1)  In the current marketplace 13% of all labor is placed by staffing companies.

2)  80% of staffing clients say staffing firms offer a good way to find people who can become permanent employees.

3)  More than 10 million people worked for U.S. Staffing companies in 2015.

4)  Over 2 million people per day are employed by staffing companies.

5)  Staffing agencies are constantly hiring employees and doing the interview process even if they have no open positions.

6)  79% of staffing agency employees work full time, virtually the same as the rest of the work force.

Call BarryStaff today to see how we can help with your hiring needs!

Here are twenty two interesting office facts to get you through this Tuesday, February 2nd. Feel free to share any of these fun office facts at your next coffee break (no recognition is required).

1. One percent of U.S. employers allow employees to take naps during working hours.
2. People in the U.S. spend at least 1896 hours per year at work.
3. Women business owners employ 35% more people than all the Fortune 500 companies combined.
4. No piece of normal-size paper can be folded in half more than seven times.
5. During thinking, we only use about 35% of our brains.
6. A typist’s fingers travel 12.6 miles during an average workday.
7. More American workers (18%) call out sick on Friday than any other day of the week.
8. Tuesday has the lowest percent of absenteeism for American workers—11%.
9. Difficulty focusing on the computer screen, short-term memory problems and trouble with basic math can be caused by a mere 2% drop in body water. Remember to stay hydrated during work hours.
10. More people walk to work in Alaska than any other U.S. state.
11. Americans now spend more than 100 hours a year commuting to work.
12. More than  50% of lost work days are stress related, keeping approximately 1 million people home from work every day.
13. The average office worker spends 50 minutes a day looking for lost files and other items.
14. The United States has the fourth largest workforce in the world, at 154.2 million (does not include those who are unemployed).
15. Forty percent of worker turnover is due to job stress.
16. Remember to always take notes during meetings, as the brain retains less than 5% of what is said.
17. Each person owns at least eight distinctive intelligences (Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Naturalistic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Verbal-Linguistic , Logical-Mathematical, Spatial), and these are further developed whenever used at work.
18. “Stewardesses” is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
19. Refrigerating rubber bands makes them last longer.
20. Eighty percent of jobs are gained through networking.
21. Sixty-six percent of full-time workers in the U.S. say they are heavy drinkers (consuming five or more drinks per sitting at least five days per month), while only 4.9% of part-time workers in the U.S. say they are heavy drinkers.
22. People spend one in every four and a half minutes online on social networks and blogs.

Over the years, federal agencies have issued a plethora of ACA proposed and interim rules, as well as regulatory guidance. But none of it was officially finalized — until now. The feds just issued final rules in bulk, solidifying those earlier efforts. In addition, the rules contain a few surprises you need to know about. 

The final rules were just published as part of a 104-page addition to the Federal Register. They cover a wide swath of the healthcare reform law — including dependent coverage, patient protection rules, lifetime and annual limits, claims appeals, rescissions, HRA integration with Medicare, and grandfathered plan provisions.

For the most part, the rules don’t contain many substantial changes from the regulatory paperwork the feds have issued over the years. But there were a few modifications that employers and insurers will need to know about.

Here’s a breakdown of the most substantial changes and those that will affect the most plans:

Dependent coverage

• Service area restrictions. Eligibility restrictions requiring plan participants to work, live or reside in a service area (as is typically the case with HMOs) cannot be applied to dependent children until they reach age 26. However, plans can continue to provide coverage only within a designated service area.
• Variations in coverage. Terms of plan coverage cannot vary based on the age of a dependent child, except for children age 26 and older.

Patient protections

• Individual primary care designation. If a plan requires participants to designate a primary care provider, each participant must be permitted to designate his or her own provider.
• Children’s primary care providers. If a plan requires the designation of a primary care provider for a child, the plan must allow any physician who specializes in pediatrics (including subspecialties in pediatrics) — and who is in-network and available to accept the child — to be designated as the child’s primary care provider.
• OB/GYN access. All women, no matter their age, must be ensured direct access to OB/GYN care. That means no authorizations or referrals can be required to seek OB/GYN care.

Lifetime and annual limits

• General prohibition on limits. Lifetime and annual dollar limits on coverage for “essential health benefits” are generally prohibited, regardless of whether those benefits are provided by in-network or out-of-network providers.

Claims appeals

• Evidence. Plans must provide claimants with any new or additional evidence that is being relied upon or used in anyway in connection with a claim, as well as any new or additional rationale for a denial of an internal appeal. This must be provided free of charge automatically. Merely providing a notice of the availability of such information is not enough.

Rescissions

• Non-payment of COBRA premiums. A retroactive termination of COBRA coverage is permissible if the participant has failed to pay the required premium.

HRA integration

• Medicare. Employers with fewer than 20 employees that are not required to offer their group health plan coverage to employees who are eligible for Medicare coverage can integrate an HRA with Medicare Part B or D.

Grandfathered plans

• Multi-employer plans. New contributing employers can join a multi-employer plan for the express purpose of taking advantage of the plan’s grandfathered status without violating anti-abuse rules.
• Plan changes. One plan’s status change doesn’t change the status of all benefits packages. Example: The loss of grandfathered status for a PPO plan won’t impact the status of an HDHP plan.
• Generic alternatives. Plans can move brand-name drugs to a higher cost-sharing tier when a generic alternative becomes available without losing grandfathered status.

Disability benefits claims appeals

Published along with the final rules were proposed rules on the claims and appeals rules applicable to plans providing disability benefits.

In a nutshell, the rules would apply the claims and appeals procedure rules for standard healthcare claims to disability benefits claims.