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Help Your Employees Better Understand Health Insurance Terms
The health care landscape can be confusing. Rules and regulations seem to be endlessly shifting and it’s a challenge to keep track of the moving parts. But from a micro perspective, health care shouldn’t be that difficult. Your employees know what their insurance plans do for them, so that’s really all they need to be aware of - right?
Maybe. Except that odds are your employees may not actually be knowledgeable about their benefits offerings because they’re not familiar with health insurance terms and jargon.
Nearly three-fourths (74 percent) of workers “sometimes or never†understand everything covered by their insurance policy today. With the trend of consumer-driven health care on the rise, this is especially alarming as employees are expected to take a more hands-on approach in selecting their health benefits options.
While it’s a small step, you can start helping your workforce by educating them about basic, yet essential, health insurance terms. Knowing the jargon is crucial, especially during open enrollment season, in order to read the literature, to understand benefits options available and to make informed decisions about health insurance.
Below are a few basic terms to consider teaching to your employees.
Deductible
The amount owed for covered health care services before a health insurance plan begins to pay. For example, if a plan deductible is $1,000, the plan won’t pay anything until the policyholder pays $1,000 toward covered health care services subject to the deductible.
The deductible may not apply to all services.
Coinsurance
The percentage paid toward each covered health care service provided. The coinsurance is paid on top of any deductible.
For example, let’s say an employer offers an 80/20 health insurance plan and the allowed amount for an office visit is $100. Once the policyholder has met the deductible, the coinsurance payment of 20 percent would be $20. The health insurance or plan pays the rest of the allowed amount.
Copay
A fixed amount, for example $15, that is paid for a covered health care service, usually due at the time of service. The amount may vary by the type of covered health care service.
Non-Medical Costs
When faced with a serious accident or illness, there are various non-medical costs associated with a hospital stay or recovery period including:
- Child care
- Transportation
- Reduced take-home pay (due to missing work)
These expenses can add up quickly, contributing to the overall out-of-pocket cost of being sick or injured.
Supplemental Insurance
Supplemental insurance, sometimes called voluntary insurance, is insurance that can be additional or complementary to major medical insurance. Examples include:
- Disability
- Dental
- Hospital indemnity
- Critical illness
Just to name a few. It can help pay for services and out-of-pocket expenses that major medical does not cover. Provider policies may pay cash benefits, enabling the policyholder to put the money toward costs that are the result of an unexpected illness or injury.
Limits or Exclusions
Workers must pay attention to services not included in their plan, as well as any limitations or exclusions.
Limits related to the number of refills for certain drugs, the number of visits to certain specialists or the number of days covered for certain benefits could mean unexpected out-of-pocket costs.
Injured Photo via Shutterstock
Yahoo Mail Down For Days
OK, it may not be Gmail. But many still do use Yahoo Mail as a primary or secondary communication for business or other purposes. So when the service was partially down for more than 48 hours this week, users got a bit testy.
Worse then the outage itself, however, seemed to be Yahoo’s response to worried account holders who rely on the service â€" even though it is free.
Yahoo Tweeted a Few Times At Best
The company did respond to direct questions about service problems in the early hours referring some to Customer Care. But Yahoo tweeted general updates a few times at best from its Ymail Team account during the initial outage, TechCrunch reports.
The first came Tuesday afternoon acknowledging the problem which, for many affected users, had started the night before. By then, upset Yahoo Mail users were already beginning to express their displeasure.
Astoundingly, except for a steady stream of reassurances to inquiries from users, the Ymail Team did not post another general update until the following morning.
By that time, disgruntled users were complaining about a lot more than just the technical difficulties.
The Yahoo team also finally posted a more detailed report on the problem with an estimate of the repair time needed to get people back into their accounts.
Later that afternoon, Yahoo had begun to restore email services to its users. The YMail Team also seemed to become more responsive â€" after being called out by users and the media.
What’s Going On Here?
But what does this say about the Yahoo turnaround supposedly being engineered by CEO Marissa Mayer?
Ignore for a moment some audacious moves like Mayer’s $1 billion purchase of hip social blogging site Tumblr earlier this year.
It’s important for Yahoo to play to its strengths and avoid appearing unreliable. Otherwise, users will start fleeing the site in droves, and so will the company’s business.
Image: Wikipedia
4 Essential Tools for Small But Growing Businesses
I’ve been in a tools and apps frame of mind lately. After all, if there’s something that can make my work as a business owner easier, I’m all for it.
So if you’re looking to grow in the coming year (and who isn’t, right?), below are four more tools you can use to do so.
The Right Social Media Platform (+ Strategy)
Social media sites on their own can be considered tools, but I like to work smarter. My go-to is Hootsuite, which lets me manage my Twitter and Google+ accounts as well as my client accounts. I choose not to manage Facebook or LinkedIn there, but it can be done.
I don’t have to visit each site to update profiles. I can even schedule posts to go live at a later date/time. I like spending an hour scheduling for the upcoming weeks so I don’t have to do it daily. You might prefer Social Sprout or Social Oomph. Whichever tool you choose, it won’t do you a bit of good if you don’t have a smart strategy in place.
After all, why are you using social if you don’t have goals?
My social media strategy tips:
- Figure out what you want to achieve. Are you looking to increase followers? Get clicks to your site? Convert to sales?
- Set measurable goals (get 5% of our site traffic from Facebook efforts).
- Set specific times during the week to schedule updates or see who’s tweeted you.
- Decide who should manage the accounts.
Accounting Software
I’m no financial whiz, so I rely on QuickBooks to help me send invoices, track expenses, and pay taxes. I’ve heard good things about FreshBooks, too. The more organized your finances are from the start, the easier they’ll be to manage down the road.
My tips for smarter accounting:
- Create a business checking and savings account. Mixing business with personal finances will create aggravation later.
- Set up categories for the spending you do. That might deviate from what your software sets up as the default categories.
- Track everything. Quite honestly, I don’t keep a lot of receipts anymore, because most of my transactions can be found under my accounts online. Just make sure each transaction is allocated to the right bucket.
- Pay your taxes throughout the year. I recently incorporated and have been paying payroll taxes each month. So in April, my tax bill won’t be ginormous.
Email Marketing (+ Strategy)
You must must must have a long-term email marketing strategy. It’s one of the best ways to stay on top of the minds of your contacts and customers, so when they’re ready to buy, guess who they’ll think of?
That’s right: You.
Again, strategy is a key component of your success with email marketing. While services like iContact are great for helping you create newsletters and promotional emails, ultimately your success depends on what you put into those emails, who you send them to, and how frequently you send them.
My email marketing tips:
- Decide what you want to achieve with each email. Just brand awareness? Increasing sales of a particular product? Measure results after you send it.
- Write copy like you’re writing to a friend. Stuffy, formal emails are so off-putting.
- Send one newsletter and one promotional email a month. That’s it.
- Provide valuable content. Include articles and tips your readers can benefit from.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
If you’ve got just one or two clients, you can probably remember all the conversations you’ve had. But as your business grows, it becomes harder to remember which conversation you had with what client. CRM platforms like Zoho and Insightly help you by creating profiles for companies and individuals, tying in email correspondence you’ve had with each, and letting you take notes for meetings.
Here are my tips for maximizing your results from CRM:
- Set to-dos and assign them to the appropriate team member.
- Track milestones so you stay on task for important deadlines.
- Take copious notes for any client call or meeting. From those notes, decide which tasks need to be taken care of (see bullet 1).
I love that we live in an era where more and more tools are popping up to help us do more - don’t you?
Growing with Tools Photo via Shutterstock
Dell World Pitch Slam Starts at 2pm CST - Michael Dell, Daymond John, Elizabeth Gore
When it comes to trying to spread your content to a wider audience and tweak your message so it’s most effective, these tools make it simple.
Facebook Insights
If you haven’t looked at Insights for your business’ Facebook Page in a while, you might be surprised at how much better the details are. Now you can not only see how many people are “talking about†a post you published, but also what actions they’re taking, such as liking, sharing, clicking, or commenting on it.
You also get a scorecard that measures positive actions (like the ones I just mentioned) and negative ones, such as someone hiding your posts or unliking your page. You can see which posts generated the most interest and plan your update schedule accordingly.
mention
Google Alerts is great and all, but sometimes it falls short when it comes to mentions on social media or even blog comments. That’s where mention comes in handy. Set up keyword alerts and find out whenever anyone mentions your name or brand, be it in a blog post, the comments section, on a website, or on a social platform. You can even respond to a tweet or update from within the mention platform.
Vine
You can’t deny that video is taking a bigger presence in the content marketing world these days. As a small business owner, maybe you’re not sure how you can effectively use video to engage with your audience.
Vine allows you to make 6-second looping videos. It’s a fantastic place to start. Making short videos requires virtually no investment (you probably already have a smartphone, so that’s your video camera). You don’t have to involve a professional videographer, and sometimes the simplest, roughest videos are the most successful.
MessageBuilderâ„¢
Even if you don’t consider yourself design-savvy, you have no excuse for not creating professional-looking and appealing email campaigns. You don’t need HTML or design experience to use the iContact MessageBuilder™  built into the email marketing platform. You can choose from a variety of email templates and images, and then customize to match your company colors (and if you do have design or HTML experience, you can use the MessageCoder™ to get the job done).
BizSugar
You’ve probably heard of Digg and StumbleUpon. But did you know there’s a social bookmarking site dedicated to promoting small business content? If you want to get your blog posts and articles in front of business owners, BizSugar does the job. Submit content you want others to read, and they can give a “sugar†to those posts they deem worthy. If your post makes the “hot†list (that happens after you reach a threshold of sugars) it gets even more exposure. It’s also a great tool for discovering useful content for yourself.
I could update this list every week with new and innovative tools that help me market my business more smartly. But for now, find the ones that work the best for your company and use them to maximize your reach.
Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.
New HP Slate Tablet Offers Another Budget Tech Option
There are an increasing number of budget options for mobile technology out there. HP seems to be adding to the list with its new Slate 7 Plus, a budget 7-inch tablet. The device replaces the earlier Slate 7 which some felt fell so short of other slightly more expensive tablets like the Nexus 7, it wasn’t worth the savings.
But the latest HP offering seems to have at least come up to the standards of the first generation Nexus 7, reports Brad Linder, editor of mobile technology site Liliputing.
And the HP certainly seems confident in the quality and versatility of the new update based on this video introducing the device:
The new device features:
- 1280 x 800 pixel display.
- 1GB of RAM.
- 8GB of storage.
- A better processor than it’s predecessor.
- 5-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel front camera.
- Between 6 and 7 hours of battery life depending on usage.
The device comes in what appears to be an attractive silver and is now available at $149.99 from HP’s online store.
And it’s not alone.
A small fleet of devices recently introduced by the tech giant include:
- The Slate 7 Extreme with longer battery life and meant for viewing high-definition video retails at $200.
- The Slate 10 HD, a 10-inch tablet for general multimedia use retailing at $300.
- The Slate 8 Pro , an 8-inch higher end tablet retailing at $329.99.
All run on Android.
Whatever option you choose when investing in technology for your business, consider both cost and what features you need to best serve your needs.
10 Tips for Grabbing Last Minute Holiday Shoppers
All holiday season, your small retail shop has been battling the big online retailers. Well, here’s some good news. As Christmas gets closer, and consumers get less willing to pay for costly shipping (or risk gifts not arriving in time), your brick-and-mortar store has a big advantage over online retailers.
With free shipping a huge selling point for online shoppers, consumers have gotten spoiled to the point they hate to pay for shipping. That means after Free Shipping Day (the last day when participating retailers guarantee shipping by Christmas - it’s December 18 this year), you’ll see a lot more last minute holiday shoppers hitting the pavement in search of gifts.
So how can you get the business of these last minute holiday shoppers?
Position Yourself as the Answer to Their Problems
Your marketing messages should emphasize that your store offers last minute gift solutions. Tell them that you offer fast, easy service and a wide range of products that will ease their holiday stress.
Of course, make sure you can deliver on these promises.
Offer In-Store Pickup
If you have an eCommerce site, offer last minute holiday shoppers the option to order online and pick up products in-store.
Make sure to set a cut-off date and time online orders need to be placed so shoppers aren’t disappointed.
Provide Assistance by Phone
While you may not want to hold unpaid products for customers for an extended time during this season, you can offer to hold them for an hour or so. You can have employees take credit card orders over the phone and hold the purchased products for in-store pick-up.
Make it Easy for Customers to Contact You
Last minute holiday shoppers are in a frenzy and will often want to get in touch before they head out to your store to make sure you have product on hand.
Make sure that your store’s contact information, including email, phone number and address, is clearly visible above the fold (before they have to scroll down to see it) on every page of your website.
Then make sure you’re answering your phone and checking that email constantly.  Also include driving directions and/or a map to make getting there easier.
Update Your Presence on Local Search Sites
Check your listings on local search sites such as Google Places and Local.com. Make sure your listings are current and include information about any promotions, sales or special offers.
In short, anything that will help persuade shoppers to choose you over the competition.
Simplify Last Minute Shopping With “Grab and Go†Gifts
You can set up displays with products grouped together in ways that make sense, such as “gifts for Dad,†“gifts for the kids,†“gifts for the hostess,†etc. You can also group products by price “gifts under $10,†“gifts under $50,†etc.
You can even display the unwrapped products and then wrap up gift baskets or boxes with the products inside so customers can just grab the wrapped sets and buy them. Make sure wrapped packages are clearly marked as to what’s inside.
Offer In-Store Gift Wrapping Services
Last minute holiday shoppers love one stop shopping. Help them stress less by offering gift wrapping in-store. You can offer a free option with basic wrap and ribbon, then charge for more elaborate wrapping.
You can also sell gift wrap, gift tags, tape and cards right by the register for those who want to do it themselves, but don’t want to make a separate stop at another store for supplies.
Don’t Forget the Impulse Buys
Put small stocking stuffer type products next to the registers or the areas where customers wait in line.
Extend Your Hours
If you aren’t already doing so, open early and stay open late in the days leading up to Christmas. Be sure to promote the extended hours via email, text messaging, social media and store signage.
Try Online Advertising
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) can work great this time of year if you buy ads that serve up when last minute holiday shoppers look for gift ideas or last minute gifts online.
Try these tips and take advantage of the last full weekend of Christmas shopping!
Shopping Photo via Shutterstock
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