Direct Health starts operation in Idaho Falls

Perhaps you have not heard the term "Superior Benefit Option," but that is the term that Direct Health uses to describe itself.

The Idaho Falls company, which started Feb. 1, aims to give employers a health care option to offer employees, allowing them to put money away for health care expenses and make donations themselves to employees' accounts as well.

It's not health insurance or a cafeteria plan, which would be regulated more vigorously by the Idaho Department of Insurance. Nor is it a health reimbursement account or a health savings account.

"It's a way for people to take control of their health care history and future," said Julie Rae, human resources director for Channel Blend, an Idaho Falls call center company. "It's a very simple concept. Usually when we talk to people about it, they try to overthink it."

Direct Health came about because Channel Blend CEO Jeff Neiswanger wanted something he could offer his employees without getting into the expense and red tape of traditional health insurance.

It is not designed to cover catastrophic health care expenses. It is a program under which people can sock away money for everything from a eye exams to massages to health club memberships. Right now, there are 16 providers in the network and 85 participants with active balances. When it's time to pay, participants show their cards, transactions are done online and providers get their money almost immediately.

There are no co-pays and no premiums. Unlike a flex plan, participants can take their money if they leave a job (although they can't cash out). The money can be rolled over from year to year, so there are no "use it or lose it" deadlines. The downside is it can't be considered a pre-tax contribution.

Rae said they are hoping that as word gets out the numbers on both sides will grow. Providers are already providing deep discounts to Direct Health participants. For employers, it's an option for companies with small numbers of employees or high turnover. Even larger employers that offer health insurance can use it to supplement what they offer.

There is a big emphasis on preventive care and wellness. "We're trying to do a couple of things," she said. "We want to see people being judicious with their health care money. With this, they spend it on what they need."

The link to the Web site is http://www.directhealthofidaho.com/index.html

New East Idaho Classifieds Web site debuts

As I am writing this, Sunday afternoon, there are six items listed on www.eastidahoclassifieds.net, Riverbend Communications' entry into the world of online want ads.


Will the site be embraced to the extent that it competes with Craigslist or KSL.com? I imagine a lot will depend on promotion and marketing. Dusty Bee's Facebook posting called my attention to it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I go on to Riverbend's NewsTalk program on Tuesday morning to chat with Tim Lewis about what I see going on in the community, in hopes of building readership for BizMojo Idaho. But I would have mentioned this if it had been one of Riverbend's competitors.

From my own point of view, I doubt there's anything that can match what Craigslist has been able to accomplish in the past 10 years, both good and bad. As someone who went into print media more than 30 years ago, I would list Craigslist as one of the big things that knocked the newspaper industry sideways and changed the game completely. Before Craigslist, classifieds were a significant revenue source for newspapers. While they may be still be a significant income stream (I have personal recent experience that tells me an ad in the paper will still get results), the big question remains: "How do you compete with free?"

You're not paying to read this, are you? If I asked you to, I shudder to think how many of you actually would.

Anyway, I may put a guitar up on east idaho classifieds to see what happens. And if something does, I'll put up more.

INL, Fujitsu announce smart grid collaboration

Fujitsu Laboratories of America announced Thursday a collaboration with the Idaho National Laboratory on smart grid energy management.

Under the project's auspices, Fujitsu's security and ad hoc communications technology will be deployed at the Center for Advanced Energy Studies in Idaho Falls to monitor building power consumption and generate vital data on energy utilization. The data they collect will be used as a baseline for measuring efficiency and security with regard to wider smart grid deployments.

Smart grids couple physical power distribution equipment with the IT systems that manage it. Security is essential, since compromise in one could affect the other. Fujitsu will contribute advanced security and cloud services technology from Fujitsu Laboratories of America and WisReed, an autonomous distributed network technology that enables the automatic construction of a network.

"The CAES facility is a certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building, and we are trying to ensure we operate at maximum energy efficiency," said CAES Director J. W. Rogers. "Fujitsu's technology will provide us with real-time usage data to measure our efficiency and also supply our researchers with valuable information required for advanced energy system modeling."

"This collaboration will leverage INL's global leadership in industrial control and power system simulation test beds, and Fujitsu leadership in IT services," said Yasunori Kimura, President and CEO of Fujitsu Laboratories of America. "We are delighted to be part of this initiative by providing systems for real time data collection and cloud services for analysis and anomaly detection."

You and the mortgage settlement

Idaho borrowers will receive close to $100 million from the $26 billion agreement struck between government officials and five of the nation’s largest banks. That’s according to the Idaho Attorney General’s office. If you want the specifics, such as they are, go here: http://www.ag.idaho.gov/media/newsReleases/2012/nr_02092012.html

The question you're undoubtedly asking yourself is "will this help me?" Nobody knows at this point. There's been a lot of writing done about it. Here's a digest:

The New York Times: “(The) settlement money will be doled out under a complicated formula that gives banks varying degrees of credit for different kinds of help. As a result, banks are incentivized to help harder-hit borrowers with homes worth far less than what they owe."

The Wall Street Journal: "The settlement will 'remove one cloud of uncertainty that has depressed bank stocks,'' but may do less to help the housing market."
  
The Washington Post: “The deal is the largest of its kind since a multi-state agreement with the tobacco industry in 1998. But that deal was worth around $350 billion in today’s dollars. It’s also not a lot of money compared to the $700 billion in underwater mortgage debt, or the bailout of the banks that issued and bought the debt in the first place.”

The number of foreclosures dropped in 2011, nationwide and in Idaho, which has had one of the highest foreclosure rates in the county since the start of the housing crisis. But that may be due to the feds putting the brakes on such abuses as "robo-signing," which this week's settlement also addresses. Now that the restraints are off, the foreclosure express could be rolling again.

The plain fact is in the last five years, home prices have fallen by nearly one-third, and the nation now has 11 million homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth, to the tune of $750 billion.

The most pessimistic assessment I've read comes from Dylan Ratigan, who offers this: "America simply has too much mortgage debt to pay back. Serious economic thinkers across the spectrum, from Democrat Alan Blinder to Republican Martin Feldstein to New York Fed President William Dudley, believe that there is only one solution -- writing down the enormous creaking mound of debt. This solution is currently off the table, because writing down these unsustainable debts could cost our fragile banks enormous sums of money and possibly lead to a restructuring of one or more of our major banks. Avoiding this clear policy choice has resulted in our economy falling into a Japan-style 'zombie bank' torpor, with debts carried on the books at full value which everyone knows will not be paid back at par."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/mortgage-settlement_b_1267710.html#ixzz1lzVTy9cX

Marketing Summit starts Feb. 21 at Idaho Falls Shilo Inn

Riverbend Communications and Lvate are holding a three-part Marketing Summit at the Shilo Inn, Idaho Falls, covering everything from branding and strategy to media buying to social networking.

The two-hour sessions start Feb. 21 at 8 a.m. and continue March 6 and March 20. Session 1 will focus on the buying process, which includes market identification, primary vs. secondary marketing messages and strategic business "tone." Session 2 is devoted to branding, measuring marketing success and comparing yourself to your competition. Session 3 will be about creating market awareness, leveraging the Internet and search engine optimization.

Cost of all three sessions is $99. For more information, contact Mike Sutton at 208-535-8327.