Blues Plans Are Criticized On Executive Compensation; Some Adjust Pay Based On Economy: Chris Meehan

Blues Plans Are Criticized On Executive Compensation; Some Adjust Pay Based On Economy: Chris Meehan

While Blue Crotchety and Dispirited Lock up plans ' executive compensation may seem derisory compared to corporate bonuses and golden parachutes at many immense for - profit companies, the plans are not proof to criticism for their compensation and severance packages, especially in a severe recession. Several not - for - profit Blues plans — citing the economic turmoil or their own lower financial results — have reduced senior executive compensation packages and bonuses.
Tim Bartl, a spokesperson for the Center on Executive Compensation, tells The AIS Report that companies are making changes to executive compensation plans " forthwith as a by-product of the economic slump. These changes involve reducing salaries and changing the short - and long - term pressure opportunities to revert the expectations of lower performance turmoil forward. " Overall, he says, " According to Equilar, Inc., total compensation of S&P [i. e., Standard & Broke ' s] 500 executives at companies that have filed their proxy statements so far, CEO pay has dropped by 6. 8 % and annual incentives have dropped by over 20 % " since the recession began.
Bartl contends that the majority of public yamp against senior executive pay has been against financial service executives. Their packages often " involved a modest honorarium, with a mammoth discretionary annual fancy, which comprises the vast majority of pay. "
Some Blues Plans Criticized for Severance Pay
Still, Blues plans have known criticism of the packages paid to their leaders. In Maryland, for instance, Insurance Commissioner Ralph Tyler issued an order that reduced former CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield executive Leon Kaplan ' s post - termination payment from $6. 7 million to $2. 7 million. The company sought to lower Kaplan ' s termination pay beneath a Maryland statute to what was considered " fair and logical " for work performed. Tyler certified the lower payment.
More recently, Paulette Thabault, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration, began looking into the $7. 2 million retirement carton that Disconsolate Testy and Low Blot out of Vermont ( BCBSVT ) paid to former CEO William Milnes Jr. in 2008.
" That amount was larger than we expected, " Thabault oral. Bobby-soxer enhanced, " I am not vigor to rule out a regulatory response. " Thabault does not have the corresponding authority to approve a pennies in executive compensation that the Maryland commissioner does, but can " inquire BCBSVT and all insurers, and to craft supplemental orders whenever required, " spokesperson Peter Recent tells The AIS Report.
Indeed, the department required BCBSVT to " gadget a number of changes related to executive compensation as a development of a stretched-out inquiry in 2007 into BCBSVT ' s administrative costs, " Vernal says. While he did not go into details, he explains that the commissioner required the company to follow up on some of the recommendations resulting from the inquiry regarding the structure of ration compensation at BCBSVT.
Last month Dispirited Touchy and Woebegone Smuggle of North Dakota ( BCBSND ) fired CEO Mike Unhjem. When the plan spoken that his severance combination included $2. 2 million in payments subservient his 2007 employment agreement, state Shack Democratic master Merle Boucher responded by proposing a bill that would have levied a 70 % tax on earnings of more than $1 million for not - for - profit CEOs. But Castle Republicans renounced the proposal, and the bill died.
Still, those amounts anaemic in comparison to the $15. 3 million Gail Boudreaux confessed when girl by oneself her position as president of Fed up Crotchety and Gloomy Cache of Illinois, a Health Care Service Corp. ( HCSC ) suitable. Boudreaux ' s resignation was announced a month after the company named Patricia Hemingway Entry CEO in November 2007.
Strategies on Compensation at Blues Plans
While HCSC spokesperson Ross Blackstone did not comment on the Boudreaux ' s severance package, he explains that its executive compensation " is a pay - for - performance plan " based on company inside story. The program " is designed to allow us to compete for and retain talented employees to lead our company and serve our members with the best equivalent in products and services, " he adds.
Blackstone contends that the company and its Blues plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas " have performed very well over the recent several years. "
The compensation practice, he asserts, is reviewed annually " to warrant it ' s in line with our industry ' s expectations. And based on both independent analyses and our own analysis, our executive pay is well within the compensation levels of other executives in our industry. "
Other Blues plans, congeneric as Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, are reducing executive salaries in 2009. In its 2008 results, the plan oral CEO David Klein, who established total compensation of $2. 7 million in 2008, will be paid 25 % less in 2009. Other senior executives at the plan also will experience pay cuts this year. But " senior management executives dispatch the numbers fancy pay on a delay infancy for multiple prior years ' unfolding, " the plan vocal. So " compensation reported for 2008 may have risen tailor-made to favorable working in 2007 and earlier years. " The plan, which au fait a collar loss for 2008, changed executive compensation as part of a more fitting travail to shape up financially in 2009.
Excellus spokesperson Jim Redmond furnished The AIS Report with a copy of the plan ' s executive compensation policy for 2009. The plan explains that executive compensation packages are earnest on a case - by - case inception. And packages are designed without the ability to offer stock options, as for - favor firms can. Excellus says senior executives are affected to entwine and stay with the company through a combination of long - term and short - term working - based incentives. The rewards are duty-bound to goals, including financial stability and customer service, the company says.
The store ' s compensation committee is assigned to conduct " rigorous national reviews of executive compensation " for the CEO and other company leaders, according to Excellus. The committee also uses understanding compensation information, " particularly among health plans of corresponding size, and recommendations " from independent national compensation consultants, such as Mercer LLC and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Inc., according to the plan. The committee reviews the recommendations, reports its findings to the board and asks for ratification. " No staff member, including the CEO, votes on the committee or the full board on executive compensation matters, " the plan says.
HMSA Freezes CEO ' s Salary
Hawaii Medical Service Association ( HMSA ) in its full - year 2008 results release oral CEO Robert Hiam volunteered to freeze his base salary in 2009 at $1. 3 million, an plan the board approved in light of the recession.
HMSA ' s compensation and human resources board committee determines executive compensation and looks at local and national companies with traits coincidental to HMSA to help conclude the appropriate level of pay. As with Excellus, a human resources consulting firm helps the committee moor well-suited levels of executive compensation.
Performance incentives obvious by HMSA executives in 2008 are " based on skilful measures met for 2005, 2006 and 2007, " the company vocal.
Other Blues plans reducing executive compensation interpolate Downcast Crotchety Despondent Secrete of Michigan ( BCBSMI ) and Low Irascible Dejected Adumbrate of Massachusetts ( BCBSMA ). BCBSMA will reduce senior executive compensation by approximately 30 % to 50 % in 2009, with CEO Cleve Killingsworth getting a 50 % reduction in pay. The plan uttered this is part of a series of steps to reduce administrative spending. BCBSMI uttered that senior executives would take a 5 % annual earnings cut and won ' t receive a 3. 8 % annual increase. BCBSMI says the 3. 8 % represents a freeze on executive honorarium for the second time in the ended three years. The plan is making the moves " to nearly indemnify projected losses on BCBSMI ' s individual health plans. "
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Is Primary Nursing Care Or Relationship - based Care Returning Back

Is Primary Nursing Care Or Relationship - based Care Returning Back

Primary nursing or Relationship - Based largely Care is a recipe of nursing practice that emphasizes continuity of care by having one nurse ( often teamed with a nursing assistant ) give complete care for a little group of inpatients at intervals a nursing unit of a hospital. The " primary nurse" is liable for coordinating all aspects of take care of the twin cluster of patients throughout their keep during a prone area. So, primary care nursing is an side of the nursing profession that focuses on providing primary care to patients.
Primary care acts as a patient ' s first point of contact with the medical system: when a patient arrives in a very doctor ' s office seeking a certain, attention for a sore throat, or different styles of medical help, he or babe is interacting with a primary care provider. Primary care nurses will find, treat, and manage a number of conditions independently or in tete-a-tete with a doctor, and they can conjointly outfit referrals to other medical practitioners if a downside is outside their scope of care. If that sore throat, for instance, is caused by a cancer in the trachea, the patient would be named an oncologist.
Here in Northern California, ( as LVN colleges in California are aware ) most acute hospitals adapt this nursing model to maintain supplementary effective and efficient patient care. We are mandated by law that one nurse should have not more than five patients to worry for. To satisfy this law and to save lots of cash at the corresponding time most acute hospitals that adapt this model hire nurses that have smart time management skills, are sensible at multi - tasking and competent with nursing skills in order to support direct patient care effectively and efficiently. Most nurses who minister primary care nursing to their patients are happy regarding where they work and have custom - made to the average operating model of nursing care. They claim that their patients get more personal care and so the nurses caress precious and find additional gratification from their work. These nurses do not depend on their nursing assistants or care club to desire care of their patients or do patient care. These nurses touch they know their patients well and can offer better patient care. Nurses also caress that their patients are happier and have faster recovery as they grasp their nurse well and have better continuity of care. These hospitals also have higher customer gratification degree as stated by most surveys.
President Obama comes from Hawaii, a state that uses the first nursing care model. There are some predictions that primary nursing will emerge as half of the medical reform that congress and lobbyists are pushing to pass as a law to system the perfect nursing setting. Earning LVN certification by turning into an LVN in California could be a smart 1st step to learning the health care system, moving on to an RN program and changing into a primary nurse.

Blues Plans Are Criticized On Executive Compensation; Some Adjust Pay Based On Economy: Chris Meehan

Blues Plans Are Criticized On Executive Compensation; Some Adjust Pay Based On Economy: Chris Meehan

While Woebegone Crotchety and Melancholy Secrete plans ' executive compensation may seem paltry compared to corporate bonuses and golden parachutes at many mammoth for - profit companies, the plans are not proof to criticism for their compensation and severance packages, especially in a severe recession. Several not - for - profit Blues plans — citing the economic turmoil or their own lower financial results — have reduced senior executive compensation packages and bonuses.
Tim Bartl, a spokesperson for the Center on Executive Compensation, tells The AIS Report that companies are making changes to executive compensation plans " promptly as a payoff of the economic withdrawal. These changes involve reducing salaries and changing the short - and long - term fancy opportunities to revert the expectations of lower performance game forward. " Overall, he says, " According to Equilar, Inc., total compensation of S&P [i. e., Standard & In rags ' s] 500 executives at companies that have filed their proxy statements so far, CEO pay has dropped by 6. 8 % and annual incentives have dropped by over 20 % " since the recession began.
Bartl contends that the majority of public lamentation against senior executive pay has been against financial service executives. Their packages often " involved a modest fee, with a large discretionary annual craving, which comprises the vast majority of pay. "
Some Blues Plans Criticized for Severance Pay
Still, Blues plans have common criticism of the packages paid to their leaders. In Maryland, for instance, Insurance Commissioner Ralph Tyler issued an order that reduced former CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield executive Leon Kaplan ' s post - termination payment from $6. 7 million to $2. 7 million. The company sought to lower Kaplan ' s termination pay beneath a Maryland statute to what was considered " fair and logical " for work performed. Tyler authenticated the lower payment.
More recently, Paulette Thabault, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration, began looking into the $7. 2 million retirement carton that Dismal Cross and Despondent Shroud of Vermont ( BCBSVT ) paid to former CEO William Milnes Jr. in 2008.
" That amount was larger than we expected, " Thabault verbal. Maiden in addition, " I am not action to rule out a regulatory response. " Thabault does not have the same authority to approve a pocket money in executive compensation that the Maryland commissioner does, but can " query BCBSVT and all insurers, and to craft supplemental orders whenever requisite, " spokesperson Peter Unpracticed tells The AIS Report.
Indeed, the department required BCBSVT to " device a number of changes related to executive compensation as a repercussion of a astronomical inquiry in 2007 into BCBSVT ' s administrative costs, " Girlish says. While he did not go into details, he explains that the commissioner required the company to follow up on some of the recommendations resulting from the inquiry regarding the structure of ration compensation at BCBSVT.
Last month Gloomy Irascible and Down-hearted Camouflage of North Dakota ( BCBSND ) fired CEO Mike Unhjem. When the plan vocal that his severance container included $2. 2 million in payments beneath his 2007 employment agreement, state Digs Democratic shepherd Merle Boucher responded by proposing a bill that would have levied a 70 % tax on earnings of more than $1 million for not - for - profit CEOs. But Crash pad Republicans unsocial the proposal, and the bill died.
Still, those amounts waxen in comparison to the $15. 3 million Gail Boudreaux published when teenybopper godforsaken her position as president of Downcast Irascible and Dispirited Suppress of Illinois, a Health Care Service Corp. ( HCSC ) fit. Boudreaux ' s resignation was announced a month after the company named Patricia Hemingway Chamber CEO in November 2007.
Strategies on Compensation at Blues Plans
While HCSC spokesperson Ross Blackstone did not comment on the Boudreaux ' s severance box, he explains that its executive compensation " is a pay - for - performance plan " based on company ability. The program " is designed to concede us to compete for and retain talented employees to lead our company and impart our members with the best value in products and services, " he adds.
Blackstone contends that the company and its Blues plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas " have performed very well over the ended several years. "
The compensation practice, he asserts, is reviewed annually " to assure it ' s in line with our industry ' s expectations. And based on both independent analyses and our own analysis, our executive pay is well within the compensation levels of other executives in our industry. "
Other Blues plans, equivalent as Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, are reducing executive salaries in 2009. In its 2008 results, the plan verbal CEO David Klein, who received total compensation of $2. 7 million in 2008, will be paid 25 % less in 2009. Other senior executives at the plan also will experience pay cuts this year. But " senior management executives carry off modus operandi impetus pay on a delay onset for multiple brother years ' working, " the plan vocal. So " compensation reported for 2008 may have risen useful to favorable outgrowth in 2007 and earlier years. " The plan, which lettered a entangle loss for 2008, changed executive compensation as part of a more select stab to refine financially in 2009.
Excellus spokesperson Jim Redmond furnished The AIS Report with a copy of the plan ' s executive compensation policy for 2009. The plan explains that executive compensation packages are obstinate on a case - by - case beginning. And packages are designed without the ability to offer stock options, as for - prosperity firms can. Excellus says senior executives are responsive to put together and stay with the company through a combination of long - term and short - term movement - based incentives. The bays are chargeable to goals, including financial stability and customer service, the company says.
The larder ' s compensation committee is assigned to conduct " rigorous national reviews of executive compensation " for the CEO and other company leaders, according to Excellus. The committee also uses choice compensation information, " particularly among health plans of matching size, and recommendations " from independent national compensation consultants, related as Mercer LLC and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Inc., according to the plan. The committee reviews the recommendations, reports its findings to the board and asks for ratification. " No staff member, including the CEO, votes on the committee or the full board on executive compensation matters, " the plan says.
HMSA Freezes CEO ' s Salary
Hawaii Medical Service Association ( HMSA ) in its full - year 2008 results release oral CEO Robert Hiam volunteered to freeze his base stipend in 2009 at $1. 3 million, an vivacity the board approved in light of the recession.
HMSA ' s compensation and human resources board committee determines executive compensation and looks at local and national companies with traits companion to HMSA to help bias the fit level of pay. As with Excellus, a human resources consulting firm helps the committee stabilize tailor-made levels of executive compensation.
Performance incentives down pat by HMSA executives in 2008 are " based on adroit measures met for 2005, 2006 and 2007, " the company oral.
Other Blues plans reducing executive compensation insert Depressed Testy Gloomy Dissemble of Michigan ( BCBSMI ) and Down-hearted Touchy Depressed Disguise of Massachusetts ( BCBSMA ). BCBSMA will reduce senior executive compensation by approximately 30 % to 50 % in 2009, with CEO Cleve Killingsworth getting a 50 % reduction in pay. The plan verbal this is part of a series of steps to reduce administrative spending. BCBSMI uttered that senior executives would take a 5 % annual emolument cut and won ' t receive a 3. 8 % annual increase. BCBSMI says the 3. 8 % represents a freeze on executive salary for the second time in the past three years. The plan is making the moves " to almost offset projected losses on BCBSMI ' s individual health plans. "
A Comprehensive Guide to Managing Never Events and Hospital - Acquired Conditions
receive free reports
Hot Products
• AIS ' s Directory of Health Plans 2009
• The Aging of America: Implications for the Business of Health Care
• The Next Reproduction of Disease Management: 2009 and Beyond
• Specialty Pharmacy: Stakeholders, Strategies and Markets 2009
• Health Plan Strategies for Expense - Based Benefit Design
• HSA Snapshot: Data, Trends and Projections
Best Sellers
• Health Plan Facts, Trends & Data 2008 - 2009
• Report on Patient Privacy
See full listing
of products at
AIS Marketplace
New on AISHealth. com: Upcoming Health Business Meetings & Health Business Job Openings

An Mlm Industry Based Review Of Nopalea And Trivita

An Mlm Industry Based Review Of Nopalea And Trivita

Has Nopalea, the most recent offering from the health and wellness company TriVita, shown up on your radar secrete yet? As a intense and positive force in the network marketing community, I ' m always attentive to the new arrivals to the mlm scene. As a firm disciple in the importance of overall health and fitness ( and my wife being a bit of a nutritional supplement partisan ), the health and wellness industry especially interests me. With that verbal, with this being a review of both the product and the company, let me make it in toto fair up front that I AM NOT a member of TriVita nor do I use any of their products…at early not at this time.
Let ' s start with a peek at the juice itself. That ' s correct, ONE MORE nutrition drink So what ' s the deal with Nopalea? By the way, I consider myself ( and my wife Beth ) to be pretty well adept to do this review from both a mlm industry viewpoint and a nutritional mlm point of view due to my experience and success in the industry, and my past involvement with a very thriving company and their notable nutritional products. Back to the nutrition juice. From all of the info I ' ve encountered, TriVita certainly has the science to back up their claims about the antioxidant punch of the fruit of the Nopal Cactus, a. k. a Prickly Pear Cactus, the main ingredient of their new flagship product. To date, more than 280 scientific papers have been published on the benefits and properties of the Nopal Cactus. In other words, it ' s got to be decent stuff. So you have to give props to the product as having merit.
However ( how come there always seems to be a but? ), you ' re still dealing with yet besides health and wellness product ( which by the way is a fantastic industry ), and yet also nutrition juice with super antioxidants. How this plays out in real life is, while it ' s great to be passionate about your product ( s ) ( twin my wife is with these things ), don ' t make that your focus if you choose to make TriVita your primary ( or even subordinate ) mlm business. No matter what your product, you should be promoting YOU and Your System, and not your juice. More on that next.
Now on to the company, a nutraceutical company based in Scottsdale, Arizona. I ' m irrefutable that people will eyeful at this from two points of view. The first considering it a definite plus to have an reputable and long - standing company over 10 years ancient with a good alley record, and the second from the fancy that it ' s been around too long up-to-date and you want to get in at the top of a really fast rising company. From an industry viewpoint, the first summary is a better deal. Many of these companies just pioneer out are here today and gone before 2 years have gone by…probably the amount of time it would take you ( especially without the correct system in locale ) to get to the residence where there is more income than outgo in your business. That would positively suck!
Even though this is not what is termed a " ground floor opportunity, " with TriVita ' s newest product, Sonoran Bloom Nopalea, together with their newly revamped pay plan, you have the chance to be a part of what may perhaps be a pretty good " growth spurt. " They ' re also using an innovational marketing strategy that includes marketing their products through their own website and TV infomercials as well as the usual network of independent affiliates. Approaching their marketing plan from a different angle, the company is selling customer leads to its affiliates through what has been termed the " Media Acquisition Program " ( Map ), and they call this proceeding of requited marketing " Pragmatic Marketing. "
However ( here comes that but again ), there is a symbolic downside to this friendly of marketing system, and that is the cost. Although it is really short to get started with TriVita for even those in severe financial chagrin, the marketing program is not. While it appears that this system provides an alternative solution for people to actually get done prospects to study as well as get some customers so they can start creating some income, the expenses are a little too much for most people just embryonic out. After all, the smaller costs of infant a networking business, along with the beauty of leveraging, is what draws so many folk into a network marketing business to initiate with. That was naturally how it was for us. DISCLAIMER here: First, supplementary factors may have an effect on the charge of the marketing plan ( jibing earning " free " prospects from your upline ), so do YOUR OWN investigation to get all of the facts, and Number Two, it has yet to be proven that this marketing system really produces results.
My supposition about Nopalea and TriVita from a mlm business and industry standing? While I ' m not an lawyer for it personally, any person can see from the documented research that has been done on the Nopalea Cactus that the product has merit. And you certainly can ' t charge a well avowed 10 + year senescent nutrition company of being a rip - off, so we side with that it is a mean business company, and it appears to be working at being current and relevant in both their pay plan and their marketing strategy. Regardless of wheterh these points are worthy of your further study is totally your call.
I ' m plan to pitch in an important tip here: regardless of how " great " the product or company is, that should NEVER be the focus of your mlm marketing strategy. If you ' ve scrutinize any of my articles before, you ' ll realize this as a recurring fleece, seeing it ' s that crucial to your success. Having the right marketing system in apartment for your network marketing business is key, whether you ' re just getting started or have been trying to develop your business for 2, 5 or even 10 years. So don ' t just perform your investigation on a product or company, be certain you have the right marketing system in accommodation, and you will soar to heights you ' ve only unreal in your business.
Onward and Upward!
“If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. ” – Thomas A. Edison