'Tis the Season . . . or, Insurance Woes

In my short tenure with CMCA, I've already found a least favorite recurring task. Each year around the end of November our insurance broker starts calling to set up a working lunch to look at our health insurance benefits. You'd think a free lunch would make any task more appealing but honestly I'm starting to dread the process. After some small talk our broker gives us the good news and the bad news. I always choose bad news first to get it over with. In each of the three times I've been involved, the news is always that it costs more to insure CMCA employees than we pay in premiums. In other words, our premium is going to go up. "So what's the good news?" I ask. "I think we can limit the increase." I whistle in mock pleasure. Within a couple of months of starting at CMCA he told me we were looking at a 47% increase! Anything less, I suppose, is icing. That time we had to switch companies to get a less painful increase. Even more scary, fewer and fewer companies are even interested in bidding on us. Our primarily-female business model, it seems, is prone to common female health conditions like pregnancy that make us expensive to insure. Further, the insurance/health industry seems to be getting screwier and screwier as rates across the country average about a 14% increase. I don't know how a nonprofit, much less a for-profit, can continue to absorb these kinds of costs. Our options include raising prices on our products (if we had a product), decreasing the quality of the benefit, or sharing part of the premium costs with our employees. So far we have chosen to continue paying 100% of employee premiums but that leaves us with the option to decrease the quality of benefit. Two years ago we were able to maintain essentially the same level of benefit by switching to Mercy Healthcare. They have been really good to work with and have offered very competitive options again this year. So we settled on roughly a 6% increase on our premium with slightly less coverage. Starting on January 1 we'll have to pay slightly more for some kinds of office visits, slightly more for some co-pays on prescription drugs and certain kinds of services, and have a slightly higher out-of-pocket maximum. Overall, I feel like we slid by with a relatively painless option for 2008. CMCA will pay thousands more for insurance this year but our employees will basically see the same level of service. But what about next year? Costs will continue to go up and we don't anticipate any meaningful increase in our federal funding. We're certainly exploring other ways to generate revenue but we also need to be thinking about cutting costs. Any guesses as to what the most effective way to decrease our health insurance cost is?

I'll talk about WELLNESS next time.

Houses for Sale!

It's a drag owning empty, never-lived-in homes . . . for four years. But that's what we've got at CMCA. For the record though, one of them is finally under contract. We're working to find a mortgage lender willing to take a little risk with our buyer (and who understands this kind of funding arrangement) but it's looking like we're going to get this one out from under our belt. As a community housing development organization, or CHDO, we get some funds from the City to help finance the construction of these homes and to help provide some down payment assistance. Even with that though, we can't just give them away. Being non-profit doesn't mean we don't worry about money. Generally when we build a home we like to make enough profit (about 10%) that we can start building another one. Non-profit DOES mean that we're not lining our pockets with income generated from home sales. :) That's one way the city supports affordable housing development. Fund one and start a chain reaction of new, affordable home development. Break that chain, though, and you've got a problem. Welcome to CMCA. With the best of intentions, homes were built in neighborhoods that may not support their sale, for a variety of reasons. Then, the agency (formerly known as CMCHDC) goes through massive upheaval to address some management issues and comes out of it with 75% of it's top managers replaced over a three year period. Unfortunately, that meant that those houses were not the top priority, survival and then revival were top on our minds. That's not to say houses elsewhere weren't moving. We sold four houses in Fulton during that time for example (where management did not change, and in an area with little crime and other new houses nearby). Anyway, we're stable again and trying to get back to the high ideals we have for ourselves and our communities. We just completed another new home on Haden drive (in partnership with Youthbuild) on a street just north of Vandiver Dr. that is lined with beautiful Habit for Humanity built homes. This one will go fast, and so will the one we'll start building next to it in the spring. In the meantime, we're listing our other central city house with a realtor and asking just enough to break even. If you know anyone on the market, give them my name.

Affordable Housing

I used to think that owning a home was one of the most critical steps towards becoming self-reliant. But now I qualify that by thinking about affordable housing with reasonable, stable financing is pretty critical too. There was a story in the Saturday Columbia Tribune featuring two homes CMCA has owned for some time and a discussion with Dianna Moore, Economic Development Director, and the CEO of the Columbia Housing Authority, Phil Steinhaus. Insufficient income and bad credit make owning a home particularly difficult. Add to that some unscrupulous banking practices like those highlighted in another story in the Tribune and you've got a recipe for disaster. For families that are right on the edge of having the capacity to purchase, a risky loan with wildly varying interest rates on too much home can mean trouble down the road. The other story focused on a couple being lured in to buying more house than they can afford by the mortgage lenders. The conventional wisdom about "buy as much as you can afford" doesn't seem to hold true anymore. Our homes are available for those making up to 80% of median income (roughly $20,000 more than the federal poverty level) and they come with downpayment assistance. As critical as homeownership is to getting out of poverty and staying out, we've got to make sure we aren't pushing families too quickly or getting them into financial arrangements that will be difficult for them in the future. I heard on NPR that interest rates can jump as much as 10%-15% depending on the kind of adjustable mortgage agreement in place. That kind of bump could send at-risk families over the edge, cause them to lose their home, ruin their credit and put them in a worse situation than when they started. Obviously we don't want to do that.

An Average Monday

It wasn't until after I got Hayden into bed tonight that I got to catch up with my email for the day. And now I'm reflecting on my day and thought I'd share. I try to have monthly meetings with each of the Leadership Team members and this morning was Angela's turn. We discussed progress, setbacks, challenges, and opportunities wit each of the initiatives with which she is most closely associated and made some plans for tasks she'll accomplish over the next month. This led immediately to our bi-weekly Leadership Team meeting. During these meetings, the program directors and I talk about agency-wide issues with an eye on opportunities for increased efficiency, integration, cross-functional support, and overall agency improvement. I always miscalculate the amount of time it'll take to consider any given issue and these meetings tend to run long. Today was no different. I'll spare most of the details but we got into some interesting tidbits. As per the Board President's suggestion, we discussed starting a facility inventory/inspection process. This led to a broader discussion of ADA requirements, lease contract liabilities, and our facilities' likelihood to support client needs. We'll be collecting information about each of these things and regrouping to consider next steps. It never seems like these things should be a big deal but this team is both extremely thorough and thoughtful and that leads to a significant desire to do things right . . . and thus slower than any of us would like. Next we got into a discussion of HIPAA rules and CMCA policy regarding infectious disease. It's really important that we encourage and promote sanitary, clean work environments and we'll be circulating hand washing reminders for all of our offices. While it might seem simplistic or rudimentary, good hand washing practices are the best strategy for preventing all kinds of disease transmittal, down to the common cold.

So then the meeting went long and Anita and I had to quickly get our bearings for a lunch meeting with our agency insurance broker and carrier. This is our annual review of our current policy and recommendation for our next renewal which will start Jan. 1. Anita and I haven't had a chance to follow up with this meeting since it ran to nearly four o'clock so I won't divulge details yet but we'll be following up with more information about our plan soon. After that meeting, I knew I had a series of quick things that had to get done so I ran into Dianna's office to reschedule a meeting we'd missed at three and plan to talk about a brief subject at 4:45. Then I ran downstairs to talk to Mernell about our Boonville Head Start center which we are desperately trying to finalize. After that I had a brief interview with an MU journalism student who wanted to know more about the apartment building we're planning to build in Columbia. Next Joyce caught me for some signatures and follow-up to an earlier conversation we'd been having. Then I sent one email to the leadership team about a report we're going to discuss next week and wrapped up my day debriefing with Dianna about an apartment complex in Mexico we're trying to rehabilitate. I caught Chris on his way out and we had a typically geeky conversation about voiceover IP options for office communications. I went home in time to have dinner with my family before Stacey, my wife, had to go to her Monday night class. Hayden and I played games for a couple of hours before we got him ready for bed and I worked through my email. I took a break to watch Survivor on Tivo and then I wrote this post.

It was just an average Monday.

New and Good

It's the week of Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for. A wonderful family, a meaningful job, fulfilling volunteer life . . . and I'm interviewing for a new Executive Assistant! This week is dedicated to hiring someone to help us to continue moving the agency forward. I'm excited about it. But still, this time of year makes me both grateful for what I have and thoughtful about the work we do. Ask just about anyone what they have to be thankful for and you'll hear a litany of responses about the thing's in their life regardless of their income. We can all find joy in our lives when we think for a minute. At CMCA we often take time at the beginning of meetings to consider "New and Good" things in our lives. Sure, staff complain incessantly about it but the fact is, it's nice to reflect, event briefly, on the positive things in our lives. Seems like it is the things we focus on that tend to perpetuate. Positivity breeds good things and negativity generates unnecessary barriers. Have you heard about "Complaint Bracelets?" It's based on the idea that complaining generates negativity which in turn generates those barriers I mentioned. Sure, it's a little hokey, and frankly, there are things worth complaining about, but I like the idea. You can check it out and get your own bracelet here for free. Stay positive, think about the new and good in your life, and enjoy Thanksgiving.

Being David Bradley

I just added a weblink on the right side of this blog to NCAF's blog. If you want to feel like you've got a front row seat in Washington DC, get inside of David Bradley's head and check it out. (If you're not a fan of stark reality, you might want to hold off until we have some good news at the national level) David Bradley is the lobbyist for community action interests in DC and the Executive Director of the National Community Action Foundation. He's the one making friends for community action in DC and trying to make sense out of what is a pretty complicated mess of a federal budget. Right now, that mess amounts to the fact that we have a majority in Congress that favors greater spending on domestic issues that address poverty and human dignity in the United States and less on a war in Iraq that may be worse for humanity in general. So the House and Senate seem to agree that human service programs generally and Community Action specifically ought to get more funding. They'll pass spending plans that represent this agreement. The White House is opposed to these expenses because it is proposing an additional $200 billion in Iraq. That means the White House will likely veto the domestic spending bill and everyone that thought that was a good idea will have to start from scratch. Not a pretty picture.

CMCA has a board meeting coming up tomorrow night. You can now get the agenda and all related documents online. Just click these words and you'll see what I mean.

Building in fun

CMCA's central office had a chili cook off this afternoon at lunch time. Thanks to Leah Patrick and Mollie Rackers for coming up with the idea and carrying it through. The idea was to raise funds to purchase a picnic table outside on the south side of the building and to have a little fun. The nature of work in Community Action Agencies is pretty serious. We're trying to help people who are struggling with the crises of poverty to meet an immediate need or to think longterm about what it takes to get out of poverty. With that work we necessarily see some extremely difficult and emotionally trying circumstances. Rather than letting those circumstances suck the life out of us who are trying to help, it's important to have some fun and fellowship from time to time. It takes the focus temporarily off of the realities we see and allows us to appreciate our colleagues and friends in an environment that allows us to catch our breaths. I encourage all county offices, Head Start centers, and Career Centers (as well as anybody that reads this) to think about creating opportunities like this to keep yourselves sane.

In addition to Leah and Mollie, thanks to our entrants: Chris Macy, Liz Popovich, Teresa House, Smilin Bob Green, Andy Prevo, and Pat Lockwood . . . and to everybody that took a time out to eat some awesome chili and visit. Special congratulations to Smilin Bob Green for winning with his special recipe. I hope he enjoys the Mickey Mouse cookie jar!

First Entry

This is my first entry on my "End Poverty" blog. I'm going to try to use this once a week to provide agency updates, items of interest, thoughts about poverty, and a general communication tool for anybody that wants to know whats going on in my head or engage in a conversation about Community Action.

This week went incredibly fast. I find myself saying that a lot but this week was unusually short. I started my week out right by taking time to have lunch with my son, Hayden, at his school. I spent a lot of time later in the week working with several other Executive Directors to develop a new state plan for LIHEAP, our utility assistance program. We're developing a plan to present to the Department of Social Services in January that we hope they adopt as the LIHEAP plan for the state. We want this program to be more efficient, meaningful, and effective. I'll be talking about that more in future posts. Today I started early with the Boone County Coordinating Board for Early Education to work on a more comprehensive, quality early childhood system in mid-Missouri. Head Start is one piece of that puzzle but a lot more coordination needs to happen to make sure families don't fall through the cracks. After that we had Boot Camp here at Central Office. All CMCA staff attend Boot Camp at some point after their orientation. This is an opportunity for staff to learn about ALL CMCA activities and help to consider how we can work together to improve our services and engage the community to end poverty.

Finally, I have to point out that today was officially Karen Cline's last day as CMCA's Administrative Service Manager. She accepted a wonderful opportunity to be the Executive Assistant at the Family Health Center here in Columbia. I'm going to miss her greatly but wish all the best for her in her new position.