Health Care & Benefits

A Cautionary Tale And A Bad PR Look In One Ugly Package

Tuesday, August 30th, 2022Tuesday, August 30th, 2022 by Drew McManus

The 8/16/22 edition of the Buckeye Flame published an article by Ken Schneck that reports on a lawsuit filed against the Cleveland Orchestra (CO) and Business Administrators & Consultants Inc (BAC), CO’s contracted healthcare administrator, for discrimination after they refused to cover a necessary surgery. According to the plaintiff, Rem Wransky who works as a full stack developer for the orchestra, the organization denied her surgery because she is a trans woman. …

Looking For Resources to Help Understand ACA Changes?

Monday, October 30th, 2017 by Drew McManus

It should come as no surprise that the upcoming open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will be a large source of stress for organizations that provide health care benefits along with individual musicians and arts managers responsible for purchasing their own insurance. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to recommend along the lines of resources to help alleviate that anxiety. Manufactured instability in the healthcare marketplace along with drastic cuts …

Why Do Orchestras Carry Different Health Plans For Musician And Admin Employees?

Thursday, November 5th, 2015 by Drew McManus

Yesterday’s post, Channeling Your Rage Over Health Care Costs, produced some fascinating discussion by way of social media and one topic in particular that emerged was the conflict created by an orchestral employer offering one level of health care to musicians and something entirely different to administrative employees, the latter of which is typically comprised of two tiers: “executives” (top tier employees) and “staffers” (entry to middle tier employees). After some …

Channeling Your Rage Over Health Care Costs

Wednesday, November 4th, 2015 by Drew McManus

If you’re fortunate enough to be in a position where you don’t have to directly manage your health care, you probably haven’t noticed the flood of ire spilling out across the country in the wake of health insurance providers rolling out their costs for 2015 plans. For most, you’re fortunate if premiums are only going up in the low double digits alongside doubled and tripled deductibles and other reductions in coverage …

My Experiences With HealthCare.Gov

Monday, December 23rd, 2013 by Drew McManus

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last several months, you’re likely aware that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) launch was a clusterfuck of gargantuan scale. That sort of language isn’t common here and it is used now to reinforce just how wretched of an experience it has been interacting with the ACA’s primary point of contact known as HealthCare.gov. Nonetheless, after months of trying I was finally able to …

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