HCW Benefits Blog

Contributor:
Stephanie Clark, Marketing Coordinator
Hill, Chesson & Woody

This year, HCW has made a strong effort to offer free educational seminars to human resources professionals. At the beginning of the year, we embarked on a series of HRCI-certified educational seminars called “Eleven in 11,” hosted by our partner, Capital Associated Industries.

The Eleven in ’11 series features one topic roughly every month in 2011, held at CAI’s Raleigh and Greensboro offices. We’re halfway through the year with the 6th course being completed this week, and we’ve gotten excellent feedback on this series!

Topics covered so far have been:

1. How to Keep Your Wellness Initiatives from Running Out of Steam
2. An Employer's Guide to Medicare: Understanding Plan Basics and the MSP Rules
3. Reality Check: What's Driving Healthcare Costs and How it Affects Your Business
4. Benefits Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Aligning Your Benefits with Your Business Strategy
5. Reducing Healthcare Costs: A Complete List of Cost Control Measures
6. It's Not Hip to Be Square: Round Out Your Benefits Program with Effective Ancillary Benefits

Our first class in the series covered the latest strategies and practices to enhance workplace wellness and maximize its impact on the health and wellbeing of employees.  Some of the comments we collected after the class were…

“Setting up a wellness committee and keeping active involvement, communicating that involvement and communicating the results…that’s very important.”

“I picked up information on what’s involved with transitioning from a participation-based wellness program to a standards-based program — a move that comes with increased compliance obligations.”

“I thought it was very informative to learn about the different parts (of Medicare), how they coordinate with group health plans and also how it works with retiree coverage.”

“I’ve talked with (the presenter) before. I think he’s a great source of knowledge. His presentations are very interactive and fun as well as educational. And, for 3 HRCI credits, you can’t miss that.”

With the following classes remaining, we hope to end 2011 having armed many NC businesses with the ability and knowledge to take control of their employee benefits strategy and contain healthcare costs. Get registered if you haven't already!

7. Kicking the Tires: How to Find a Trusted Benefits Advisor  (6/21/11 – Raleigh & 6/28/11 – Greensboro)
8. Getting Down to Brass Tacks: Understanding Utilization Data and What to Do with It  (7/28/11 – Raleigh & 8/4/11 – Greensboro)
9. Tell it Like it Is: How Communication Can Help Improve Perceived Value and Control Your Healthcare Costs  (8/16/11 – Raleigh & 8/23/11 – Greensboro)
10. Knock Knock: Is Your Organization Ready for the Imminent DOL Audit?  (10/20/11 – Raleigh & 10/6/11 – Greensboro)
11. HIPAA, COBRA, ERISA: A Three-Day Course in Three Hours  (11/10/11 – Greensboro & 11/17/11 – Raleigh)