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Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
How your company is watching your waistline
How your company is watching your waistline
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Reuters ![Reuters]({"default":"http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/99/6a6e1e9d2013e8fe84e6814a7d491/_h17_w0_m6_otrue_lfalse.gif"})
By Kathleen Kingsbury of Reuters
Companies are taking advantage of new rules under President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul in 2014 to punish smokers and overweight workers.
Employers tried the carrot, then a small stick. Now they are turning to bigger cudgels.
For years they encouraged workers to improve their health and productivity with free screenings, discounted gym memberships and gift cards to lose weight. More recently, a small number charged smokers slightly higher premiums to get them to quit.
Results for these plans were lackluster, and healthcare costs continued to soar. So companies are taking advantage of new rules under President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul in 2014 to punish smokers and overweight workers.
Some will even force employees to meet weight goals, quit smoking and provide very personal information or pay up to thousands more annually for healthcare. That could disproportionately affect the poor, who are more likely to smoke and can't afford the higher fees.
Nearly 40 percent of large U.S. companies will use surcharges in 2014, such as higher insurance premiums or deductibles for individuals who do not complete company-set health goals, according to a survey of 892 employers released in September by human resources consultancy Towers Watson and National Business Group on Health, which represents large employers.
Related: Americans blaming Obama for losing prior health coverage
That is almost twice as many as the last time they did the survey in 2011, when only 19 percent of companies had such penalties. The number is expected to climb to two-thirds of employers by 2015.
Employers are getting much more aggressive about punishing workers who are overweight or have high cholesterol. A study released on Wednesday by the Obesity Action Coalition, an advocacy group, covered workers at more than 5,000 companies who must participate in their employer wellness programs to receive full health benefits. Sixty-seven percent also had to meet a weight-related health goal such as a certain body mass index.
Almost 60 percent of these workers received no coverage that paid for fitness training, dietitian counseling, obesity drugs or bariatric surgery to help achieve a body mass index under 25, which is considered healthy.
"Weight requirements are an effective way to make it harder for people with obesity to qualify for full health coverage," said Ted Kyle, the study's lead author and founder of Conscienhealth, a Pittsburgh-based company that advises other companies on obesity programs.
"Some programs can verge on discrimination," he said.
PENALTIES HIT SMOKERS HARDEST
Next year many more companies plan to penalize workers who use nicotine because of their much higher healthcare costs. Proctor & Gamble Co, the Cincinnati-based household-product giant, will begin charging such employees an additional $25 per month in 2014 until they have completed a company-paid cessation program.
Related: Obama's health law finally gets real for America
Under similar provisions, state employees in Wisconsin and Washington State will pay as much as $600 more per year, while nonunion smokers at United Parcel Service Inc will pay as much as $1,800.
"We found that while less than 10 percent of workers at large employers smoke, their impact to healthcare costs is disproportionately huge," said LuAnn Heinen, vice president for the National Business Group on Health. "Helping them quit — however you do that — has the most obvious near-term payoff in terms of savings and productivity gains."
A recent Ohio State University study found that businesses pay nearly $6,000 more annually per employee who smokes compared with a nonsmoker. Other research suggests that less than 16 percent of employees participate in voluntary smoking cessation programs, Heinen added.
A.H. Belo, owner of the Dallas Morning News, Providence Journal and other publications, told staff in September that for 2014 it would require employees and their spouses to complete a biometric health screening or face a $100 annual surcharge. In 2015, employees will be asked not only to undergo the screening but to meet three out of five as yet unspecified health goals to avoid the additional fee.
COSTLY PUNISHMENTS
Under Obama's Affordable Care Act, which takes effect in January, companies can offer a reward of up to 30 percent of healthcare costs paid by the employee to those who complete voluntary programs like smoking cessation, a risk assessment or biometric tests like waist measurement.
The financial incentives could add up to about $1,620 annually per worker. But if wellness programs don't end up saving costs, companies can raise premiums across the board or slap them on workers who don't get with the programs. In some states, tobacco users who sign up for insurance through the new state health exchanges could be charged 50 percent higher premiums than nonsmokers.
Research suggests savings may be harder to achieve when programs are voluntary than has often been thought. A report released in May by the RAND Corp found workers who participated in a wellness program had healthcare costs averaging $2.38 less per month than nonparticipants in the first year of the program and $3.46 less in the fifth year.
Some health and labor experts are concerned that penalties may be unduly harsh, especially for low-wage workers and those who have health conditions beyond their control. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 percent of adults with incomes below the federal poverty level smoke, compared with 18 percent of those above the poverty level.
Mark Rothstein, a lawyer and bioethics professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, chooses to pay a higher annual premium rather than complete a health questionnaire for his employer, calling it a "privacy tax." Lower-paid colleagues, he said, "don't have the same luxury to opt out."
Related: Health care reform: What it means for you
Fierce resistance forced Pennsylvania State University in September to abandon a plan to charge employees $100 per month if they did not participate in various health screenings and fill out a detailed health questionnaire administered by WebMD, which asked among other things whether a worker had recently driven after drinking too much, whether female employees planned to become pregnant in the next year and how frequently male workers performed testicular self-exams. This led to an outcry over privacy concerns and the potential for hacking of computer databases.
"These were just things no employer has the right to ask," says Brian Curran, a professor of art history at Penn State who started an online petition to protest the questionnaire.
University officials had argued the penalty was needed to tamp down healthcare costs and avoid tuition hikes. In January it still plans to implement a $100-a-month surcharge for spouses and a $75-a-month penalty on tobacco users.
Courts so far have shown little resistance to such programs. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prohibits workers who are in a group health insurance plan from being discriminated against on the basis of health, and Obamacare extends that right to individuals. But neither bans penalties outright.
The law does specify that wellness programs must be voluntary, but Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a legal advocacy organization, says that can be a slippery slope. Most employees don't feel like they have a choice, Maltby says. "In today's job market, any reasonable request by one's employer is essentially read as a demand."
___
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For years they encouraged workers to improve their health and productivity with free screenings, discounted gym memberships and gift cards to lose weight. More recently, a small number charged smokers slightly higher premiums to get them to quit.
Results for these plans were lackluster, and healthcare costs continued to soar. So companies are taking advantage of new rules under President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul in 2014 to punish smokers and overweight workers.
Some will even force employees to meet weight goals, quit smoking and provide very personal information or pay up to thousands more annually for healthcare. That could disproportionately affect the poor, who are more likely to smoke and can't afford the higher fees.
Nearly 40 percent of large U.S. companies will use surcharges in 2014, such as higher insurance premiums or deductibles for individuals who do not complete company-set health goals, according to a survey of 892 employers released in September by human resources consultancy Towers Watson and National Business Group on Health, which represents large employers.
Related: Americans blaming Obama for losing prior health coverage
That is almost twice as many as the last time they did the survey in 2011, when only 19 percent of companies had such penalties. The number is expected to climb to two-thirds of employers by 2015.
Employers are getting much more aggressive about punishing workers who are overweight or have high cholesterol. A study released on Wednesday by the Obesity Action Coalition, an advocacy group, covered workers at more than 5,000 companies who must participate in their employer wellness programs to receive full health benefits. Sixty-seven percent also had to meet a weight-related health goal such as a certain body mass index.
Almost 60 percent of these workers received no coverage that paid for fitness training, dietitian counseling, obesity drugs or bariatric surgery to help achieve a body mass index under 25, which is considered healthy.
"Weight requirements are an effective way to make it harder for people with obesity to qualify for full health coverage," said Ted Kyle, the study's lead author and founder of Conscienhealth, a Pittsburgh-based company that advises other companies on obesity programs.
"Some programs can verge on discrimination," he said.
PENALTIES HIT SMOKERS HARDEST
Next year many more companies plan to penalize workers who use nicotine because of their much higher healthcare costs. Proctor & Gamble Co, the Cincinnati-based household-product giant, will begin charging such employees an additional $25 per month in 2014 until they have completed a company-paid cessation program.
Related: Obama's health law finally gets real for America
Under similar provisions, state employees in Wisconsin and Washington State will pay as much as $600 more per year, while nonunion smokers at United Parcel Service Inc will pay as much as $1,800.
"We found that while less than 10 percent of workers at large employers smoke, their impact to healthcare costs is disproportionately huge," said LuAnn Heinen, vice president for the National Business Group on Health. "Helping them quit — however you do that — has the most obvious near-term payoff in terms of savings and productivity gains."
A recent Ohio State University study found that businesses pay nearly $6,000 more annually per employee who smokes compared with a nonsmoker. Other research suggests that less than 16 percent of employees participate in voluntary smoking cessation programs, Heinen added.
A.H. Belo, owner of the Dallas Morning News, Providence Journal and other publications, told staff in September that for 2014 it would require employees and their spouses to complete a biometric health screening or face a $100 annual surcharge. In 2015, employees will be asked not only to undergo the screening but to meet three out of five as yet unspecified health goals to avoid the additional fee.
COSTLY PUNISHMENTS
Under Obama's Affordable Care Act, which takes effect in January, companies can offer a reward of up to 30 percent of healthcare costs paid by the employee to those who complete voluntary programs like smoking cessation, a risk assessment or biometric tests like waist measurement.
The financial incentives could add up to about $1,620 annually per worker. But if wellness programs don't end up saving costs, companies can raise premiums across the board or slap them on workers who don't get with the programs. In some states, tobacco users who sign up for insurance through the new state health exchanges could be charged 50 percent higher premiums than nonsmokers.
Research suggests savings may be harder to achieve when programs are voluntary than has often been thought. A report released in May by the RAND Corp found workers who participated in a wellness program had healthcare costs averaging $2.38 less per month than nonparticipants in the first year of the program and $3.46 less in the fifth year.
Some health and labor experts are concerned that penalties may be unduly harsh, especially for low-wage workers and those who have health conditions beyond their control. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 percent of adults with incomes below the federal poverty level smoke, compared with 18 percent of those above the poverty level.
Mark Rothstein, a lawyer and bioethics professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, chooses to pay a higher annual premium rather than complete a health questionnaire for his employer, calling it a "privacy tax." Lower-paid colleagues, he said, "don't have the same luxury to opt out."
Related: Health care reform: What it means for you
Fierce resistance forced Pennsylvania State University in September to abandon a plan to charge employees $100 per month if they did not participate in various health screenings and fill out a detailed health questionnaire administered by WebMD, which asked among other things whether a worker had recently driven after drinking too much, whether female employees planned to become pregnant in the next year and how frequently male workers performed testicular self-exams. This led to an outcry over privacy concerns and the potential for hacking of computer databases.
"These were just things no employer has the right to ask," says Brian Curran, a professor of art history at Penn State who started an online petition to protest the questionnaire.
University officials had argued the penalty was needed to tamp down healthcare costs and avoid tuition hikes. In January it still plans to implement a $100-a-month surcharge for spouses and a $75-a-month penalty on tobacco users.
Courts so far have shown little resistance to such programs. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prohibits workers who are in a group health insurance plan from being discriminated against on the basis of health, and Obamacare extends that right to individuals. But neither bans penalties outright.
The law does specify that wellness programs must be voluntary, but Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a legal advocacy organization, says that can be a slippery slope. Most employees don't feel like they have a choice, Maltby says. "In today's job market, any reasonable request by one's employer is essentially read as a demand."
___
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Share your point of view with us on Facebook
Get the latest news and updates on Twitter
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Thursday, November 7, 2013
How to sell a million books with CJ Lyons
http://www.youtube.com/v/XK4QUHFFAoQ?autohide=1&version=3&feature=share&attribution_tag=lXCzBbIBHdsbg_CckfzyIg&showinfo=1&autohide=1&autoplay=1
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
How to market and promote your book - How to market my book
http://www.youtube.com/v/p8etkSSIquE?version=3&autohide=1&showinfo=1&autohide=1&feature=share&autoplay=1&attribution_tag=aeEUm5KaMDsaMF6SQGaVxg
Monday, October 21, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
How to Write Novels with Writing Software
The Best Article Writing Software
By Grace F. M.
Writing is just getting pen and paper and then jotting down your thoughts. No, not really. In a perfect world, maybe that would be acceptable. But the thing is there's a lot more to writing. Many people would probably like to come up with the best journal entries, articles, books, etc. In fact, even as students, each of us have the burden of writing the best essay, book report, term paper, research paper, etc. In earlier years, in addition to enrolling in writing classes, you have to go to the library to do research if you want to come up with a written masterpiece.
Today, thanks to computers and the internet, anybody can go online and avail of a wide array of tools to help improve their writing skills. Following are just some computer software available that can help all writers in polishing their skill:
These are just some of the available software that writers can avail to help improve their writing skills. Just do the research, study everything, find what works for you. Just like anything that you want to accomplish, as long as you focus and work on it, nothing will stop you from being a good writer.
Today, thanks to computers and the internet, anybody can go online and avail of a wide array of tools to help improve their writing skills. Following are just some computer software available that can help all writers in polishing their skill:
- Google Docs: Most of the time, writers need to share documents with other people. They need to do this because they need feedback or they want these people to edit the documents and/or add to them. With Google Docs you can add tables, images, comments, formulas, etc. It accepts most popular file formats including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc. The best thing about this software is that it's free.
- Writeboard: Just like Google Docs, Whiteboards are web-based text documents that you can share online. You can edit and compare changes easily. This software is also free.
- Microsoft Word: Microsoft Office Standard 2007 has the core Microsoft Office applications but it has been updated, enabling it to produce faster and better results. It is comprised of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. You can create documents, spreadsheets and presentations of excellent quality. It also enables you to manage your email, calendar and contacts with ease. Microsoft Office 2007 Standard version can be bought for $324.99 while the student version costs $109.99.
- Word Viewer: This is also free software from Microsoft. It allows the user to "view, print and copy word documents, even if you don't have Word installed."
- Open Office: This software can be used as an alternative to Microsoft Office. It is also a whole office suite so it is can replace other programs like Excel and PowerPoint. It "is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more." Open Office is available in several languages and it works on common computers. It can also be downloaded from the internet, free of charge.
- AbiWord: Abiword is a famous open source word processor that is perfect for the writer who is looking for a light and compact software. This free software has all the basic features of any word processor and it supports that different languages and operating systems.
- Wordpad: Some people find the sounds coming from a full word processor too distracting. Wordpad is easier to use compared to Word. It also allows formatting. This software comes free with your computer if you are running Windows.
- WriteRoom: This software was developed for Mac and iPhone users who want to write without distractions. WriteRoom is a full screen writing environment. Some people feel that word processors are just too cluttered. WriteRoom lets you focus only on your writing. This program has a retro feel because of the green text on black background. This software can be downloaded from the internet for $25.
- Dark Room: This is basically the Windows version of the WriteRoom. Just like the WriteRoom it has green text over black background. However, with WriteRoom you can change the background. But the good thing about Dark Room is that you can get it for free.
- JaLingo: If English is not your native language or if you are not that good with its correct usage, this software can help you with your grammar and writing style. Spelling and grammar checks in word processors do not really help the user. This program will give you a dictionary on your desktop where you can confirm spelling of words and you can check the definitions of the words. This software is OS independent, making it work smoothly on most computers. Best of all, it's free.
- WhiteSmoke: "WhiteSmoke performs advanced and context-based English grammar, spelling, and punctuation checking, as well as text enrichment to enhance your writing." This software is good for the more advanced writing such as business and executive writing. The "General" version costs $79.99; the "Business" version is $99.99 and the Executive writing version costs $250.
- StyleWriter: This software comes with a "Software for writers" CD and retails at $160. It was developed by editors, journalists and business writing tutors. By simply clicking the StyleWriter button in the Microsoft Word toolbar or the WordPerfect toolbar or any other clipboard text, you will launch a check for several faults and bad habits that are usually found in writing. This program will give you the skills of a good editor.
- Kaz-Type: It's not all about the writing style, typing speed, believe it or not is a big factor in bringing you success as a writer. Kaz-Type will help you learn to type and master your keyboard fast. You won't have to go through repetitive typing drills and games because this is an interactive multimedia tutor software. Kaz-Type has been tested and proven with more than 1 million users. You can download the software for $19.95 or you can buy the CD for $34.95.
- Miracle Type: This software costs $19.99. It is said that "Miracle Type will teach you to Touch Type faster than any other typing software. It uses a unique learning method to dramatically reduce your learning time to just ONE HOUR!" This software is good for users who have given up on being able to type fast.
- Q10: Q10 is a free alternative for WriteRoom and Dark Room. It gives you a full screen word processor without the distractions that regular word processors have. You focus only on your writing. Compared to WriteRoom and Dark Room however, it has added features like paragraph styling and live statistics about your articles.
- Scripped: Scripped is a free online service that you can use to work on your scripts from different locations and from different computers. It allows you to write, edit and print your scripts right there on their website.
These are just some of the available software that writers can avail to help improve their writing skills. Just do the research, study everything, find what works for you. Just like anything that you want to accomplish, as long as you focus and work on it, nothing will stop you from being a good writer.
Grace is a professional article writer. She writes on different topics for a company that does Tulsa web design and Tulsa SEO.
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