Episode 32: It’s a Big World After All: Going Global with Mark Azzarello, International Paper
Release Date: 12/03/2019
Common Sense, Common Cause: Talking Health Care Value with National Alliance CEO Shawn Gremminger
American Benefits Podcast
Shawn Gremminger recently assumed the role of president and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Associations -- a Council member and frequent ally on health care policy. In this episode, we discuss the National Alliance's unique structure and composition, its policy priorities and the importance of getting value for every health care dollar.
info_outline
Windows on Benefits: Introducing New Board Chair Fred Thiele (Microsoft Corporation)
American Benefits Podcast
Fred Thiele, vice president, global benefits and mobility for Microsoft, will serve as chair of the American Benefits Council's Board of Directors for the 2023-2024 term. In this episode, he speaks with host Jason Hammersla about his company's unique approach to benefits, outlines his priorities for the next year and drops a few tales of questionable reimbursement requests.
info_outline
Episode 45: Bigger Data: The First Step to Improving Health Equity (with Jennifer Haley, Urban Institute)
American Benefits Podcast
Diversity, equity and inclusion is a priority for many of the American Benefits Council’s member companies, who have in turn directed us to engage with these issues as they relate to employee benefits. Over the previous 12 months, the Council has established a task force to address social determinants of health and joined with a number of other esteemed organizations to release the research report, . The project was a collaboration with Urban Institute and Deloitte’s Health Equity Institute, as funded by Elevance Health. In this podcast episode, , senior research associate...
info_outline
Episode 44: Follow the Leader: Getting to Know the Council’s New Board Chair (with Tracy Watts, Mercer)
American Benefits Podcast
If the American Benefits Council is to be a leader in the employee benefits world, we must have strong internal leadership. The Council’s policy agenda is carefully considered and set by our Policy Board of Directors, made up of knowledgeable and dedicated human resource and benefits professionals at each of our most engaged member companies. Holding the gavel at the head of that table is this episode's special guest. Speaking to host Jason Hammersla is Tracy Watts, senior partner in Mercer’s Washington D.C. office and the company’s National Leader for U.S. Health Care Reform. As...
info_outline
Episode No. 43: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: A Round-Up of the Council's International Benefits Activity
American Benefits Podcast
For many multinational companies, figuring out how to scale employee benefits for a global population is a critical element of their economic competitiveness. But if providing comprehensive employee benefit programs in the United States is like playing advanced chess, doing so on a global basis is like playing advanced chess on a moving speedboat. The American Benefits Council's policy team is not only engaged with the whole wide world at the “big-picture” level, it is also focused on practical matters for global employee benefit plan sponsors like governance, employee mobility, mergers...
info_outline
Episode 42: Into the Deep End: The Big Splash of Pooled Employer Plans (with Rick Jones, Aon)
American Benefits Podcast
Even as policymakers discuss and debate the so-called "retirement savings gap," employers and others are starting to take part in a newly-minted coverage expansion tool: the SECURE Act of 2019 birthed the inception of the Pooled Employer Plan (PEP), which allows separate companies employers to team up and share plan administration for their collective employees. On this episode of the American Benefits Podcast, host Jason Hammersla is joined by Rick Jones, senior partner in Aon’s National Retirement Practices group. Together they discuss the state of employer plan sponsorship, barriers to...
info_outline
Episode 41: Get Out the Map: Paid Leave and the State of Play
American Benefits Podcast
Paid leave may not be an “employee benefit,” strictly speaking, in the same way that health coverage and retirement coverage are. But providing it has become a significant pressure point for employers, especially as an increasing number of states and localities have erected their own mandates over the last decade. In this episode, host Jason Hammersla talks about this slow-motion explosion of paid leave mandates with one of the nation's foremost legal authorities on the subject: Josh Seidman, a partner in the Labor and Employment department of Seyfarth Shaw, LLP. Together, Jason and Josh...
info_outline
Episode 40: No Surprises, Please: The Twisty Tale of 'Surprise' Medical Billing
American Benefits Podcast
The 2020 enactment of legislation to eliminate “surprise” medical billing was not just the most significant health care coverage legislation since the Affordable Care Act. It was also the culmination of a remarkable show of (relatively) swift and bipartisan lawmaking. Since that enactment, however, the story has taken dizzying twists and turns, with more to come as the regulatory implementation phase gives way to nationwide litigation over the Biden administration's rules. In this episode, host Jason Hammersla speaks to Katie Keith, a member of the research faculty for the Georgetown...
info_outline
Episode 39: Plumbing and the PBGC: How Plans and Participants are Getting Stuck
American Benefits Podcast
Even casual observers know that, over the past several decades, the nation's retirement system has evolved from a predominantly defined benefit system to a predominantly defined contribution system. That said, there are still nearly 47,000 defined benefit plans in the United States, (half of which are insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, or PBGC), covering almost 33 million people and totaling more than $3.2 trillion in assets. On this past New Year's Eve, the PBGC’s Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate, Connie Donovan, issued the 2021 Annual Report of the Participant and...
info_outline
Episode 38: Nontraditional Workers and Barriers to Retirement Savings
American Benefits Podcast
The current labor market is in flux, with many industries still in pandemic recovery while the "great resignation" creating a talent vacuum. Contingent or "nontraditional" work may not be as trendy a topic as it was five years ago, but it could represent a resource for companies seeking to fill important roles. In this episode, host Jason Hammersla speaks to John C. Scott, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts Retirement Savings Project, about recent research on the retirement preparedness of "nontraditional workers" and remaining barriers to their improved financial security.
info_outlineThe American economy crosses borders, oceans, time zones, cultures, languages and great walls. And therefore, compensation and benefits has gone global, too. For many multinational companies, figuring out how to scale employee benefits for a global population is a critical element of their economic competitiveness. Here at the Council, we’re engaged on global benefits in numerous ways, from functioning as the U.S. chapter of the International Employee Benefit Association (or “IEBA”) to serving as a private-sector advisor to the U.S. delegation to the Organizational for Economic Cooperation and Development. We’re also focused on practical matters for global employee benefit plan sponsors like governance, controlling costs, health plan offerings, employee mobility, mergers and acquisitions and much, much more.
In this episode, host Jason Hammersla talks to Mark Azzarello, vice president, global compensation & benefits, for the International Paper Company. Azzarello is a member of the American Benefits Council’s board of directors and chair of the Council’s Global Benefits Committee. In this wide-ranging conversation, Azzarello describes the objectives of the Global Benefits Committee and the upshot of the group’s October 2019 meeting. He also describes International Paper’s distinctive approach to employee benefits policy including global governance, employee financial wellness and electronic disclosure.