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Episode 29: The Compensation of ‘Independents’ - Designing Portable Benefits with the Aspen Institute’s Shelly Steward

American Benefits Podcast

Release Date: 07/18/2019

Enter Your Destination: Introducing the Council's Long-Term Strategic Plan show art Enter Your Destination: Introducing the Council's Long-Term Strategic Plan

American Benefits Podcast

On Wednesday, February 12, the American Benefits Council released its long-term public policy strategic plan, DESTINATION 2030: A Roadmap for the Future of Employee Benefits. In this episode, host Jason Hammersla speaks with Strategic Plan Task Force Chair Tami Simon about the plan's development and ultimate framework for advancing holistic well-being.

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Common Sense, Common Cause: Talking Health Care Value with National Alliance CEO Shawn Gremminger show art 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.

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Windows on Benefits: Introducing New Board Chair Fred Thiele (Microsoft Corporation) show art 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.

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Episode 45: Bigger Data: The First Step to Improving Health Equity (with Jennifer Haley, Urban Institute) show art 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...

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Episode 44: Follow the Leader: Getting to Know the Council’s New Board Chair (with Tracy Watts, Mercer) show art 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...

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Episode No. 43: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: A Round-Up of the Council's International Benefits Activity show art 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...

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Episode 42: Into the Deep End: The Big Splash of Pooled Employer Plans (with Rick Jones, Aon) show art 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...

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Episode 41: Get Out the Map: Paid Leave and the State of Play show art 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...

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Episode 40: No Surprises, Please: The Twisty Tale of 'Surprise' Medical Billing show art 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...

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Episode 39: Plumbing and the PBGC: How Plans and Participants are Getting Stuck show art 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...

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The independent workforce – a potent mixture of temp workers, contingent workers, “gig” workers and others – represents anywhere between 4 and 40% of the overall labor market and constitutes an interesting economic challenge: in a nation where employment is central to one’s health and retirement benefits, how do we provide financial security to those who do not have long-term, consistent employment? In recent years, the Council has grappled with this question, setting forth The Five “Cs”: Principles for Policymakers Regarding Benefits and Independent Workers.
 
Others are approaching the issue from the other direction. Shelly Steward, research manager for Aspen Institute’s Future of Work Initiative, recently co-authored Designing Portable Benefits: A Resource Guide for Policymakers, a paper that defines and describes benefits that are “portable, prorated and universal.” In this episode, Steward talks to host Jason Hammersla about why large employers should entertain and embrace the notion of portable benefits.