Men who hold high places must be the ones to start

2008 will mark the 18th year anniversary of the passage of The Americans With Disabilities Act yet yesterdays ABC News Broadcast with Charlie Gibson shows how newsworthy it is for a corporation to actually comply with the spirit and intent of the law. Walgreens has a distribution center in Anderson, SC staffed with a workforce which is 40% disabled.

The quiet revolution happening in Anderson is the brainchild of Walgreens executive Randy Lewis, who has a 19-year-old son with autism.

"As a parent, I saw the future and so the question is, given our position, what do we do about it? Maybe we could be an example, maybe we could use our position of leadership to try to change the work environment."

NBC News Brian Williams covered the story as well last July.

Evidently, what was news last July is still news today. Randy Lewis deserves credit for focusing attention on functionality, choosing to see what people can do versus what they cannot. A stable workforce that is 20% more productive than other distribution centers

As our workforce ages and the baby boomers gray it will become important for many companies to consider functionality and ability both in hiring as well as stay at work and return to work programs for existing employees.

Lewis says the distribution center in Anderson is no less productive than others. In fact, Anderson is more productive. The training and technologies that help disabled workers do their jobs better help all employees do their jobs better, he said.

"People come to me and say, will this work in my environment? Yes, it will. This is not just a good thing to do, the right thing to do. This is better," Lewis said.

Mr Lewis is correct and on point IMHO both in hiring as well as stay at work and return to work programs for existing employees. Too often companies take an all or nothing view of work in regard to the disabled which prevents them from equally obtaining talent as well as retaining it. In their disability programs such assumptions manifest in higher than average disability costs to the company as well. This phenomenom has been apparent to me on multiple occasions while analyzing diability loss experience in Fortune 1000 business'.

One of the most profitable studies an executive could commission at their company would be to consider the ROI possible from re-examining the impact of attitudes in hiring and retaining the disabled. This is not just a good thing to do, the right thing to do. This is better. Indeed. As we approach Valentines day this week Mr Lewis reminds us having a heart is better than the right thing to do.

Fundamentals for Sales Professionals

I just received a proposal for a well qualified prospect from a major big 4 health insurer. The prospect is buying and I have a several questions for my group rep. While I have a name and an email address for my group rep all my emails from her lack a phone number.

It is truly amazing to me that any sales person can send out an email and exclude a signature line missing their direct phone line, cell phone or fax on their corporate email as well as PDA. Yet it happens.

So young group reps if you want a call back here are several tips. If you are not going to actually call on me in person and provide a business card at a bare minimum you should know what I am thinking.

1. Make sure your PDA and email contains a signature with your phone number and cell phone.
2. Its nice to have your fax # and address as well so we will know where to send those apps and checks.
3. Make it easy on me to click on your phone number and reach you directly in the office or on your cell without reaching your voicemail or pbx without entering an extension. I am after all out selling your product and if I die in a car wreck who will sell your product?

How many sales are missed because the broker did not know how to reach you for lack of a phone number?

Financial Impact Of Premature Death

Many Americans have a difficult time determining how much life insurance is necessary for their family to be adequately covered.

MetLife completed a survey of surviving spouses several years ago which provides insight into what amounts of life insurance were adequate.

It was found that the premature death of a spouse caused a “major” or “devastating” financial impact according to most surviving families, and that this was attributable to a lack of adequate life insurance coverage:

• More than half of the surviving spouses who received life insurance proceeds described the amount of coverage as “inadequate.”
  

• On average, it took surviving families four to five years to recover financially from the premature death.
  

• The vast majority of surviving families had to make significant adjustments to cope with the financial impact of the death.
  

An ounce of prevention

I was visiting a client yesterday when several employees stopped to visit with me in the lobby. One employee in his early 50's said hello and shared he had just scheduled his annual physical. He told me of one cousin who had recently been diagnosed with early stages of cancer caught during a physical. Another cousin was admitted directly to the ER following a routine physical where after checking his highly elevated blood pressure the nurse called an ambulance. The nurse was amazed the man had been able to walk into the appointment his blood pressure was so high.

Whenever I conduct enrollment meetings I try to emphasize the importance of annual wellness physicals. I suppose my appearance in the lobby yesterday was a reminder to this employee to schedule his own physical. I wonder how many adults in the US could benefit by treating themselves as they treat their children--you know scheduling a checkup around every birthday and getting a full physical? How hard is that?

On Monday one of my clients, lets call him John, called to thank me for prodding him into getting his physical for additional life insurance. His PSA was elevated and his Dr had ignored it but the life insurance company did not and refused coverage until he was examined. MRI showed a tumor and the biopsy revealed prostate cancer. He starts radiation next week and due to being caught early the odds are in his favor.

Last week another client called to tell me his partner and he had decided to go ahead with life insurance to address a business buy-sell problem identified over two years ago. His 51 year old brother in law had died unexpectedly and he found himself scrambling trying to run his own business while taking on responsibility for his in-laws business.

What is it about our nature that requires us to experience a hurricane before we buy flood insurance or a death in the family before we buy life insurance?

A Few Good Fish from last week

Left-My son Brian with a 24' 5.5 lb Speckled trout

Right- My friend Steve with a 27" 6lb Speckled trout.

Tips From an Independent Benefits Consultant

• You have the right to hire and fire your benefits consultant or broker.

One of my customers owns a construction business with several hundred employees. During my initial visit with the owner I discovered they had been told one owner would need to lose weight in order to obtain disability coverage. I pointed out a group LTD plan could be implemented on all 20 salaried personnel for less than the cost of individual disability on the two owners and it come Guaranteed Issue. After being hired I was successful in placing LTD coverage and further reducing a 45% health plan rate increase to 20% with the incumbent carrier. Your customers do not tolerate bad advice from your firm so why not hire someone who focuses on your issues and offers sound counsel?

• Eliminate inefficient insurance costs

Insurance should be secured for catastrophic risks. Many employers continue to fund dental coverage when the annual maximums are limited to $1,000 or $1,500. This is not catastrophic protection and the cost can easily fund a risk that is catastrophic like disability for instance.

• Try Fixing service problems with vendors before Firing Them by dealing with the right vendor personnel.
  

Too many consultants and brokers begin a new relationship by replacing incumbents without any effort to resolve the underlying cause of a service related issue with the incumbent. In a vendor relationship as in a marriage communication is always less painful than a divorce. A competent consultant can often resolve issues with an incumbent thus eliminating a costly and time consuming vendor search and implementation. Several years ago a very large hospital system was facing a mid rate guarantee increase from their group life and disability insurer. After meeting with the employer and their carriers underwriters we were able to eliminate the rate increase altogether for Life and mitigate the needed increase for LTD plan. If we had not sat down face to face with the client and their vendors underwriters an agreement would never have been reached. If you have not met your underwriter face to face how can you have a relationship?

• Align funding, plan design and objectives

Several years ago I met with a customer with several thousand employees had a participating group life insurance plan and a self-funded Long Term Disability plan with an extremely limited benefit offering. The customer hated the cash flow fluctuations inherent with the minimum premium funding arrangement for Life and the FAS 112 exposure associated with the LTD plan.I recommended they needed to take advantage of the fixed cost of a fully insured life insurance plan and shift to a fully insured LTD plan. By changing the funding arrangement the employer was able to save over $100,000 annually while enhancing Life and Long Term Disability Benefits and generating a predictable monthly cost while eliminating future FAS 112 exposure.

• Boost your pharmacy generic utilization rate

Statistics show that only 33% of physicians discuss generic drug options with their patients and patients only bring the subject up 2% of the time to their doctors. It is possible for an employer to secure a PBM which will utilize a simple process and plan design to assure insureds are encouraged systematically to utilize the low cost in therapeutic class generic alternatives. This change alone can take many employers from an 8-10% pharmacy trend to flat or even negative territory.

• Demand relationships not transactions from consultants and brokers

The service models of many intermediaries at many broker and consulting firms is oriented towards their interests versus their clients. This is particularly true at many publicly traded firms where revenue growth and the pressure for billable hours focuses intermediaries on securing new business primarily while seeing that the service staff maintains just enough dialogue with existing clients to retain their revenue. Our clients deal exclusively with a principal who understands their objectives and translates them into plan design and actionable expectations for vendors so that a relationship rooted in performance over time. Our goal is a relationship not a transaction.

Texas Slam

Since I get so many responses for my fish picture at the bottom of the page here are a few recent ones.


Left-Skipjack released

Right-Texas Slam- 18"speckled trout, 24"redfish, 19"flounder.
middle-tailing redfish in 8" of water--look at the upper left and you can see the tails.