Expert Perspective
by Robert Cirkiel
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July 16th, 2009
Expert Perspective by Grahall’s Robert Cirkiel (with quotes from Grahall’s Greg Loehmann)
OK , I’m a wise guy. I admit it. Also, I am Grahall’s resident expert on health care reform, or so I thought. I posed the following question to the Grahall “inteligencia”, and had a specific answer in mind. The question: “What’s the difference between approving everyone for a mortgage regardless of their financial health and approving everyone for medical insurance regardless of their physical health?” (Read Robert’s original blog: “Riddle me this Tax Man”).
Continue reading “OK Wise Guy, What Would YOU Do?” »
Filed under: Expert Perspective
Tags: Health Care Reform
Ask the Expert
by Robert Cirkiel
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July 15th, 2009
Ask the Expert: How Can I Prepare my Company for an H1N1 Pandemic?
By Robert Cirkiel
As the lazy days of summer wind down, vacations end, Labor day arrives and Americans return “full steam ahead” to work and school, we should keep in mind that this time of year will also ring in the flu season.
Continue reading “How Can I Prepare My Company for an H1N1 Pandemic?” »
Filed under: Ask the Expert
Tags: H1N1, swine flu
Expert Perspective
by Robert Cirkiel
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June 30th, 2009
Expert Perspective by Robert Cirkiel
In the past few days H1N1 news has come in tidbits. Each on its own seems like no big deal but when considered together I don’t like the trend.
Continue reading “H1N1 (Swine Flu) Update #4″ »
Filed under: Expert Perspective
Tags: Health Care Reform, swine flu
Expert Perspective
by Robert Cirkiel
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June 22nd, 2009
Expert Perspective by Robert Cirkiel
PwC Reports That Employers Will Continue to Throw Good Money After Bad in 2010
A Wall Street Journal article published June 18, 2009, shares that “Employers who offer health insurance coverage could see a 9% cost increase next year, and their workers may face an even bigger hit, according to a report from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.”
Continue reading “Riddle me this Taxman” »
Filed under: Expert Perspective
Tags: Health Care Reform, Health Insurance
Expert Perspective
by Robert Cirkiel
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May 22nd, 2009
Expert Perspective by Grahall’s Robert Cirkiel.
Positive sign. The CDC released the May 25 numbers – 6,764 cases. So for one week anyway, the doubling didn’t happen in the United States.
Concurrently, Mexico had good news this week too as it reported no new outbreaks. Let’s hope this thing dissipates and does not reappear in the fall.
Read more on this subject from Robert Cirkiel.
Email Robert Cirkiel at robert.cirkiel@grahall.com
Filed under: Expert Perspective
Tags: swine flu
Expert Perspective
by Robert Cirkiel
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May 18th, 2009
Expert Perspective by Grahall’s Robert Cirkiel.
The CDC reports a growing number of Swine Flu cases:
April 27: 20
May 4: 1,000
May 11: 2,600
May 18: 5,100
GOOD NEWS / BAD NEWS
Let’s start with the bad news. The number is doubling or more each week. This suggests that the disease has neither run its course nor dissipated. If it continues to double there would be 1.3 million US cases just 8 weeks from now. This is not an outlandish result. Think of how many people you’re in contact with each week and if you were a carrier, how reasonable an outcome it would be if just one of those people came down with it?
However, the good news is that the flu has not become dangerously more virulent yet. Also, the timing has been good in that summer is not far off and there is a possibility that the incidence will taper off.
Ideally, by the time cold weather hits later this fall it could
(1) dissipate,
(2) fail to increase in virulence, and/or
(3) vaccines could be widely available.
Read more on this subject from Robert Cirkiel.
Email Robert Cirkiel at robert.cirkiel@grahall.com
Read more on this subject from Robert Cirkiel.
Filed under: Expert Perspective
Tags: swine flu
Expert Perspective
by Robert Cirkiel
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May 12th, 2009
Grahall’s Robert Cirkeil shares some thoughts on the Social Security Adminstration’s SUMMARY OF THE 2009 ANNUAL REPORTS
For years, older men would marry younger women. More recently, older women have been marrying younger men. Historically this was done for love (or lust). Now the mature crowd is searching for youthful spouses for one reason and one reason only – MEDICAL BENEFITS! It would seem that this is the only way seniors can continue to have medical coverage. Private sector employers don’t provide medical coverage to retirees like they used to thanks to changes in the accounting rules.
Continue reading “Social Security Administration Releases “Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs”” »
Filed under: Expert Perspective
Tags: Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Medicare, Social Security
Expert Perspective
by Robert Cirkiel
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May 1st, 2009
Expert Perspective by Grahall’s Robert Cirkiel
With all the media attention around swine flu, many employers are asking what they can do to prepare. Robert Cirkiel shares his suggestions.
Continue reading “Swine Flu: What Employers Really Need To Know” »
Filed under: Expert Perspective
Tags: Health Insurance, swine flu
Expert Perspective
by Robert Cirkiel
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April 8th, 2009
Expert Perspective by Grahall’s Robert Cirkiel
Activity abounds in Washington regarding health care reform. This is an ambitious undertaking as there is much to do and the target completion date for a formulated plan is less than four months away. Most agree that the overall system is “broken” yet at the same time that there is much about it that is world class. Also, while most agree that if started from scratch the system would probably be much different, there seems to be little interest in re-enacting the “clean sheet of paper” exercise of the Clinton era.
So where are we today?
Continue reading “Health Care Reform Update” »
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Tags: Health Care Reform, Health Insurance
Expert Perspective
by Robert Cirkiel
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April 1st, 2009
Expert Perspective by Grahall’s Robert Cirkiel
In an article published in the Wall Street Journal on March 30, 2009, Survey Finds Banks Aware of Pay Flaws author Stephen Fidler notes that “Banks almost unanimously agree that their compensation packages contributed to the global financial crisis but still are struggling to correct some of the flaws in their pay structures, according to a survey of financial institutions due for publication Monday.” We are glad that ALMOST all these folks have caught up with the rest of the world.
So how did this sorry situation develop?
Continue reading “ALMOST Unanimously?!” »
Filed under: Expert Perspective
Tags: Executive compensation, Total Rewards Strategy
OK , I’m a wise guy. I admit it. Also, I am Grahall’s resident expert on health care reform, or so I thought. I posed the following question to the Grahall “inteligencia”, and had a specific answer in mind. The question: “What’s the difference between approving everyone for a mortgage regardless of their financial health and approving everyone for medical insurance regardless of their physical health?” (Read Robert’s original blog: “Riddle me this Tax Man”).