Anticipate: Prepare by thinking about whom you’re dealing with and ask yourself how he/she may view the situation. This makes the initial resistance expected and understandable.

Prevent: It’s easy to fall prey to anger, but preventing harsh conflict is all about choosing a better behavior that will promote discussion instead of mutual rancor.

Identify: There are three basic approaches in conflict—rising to the challenge, cautiously withdrawing or wanting to keep the peace. When you can identify these approaches in yourself and others, you are empowered to handle the situation more productively.

Manage: Managing conflict has two components—managing yourself and managing the relationship. It’s about creating conditions that minimize the emotional dimension of conflict. Managing yourself in conflict can be as easy as taking some time to see your position from another perspective.

Resolve: To create movement toward resolution, we need to show others a path back to feeling good about themselves. When they feel good about themselves, they are less likely to feel  threatened and are more likely to move toward compromise.

This is not to say that conflict can be made easy! Indeed, a research report by the University of Florida identifies eight major causes of workplace conflict and each has the potential to whip up extremely strong emotions:

• Conflicting needs
• Conflicting styles
• Conflicting perceptions
• Conflicting goals
• Conflicting pressures
• Conflicting roles
• Conflicting values
• Conflicting policy interpretations

Your Employee Assistance Program is not intended to become involved with workplace conflict (taking sides). However, your EAP can help you determine a pathway to resolution that will hopefully result in a “win-win” for all parties. Reflecting on the ideas set forth by Tim Scudder may be a good starting point!

Did you know that the only part of the body through which a doctor can see both blood vessels and brain tissue is your eyes? As a result, an annual eye exam can detect serious health problems like diabetes. If they’re caught early, it’s easier to treat them and help prevent their complications.

Learn how deductibles, copays, co-insurance and maximums work in a fun and easy video format.

Aug. 29: Employees love to gripe about rising health care costs, but a new poll finds most are not willing to sacrifice to pay less for their insurance.

Only 27 percent of people with insurance provided through their employer said they would accept a more restricted list of doctors and hospitals in their networks, according to the latest monthly poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially-independent program of the foundation.) Less than a third of those polled were willing to pay more for brand name drugs or pay higher deductibles in return for lower premiums.

Only one idea floated in the poll having people participate in corporate wellness programs promoting healthy behaviors won over a majority of employees: 68 percent said they’d be willing to take part in one of these programs in exchange for lower premiums.

The poll found that most workers don’t blame their companies for the escalating cost of health care. Two out of three said they were offered the best coverage the company could afford given financial circumstances. A whopping 88 percent reported a somewhat or very positive experience with their employer-provided health care plan.

One of the major goals of the health law was to help extend insurance to 32 million Americans. But half of the uninsured surveyed don’t know about several major parts of the law designed to help them, including its provisions to help finance medical coverage. Nearly half didn’t think the law will make a difference for them. A third think it’ll improve their situation and 14 percent think it’ll harm them. (Because the poll only interviewed 154 uninsured adults, the margin of error on these questions was pretty wide, +/- 9 percentage points.)

The poll found two-thirds of Americans are positive about one new government action on health care: the new rule that requires insurers to cover the full cost of birth control and other preventive health services for women. Not surprisingly, support is strongest among those of child-bearing age, while seniors are split about the plan.

One final interesting observation from the poll results: while Democrats like the health care law more than Republicans, the partisan divide has been shrinking since the bill was signed in spring of last year. Democratic support has dropped by 18 percentage points to 60 percent favoring the law the lowest level since passage while GOP support has risen 11 percent, to 24 percent favoring the law.

The poll was conducted August 10 through 15, with 1,201 adults queried. The margin of error was +/- 3 percentage points for questions answered by everyone, and +/- 5 points for people with employer-provided health insurance.

Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, and sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Please contact us at info@charterbenefits.com or at (866) 206-4577 to get a proposal or for more information.

Health maintenance organization (HMO) plans

A health maintenance organization (HMO) contracts with health care professionals and facilities to create a “provider network.” If you choose HMO insurance, you’ll typically pay just a small co-payment if you visit a physician or hospital within the plan network. HMO insurance often features lower premiums and co-pays than other plans.

However, HMO insurance is also among the least flexible types of health insurance plans. When you sign up for one of these plans, you must choose a primary care provider (PCP). If your current physician is not in the plan, you will have to find another doctor, or pay to see your current physician.

Typically, HMOs will not pay for non-emergency care if it’s performed by an out-of-network physician or facility. You’ll also need a referral from your PCP to see a specialist.

In general, HMOs offer you the lowest out-of-pocket costs for your care. The tradeoff is that your access to care outside the network is extremely limited.

Preferred provider organization (PPO) plans

A preferred provider organization (PPO) also enters into contractual agreements with health care providers and creates a “provider network.” But unlike HMOs, PPO health insurance will cover some – but not all – of the cost of care administered by out-of-network providers.

If you select a PPO, you will have low co-payments as long as you see in-network physicians. Another advantage of PPO insurance is that unlike an HMO, you do not need a primary care physician’s permission to see a specialist (as long as the specialist is in network).

However, PPOs also have a few disadvantages. Going out of network for your medical care is likely to cost you – either you’ll have to pay a deductible or the difference between what the out-of-network physician and an in-network physician charges. However, unlike many HMO plans, a PPO health insurance plan generally will pick up at least some of the cost of out-of-network care.

In addition, you may have to pay higher co-payments if your doctor charges more than is “reasonable and customary” (according to the insurer) for a service.

In summary, PPO health insurance offers a wider range of access than HMO insurance, but your out-of-pocket costs tend to be higher.

Point-of-service (POS) plans

A third type of health plan — known as a point-of-service (POS) plan – offers a combination of PPO health insurance and HMO insurance services. In fact, the “point of service” in the name reflects the fact that you make your choice of whether to use HMO or PPO services each time you see a provider.

Generally, a POS has rules similar to HMO insurance, but a POS will allow you to see an out-of-network physician for a higher fee. Some HMOs actually include a POS plan so you can see out-of-network physicians.

Understanding the differences among HMO, PPO and POS plans can help you make the right health insurance plan choice during your next health insurance open enrollment period.

The TotalCare model recognizes that any of us can experience hundreds of concerns that fall into one of four major categories:

• Personal: These can range from stress management to navigating life’s transitions to improved health and fitness.

• Family & Relationships: Includes everything from parenting skills to military separation to adoption assistance to resources for parents of children with special needs.

• Financial & Legal: Ranges from retirement or education planning to debt management to immigration issues to creating a will or trust.

• Work & Career: Do you need to develop new and advanced skills or learn to be a better member of your work team? Your EAP is prepared to assist you!

Not only does your TotalCare EAP help you address a huge range of problems – we also offer the largest menu of possible solutions for each, ranging from professional consultations with experts to hundreds of videos, articles, screenings and online trainings.

Like traditional EAPs, we are always standing by to help you address personal and family crises in a dignified and confidential manner. But we also believe that as your EAP, we should not limit our mission to providing only traditional counseling – thus, our commitment to helping you with the totality of life issues you may be facing!

Workplace statistics indicate that one out of five employees will likely experience a major problem during the coming year which will significantly disrupt life at home and productivity at work. Your EAP is standing by 24/7/365 to assist should you be confronted by a serious problem of this nature. But with your TotalCare EAP coverage, we are also available to help with the lesser challenges which may pop up in the days and months ahead – challenges that may develop into major problems if postponed or mishandled. These might include:

• Providing financial calculators to help you determine the best way to finance a new car

• Assisting in transitioning an elderly relative to a more appropriate living arrangement

• Helping you find solutions to cyber concerns involving your children

• Helping you improve your nutrition

To learn more about the TotalCare solutions available to you, speak with one of your account managers at Regional Employee Benefits Council. 1-866-203-4577

July 26: Gov. Jerry Brown riled advocates for the elderly and disabled on Monday with an announcement that he vetoed legislation to create a replacement program for senior care services scrapped as part of this year’s budget agreement.

Assembly Bill 96 would have allowed roughly half of the state’s 300 Adult Day Health Care centers to continue to operate under a new, federally approved program. It was approved in response to an agreement to ax the Adult Day Health Care services to cut state spending.

Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, D-Davis, said the veto was “both disappointing and incomprehensible; especially from someone who is himself a member of the senior community.”

“This ill-advised action will ultimately result in higher costs to the State, and more tragically, exact an immeasurable toll on 37,000 frail elders, their families, and those who care for them,” Yamada, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care, said in a statement.

Brown said in a veto message that while he supports the goal of the proposal, “creating a new ADHC look-alike program at this juncture is unnecessary and untimely.”

He said in the message that his administration will extend benefits for ADHC recipients through December 2011 and is working with ADHC centers and community organizations to ensure elderly patients currently utilizing the services do not experience “unnecessary institutionalization.”

July 21: A major provision of the healthcare reform law designed to prevent businesses from dropping coverage for their workers could inadvertently leave families without access to subsidized health insurance.

The problem is a huge headache for the Obama administration and congressional Democrats, because it could leave families unable to buy affordable health insurance when the healthcare law requires that everyone be insured starting in 2014.

Some of the administration’s closest allies on healthcare reform warn this situation could dramatically undercut support for the law, which already is unpopular with many voters and contributed to Democrats losing the House in the 2010 midterm elections.

“It’s going to be a massive problem if it comes out that families have to buy really expensive employer-based coverage,” said Jocelyn Guyer, deputy executive director at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families.

“If they don’t fix this and by ‘they’ I mean either the administration or Congress — we’re going to have middle-class families extremely unhappy with [healthcare] reform in 2014, because they’ll basically be facing financial penalties for not buying coverage when they don’t have access to any affordable options.”

At issue is a so-called “firewall” in the law that denies subsidies to workers whose employers offer quality, affordable coverage. The firewall applies to plans with premiums that cost less than 9.5 percent of a worker’s income. If a worker has to dole out more than that amount to buy coverage, the employer coverage is considered unaffordable and the worker is eligible for subsidies to buy coverage on the new exchanges. Initially, advocates thought the threshold also applied to family coverage.

If premium costs paid to cover a worker’s family cost 20 percent of a worker’s income, for example, the worker and his or her family should be eligible for subsidies.

But in calculating the bill’s cost last year, Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) took the law to mean that employers and their families aren’t eligible for subsidies as long as the individual plan is affordable regardless of the price of the family plan.

This means the costs to an employee for covering his or her family could be too high to afford for many working families. “If you’ve got employer-based coverage that’s affordable for the employee only,” Guyer said, “the family is expected to take the employer coverage even if it“s totally unaffordable and no one in the family is eligible for the exchange subsidies.”

The glitch is causing heartburn for advocates who worry that it could leave thousands of children and spouses uninsured and subject to penalties for not having insurance.

“The JCT read of the language is disturbing and we hope the administration doesn’t read the language that way,” said Bruce Lesley, president of the children’s advocacy group First Focus. “It would put dependent coverage, children and spouses at grave risk.”

The Obama administration is expected to clarify shortly through Treasury Department regulations who’s eligible for subsidies. An administration official told The Hill, “These matters will be considered in future regulations.”

Healthcare reform proponents say they’ve quietly been talking to the administration for months about the issue. “We’ve talked to them a lot about this,” said Judith Solomon, vice president for health policy at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “We’ve made our views known.”

While advocates say changing the policy is a no-brainer, the costs could be a hurdle. One new study, by the Employment Policies Institute, estimates that changing the policy could cost taxpayers $50 billion per year. But if the administration leaves the policy as is, “millions of families will be stuck in a no-man’s-land without affordable coverage through their employer or the exchange.”

“Whichever interpretation holds,” the study concludes, “the consequences are significant.” Others dispute those figures. They argue that employers will offer affordable coverage for whole families and point out that many children who aren’t covered by employer family plans are eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

“It’s really not clear to me how much of an impact it would be [to change the policy],” Solomon said. The $50 billion-per-year figure “seems very high to me.”