The form must be posted where the company usually posts other employee notices, like minimum wage and workplace safety notices. Form 300A summarizes the total number of fatalities, missed workdays, job transfers or restrictions, and injuries and illnesses as recorded on Form 300.

The Annual Summary (Form 300A) requires the following information from the Form 300 Log:

• The total number of non-first-aid occupational injury and illness cases.
• The total number of cases with days away from work and cases with job transfer or restriction, and total number of other recordable cases.
• The cumulative total number of days from all injuries or illnesses, including days away from work and job transfer restrictions.
• The number of occupational injury/illness cases, including skin disorders, respiratory conditions, poisoning, hearing loss and all other illnesses.

Despite the form being relatively simple, many employers make mistakes filling it out. Here are the most common errors: 

Keeping one log for multiple locations — Employers are required to keep one OSHA 300 Log per location where they have employees and that is in operation for a year or longer. The corresponding 300A form must also be posted at each location.

Improperly certifying the log — Under regulations, a company executive must certify the 300 Log and the 300A Annual Summary Form. An executive is defined as:

• An owner of the company,
• An officer of the corporation,
• The highest-ranking company official working at the location, or
• The immediate supervisor of the highest-ranking company official working at the location.

Listing all workers’ compensation cases — Only the injuries listed under the regulations must be included in the log. But deciphering OSHA’s recordkeeping rules to determine if an employee’s injury or illness is recordable is challenging.

The requirements and definitions differ significantly from those established under state workers’ compensation laws and, while there may be some overlap, some cases may be one and not the other. 

It is important to only record and report those injuries that are required under the regulations, which require that an employer must record a work-related injury or illness if it results in one or more of the following: 

• Death 
• Days away from work 
• Restricted work 
• Transfer to another job 
• Medical treatment beyond first aid 
• Loss of consciousness 
• Diagnosis by a physician or health care professional of a significant injury or illness. 

Failing to record temp worker injuries — Regulations require that company employees and contract labor or temp worker injuries must be included in the OSHA 300 and OSHA 300A logs. The key is that the company must be in direct supervision of those workers. 

Failing to post the form when there were no recordable injuries or illnesses — This is one of the most common mistakes that employers make. They think since they had no workplace injuries, the form does not need to be posted. That would be incorrect.

A number of health systems around the country have started billing for certain types of messages, largely ones that are involved in clinical assessments or medical history reviews that take more than five minutes. Those costs will be passed on to health plan enrollees — likely in the form of copays or coinsurance — and insurers.

Online and app-based portals have become increasingly popular, particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people grow accustomed to not seeing their doctor face to face for every visit. Often these portals will allow the health plan enrollee to ask their care team questions, and that’s when providers say they are not being paid for their time.

Is a new trend starting?

Patient portals were seeing little usage prior to the pandemic, which spurred demand as patients and providers needed a solution that didn’t require in-person interactions. Studies have shown that more than 80% of patients used telehealth at least once since the start of the pandemic, up from about 10% prior to 2020.

These portals also sometimes obviated the need even for a tele-visit with a doctor and opened the door for patients to message their doctor directly.

The issue recently came to the fore when Cleveland Clinic and a handful of other medical centers started charging for this service. 

Cleveland Clinic in November 2022 said it would start billing patients’ insurance companies for messages requiring at least five minutes of health care providers’ time to answer.

What will it cost?

Sending messages could cost as much as $50 per message depending on the time and skill necessary to answer the request. According to the announcement, people with individual or employer-sponsored group health insurance may be billed an average of $33 to $50 for each message taking more than five minutes. 

In announcing the new charges, Cleveland Clinic wrote: “Over the last few years, virtual options have played a bigger role in our lives. And since 2019, the amount of messages providers have been answering has doubled.”

According to a report in Becker’s Health IT, seven more large health systems around the country have also started billing for some patient portal services: Northshore University Health System in Evanston, Illinois; Northwestern Medicine in Chicago; Chicago-based Lurie’s Children’s Hospital; San Francisco-based UCSF Health; Renton, Washington-based Providence; and UW Medicine and Fred Hutch Cancer Center, which both have their headquarters in Seattle.

These hospitals say they will only bill for certain messages, such as those concerning:

• Changes to a patient’s medications.
• New symptoms the patient may be experiencing.
• Changes to a long-term condition.
• Check-ups on long-term condition care.
• Requests to complete medical forms.

Messages may provide information on a treatment plan or recommend that the patient get a test done or schedule an appointment with a specialist. Doctors may often refer to the patient’s medical history and review their records for these communications, for example.

The providers say that other services on portals will remain free, such as:

• Scheduling appointments.
• Getting a prescription refilled.
• Asking a question that leads to an appointment.
• Asking a question about an issue the patient saw their provider for recently.
• Checking in as a part of follow-up care after a procedure, such as a colonoscopy.
• A patient giving a quick update to their doctor.

Experts predict that as more health services gravitate towards providers’ portals, hospitals and doctors will look to generate revenue from these services.

With employees maybe feeling disgruntled after being let go, on the way out some of them will pocket important company data — usually client lists, e-mails, vendor contacts and even proprietary information that is essential to the company’s competitive advantage.

During lay-offs, termination or when someone quits, you need to take steps to protect your data and intellectual property, but there are legal implications as well for how far you can go. Consider the following:

Non-solicitation agreements — These protect you from a departing employee taking with them proprietary, confidential information like client and vendor lists. A non-solicitation agreement bars an ex-worker from going to a competitor and contacting your clients for business.

These are not legal in all states, so check your state laws and consult with your attorneys. In California, for example, non-solicitation agreements are not enforceable.

Non-disclosure agreements — These are different than the above and no states bar them. They focus instead on company data that a competitor can use to harm the business.

These agreements spell out the departing employee’s fiduciary obligations under the law by identifying protected company proprietary and confidential information.

The agreement requires that the employee keep such information secret for a certain period of time. Before huddling with your lawyers, your management team should identify all of your company’s protected data that you feel is worth protecting.

Return and inventory all company property — Before your employee leaves the premises, make sure they have returned all of your property that may contain company information. That would include:

• Laptops
• Company-issued mobile phones
• Originals and copies of company documents the employee has made or received.

Passwords and access — On their last day, remember to delete from your database and systems their user names and passwords and access codes. This could include:

• E-mail passwords
• Voicemail passwords
• Teleconference and intranet passwords
• VPN access and passwords
• Building or office lock-access codes.

Make sure to also collect any company ID cards. If you have concerns the employee may try to contact your current customers or vendors for any reason that could be detrimental to your firm, you can consider notifying them that the individual is no longer with you.

Conduct an exit interview — During this interview, you should go over boilerplate information like why they were let go and the importance of not taking with them any physical or intellectual property. 

Ask questions to determine what, if any, company data they may have been privy to or had access to. Also, if you have non-disclosure or non-compete agreements in place, use this time to reiterate the consequences for violating those agreements.

What to look for

It’s more difficult to avoid data misappropriation by an employee who is planning on quitting, as they can start downloading files to a thumb drive in the days before they give notice.

When employees are planning to take corporate data or are in the process of doing so, there are often one or more signs, which can be monitored with the right systems in place:

• A spike in a worker copying information to the cloud, USB drives, personal devices, e-mail accounts, and more. An increase in such activity could mean that the employee is planning to leave or has gotten wind of an impending dismissal and wants to copy useful information before they go.
• A surge in documents being deleted from an employee’s laptop or desktop computer. Files may also be deleted from corporate file shares.
• Sudden spikes or drops in e-mail activity.
• An employee accessing your customer relationship management system or financial accounts during late nights or very early mornings. This could mean they are scraping your files.
• The worker is sending to and/or receiving e-mails from a competitor.

With Americans increasingly struggling to pay their health care bills, more employers are shying away from only offering their workers high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) that reduce premiums up front for higher out-of-pocket costs for workers.

Also, with mental health a top concern for workers, employers are seeking out benefits and plans that include virtual mental health services to make it easier to access care.

The expected health insurance cost growth of 5.4% is still less than general inflation, which was averaging just a tad below 8% in 2022. Because of high inflation, employers should be prepared for continued accelerated cost growth in 2024 and beyond, according to Mercer.

What employers are doing

With the tight labor market and health insurance benefits high on employees’ demands, employers are focusing on:

• Enhancing benefits to improve attraction and retention (84% of large employers cited this as “important” or “very important”).
• Adding programs/services to expand access to behavioral health care and mental health services (73% said this was important or very important).
• Improving health care affordability (68%).
• Enhancing benefits/resources to support women’s reproductive health (55%).

That’s not to say that employers are not concerned about costs. Instead, they are tackling it in different ways than in the past.

“Given the focus on affordability, it is not surprising that, despite expectations of higher healthcare costs, most leaders are avoiding ‘healthcare cost shifting,’ or giving plan members more responsibility for the cost of health services through higher deductibles or copays,” Mercer wrote.

It added that there was little change in the median amount of these cost-sharing features in 2022.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, employers were shifting workers to HDHPs to reduce their costs, but while employees enjoy lower premiums with these plans, if they need care they will pay more out of pocket.

Mercer found that fewer large employers are offering only HDHPs than in past years. Very large organizations (20,000 or more employees) had been adopting these plans with gusto until 2018, when 22% of them offered an HDHP as the only option for their employees. That fell to 13% in 2021 and was only 9% in 2022.

Instead, more employers were using salary-based premiums in 2022 (34%, up from 29% in 2021). Under these arrangements, lower-wage workers have smaller paycheck deductions for health coverage than those with higher salaries.

Cost-cutting

Employers are instead looking at other ways to cut costs for themselves and their employees. The Mercer study found that:

• 35% of large employers are steering employees to high-performing provider networks and other sources of high-value care.
• 36% of large employers offer telephonic navigation and advocacy service to help members find the right provider based on quality and cost.
• 17 % offer digital navigation.
• 24% are focusing on managing costs of specialty drugs.
• 23% are working with their carriers and pharmacy benefits managers on cost and clinical management strategies. 

And the increasing number of natural disasters is not just a U.S. phenomenon. It’s happening around the world.

According to a report by Swiss Re Institute, the research arm of the reinsurance giant, insured catastrophe damage totaled $115 billion globally for 2022, although total economic losses were much higher at $260 billion.

The increasing frequency and intensity of these natural disasters in the United States, combined with soaring inflation, supply chain issues and labor shortages, is also having a knock-on effect on homeowner’s insurance prices.

There were 15 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the first nine months of 2022 alone:

• Southern tornadoes: March 30
• Southeastern tornadoes: April 4-6
• Severe weather in the South: April 11-13
• Western fires: Spring through fall
• Severe weather in the South and Central U.S.: May 1-3
• Hailstorms in north-central U.S.: May 9
• Severe weather in north-central U.S.: May 11-12
• Hailstorms in north-central U.S.: May 19
• Severe weather in Central U.S.: June 7-8
• Central derecho (an inland hurricane): June 13
• Severe weather in north-central and Eastern U.S.: July 22-24
• Flooding in Kentucky and Missouri: July 26-28
• Hurricane Fiona: Sept. 17-18
• Hurricane Ian: Sept. 28-30
• Western drought and heatwave: All year

And just to cap the year off, we had the Christmas bomb cyclone (known as Winter Storm Elliot) that threw a blanket of arctic freeze across large swaths of the country, causing an estimated $5.4 billion in insured losses in 42 states, according to Karen Clark & Co.

There are a few things to note about the list of calamaties. You’ll notice that some of these events were “severe weather” that didn’t qualify as a hurricane or derecho. But these severe weather events are starting to have as much destructive force as these primary perils.

Much of the weather the U.S. is experiencing is more intensive and far-reaching than before. The nature of hurricanes is also changing: these storms have typically caused wind and storm-surge damage, but as they grow wetter, they are now causing more rain and flood damage on top of the other damage.

And hurricanes are bringing flooding far beyond the coasts and into the central parts of states such as in Florida and the Carolinas, according to the Swiss Re report.

Drought is also a serious issue, particularly how it affects wildfires and water supplies. Years of low rainfall and overuse have left the Colorado River a shadow of its former self, resulting in record low levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the sites of two main dams that may soon stop producing electricity for millions of people.

According to the Sept. 27, 2022 “U.S. Drought Monitor” report, about 51% of the contiguous U.S. was in drought, up about 5.4% from the end of August. Drought conditions expanded or intensified across portions of the Mississippi Valley, central and northern Plains, Northwest, Southeast and parts of the Great Lakes.

The fallout

As of this writing, the full-year insured costs of weather disasters in the U.S. had not been calculated, but modelers predict the total property and infrastructure damage would be nearly $100 billion. Through the first nine months of 2022, total losses due to property and infrastructure damage reached $29.3 billion.

Those figures don’t include Hurricanes Fiona and Ian, the latter of which caused an estimated $65 billion in insured damage. Hurricane Ian was the year’s costliest catastrophe and the second-largest insured loss on record after Hurricane Katrina.

These events, plus the cost of repairing and rebuilding buildings and infrastructure also on the rise thanks to increasing material and labor costs, are having a knock-on effect on homeowner’s insurance.

Homeowner’s insurance rates rose 12.1% on average nationwide in 2022 from the year prior, according to Policygenius. However, people living in disaster-prone areas are seeing much higher rates. In the case of Florida and California, some people are unable to find insurance for their homes or face two-, three- or four-fold increases in their rates.

Increased use of these systems in these vehicles should prevent countless deaths and injuries and save millions of dollars.

The U.S. relies on large trucks for shipping goods, but they have always presented a serious threat to other vehicles. Often, the consequences have been fatal for drivers of passenger vehicles and costly for the trucks’ owners. 

For example, the singer Harry Chapin died in 1981 when his Volkswagen was hit from behind by a tractor-trailer on the Long Island Expressway. In 1986, a jury awarded his widow $10 million (worth $23.5 million today), which she donated to charity.

Forward collision warning (FCW) and automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems rely on either or both radar and video sensors to monitor the road in front of the vehicle. The FCW system sounds an audible alert when it detects that a collision is imminent.

The AEB system applies the vehicle’s foundation brakes to avoid or reduce the impact of a collision if the driver does not act. AEB systems typically include the FCW system.

Manufacturers have generally designed these systems to avoid collisions with moving vehicles. Some systems can also detect pedestrians, motorcycles, bicycles and vehicles that have stopped moving.

These systems are widely installed in passenger vehicles; by the fall of 2022, almost all new passenger cars will include them.

Strong evidence

Studies have provided strong evidence that they help avoid rear-end crashes in passenger vehicles. Until now, their effects on large commercial trucks were less well known. The new IIHS research shows that they have a positive effect on these trucks. 

The study looked at crash, miles-driven and hours-driven data between 2017 and 2019 for tractor-semi-trailers weighing 33,000 pounds or more. The vehicles were driven on limited-access highways and included those with and without the avoidance systems.

The results showed a clear improvement for trucks equipped with these systems:

• Trucks equipped with FCW struck other vehicles from behind at a rate that was 44% less than that of unequipped trucks. The rate for trucks with AEB was 41% less. These results were the same on both a miles-driven and hours-driven basis.
• FCW sounded warnings in 31% of rear-end crashes, and AEB activated in 43%.
• The average speed reduction between the moment of the systems’ interventions and impact was more than half.

The takeaway

These results indicate that safety should improve as more of these systems are installed in large trucks. It is easier and less expensive to retrofit trucks with FCW systems, so these systems may be implemented sooner.

Technologies such as these will save lives, prevent serious injuries, and save truck owners and their insurers from having to pay out $23-million damage awards.

And after they pay, they are often faced with significant fallout, including system rebuilding costs, their data still being leaked and financial implications, according to the “2022 Cyber Readiness Report” by Hiscox.

The eye-opening results of the study come as the number of businesses hit by cyber attacks continues growing.

Considering the potential damage to your organization and your systems in the aftermath of a ransomware attack, even if you have cyber insurance to pay recovery costs, it’s best to take steps to thwart attacks in the first place.

More than ransom

It’s clear that paying a ransom often doesn’t mean the recovery for an affected business will be smooth, according to the report, which covers the poll results of 5,000 organizations.

“Ransomware is still the most prevalent and damaging form of cyber attack and it is not uncommon for a company to be hit multiple times,” Gareth Wharton, Hiscox Cyber CEO, said in a prepared statement. “Even if a business owner makes the decision to pay the ransom, often they cannot fully restore their systems or prevent a data breach.”

The study found that:

• 36% of organizations that paid the ransom were hit again within 12 months.
• 41% of companies that paid the ransom and received the recovery key ended up with incomplete databases and were still forced to rebuild their systems.
• 29% of firms that paid the ransom demand still had data leaked.
• 26% of businesses paid a ransom in the hope of recovering their data because they did not have any back-ups.
• 26% of businesses hit by ransomware said the attack had threatened the solvency and viability of their operation.

The risk

Nearly half (47%) of firms reported that they had been hit by a cyber attack during the past 12 months, up from 40% in 2021. Of those who were attacked, 17% were ransomware victims.

The median cost of an attack has risen 29% to just under $17,000.

Criminals are increasingly targeting smaller firms. Companies with revenues of $100,000 to $500,000 can now expect as many cyber attacks as those earning $1 million to $9 million annually, Hiscox said in its report.

Additionally, the remote working trend makes cyber security more difficult, with 62% of firms saying that their business is more vulnerable to an attack as more staff work from home.

What you can do

Some firms have little exposure to a cyber attack, particularly if they don’t handle customer data or are not tech-driven operations. Each business has a different exposure level.

For companies that do have cyber exposure, protecting their organization requires a multi-pronged approach that includes cyber insurance and strong data security protocols.

Cyber insurance may cover the cost of a paid ransom, as well as recovery and rebuilding costs. If your organization has exposure, please give us a call to review your risk and see if cyber coverage is right for your business.

Besides that, Hiscox recommends taking a number of steps to protect against an attack and be able to recover from one faster:

• Keep all of your software up to date to include the installation of all of the latest security patches.
• Frequently back up your data on a server that is not hooked up to the cloud.
• Conduct frequent training for your staff on how to recognize and avoid common social engineering attacks that criminals use to trick them into revealing sensitive information about themselves or their company.

They should also be taught how to detect potentially dangerous e-mails that try to get them to click on a malicious link that can unleash ransomware or other malware.

The changes, which the IRS releases in November each year, will affect contribution limits for HSAs, FSAs and 401(k) and other retirement accounts.

The maximum contribution levels are readjusted every year to account for inflation, along with maximum retirement plan contribution limits.

They also cover the minimum deductibles that qualify programs as high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), which an HSA must be attached to under law.

Here’s the rundown of the changes going into 2023:

HSAs and HDHPs

HSAs allow your staff to set aside a portion of their pre-tax earnings into an account they can tap later to reimburse for qualified medical expenses, including copays, coinsurance, deductibles and medications.

Every year, the employee must decide how much they want their employer to deduct (pre-tax) from their paycheck to set aside in their HSA. Funds in an HSA can be rolled over indefinitely year after year and invested, much like a 401(k) plan.

For 2023, the annual maximum HSA contribution is:

• $3,850 for self-only coverage (up $200 from 2022); and
• $7,750 for family coverage (up $450).

In order to have an HSA, an employee must be enrolled in an HDHP. To qualify, the health insurance plan must have a minimum deductible of:

• $1,500 for self-only coverage (up $100 from 2022); or
• $3,000 for family coverage (up $200).

FSAs

FSAs are similar to HSAs in that they are funded with pre-tax dollars and can be used to reimburse for qualified medical expenses. However, the funds in the account must be exhausted or the employee loses the rest, except if the employer allows them to carry over a set portion every year.

The annual contribution limit for 2023 has increased to $3,050, up $200 from 2022.

Employers, under the law, may allow employees to carry over FSA funds from one year to the next. Under this option, an employee can carry over up to $610 of unused funds to the following plan year.

In other words, a worker with $610 of unspent FSA funds at the end of 2023 could carry over those funds for use in in 2024. The catch: These funds must be spent by March 15, 2024.

The maximum for the current year is $570, and your employees, if you allow it, would have until March 15, 2023 to spend those funds.

Retirement plan maximums

In 2023, employees who participate in 401(k), 403(b) and most 457 plans will be able to contribute up to $22,500, up from $20,500 in 2022.

Staff aged 50 or older can include a catch-up contribution of $7,500 per year, up from $6,500.

Also, the limits on annual contributions to an individual retirement arrangement have been increased to $6,500, up from $6,000 — although the IRA catch-up limit for people age 50 and over is the same: $1,000.

The takeaway

As we enter the final stretch of 2022, it’s important that you inform your employees of these new limits so they can plan their salary deductions accordingly.

From holiday parties and risk of electrical shock to fires and trips and falls, companies have a set of safety and risk management challenges that may not be present during most of the year.

Decorations present their own set of safety challenges, and so does a company party. To ensure your staff’s and visitors’ safety, and reduce your liability, consider the following:

Safety while decorating

Keep all relevant OSHA regulations in mind when decorating your workplace: both when in the process of decorating and making sure you don’t create new safety hazards that will last for the duration of the month. 

When your staff are decorating the office, ensure that they stick to the same safety guidelines that they would otherwise follow:

Ladder safety — Make sure that your employees don’t stand on tables, desks or rolling desk chairs when hanging lights or other decorations. Insist that they use ladders and that they have a partner to hold the ladder when they are working on high.

Keep walkways unobstructed — You may have boxes of Christmas decorations that you bring out every year, or you may purchase new decorations too. When employees are decorating, ensure they keep all walkways free of wires, cords, boxes or any of the material you are putting up. When people are working in a disorderly fashion, they can easily trip and fall.

Install wisely — Also make sure that your employees do not put up decorations in a way that can impede movement of your workers or office visitors, or create trip hazards or expose staff to getting caught in the decorations.

Unobstructed exits — Do not place any type of decorative items in exit corridors or on sprinklers. It’s essential to verify that none of your decorations block exit signage or fire safety equipment.

Office parties

If you’re throwing an office holiday party, your biggest concern should be potential liability from labor laws and liability if alcohol is served.

Consider the following tips to ensure that festive cheer doesn’t turn into a legal nightmare:

Limit your employer liability — Make sure that the party is not tied to any specific religious tradition and is referred to as a “holiday party.”

Apply your workplace policies on behavior, including those on violence, harassment, discrimination and general code of conduct, even if you’ve chosen a venue other than your workplace. Prior to the event, let employees know the standards to which they will be held.

Avoid activities or items such as mistletoe, a game of Twister, or inappropriate music that could lead to physical contact, unwanted social pressure or inappropriate conversation.

Take any complaints stemming from the party seriously. As you normally would with any other incident, document, investigate and take appropriate action.

Alcohol at parties — Alcohol is a liability, so you should carefully think about whether you should serve it. Consider:

• Hiring professional bartenders who have their own insurance and are certified for alcohol service. Speak with the vendor to determine what protocols it uses to keep from serving minors and others who are visibly intoxicated.
• Offering an array of non-alcoholic beverage choices.
• Not having an open bar. Instead, hand out drink tickets to control consumption.
• Stopping serving alcohol at least an hour before the event ends.
• Serving food for party-goers to munch on, in order to slow absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream.
• Giving a supervisor or manager the authority to cut off the serving of alcohol to anyone who is intoxicated.
• Providing alternative transportation, which may include free cab rides.

The takeaway

The holidays are fast approaching, but if you get an early start on planning for them you can keep safety top of mind to ensure nobody gets hurt and your firm doesn’t get sued.

While this form of medicine seems like it’s here to stay, there are other technologies that employers can look to include in their group health plans to help employees get the most out of their benefits, better manage their health and make more informed decisions about care.

And surveys of employees have found that employees want more from technology to be further woven into their benefits. Here are three technologies that can boost your current health benefits.

Apps and patient portals

More health plans are starting to offer user-friendly apps and online patient portals to allow their enrollees to manage their health care.

They are essentially convenient one-stop shops where they can, among other things:

• Find a doctor.
• Schedule appointments or doctor’s visits, annual exams and other procedures.
• Receive reminders about important preventative care services, such as regular colonoscopies, blood work and vaccinations.
• Renew prescriptions.
• Check test results.
• Get advice on managing chronic conditions.

The best apps and portals will allow enrollees to access their medical records, and to share them with their doctors or specialists they are seeing even if a doctor is not in the same health system that stores the health records.

By being able to share records with specialists in this manner, employees and their providers can streamline and better co-manage patient care. This can be crucial for patients with chronic conditions.

Some health plan portals and apps will also serve as the platform for virtual care visits with their doctors.

Real-time health tracking

One of the new frontiers in health care is remote patient monitoring, thanks to an explosion in new smartphone and tablet apps as well as wearable technology.

A 2021 survey by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society found that 52% of providers had recommended that patients use a smartphone or tablet app to monitor and track their care and health.

Additionally, 36% said they had recommended that patients wear a smartwatch or other wearable technology to monitor vitals like:

• Heart rhythm and rate
• Blood pressure
• Temperature
• Glucose levels.

In fact, a number of tech companies, including Apple Inc., have made health maintenance a major part of their platform by allowing them to user their iPhone connected to an Apple Watch to help them better manage their health by monitoring items such as the above.

There is even a function that will check to see if you are alright after falling down. And if you do not respond and are immobile for more than one minute, the watch will automatically call emergency services.

Benefits experts expect wearable technology to play an increasingly large role in helping people maintain their health and get help when they need it. In fact, a survey by Employer Health Innovation Roundtable and Hello Heart found that 65% of benefits executives expect use of remote patient monitoring to increase.

Virtual second opinions

Studies have found that 10% of patients are misdiagnosed for cancer, infections, heart attack or stroke.

Those mistakes are costly and can cost someone their life. In fact, the cost of false-positive mammograms and overdiagnosis among women accounted for $4 billion a year in health care spending, according to a study published in the journal Health Affairs.

Some employers are now offering virtual second-opinion services, which allow their employees to have their case reviewed by another doctor no matter where that specialist is in the country. This service can save the patient on travel costs and time to visit the specialist.

The patients will often deal with a nurse liaison, who can:

• Gather all of the patient’s records and send them to a specialist to review.
• Schedule video consultations with a specialist.
• Arrange for reports to be sent to the patient and current provider after the specialist has reviewed their case and written a report.

Having access to a second opinion after receiving some bad medical news can help give the patient peace of mind, even if the original diagnosis is correct. In cases where mistakes were made, it could be life-altering or life-saving.

The takeaway

Technology will continue playing a greater role in people’s health. Offering new services that include technologies that can improve your employees’ health care experience is a win-win for you and your workers.

They’ll be happier with their health plans and the care they receive, and you can improve your employee retention.