Benaissance's own Chief Strategy Officer Mark Waterstraat will be testifying before the Nebraska State Legislature this afternoon.  His appearance and testimony are in support of LB835 and LB838, both titled the "Adopt the Nebraska Health Benefit Exchange Act."  Mark has been tapped to provide critical insight, strategy, and industry expertise into the emerging world of state health exchanges. 

 

Multiple news outlets are reporting that the COBRA subsidy program instituted during the ARRA legislation of 2009 will not be continued.  The US Congress recently moved to strip out a measure which would have extended the program beyond June 1st of this year.

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cobra-payment-aid-appears-likely-to-end-2010-06-06

This week's blog highlights part 2 of the interview with the Benaissance leadership team. 

NxBizSuccess is a cooperative effort sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Community Development Resources.

Episode 77- Attracting Professional Money from NxBizSuccess on Vimeo.

CEO, John Jenkins, and VP of Sales, Mark Waterstraat, were recently interviewed by NxBizSuccess.com as part of an educational series of video podcasts the site is creating to educate entrepreneurs in the state of Nebraska.  John and Mark were asked to provide insight on attracting professional investors and the decision process they went through in 2006 to re-write COBRApoint from scratch to make it an enterprise class system.  NxBizSuccess is a cooperative effort sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Community Development Resources.

 

Episode 76-Product Evaluation from NxBizSuccess on Vimeo.

USA Today has put COBRA in the news this week, with an article on the effects of the stimulus bill subsidy on a soaring COBRA population.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2009-08-17-unemployed-insurance-cobra_N.htm

Benaissance will be on the move this week, with a booth presence at the ECFC symposium in St. Paul, Minnesota.  The ECFC is an annual meeting of benfits adminstrators and industry insiders.  This week's conference will focus on "Stayin' Alive Through Change" as participants discuss the potential industry-wide ramifications of benefits law changes in 2009.  For more information, visit the ECFC's official website:

 http://www.ecfc.org/conferences/annual-admin-symposium/

 

Out of Washington, the Congress and the President are talking of ways to overhaul health insurance in the country.  Since COBRA touches so directly on this industry, it's always prudent to keep a mindful eye on any upcoming changes.  Here is a recent article on the subject, organized into concise points.

 http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/18/ep.health.reform.basics/

Disaster recovery is one of those buzzwords that gets a great deal of lip service in the business world, but not necessarily a great deal of forethought.  The unfortunate reality is that this concept is often taken for granted until it is already too late.  Allow me to illustrate with an example:

Jay Barnes is an executive in his company.  On an ordinary Wednesday afternoon, the distinct burning odor of an electrical fire starts to fill the office.  Previous in the day, workers were seen in the building with heavy machinery doing a construction job for the office below.  Sensing the construction crew is responsible, Jay scrambles to locate the phone number for his building manager to inquire with them.

Within a matter of minutes, the burning odor has become almost unbearable and a faint smoky haze has started to fill the office.  Jay is still clumsily sifting through his phone list for that building contact.  He has rarely had need to call the number so it is not readily available.  Meanwhile, staff members begin to approach Jay asking if they should evacuate.  Suddenly, the phone rings for Jay's 3:00 conference call.  And to top it off, the building's fire alarm suddenly sounds.

In the span of a few minutes, Jay has become overwhelmed.  A business-critical disaster is upon him and he's stuck at step one.  Jay has 10 minutes of decisions that he's trying to fit into a window not quite big enough.  If he had planned ahead, he wouldn't be scrambling around panicked in the midst of a crisis.  Let's see how this story would have differed with some proper planning:

Jay Barnes is an executive in his company.  On an ordinary Wednesday afternoon, the distinct burning odor of an electrical fire starts to fill the office.  Sensing a potential disaster scenario unfolding, Jay goes straight to his emergency contact list and calls building management to inquire if they have knowledge of the situation.

After the call, Jay orders his Operations Manager to gather the staff and leave via a pre-arranged evacuation route.  The company phones are redirected to an auto response message should any customers call in during the crisis.  Jay insures the office is now vacant before joining his staff at the evacuation point.

Disaster scenarios often require precise, calculated decision-making.  Take 10 minutes today to make sure you have a plan in place.  When a crisis comes your way, you'll be 10 minutes ahead of the curve.  And that's an eternity when seconds count.  

 

 

Kiplinger's Business Resource Center posted an article this morning discussing the IRS and how it plans to enforce the new COBRA provisions created by the ARRA of 2009.  It also includes some helpful links and related articles for the COBRA professional.

A contributing editor to Kiplinger's Personal Finance recently took a look at the new changes to the COBRA law.  The result is a very distilled, basic article which explains the core changes without a lot of legal-ese or industry jargon.  If you or your client base are struggling to understand the scope of the new Recovery Act, check out this article.

http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/ask/archive/2009/q0223.htm