Risk & Business

Many small business owners are into wellness initiatives for their employees. These programs are designed to help lower the medical costs and improve the health of their workforce. As part of these plans are treadmill desks and exercise balls for chairs.  More small business owners are trying these items out to help the fitness of employees. Risk managers, however are saying,  "hold on, there are issues with these things".  Exercise balls for chairs cause ergonomic issues with the desks and computers as most people will be towering above them. This causes a "hunched over" work environment. Also many employees just do not have the core strength to sit all day on the exercise ball and work. This can cause all kinds of physical problems.  As for treadmill desks, the risk managers are seeing employees getting hurt. Most workers do not wear the appropriate shoes and also cannot keep their balance for long periods of time on the treadmills. Most injuries are from falling

As the new health care rules and regulations force mergers of health insurance companies, new insurers are forming to fill the void. These new insurance companies are owned by institutions like hospitals and  health care networks and are bringing new competition into the marketplace. According to the leaders of these new institutions, their goal is to bring more affordable health insurance to employers and employees. The Affordable Care Act has caused a rapid rise in deductibles and premiums which many employers and employees are struggling to pay for. The new insurance companies which are able to run smaller and more effecient are going to compete for the same premium dollars that many of the larger insurance companies have gobbled up under the ACA. This is welcome news for small business, whose only choice in many cases was to drop health coverage or lay off workers because of the premium increases. Only time will tell how much impact these new hospital owned insurance companies wil