In This Issue:
 |
• |
Strategic Planning -- Questions To Ask Before Getting Started |
|
• |
Sumption & Wyland Join New Horizons Faculty |
|
• |
Wyland's Wall Street Journal Letter Part of Ongoing Health Care Debate |
|
Featured Links:
|
|
|
|
Strategic Planning -- Questions To Ask Before Getting Started
Strategic planning involves stakeholders answering a lot of questions about an organization's past, present, and future. When a board chair or executive director contacts Sumption & Wyland about facilitating a planning process, they have questions for us that we're happy to answer.
They may be surprised when we start asking them some questions -- whether over the phone or at a free initial consultation.
We have compiled a list of questions on our web site that help us understand the strategic planning needs of a nonprofit organization. Some are basic, such as how long the organization has been in existence and how many members their board has. Others address pressing issues, research the organization has already done, and what special circumstances should be taken into account before a planning process is designed and a price quoted.
There is no "one size fits all" planning process that will guarantee future success. Asking questions and determining needs sets the stage for a strategic planning collaboration that will produce true value for your organization and make the most of your investment of time and money.
Sumption & Wyland Join New Horizons Faculty
We are pleased to announce that Margaret Sumption and Michael Wyland have joined the faculty of New Horizons Learning Centers.
We are teaching various Business Skills courses in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and Sioux City. Michael Wyland taught the first Managerial Leadership course at the Sioux Falls location on March 23. Other classes and other topics will be scheduled in the coming months.
For more information or to schedule a class for your organization, please contact us or visit the New Horizons web site.
Wyland's Wall Street Journal Letter Part of Ongoing Health Care Debate
When Michael Wyland sent his letter to the editor to The Wall Street Journal in January, it became part of a growing debate about health insurance and the future of health care in America.
Health care is a re-emerging issue for individuals, businesses, and nonprofits. Health insurance is an escalating expense for nonprofits, taking resources away from mission at the same time that gaps in health care coverage (for both uninsured and under-insured individuals and families) are creating greater demand for services.
The push for consumer-driven health care, where individuals have more control of their health care dollars as well as in choice of treatments and providers, is running headlong into the escalating practice of "cost-shifting."
Patients whose medical costs are covered by government programs (like Medicare and Medicaid) or private health insurance pay discounted fees to doctors and hospitals. As reimbursement rates from insurance companies and government continue to fail to keep pace with medical costs, hospitals must look to the uninsured consumer to take up more of the slack. As a result, the highest "retail" prices for health care is paid by the uninsured or those with only catastrophic coverage.
Some uninsured consumers are also indigent. A growing segment, however, are self-employed individuals and others not covered by employers' health insurance policies and not eligible for means-tested programs.
Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) and Health Security Accounts (HSAs) have been designed to allow these individuals to save tax-deferred money for health care expenses while carrying catastrophic insurance (often with $5,000 individual deductibles and high out-of-pocket limits).
In the current health care climate, these individuals who pay their own health care costs are being asked to pay rates far in excess of those charged to insurance companies or government -- and these rates are inflating at ever-increasing rates as government and insurance companies squeeze hospitals and doctors.
Health care expenses are a leading cause of bankruptcy, and inadequate access to health care is a cause of countless societal problems that are dealt with ultimately by our human service, social service, faith-based, and correctional/legal systems.
Few relish a return to the health care debates of ten years ago, but there are signs that we're headed to a revisiting of public policy on the topic. Both business and individuals are looking for help with skyrocketing insurance costs and escalating cost-shifting, and providers are having trouble coping with reimbursement cutbacks and an aging population with more and more varied health care demands.
Monitor the media's coverage of health care and discuss with your colleagues how health care-related issues are affecting who you serve and how in your community. You'll be better prepared when the debate hits your town and your organization.
|
