Posted by Tom Murphy on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Interim final regulations jointly issued by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor, clarify which health care plans will be considered grandfathered under the new Affordable Care Act. They don't appear to help manufacturers and other companies.

Nearly all manufacturers (97%) provide health care benefits to their employees. The new regulations restrict their ability to modify their plans in ways that would help offset the annual procession of double-digit increases, which are clearly unsustainable. For example, if deductibles or co-pays are significantly changed, or if cost-sharing increases and employer contributions decrease by more than five percentage points, employers risk losing the plan's grandfathered status. Fully insured plans that change issuers could lose their status as well.

Since the majority of the projected cost savings of the new legislation don't take effect until 2014 (if they ever do), manufacturers need interim regulations that provide planning flexibility, not regulations that will result in millions of employees needlessly losing their employer-based health care coverage.

What happened to the premise and the promise for health care reform where "you can keep the coverage you have." We need regulations that help manufacturers bring costs down now.   

Posted by Bob Jirsa on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Part 5 of Bob Jirsa's Senior Executive Exchange (SEE) series.

Improving supplier relationships is still the top supply chain management priority for manufacturers and distributors, according to McGladrey’s survey results. One company at our SEE event has a substantial supplier relationship with a Japanese-owned company. Although there are challenges to the business relationship, understanding that their objectives are more strategic versus short-term has resulted in a strong long-term profitable partnership for both parties. What is your company doing to improve supplier relationships here in the U. S. and internationally?

I will provide additional updates from future SEE events to McGladrey's Manufacturing Blog. Please share your insights and best practices.

Posted by Bob Jirsa on Monday, August 2nd, 2010

In Part 4 of his series, Bob Jirsa discusses how food safety issues are impacting exporting opportunities for one member of the Senior Executive Exchange (SEE).

Food and beverage manufacturers and distributors reported a six percent decrease in exporting activity according to our 2010 national survey. In the case of one Senior Executive Exchange participant, export challenges are exasperated by the European Union’s Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures Relating to Public Health rules governing food products, including growth hormones, antibiotic medicated beef and genetically altered grains, to name a few. Other buying groups, not EU-based, are also adopting their policies.

If you are an exporter of food products, what are you doing to overcome these unique challenges?