Health and Human Services Insurance Coverage

Like most business, health and human services organizations, social service agencies, and other non-profit organizations must purchase basic insurance packages in order to operate legally and effectively. Some of the insurance packages a human services agency or non-profit organization will purchase are common to all businesses: worker’s compensation, umbrella insurance, and business insurance. However, the non-profit nature of health and human services agencies, combined with the special coverage needs specific to these agencies’ staff and the populations they serve, will often require specialized insurance coverages and targeted choices in insurance brokers.

Directors and Officers Insurance Coverage

Most health and human services and non-profit organizations will require Directors and Officers Liability Insurance, or “D&O insurance.” The very nature of non-profit and social services jobs – services done for the public good, and often, specifically for at-risk, under-served, or challenging populations — makes lawsuits against directors distinct possibilities, because of their daily agency duties and roles. D&O insurance provides coverage for non-profit or social service agency directors if they are sued for job-related activities or conduct.

As in the for-profit world, harassment lawsuits and discrimination grievances are prevalent in non-profit organizations. These types of lawsuits pose some of the greatest threats possible to non-profit and human service organizations: actions brought against directors and officers present great financial risks to agency boards or investors. In the event that a suit is brought against a social service agency director or officer, a D&O insurance coverage program drastically lowers the risk that any one board member will lose his or her personal assets as the result of a lawsuit. This type of insurance protection is so important that D&O is a standard requirement when assembling a board of directors.

D&O insurance plays several other important roles in a non-profit or health and human services organization. It can protect an organization in the event that a director or officer inadvertently releases classified or proprietary company information in good faith. This type of insurance can also protect the company in the event of a questionable hiring, termination, or promotional decision. Directors and Officers Liability Insurance is also beneficial in suits regarding how the non-profit manages its investment portfolio(s) and can be an asset in “conflict of interest” legal charges brought against the non-profit.

Unemployment Insurance

Most for-profit companies pay a certain premium percentage each month for unemployment insurance, an essential type of coverage that is legally mandated in order to own or operate a business. In the for-profit world, each time a former worker successfully files for unemployment compensation, the unemployment insurance premiums and taxes for all employees go up. This is especially deleterious to small for-profit entities, because the smaller the company is, the higher the per-employee cost will jump. Read the rest of this entry »

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Government Grants For Communities From the Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Health and Human Services is the primary Federal agency responsible for safeguarding the physical and mental health of Americans and plays a pivotal role in providing basic human services support particularly to those at or near the poverty threshold.

According to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance the Department of Health and Human Services funds over 395 programs in pursuit of its objectives. HHS operates through 11 divisions and maintains of budget of $460 Million.

Within HHS there are 18 offices that focus on providing services to different demographic groups or health related issues. The Administration for Children and Families (A.C.F.) is charged with responsibility for managing over sixty programs and provide essential human services individuals and families living in poverty.

The Office of Community Services (O.C.S.) is the department within A.C.F. that operates in conjunction with communities across the nation, and other federal and state agencies to ensure the provision of a range of human services and economic development resources to deal with the root causes and impact of poverty and deprivation on individuals and families in those communities. The ultimate goal of all O.C.S. activities is to provide support and models to these communities for increasing self sufficiency and the provide mechanisms for community revitalization that is primarily locally driven.

One of the major programs of the O.C.S. is the Community Services Block Grant which in 2010 will distribute $700 Million to states and other entities across the United States.

The Community Services Block Grant (C.S.B.G.) supplies funding to States, and recognized United States Territories and Indian Tribes. It also funds Community Action Agencies and other nonprofit groups specified by the States with the ultimate objective of eradicating the root causes and effects of poverty on communities around the nation. Read the rest of this entry »

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Human Services and Health

In America, there is a growing epidemic of obesity. In the United Sates, there is also an alarming increase of diabetes. These concerns are asking people the questions, “how healthy are Americans?” and “Is there anything we could do to help raise healthiness?” My understanding is that health is a lifestyle that is based on choices that one makes. From the food one eats to going for a walk or jog, everyone has a choice to make.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, those national and state policies on health are falling short of their goals. Nearly 119 million Americans, 65% of the population, are overweight or obese. The direct and indirect costs of this obesity problem are over 119 billion dollars a year. These stats help prove that we as a nation need to help each other and correct this epidemic. Some of the things that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is trying to do are to bring more attention to school food and physical activity programs. There are more issues than just obesity that affect the population of the United States.

Diabetes in America is another concern that is rising rapidly. Diabetes is a group of diseases marked by high levels of blood glucose resulting from defects in insulin production and insulin action or both. According to Center of Disease Control, diabetes in youth under twenty years of age has recorded 176,500 cases which is roughly 1 out of every 400-600 kids. For adults between the ages of 20 and 60, there are 20.6 million cases of diabetes or 9.6% of all people in that age group. While in 2005, 1.5 million new cases of diabetes being diagnosed in the United States were older than 20 years. Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States; it kills around 224,092 Americans each year. There are numerous complications that diabetes can contribute to.

Diabetes in the United States needs to look at carefully. With it affecting so many Americans, it is shocking that there is not much awareness about diabetes. Everyone in the U.S. knows someone who has touched diabetes or who is currently getting treated for this disease. While the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is trying to spread this message, there are other actions being taken as well. Read the rest of this entry »

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