2007 Health Care Trends

Hewitt Associates recently released the Emerging Health Care Trends for this year’s survey results. The summary is now available in the HRO Manager Research section.

ACS Contract with US DOL

ACS, a premier provider of business process outsourcing and information technology solutions, announced today that it has won a $74.8 Million contract for medical bill processing with the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) under the U.S. Department of labor (DOL). The three-year contract continues services previously provided by ACS under a sub-contract agreement.
ACS will provide all medical bill processing and support services for the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, the Division of Coal Mine Workers’ Compensation, and the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act programs, all administered by the OWCP.
ACS will provide claims resolutions, prior authorization, provider enrollment and call-center support, as well as imaging and web portal management for the Division of Federal Employee’s Compensation.
Posted in Benefits Administration, Business, Cobra Administration, Compensation Plans, Employee

SHRM Survey of FMLA

Summary of Survey conducted by SHRM
*Four out of ten HR professionals stated that they have had to grant
FMLA requests that they believed were not legitimate due to the
Department of Labor’s regulations or interpretations.
* More than half (57 percent) of respondents found it somewhat difficult
or very difficult to determine if a health condition is a “serious
health condition” under FMLA.
* Eighty percent of respondents indicated they had difficulties
tracking/administering intermittent FMLA leave.
*Almost half (47 percent) of HR professionals experienced challenges in
administering/granting leave under the FMLA for employees with serious
health conditions as a result of episodic conditions