By Ted Norwood, General Counsel & Director of Representation, Integrated Benefits Inc. SSDI has poor resources for vocational rehabilitation or job placement, and no resources at all for claimants during the wait for a decision. This makes it harder for people to recover and get back to work. Because of the long wait, many claimants…
By Ted Norwood, General Counsel and Director of Representation, Integrated Benefits, Inc. According to the Council for Disability Awareness, half of those who don’t work for the government have some form of employer-paid disability insurance (short-term disability only, long-term disability only, or both STD and LTD). These benefits are important because 25 percent of today’s 20-year-olds…
By Diane Russell, Lincoln Financial Your company’s benefit package is sending you a message about their priorities — and whether they are the same as yours. When companies get it right, it pays off in terms of your job satisfaction and desire to continue to work there. That’s because your employer is making it clear…
By Diane Russell, SVP Marketing, Lincoln Financial Your company’s benefit package sends a message to your employees about what you feel is important and if you’re listening to their concerns and priorities. Get it right, and your benefits dollars will be well spent and will pay off in terms of employee satisfaction and retention. Your…
By Ted Norwood, General Counsel and Director of Representation, Integrated Benefits, Inc. The United States Social Security Administration offers two programs—confusingly named Social Security Disability Income and Supplemental Security Income—aimed at providing or supplementing the income of people who are unable to work. SSDI (also called Title II benefits) provides disability coverage for individuals who…
By Larry Alkire, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, American Fidelity Assurance Company When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), the term—”pre-existing conditions”—became a household word. The ACA prevented health insurance carriers from denying you coverage, charging you more money, or refusing to pay for essential health benefits for any…
When most people consider disability, they picture something catastrophic happening—an ill-timed dive off a high rock, or a speeding car hurtling into theirs—and, for the most part assume it can never happen to them. That’s why human resources experts often find it challenging to convince their employees of the importance of disability insurance even though…
No one plans to have cancer. Aside from the shock and anxiety for the future a diagnosis brings, cancer also presents a financial situation that few people fully consider. Huge medical bills, on top of the typical expenses like college loans, mortgages, and car payments, can leave survivors concerned about their finances. Despite this, there…
In last month’s blog post, I wrote about how the non-occupational disabilities covered under salary continuation or disability insurance plans are more common than the occupational disabilities covered under workers’ compensation. I suggested that your benefits team should be as focused on managing the costs of non-occ disabilities as your risk management team is on…
The concern over losing employees is something that keeps many HR managers and CEOs up throughout the night, and for good reason. Replacing even a $10/hr employee can cost over $3,000, and the expense of finding someone to take over a high-level position can be $8,000 or more. Even if you treat your employees like…
