Carla Houston

When most people think about staying healthy, the first things that spring to mind are cutting down on fast food, logging some hours on the treadmill and remembering to go in for a yearly physical. Genetics might also enter the equation. However, 50 percent of health outcomes are actually driven by something else: social, economic and environmental factors referred to as social determinants of health. Recognizing the numerous components that make up health — including education, employment, income, family and social support, community safety, air and water quality, housing and access to transportation — helps providers and insurers keep your employees healthy and productive. It’s impossible to truly improve health care outcomes and contain health care costs without understanding why costs are so high and outcomes are so poor for certain populations. Knowing what social determinants correlate with high costs and poor outcomes makes it possible to design appropriate a...

 In the beginning, employers who have 50 or more full-time or full-time-equivalent employees are required to offer health insurance to their full-time employees under the Affordable Care Act. Employees, however, do not have to accept the insurance, and inevitably, some will turn it down. The consequences for a business if an employee declines the employer-sponsored coverage depend on the nature of the health insurance offered and what employees do instead. Plan Coverage Requirements The Affordable Care Act requires health plans to cover at least 60 percent of the cost of services on average in order to qualify as minimum coverage (also known as the Bronze plan), according to Kaiser Family Foundation. In addition, coverage needs to be affordable, meaning that employee contributions are limited to 9.5 percent or less of household income, and plans must be offered to at least 95 percent of full-time employees. Employers whose plans pass these requirement...