers in terms of brand awareness, reputation, retention, and market share. Among benefits decision makers, Delta Dental possesses more brand advocates than any other competitor.

Benefits decision makers with Delta Dental benefits identify the following attributes as most important: 1) customer service; 2) best value; 3) a company you trust; 4) fast claims processing; 5) easy to administer; 6) many dentists; 7) easy to use; 8) quality care; 9) friendly 1-800; and 10) rate stability.

So what do you think? Do you work with Delta Dental, and if so, is it in fact No. 1? Yay or nay?

Yay or Nay: Does coordination of care work?

An interesting and somewhat shocking Wall Street Journal report cites research from the Journal of the American Medical Association that finds coordination of care is ineffective at containing health care costs.

The model generally involves nurses or other medical professionals serving as the linchpin between physicians, other service providers and patients -- with the belief that keeping everyone on the same page regarding patient care and education would result in lower costs from reducing duplicative efforts and reduced hospitalizations due to conflicting treatment regimens.

JAMA's study shows that in 15 random trials of care-coordination programs, only two -- yes, two -- showed significant differences in hospitalizations between those whose care was coordinated and a control group. Even worse, one of the two actually posted more hospitalizations. The dagger: none of the programs posted any savings.

Having devoted no small amount of ink in EBN to the effectiveness of the care coordination model, I was truly surprised to read this data. What about you? What is your view of care coordination? Is it effective -- yay or nay?

Yay or Nay: Does Daschle withdrawal hurt the chances for health care reform?

Wow, what a difference a news cycle makes. In yesterday's EBN inBrief e-newsletter, we featured an item about how optimistic Congressional Democrats were about health care reform.

Barely hours later, former Sen. Tom Daschle withdrew his name from consideration to lead the Health and Human Services Department, the lastest among a string of Obama cabinet nominees to be outed with "tax issues."

After the shock of the announcement had rippled from the White House and beyond, out came the handicappers to assess the damage to President Obama's health care agenda.

You all are the best pundits I know on all things benefits-related, so what say you? Does Daschle's withdrawal hurt the chances for health care reform? Yay or Nay?