There are about 10 million adults over the age of 50 in the United States who provide care for their aging parents. During the past 15 years, the number of adult children providing primary financial or personal care for their parents has increased more than three times. About 25 percent of all adult children in the country today are the primary care providers for their parents. The same number is almost equal to the number of non-working adult children who help their parents.

​The Cost of Caregiving
These caregivers are also planning for their own retirement, and the task of being a primary caregiver can negatively affect saving efforts. A study from MetLife looked at the impact of caregiving on adult children and their future financial status.
 
According to MetLife's survey, the level of care provided by adult children to parents is about the same between male and female. However, men are more likely to provide financial assistance, and women tend to provide more personal care. The cumulative amount of lost Social Security benefits, pensions, and wages among these adult caregivers is around $3 trillion.
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Having a medical condition doesn't automatically disqualify you from buying life insurance. While finding coverage can be more difficult than it is for others, individuals with challenging medical histories and even severe conditions can usually find at least some coverage.
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Employers have options when it comes to their workers' compensation coverage. Before making a decision, it's important to understand the differences among self-insured, self-insured group, and fully-insured workers’ compensation insurance. Because a self-insured employer assumes the risk of paying the workers' compensation claim costs for its employees, it must have the financial resources to meet this obligation. Further, when considering a self-insured group, employers need to understand how the program works, the financial strength of the group, and how the group is managed.

Learn about these options in our article "Understanding self-insured vs fully-insured workers' compensation coverage," prepared for Iowa Association of Business and Industry.

Wearable medical devices such as the Fitbit are making increasing inroads into all aspects of life. Corporate wellness programs are embracing them as a way to encourage activity. In some cases, incentives may be provided to employees who meet certain activity and other health targets.

Insurance companies are also getting more interested in collecting biometric data from customers via wearable medical devices and other forms of monitoring. For example, John Hancock now offers "interactive" life insurance policies, under which customers can submit to optional fitness and activity tracking via wearable devices and smartphones.

Many employee benefits advisors have been recommending that employees with health savings accounts use them as savings vehicles that can be tapped for future medical care; however, studies show that most people are spending the bulk of the funds.

A new study by EBRI found that while more Americans are using Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) to save and pay for medical expenses, few are investing the funds, maxing out contributions, or otherwise using it as a retirement savings tool.
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In short, many people are not taking full advantage of these plans. But all is not lost, an HSA education plan can help employees who have HSAs understand how to get the most out of them and also how to use them to prepare for the future when they will at some point need the money for medical procedures.

While your employees can catch the flu year-round, fall and winter are the peak times for an outbreak. In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 80,000 Americans died from the flu and more than 900,000 ended up in the hospital. 

​On average, U.S. employees miss more than 17 million workdays from the flu, costing employers $7 billion in sick days and lost productivity. Make sure your organization is prepared to help employees get through flu season.

Advances in technology affect everything and everyone, including workplace safety. The workforce is more tech-savvy than ever before, leading to changes in how we work and the availability of data.

With many safety programs out of date, it’s time to put technology to work to improve safety in the workplace.  An article in Safety and Health Magazine suggest four ways technology can respond to today’s safety needs.

Injuries due to slips and falls are one of the most frequently reported workers’ compensation claims. While these accidents can happen anywhere, any time, they typically spike during the winter months. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 20,000 workplace injuries due to falls from snow, sleet, and ice occurred in 2016. Of those, 28 percent resulted in more than a month off of work.

Employees and visitors alike are at risk, but with a proactive safety plan, slips and falls can be prevented.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are over 42,000 opioid-related deaths in the United States each year. And according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, drug overdoses are one of the leading causes of death for Americans under the age of 50. With the popularity of synthetic opioids surging, experts predict the death toll will only increase. 

LMC Insurance and Risk Management (LMC Insurance) announced today the launch of a new health insurance solution that is underwritten by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield for Iowa-based employers with 51-500 eligible employees. The program, referred to as the Employer Coalition, will be available beginning Jan. 1, 2019. It will provide a more predictable insurance pool with features designed to stabilize costs long term, simplify administrative burdens and help employees better understand and utilize their benefits.

“Our goal is to create an innovative, new health insurance offering derived from the results of information shared from employers across the state of Iowa in our Midwest employer benchmarking survey, Share to Compare,” said Richard DeBartolo, Senior Vice President of LMC Insurance. “Today, employers in the fully insured market are asking for more influence in the decisions impacting their health insurance programs. Employers are looking at plans and technology designed to drive better consumerism.”
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