PRISM, an IT conference targeted at public pension administrators, is always a fantastic venue to learn about what’s trending, share lessons learned, and network with pension agencies from around North America. And, the 2019 PRISM conference did not disappoint!

Most organizations today have a sound Disaster Recovery (DR) and business continuity plan and they should, given the changing nature of business and technology. DR allows organizations to resume critical functions following a disaster. It involves having a separate physical site for restoring operations.

A recent report released by The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) revealed that the use of vaping devices has dramatically increased among America’s teens. In just one year, the number of 12th graders that reported using some type of vaping increased from 27.8 percent in 2017 to 37.3 percent in 2018. Within the same group, nicotine vaping increased nearly 10 percentage points and marijuana vaping increase 9.5 percentage points in one year.

There are many parts working together in our bodies and research has shown that those individuals needing treatment for more than one condition of the mind and body, die on average more than 10-25 years earlier than those that do not. Many medical professionals and researchers believe that this is an increasing trend and that the number of individuals with co-morbid conditions will continue in the years ahead.   Even more important, is that many behavioral health disorders are often overlooked by non-psychiatric physicians and general practitioners.

Sagitec strives to be bigger and better every year and we challenge ourselves to do more than is expected of us. We aim to make positive contributions to the communities we live and work. 

Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law on March 23, 2010, by President Obama. Since that time the Republican party has tried without success to repeal or partially repeal this program. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as of  2018, there were approximately 11.8 million consumers that selected or were automatically re-enrolled in Marketplace Healthcare plans.

At its most basic level, Business Process Management (BPM) improves system functionality by managing and tracking work. At a deeper level, BPM is an operations management discipline, using a combination of methods, which can include discovering, modeling, analyzing, measuring, improving, optimizing, and automating business processes.

However, what organizations will want to know is this: How does effective BPM save time and cost?

Since the 1970’s our population has faced an increasing number of chronic health concerns. Many of these have been related to lifestyle choices that lead to the most common non-communicable diseases, including obesity, physical inactivity, sexual behavior, and substance use (tobacco, alcohol, and drugs). During this time, these “lifestyle diseases” have been addressed by looking at personal choices, behavior, and responsibilities. Recent research though suggests that an individual’s actions are strongly influenced by their own physical and social surroundings. Many of these studies have shown that alterations in one’s environment may be an effective tool for changes in behavior.

Sagitec took part in the Toys for Tots toy drive again this year!

This year’s conference round-up for the national Unemployment Insurance and Workforce areas were great. Sagitec made it to many of the conference sessions and learned a lot. Most sessions were super-charged with current issues dealing with labor and employment, workforce development and Unemployment Insurance (UI) topics. We started with the NASWA Winter Policy Forum and ended with the NASWA Workforce Summit & UI Directors’ Conference, where Sagitec was the Diamond sponsor. Over 500 people attended this conference, which was the largest conference NASWA has ever held!