News Articles -

Employers are offering more cancer benefits. Here’s an important key to making sure employees use them

August 21, 2018

As they make more cancer benefits available to their employees than ever, large employers need to consider offering more help to workers who have been diagnosed with cancer to navigate the maze of options. On Tuesday, the Northeast Business Group on Health released a guide to help employers do just that. "Many employers have a variety of vendors and other people internally who can provide health to someone with a cancer diagnosis," said Candice Sherman, the CEO of NEBGH. With a "constellation" of different offerings from those vendors, newly diagnosed patients can find themselves fielding calls from different companies including their health plan, a second opinion service, a disability manager, navigation services and wellness coaches. "And a newly diagnosed cancer patient likely isn't in the best of all minds to sit down and figure out all the options that are available to them," Sherman said. One of the most important ways companies can handle this? Introduce their vendors to each other. This is crucial "so they know what the other does and can more seamlessly work together," Sherman said.

Rising to the Challenge: What Employers Can Do to Support Caregiver Employees

August 16, 2018

With growing numbers of working people providing informal care for sick or elderly relatives and friends, employers face new challenges—but also new opportunities— to support caregiver employees and, in the process, ensure a productive and stable workforce. This article addresses the difficulties employees can face when work and caregiving intersect and how employers can offer support regardless of company size or resources. Companies that wish to attract the best and brightest talent, as well as retain high-quality staff, need to offer competitive benefits. Across the corporate landscape, these have already started to include caregiving benefits.

Employer Groups Pushing for Improving Maternal Health

July 31, 2018

As the employers in Florida are doing, the Northeast Business Group on Health, which represents employers in New York and surrounding states, introduced an effort in June to educate expectant mothers and fathers in New York City and Long Island about the risks that C-sections, induced births, and episiotomies pose to mothers and babies. A new website, ExpectNY, helps expectant mothers and fathers compare hospitals based on the rates of these procedures and other factors. “Employers are fairly unanimous that maternity is one of the areas in which high-quality procedures and outcomes are most pressing,” said Marco Diaz, a senior vice president at News Corp. and vice chair of NEBGH’s Board of Directors.

NEBGH CEO Candice Sherman agrees, saying employers need to hold health plans and the delivery system accountable for higher quality, lower-cost maternity care. Employers may feel as if they’re swimming against the current if hospitals, physicians, and health insurers are reluctant to address this pressing issue. But they’re not alone. In June, the National Partnership for Women & Families called for the health system to implement what it called six well-tested, evidence-informed strategies to address the country’s abysmal record on maternal and infant care and health outcomes.

Flexible schedules are top priority for employees with caregiving responsibilities

June 6, 2018

With more generations in the workforce, employers are seeing an uptick in employee caregiving responsibilities, and that shift is only expected to grow as the population ages. A Northeast Business Group on Health and AARP study study shows that 30% of Americans care for a family member and devote 20 hours a week to caregiving.

And caregiving is not only emotionally costly, as Unum found; it can have a significant impact on caregiver's finances as well. Caregivers spend $190 billion a year on caring for loved ones, a 2017 Merrill Lynch study revealed, making it all the more stressful when employees have to miss work.

Employers, however, are responding with some of the benefits named in the Unum survey. Many say that paid time off remains too costly, but have instead provided some flexibility around work times and location. Employers also may want to ensure that workers know that if they choose to exercise unpaid leave rights, they won't face discrimination or retaliation for doing so.

How to talk to your boss about caregiving

April 25, 2018

Taking care of aging parents or an ailing child, spouse or sibling can be a full-time job. Caring for those loved ones — while also working, raising kids, shopping, cooking, cleaning and handling everything else in life — can wipe you out.

If that’s the case (1 in 6 U.S. employees is a caregiver), you may want to talk to your boss about ways the company can help you do both. That will allow you to continue as a productive, valuable employee.

Where do I start? Ask your boss or human relations department if your company has any policies or programs to support caregivers. Some offer flexible scheduling or can help with leave or direct you toward community services that help caregivers. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and Northeast Business Group on Health offers a downloadable toolkit you can use to discuss this issue with your employer

Can Amazon-JPM-Berkshire venture help lower health costs?

January 31, 2018

"I do think we need to go beyond technology in order to disrupt some of the perverse incentives embedded in the status quo, and that's going to require purchasers—on a bigger scale—to push real delivery-system reform," said Candice Sherman, interim chief executive of the Northeast Business Group on Health, of which JPMorgan Chase is a member.

Hawaii law provides a $70 daily stipend for eldercare

December 21, 2017

As people live longer, more workers will become part of the “sandwich generation.” Women, in particular, are often tasked with trying to hold down a job while raising children and caring for a parent, or parents, at the same time. Naturally, that expectation leads to decreased opportunities for women and caregivers in the workforce — one of many drivers of the diversity dilemma.

While the "kupuna" law is a state-provided benefit, employers can recognize caregivers’ struggles, and many are offering benefits to ease the strain. A third of the U.S. population reportedly cares for a family member, devoting about 20 hours a week to the task. A survey by Northeast Business Group on Health and AARP shows that caregiving is among the top 10 priorities for employee health and wellness benefits.

Caregiving benefits can be a competitive recruitment and retention tool to attract “sandwich generation” job seekers. Such benefits can include flexible work arrangements, onsite or subsidized child care and eldercare consultants. Providing paid time off could be another powerful benefit that serves as both retention tool and values signal.

From dread to optimism: Employers’ mixed reaction to mandatory paid leave

December 11, 2017

"Employers want to make sure they have a healthy and productive workforce and retain and attract employees," said Candice Sherman, CEO of the Northeast Business Group on Health, an employer-based coalition. "So an attractive benefits package is obviously a plus."

How employers can better support the caregivers in their workforces

November 5, 2017

As more employees self-identify as caregivers for family members and friends, employers are starting to address the needs of workers who struggle to balance work while caring for others. The numbers are staggering. One in six U.S. employees identify as a caregiver for a family member or friend, according to research by Family Caregiver Alliance. An AARP study found that U.S. businesses lose more than $25 billion annually in lost productivity due to absenteeism among full-time working caregivers, and that figure grows an additional $3 billion when part-time workers with caregiving duties are accounted for.

Companies need to care for their caregivers

November 1, 2017

To help employers get a jump start on creating caregiver-friendly workplaces, AARP and the Northeast Business Group on Health have produced a free online tool kit, chock-full of ideas and examples, expert resources and an assessment tool to gauge how well they're doing in providing assistance. Employers can find the tool at workandcaregiving.org.