Posts by Frank Stichter

Federal law requires Plan Fiduciaries to take into account and act for the plan participants best interests. Most employers know that this applies to qualified retirement plans, but may not know that it applies to health plans as well. Here is the dilemma: how can a plan fiduciary act in the best interests of their…

Everyone knows that health plan costs are the direct result of medical and pharmacy claim costs. And with claim costs increasing again this year, chances are you’re going to see a moderate to high increase in your health plan cost. The two largest areas of claim costs are 1) facility claims (hospitals, dialysis, imaging, etc.)…

The current healthcare system is working, it’s just not working for employers and employees. If you’ve been to the hospital in recent years, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The costs are out of control. But with the ‘other Golden Rule’ hospitals can charge whatever they want – there are no laws, limits, or…

Leah Binder Forbes Contributor “Most employers have no idea whether they get value for the money they spend on health benefits. Employers rarely see data on the performance of health care providers, such as rates of infections or outcomes. Contracts with pharmacy benefits managers, health plans, and consultants often hide the real costs of services.…

I hate to say this but unfortunately, the health insurance business is one which is over promised and under delivered. How often have you heard from insurance companies or brokers that they can do remarkable things to lower your healthcare costs, but at the end of the day the costs keep going up and/or there…

Since we were kids, grades are the gauges of our performances. Whether they were alphabetic in school (A, B, C, D, or F) or numeric on some scale (1-10 or 1-100) for other things, grades of some kind give us a measurement of performance. Outcomes of a variety of testing, performance reviews, how well a…

Some employers play chess with their health plan while others play checkers. What are you? Those who play chess have a strategy and a game plan and anticipate 2, to 3 or more moves at a time. Those that are playing checkers are simply reacting to what their opponent does by jumping their opponents piece…

Wouldn’t you like to dial back the years – 10 or 12 years – when health insurance costs were half of what they are today? Rule of 72. Over that period of time, you’ve had to dramatically cost shift your increases to employees by way of increased contributions, higher deductibles, coinsurance, copay’s, and higher out-of-pocket…

Steve Jobs in 1997 stole an idea from Nike and inspired his employees with his “Think Different” campaign and challenged them to be “the crazy ones” like those who changed the world before us. If you would like to watch his talk Click Here and be sure to watch until the very end. This is…

I’m sure you’ve put together numerous jigsaw puzzles over the years ever since you were a little child. I remember when I was very young that the early puzzles had pre-shaped pieces that fit in predetermined places, making it very easy to put the puzzle together. As I got older there were other puzzles that…