Introduction
Many businesses especially the middle sized ones find it difficult to adopt the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA). The US government formed the Affordable Health Care Act in March, 2010. The legislation required employers to provide affordable health insurance to their employees. The employers were also expected to improve accessibility of health insurance for their employees.
A survey conducted by Deloitte showed that 58% of companies in the USA provided insurance cover to their employees. Majority of Americans claimed that the Affordable Health Care Act was difficult to adopt due to the high cost of its implementation. Certain companies like the Time Warner Company prefer empowering their employees by giving them freedom to procure their own sources of insurance. Other companies outsource their services to avoid provision of health insurance to their employees.
The impact of health insurance benefits on the goal setting process
Employees in every organization in the US are entitled to health insurance benefits. Employees’ health insurance benefits depend on the nature of tasks they undertake in their organizations. Various organizations offer varying health insurance benefits to their employees. A strategic goal setting process must conform to the SMART objectives which should be specific, measurable, achievable and realistic and also time- bound (Sheehan & Cooper, 2011).
Health insurance benefits influence an organization’s goal setting process. Organizations may incur huge costs due to the nature of health insurance benefits they offer to their employees. Organizations tend to utilize their resources to meet the costs of health insurance for their employees (Lawrence, 2012). The government issues penalties to organizations that do not conform to the Affordable Health Care Act. The companies thus find it difficult to develop their goal setting processes due to their inability to make profits.
Goal setting needs to be aligned to the performance of employees in organizations. Companies may incur losses due to low performance of their employees. The companies cannot, therefore, engage in successful goal setting because the health insurance benefits hinder the progress of the companies. Workers may also utilize huge health insurance benefits due to various illnesses.
The Walt Disney Company in the US prefers to use a collaborative process of setting organizational goals under the ICTI program. The company employs several techniques to evaluate the contribution of health insurance of employees to the attainment of organizational goals. The techniques may comprise of situational, SWOT and PESTLE analyses. Small companies like Enviro-Master tend to engage employees on a casual basis to avoid securing health insurance for them in accordance to the Affordable Health Care Act.
Many companies undertake risk management measures in order to manage costly health insurance benefits of their employees. The companies conduct training on health to reinforce the well-being of their employees. This aspect helps in the improvement of the health of employees. This aspect may reduce the amount of money the workers use on medical cover. Insurance companies like the US Health Insurance reimburse to their clients money that they do not utilize in a particular fiscal period. Health insurance benefits to employees leads to the improvement of their productivity. Many organizations engage their employees in goal setting exercises in order to motivate and engage them in organizational decision making.
Controlling health insurance benefits
Health insurance benefits for employees may at times be costly and unaffordable for many businesses. The benefits increase financial risks of the companies. Companies may use health insurance benefits as components of recruitment and retention of their workers. The Health Maintenance Organization develops mechanisms of regulating the provision of health insurance by companies to their workers (Hipple & Stewart, 1996).
The organization ensures efficient management of health insurance in order to increase the productivity of workers. Companies like Omex International adopt cost sharing programs to reduce the cost of health insurance for their employees. Companies may improve the health insurance package by provision of incentives to employees that choose low cost health interventions. Employees that choose low cost health insurance reduce the expenses that companies incur on their medical cover. Insurance companies may at times decrease the cost of health insurance.
The reduction in the cost of the insurance may result in savings for companies under the cost sharing structure. The subsequent reduction in the rate of co-payments to medical facilities by insurance companies leads to the saving of financial resources. The reduction of deductibles by insurers may also help employers to save money for developmental functions. The Affordable Health Care Act regulates the amount of deductibles that companies remit to insurance companies, therefore, safeguarding companies from exploitative health insurers.
Employers like CertaPro Painters help their workers to manage lifestyles in order to safeguard them from acquisition of lifestyle diseases. Terminal diseases tend to be costly for companies due to the long durations of their curative processes. CertaPro Painters discourages smoking because the habit increases the risk of cancer illnesses for employees (Beard & Edwards, 1995).
Many employers create forums and workshops in order to advise their employees on healthy behavior patterns. They also give health talks to their employees on ways of maintaining healthy lifestyles and avoiding diseases. Organizations usually regulate health insurance benefit costs by offering incentives to employees that adopt healthy lifestyles. Employees that maintain healthy lifestyles receive gift vouchers from their employers. The companies provide medical tests to ensure their employees remain healthy.
Organizations may decrease health insurance expenses by alleviating unnecessary utilization of health care by employees like unncessary checkups. This aspect may lower organizational expenditure on health insurance. Employers may also monitor the duration of stay in medical centers by workers in order to regulate in-patient expenditure limits for their employees. Companies like Ikor USA control the number of working hours of their workers. Ikor USA avoids overtime due to risks associated with insurance cover for workers that conduct overtime duties. This aspect also reduces mental distress for workers that may result from overwork. Many organizations may start their own medical insurance companies in order to reduce health insurance costs.
Conclusion
The Affordable Health Care Act has led to changes in the operations management of many organizations in the US (Adler, 2003). Companies must conduct additional research on how they can reduce costs brought about by health insurance schemes. The organizations may formulate monitoring and evaluation structures to assess the value of their workers as a way of work maximization. Health insurance must be equal to the productivity of the worker in any organization.
Companies must also provide competitive health insurance schemes in order to retain and increase the productivity of their workers (Controlling benefit costs, 2011). Organizations must also embark on educative programs for their workers in order to reduce occurrences of terminal diseases. The companies can encourage their workers to perform physical exercises. They can provide the employees with free gym and sporting facilities.
References
Adler, P. S. (2003). Making the HR outsourcing decision.MIT Sloan Management Review, 5(4), 54-60.
Beard, K. M., & Edwards, J. R. (1995). Employees at risk: Contingent work and the psychological experience of contingent workers. Journal of Organizational Behavior 6(13), 109-109.
Controlling benefit costs. (2011). The Controller’s Report, 3 (6), 5-7.
Hipple, S., & Stewart, J. (1996).Earnings and benefits of contingent and no contingent workers. Monthly Labor Review, 119(10), 22-30.
Lawrence, T. (2012).Integrating contingent workers. Baseline, 4 (114), 13-13.
Sheehan, C., & Cooper, B. K. (2011). HRM outsourcing: The impact of organizational size and HRM strategic involvement. Personnel Review, 40(6), 742-760.