Last week I had the opportunity to attend the annual BSCAI Executive Seminar in Nashville, TN. Not only was it a great chance to see and meet many old collegues and make some new acquaintances, the content of the sesssions was outstanding. ]
The one session that really hit home was one conducted by Ruthann Laswick, President of Blue Water Consulting headquartered in Scottsdale Arizona on the new healthcare law being implemented. For purposes of this blog posting I will not try to spell out the entire title of the bill but rather just call it Obamacare as it is most commonly refered to as.
Several things were made perfectly clear to me in this session.
1. Ruthann is very knowledgable on this subject. I also learned many BSCAI members have used her consulting services to better understand what their responsibilities are on this new law and---many more will want and need to use her expertise.
2. It is a very complicated law and will affect all BSCs in some manner and if you haven't studied the subject and/or got professional advice, I recommend you do so ASAP.
3. That many people who thought with the passing of this bill, they would automatically get health care are going to be very disappointed. In reality, more people may be without healthcare after this law is implemented than at the present time. This is exactly what was not intended to happen.
One thing I was pleased to learn was that BSCAI and its team of consultants is building a toolkit that contractors can use to prepare, plan, react, and communicate regarding this healthcare reform legislation.
We were told that the reform toolkit includes:
Calculators---Members can determine the essentials, including company size as defined by the government, FTE employees, compliance with federal benefit laws, and penalties.
Checklist---This comprehensive checklisst will be based on company size and list the issues to consider related to healthcare reform legislation.
Compliance Tookkit---The toolkit will provide all necessary materials to be in complilance with PPACA and ERISA.
Webinar Series---BSCAI members will take a deep dive into topics critical to contractors and complliance.
Question and Answer "Hotline"---Members will be able to submit questions and receive personalized responses from BSCAI consultants.
Monthly E-newsletter---The newsletter will address hot topics, provide updates and link to resources and national stories related to healthcare reform.
Communication Templates---Members can use customizable templates for communicating with customers and employees related to changes made necessary by healthcare reform legislation.
Presentations--The lead consultant on topics related to healthcare reform, Ruthann Laswick, whom I referenced above, will give in-person presentation at BSCAI events such as the convention in Las Vegas in November.
I am told BSCAI will house all of this content and resources in the member section of the website. Members will be able to access these materials and additional resources, such as blogs and vendor websites.
All in all I think this will be a valuable benefit to BSCs. For those of you that are not members of BSCAI, this may be the time to investigate membership because Obamacare is probably one of the most important and confusing legislative issues that has affected our industry in a very long time. You cannot afford to get it wrong and the TIME IS NOW that you need to be right in the middle of documenting and implementing. You can get information at www.bscai.org.
Every day I hear people comment, both good and bad, mostly bad, about this important piece of healthcare legislation. Regardless of your political affiliation or opinion of the law, we will need to comply.
I personally see it as an opportunity for BSCs. If we will address the situation head on, I really believe we have the opportunity to begin providing services to current in house facilities. Many of them want to rid themselves of employees to ease compliance and cost issues etc. Since we are labor intensive we will have to address the issue and we should use it as a sales tool that we will relieve their burden and provide them quality service on a contract basis.
Let me again say I am extremely excited about the positive future the BSC faces. We should work hard at taking advantage of any opportunity that presents itself, particularly when it means we can possibly convert an in house operation to contract.
Anyway, check out the toolkit we refer to above. It just might save you lots of dollars and headaches AND provide new business opportunities.
Don't forget, we'll be in Omaha, Nebraska, Saturday, June 29 to conduct a worshop on Selling Contract Cleaning Services. This will be a session based on techniques that have worked. We will show actual mailing we did, proposals we prepared etc. No theory, just stuff that has worked. You can register at www.bscai.org. Click on the events icon and then the sales seminar registration icon. Hope to see many of your there.
Till next time.
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