From all of us at Gibson, we wish you peace, prosperity, and a happy new year!

Maintaining compliance is important for every organization. But it can be difficult to keep up with the changing regulations. And especially with a new president taking office soon, there are currently a lot of questions about the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and what it will mean to you as an employer.

As 2016 draws to a close, we’d like to highlight a few important updates regarding the ACA as well as considerations regarding its future.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness in the U.S. And 1 in 25 experiences a serious mental illness that substantially interferes with or limits major life activities. You have a greater likelihood of encountering someone in a mental or emotional crisis than someone having a heart attack. This prevalence of mental illness means it is likely impacting many individuals in your workforce.

Halloween is a time to watch scary movies, visit frightening haunted houses, and dress up as ghosts, witches, and zombies. As we prepared for this day of spooky things, we asked our team to share what they consider the scariest risks facing businesses today.

Every organization is different. What you consider the biggest risks will vary from industry, size, and region. While not all inclusive, here are 7 scary risks currently haunting many businesses:  

In several of our blogs we’ve suggested surveying your employees as a starting point for future wellness initiatives. Your best chance at employee engagement in your workplace wellbeing programs begins with asking your employees what they want!

Whether it has to do with workplace safety, financial wellbeing, internal work processes, or other factors that influence wellbeing, it’s always a good idea to see what your employees think about it first.

It’s officially fall! Cooler weather is on its way, leaves will be changing colors, football season has begun, and the highly coveted pumpkin-flavored items have returned to menus everywhere!

But fall also means the start of flu season...

How can the flu impact your workforce? What can you do to help prepare your employees and encourage wellbeing?

Whether you sponsor a self-funded or a fully-insured medical and prescription benefit plan to your employees, there is a good chance you purchase drugs through a Pharmacy Benefits Manager (PBM). There is also a high probability you are completely unaware of what a PBM is and how it operates. You’re not alone!

What is the USPSTF, you ask? The USPSTF is the United States Preventive Services Task Force. It is “an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine. The Task Force works to improve the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling services, and preventive medications.”

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Karen Moscato. We hope you enjoy Karen’s wisdom and perspective.

The meetings went well. I had driven to one of our offices located 2 hours away to attend two important meetings on capacity and efficiencies. These are hot topics in today’s business world. While driving and recapping the meetings in my thoughts, I didn’t pay attention to the gas gauge for the first hour of the trip. The bright orange light got my attention indicating a potentially empty gas situation. I had better find a station quickly or I would be calling AAA for assistance!

Prior to March 21, 2016, Indiana was one of just a handful of states that had not legislatively addressed the subject of telemedicine. Meanwhile Illinois and Ohio currently have proposed telemedicine parity bills but nothing set in stone – and Wisconsin has no parity legislative activity at this time. Michigan’s laws went into effect in 2012 and Kentucky was well ahead of the game with legislation in 2000, but the first state to address telemedicine by law was actually Louisiana in 1995. 21 years ago?! Why was Indiana so late to answer the call?