Well, basically my job used to involve going places and looking at paper records, and collecting documents that were on paper and sending them to my company to input into a database, etc. Plus calling them in between to follow up on any issues, to tell them about new stuff that's happening, ask them to do things, etc.

But nowadays, the documents we collect are often either scanned, or electronic in the first place (both for our files, and the actual medical records), and the database is electronic (the sites are entering it there to start with rather than writing it on paper to be shipped in). So more and more can be done remotely...in theory...Right now they're just outsourcing more of the "call between visits and follow up and email about issues" part. And then they're having people take a look at those databases between visits. While they can't look at the records and say "you entered 14 and it should be 41", they can say "this part isn't filled out and that part doesn't make sense". And eventually maybe they will be able to look at the records (some of that is HIPAA dependent).

Some of the records will always be on paper, at least for the near future. But more and more can be done remotely...which means more and more can be done remotely from Bulgaria or whatever.

And some of this is fine--the following up in between was kind of a pain, especially if you were supposed to do that while on the road. But part of what it means is that (a) there will be more required travel parts of the job, since someone else can do the other bits (and therefore we have time to do MOAR TRAVEL), and (b) some of the travel bits will be reduced--like, instead of going every 6 weeks, maybe go every 12 weeks, since a certain amount can be done remotely! And if there's less travel to be done, they need fewer people traveling. BUT...the new jobs, because they don't involve travel, are paid significantly less, even if they're in the US. But then hey, why not do it in Bulgaria because it's EVEN CHEAPER! Even though they require the same extensive skill base and knowledge.

...so yeah, we're all skeptical.

Yeah... sounds problematic

meara, that sounds super suspicious and like it does not bode well. Outsourcing never does.

My company went to all HDHP (High Deductible...mumble, whatever) medical insurance for next year.

Epic, my company added HDHP as an option this year. We still have our other Standard and Super Expensive Why Would You Do That Choice, though. I hope we don't lose them. I'm not sure why HDHP is ever a good option unless you've got so much money you don't even need to be working.

Good lord. I cannot focus. I've gotten virtually nothing done at work this week, my brain will not cooperate, everything is taking me twice as long as it should and I'm spending long periods of time in la-la land doing nothing. My boss asked me on Monday if I needed more time off and I should have said yes. This is not good, in a way that is bad.

We did the HDHP option for a while - it was combined with a Health Savings Account that was funded with pre-tax payroll deductions. It worked out okay for us, but we were not needing a lot of medical stuff at the time. The premiums were low enough our overall medical expenses were less than what we would have been out of pocket for the other kind of insurance that was offered.

Maybe I'm just scared away from it by the "high deductible" part!

Epic, my company added HDHP as an option this year. We still have our other Standard and Super Expensive Why Would You Do That Choice, though. I hope we don't lose them. I'm not sure why HDHP is ever a good option unless you've got so much money you don't even need to be working.

This used to be us. This year it's all HDHP, all the time. We're not pleased.

We did the HDHP option for a while - it was combined with a Health Savings Account that was funded with pre-tax payroll deductions. It worked out okay for us, but we were not needing a lot of medical stuff at the time.

This is the big gamble. You use the HSA to pay for your out-of-pocket stuff, but you can only use the money you actually have, not what you will have saved over the course of the year. So no big health expenses, you're okay. God forbid you're in an accident or your appendix bursts in January, that whole "High Deductible" is coming out of your pocket.

Maybe I'm just scared away from it by the "high deductible" part!

Precisamente.

The point of it is to be catastrophic insurance for people who are basically healthy and don't expect to have to use it. Having it as the only choice makes no sense at all.

Unless you're looking at the bottom line at the corporate level for a huge multi-national - from those seats it makes all kinda sense. In a "We don't actually care about you as human beings, we're required to provide a minimum, so that's what we'll do, and it's good enough that you still wouldn't get federal assistance if you decided to see if you could do better with the Affordable Care Act," kind of way.

I can haz fresh, good tasting water!!

The water here is private well, super hard and full of iron. But not anymore! And they're going to come back and insulate/heat tape the pipes.

We have an FSA program in my office and I signed up for it the first year. I was going to have to have cataract surgery and figured it would wipe out everything I could save. Well, it didn't, so I was left with a good-sized account to spend (you have to spend it by the end of your plan year ... which meant everyone participating was spending as much of what was in the account at the end). The drawback I found was that if there was one transaction they questioned, the card became unusable until you'd cleared it up. I was stuck about two weeks before the deadline with one thing they wouldn't approve because I couldn't get the receipts/proof to them - I tried mailing and, when I was ready to scan and email it, the item had disappeared from my account ... but they were still not letting me use the card. Took a while to get it cleared up.