Compliance Corner: Podcasts

In our latest Insight from the Experts podcast, NFP's Head of Innovation, Mark Rieder, sits down with Jason Hellickson, CEO of Regenexx, to discuss their proprietary orthobiologic procedures that have created a new medical specialty platform called interventional orthopedics. This orthopedic healthcare innovation is less costly, less invasive and less risky than traditional orthopedic surgery. Planned orthopedic surgery costs have increased 44% in eight years and are constantly in the top 10 of employer spend within their health plans. Interventional orthopedics can offer employees a choice and greatly reduce orthopedic spend on individual procedures that they choose a majority of the time.

In this episode, Chase Cannon and Suzanne Spradley recap the 10-year extension of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) fee, which is now set to run through 2029. Chase digs into the background of the PCOR Institute, the non-profit organization funded by the PCOR fee, which supports clinical effectiveness research, including studies on treatments and outcomes for a wide variety of conditions and illnesses. Chase and Suzanne discuss several examples of studies and spotlights on the PCOR Institute webpage, including several studies relating to diabetes treatments. The two also discuss the revival of the PCOR fee and the IRS’s recent announcement of the adjusted fee amount, and then close by addressing several questions that have arisen from employer failures to pay the fee in past years.

We all agree that our greatest assets are our people. So, are you providing the value-creators in your organization with the programs that will keep them coming back? Are you ensuring that you can recruit top talent? Are you helping your highly-compensated population prepare for a successful retirement? Are you providing them with benefits that are proportional to the compensation they earn? Learn how to build programs that help lock in the key talent your company needs to weather the current storm and thrive in the future.

In this episode, Suzanne Spradley and Chase Cannon revisit the single payer debate in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Suzanne starts by exploring whether support for a single payer system in the US has waxed or waned during the pandemic. Chase and Suzanne then discuss articles from experts, and comparisons across different countries, regarding governmental versus private company response to the pandemic. Suzanne dives into the history behind US governmental stockpiles of protective gear and ventilators, and draws comparisons between the US and other countries in pandemic preparedness. Suzanne and Chase close with a review of presidential nominee Joe Biden’s views towards single payer system and how Congress’s potential Phase Four legislation might impact access to coverage.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn was quoted at a recent White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing emphasizing that in the “sea of new treatments” we need to connect “the right drug to the right patient at the right dosage at the right time. As an example, we may have the right drug, but it may not be in the appropriate dosage form right now, and that may do more harm than good. Those are the things that that’s our job to look at.” In our latest Insight from the Experts podcast, NFP's Head of Innovation Mark Rieder sits down with Joe Spinelli, chief marketing officer of MedTek21, to discuss how risk management using genomics can bring personalized medicine to every patient.

In this episode, special guest Geoff Seibel, VP of NFP Actuarial Services, joins Chase Cannon to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on fully and self-insured plan costs. Geoff starts by addressing the cost impact for fully insured plans, including differences for small and large group markets. Chase and Geoff then discuss actual COVID-19-related costs, including the difference in costs for COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized, and those who are placed in the ICU. Geoff explains the differences in averages across the general populations versus employer groups, and the differences between explicit and implicit costs (and how both impact overall costs). Geoff and Chase close by discussing best methods for tracking changes (since models and costs change daily) and how modeling tools and other resources can help employers better understand impacts on their own populations and plans.

Employers across the country are busy crafting their Return to Work strategies. Strategies which include things like PPE, office spacing, testing, assessments and vital sign monitoring. But what about planning for an increase in workplace violence? These are unprecedented times and “business as usual” has been replaced by fear, uncertainty and doubt. In our latest Insight from the Experts podcast, NFP's Head of Innovation, Mark Rieder, sits down with Ty Smith, founder and CEO (and Retired Navy SEAL) of Vigilance Risk Solutions, to discuss how fear, uncertainty and doubt could lead to violence in the workplace, and what VSR is doing to help organizations ensure the safety of their employees as they return to work.

In this episode, Suzanne Spradley and Chase Cannon look at benefits issues relating to returning to work, as companies begin mulling reopening and bringing back employees. The two start with a discussion of benefit eligibility, COBRA and premium payments relating to furloughs and layoffs, as the employer’s decisions then impact issues to consider upon returning to work. Suzanne then outlines some issues employers should consider when collecting premium payment from employees in arrears, how to handle waiting periods for rehires and what to do with employee FSA (both health and dependent care) elections upon return. The two close with a short discussion on plan amendments and employee communications.

One Key Takeaway: Status matters when deciding whether to furlough or terminate employees during this pandemic. SME/Speaker: Chase Cannon and Kyle Healy