Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts

Employee Mobility and Keeping One's Doctor

by Matthew Stollak on Tuesday, January 14, 2014


One of the more recent complaints about the Affordable Care Act is that the narrow networks created may mean that some may no longer be able to "keep one's doctor."

 For some, the one-on-one relationship with their doctor is inviolate.  They get to know your health history.  You expose every inch of yourself to his or her eyes.  We lean on doctor-patient confidentiality to share our most intimate feelings and concerns.

 However, we are a nation on the move.  The average 50 year old will move at least 10 times in their lifetime.  Younger individuals, often not tied down by a mortgage or a family, are most likely to change locations with 65.5 percent having moved over the past five years. 

I have lived in 6 different cities for a period of more than 18 months, which has meant 6 different sets of general practitioners, eye doctors, dentists, etc., not to mention whatever unique maladies that might have needed to be addressed.   

But, doctors are also on the move.  I have now lived in Green Bay for just under 12 years.  Yet, in that time, my primary physician, my dentist, and my asthma specialist have either retired or moved away.  Insurance providers with my employer have also changed to try to keep costs down (prior to the Affordable Care Act) which prompted me to look around at potential health providers as well.

 So, how important is keeping one's doctor anyway?  

Just don't talk to me about who cuts my hair....that is a greater challenge.

World in Motion

by Matthew Stollak on Tuesday, June 14, 2011

I serve on the Benefits Advisory Committee for our school.  We meet weekly to discuss many of the aspects of our benefits plan, and I would say that 80-85% of our time is spent on health care and its related issues: switching providers, amending the dental plan, looking for cost savings.   Our benefit administrator spends significant amounts of time dealing as well with employee interaction with that plan.

So, it was interesting to read the news that the flawed McKinsey study that argues 30% of employers wil drop health insurance by 2014 ( for some discussion of the problems with the McKinsey study, click here and here).  It got me to thinking, why are employers in the health care business?  Given how much time, energy, and resources our HR Department spends, is the competitive advantage of providing it to attract applicants worth the effort?

Further, why are employers opposed to a single payer or Medicare-for-all system? Wouldn't HR be freed up to handle more employee performance and strategic issues instead of spending all the time dealing with insurance companies?  Wouldn't employees be more productive instead of fretting over filling out yet another flexible spending account reimbursement form?

I understand the cost implications of it, but what would be the disadvantage(s) purely from the standpoint of operating your business?

Thoughts?