| Audit gives insurance a clean bill of health: Questions remain as ...
DECATUR - An audit of the city's health insurance program shows no major problems, City Manager Steve Garman said.But important questions appear to remain unanswered about why taxpayers are footing the bill for one of the most expensive plans in the region, Councilman Dan Caulkins said.The Decatur City Council last year approved spending $59,225 for Segal Co. to study the city's health insurance plan.Caulkins advocated the study to find ways to control surging health insurance costs for city employees.The report indicates the city should remain self-insured, and Consociate Group, the third-party administrator, has gone above and beyond expected performance.Garman said the report is reassuring."We continue to assert, as we have since the fall of 2004, that the pressing area of concern lies within the area of city employee contributions to health care costs," Garman wrote in a memo to council members.Nonunion employees recently switched to a plan in which they contribute more for health insurance.If all city employees paid what nonunion employees pay on average, the city would have saved more than $800,000 last year alone, Garman said.Union employees currently pay nothing per year for single coverage and $276 for employee contributions, Garman said."While we understand and appreciate the fact that employee groups bargained for these benefits in the past and we do not hold that against them, the time has come to seriously evaluate whether the taxpaying public should continue to shoulder these costs for the benefit of represented city employees," Garman wrote.A 2004 city study showed Decatur pays substantially more on average for city employees' health insurance than do Bloomington, Champaign, Danville, Normal, Quincy, Springfield and Urbana.
Wells Fargo Insurance Services Opens Orlando Office
Wells Fargo Insurance Services announced today the opening of its first office in Orlando, Fla. The new Wells Fargo Insurance Services office is located at 801 International Parkway, Lake Mary, and offers both commercial and group health and benefits insurance services, as well as extensive experience with the health care industry. Shawn F. Smith has been appointed Senior Vice President and Managing Director for the Orlando Wells Fargo Insurance Services office. Joining Smith are Kim McGee, Vice President/Account Manager, and Kim Zastrow, Vice President/Senior Account Manager. Smith has more than 17 years of insurance experience and joins Wells Fargo Insurance Services from Marsh. While at Marsh, Smith assumed various business development roles and was the health care practice leader for Florida and sales leader for the company's Orlando and Tampa offices.
Cost Accounting Manager
We have an exciting career opportunity for a Cost Accounting Manager who will report directly to the Site Controller and who will ensure that manufacturing costs and controls are sufficient to support the company's profitable growth objectives in our Redmond location.
Key Responsibilities
• Variance analysis
• Product costing
• Financial support for manufacturing (including forecasting and budgeting)
• R&D tax and DEV project monitoring and analysis
• CER analysis
• Mentoring and developing junior accounting staff
• Accounts Payable function
• Preparing and analyzing monthly operations reports
Requirements
Education: Bachelors Degree in Finance/Accounting or equivalent experience.
Hospitals joining push for universal insurance coverage
While the year is still young, serious proposals for universal health insurance already have been issued by two states (California and Pennsylvania), one U.S. senator (Oregon's Ron Wyden), a former U.S. senator and current presidential candidate (North Carolina's John Edwards), and one influential insurance association (America's Health Insurance Plans).
And now the Federation of American Hospitals has weighed in. Late last month, the group representing the country's largest commercial hospital chains unveiled its "Health Coverage Passport," which the federation estimates would cover 96 percent of Americans.
The plan would leave alone those currently covered by health insurance while requiring all other legal residents to have health insurance -- with government subsidies to help the uninsured obtain affordable, basic insurance.
OIR: Underwriting tactics hurt minorities
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation says insurers' use of work and schooling information for the underwriting and rating of auto insurance policies hurts minorities and the poor. Though the practice is legal, the practice creates unintended effects that the government may find unacceptable, said Kevin McCarty, insurance commissioner. In 2003, the Legislature passed a law severely limiting the use of credit scoring in insurance underwriting. .
Ugandan army raid killed 66 children, charity reports
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PA Highmark Funding
PITTSBURGH, March 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Highmark Inc., through Davis Vision, Gateway Health Plan, HM Insurance Group, Keystone Health Plan West and United Concordia, recently provided $1.25 million to nearly 100 educational organizations across the Commonwealth. This financial commitment is part of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development's Educational Improvement Tax Credit program (EITC) and funds scholarship organizations, educational improvement and pre-kindergarten initiatives. "Highmark supports improving and expanding education for children in communities across the Commonwealth," said Yvonne Cook, Highmark vice president of community and health initiatives. "Through our funding, children will continue to or have the opportunity to receive the education that they greatly deserve and need without placing undue burden on family resources." Recipient organizations were chosen from Commonwealth-approved lists, and allocations range from $2,000 to $150,000.
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