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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, health care workers have often been lauded for their heroic efforts in helping us battle the virus.  Many doctors, nurses, and others have taken on additional responsibilities and risks to serve the public.  However, a pivotal health care professional who is sometimes overlooked  is the pharmacist.  On this episode of Pathfinder we talk to  pharmacist Matt Mabie, owner of Forward Pharmacy,  independent pharmacies based in Wisconsin. He is also past president of the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin.  Matt says  the day to day roles of pharmacists have changed considerably in the last year and half due to the shifting needs of patients and the accessibility to health care.  

We are heading into the fall of 2021.   Hopes that the pandemic would soon fade away have been dimmed by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.  Infections and hospitalizations are on the rise again, even in communities with high vaccination rates. This rapidly spreading variant is forcing employers to rethink  strategies for handling and preventing infections.Given this prospect, how can employers fulfill their difficult obligation to protect their workers, customers, and communities while continuing to grow and prosper?Pathfinder sat down with  Dr. Wendy Molaska,  family medicine physician and owner of Dedicated Family Care, based in Madison, WI. She is also President-Elect Wisconsin Medical Society and she sits on the advisory council of immunization practices through the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.  Dr. Molaska is on the front line of treating patients and helping people get the most up to do date and accurate information about COVID-19 so that they can make the best decisions for their families and businesses.  

  The good news is that vaccination rates against COVID-19 are climbing and vaccines are giving many employers hope their business  will soon return to normal.  Some employers are wondering if they should help in speeding up that return by requiring OR encouraging employees to get the vaccine.    Should/can employers mandate that their workforce  get vaccinated?    In this episode, we chat with Jane Clark, attorney and managing partner at Lake Effect HR and Law,   She outlines the possible pitfalls and hurdles in requiring the Covid vaccine for your team.  In addition, Clark updates us on the latest information from the American Rescue Plan regarding expanded paid sick leave and tax credits for employers. 

For some of your remote employees  with school-aged children, this past year has been  a whole year of  juggling the demands of the office, childcare and remote learning.  Employees are stressed to the max! Pathfinder talks to  Christine Bright, the founder of Parenting Game, a company that helps parents  manage their children's education while working from home. Bright says studies continue to prove a healthy work/life balance results in productive employees. In this episode,  Christine outlines three areas that working parents have encountered during the  pandemic:  1) Managing  workspaces  2) Dealing with parental guilt  3)  Motivating kids to do their school work.   Bright counsels and provides real world actionable strategies  that help parents not only manage their chaotic households but make children feel happy and supported. 

COVID-19 has dominated our lives for over a year.  During that time, we have continued to take in news about infection and death rates as well as  information about treatments and projections about when life will return to normal.   All of these stats can make our head spin,  and also perhaps make us want to tune it all out.  The Pathfinder  talks to repeat guest Dr. Eric Miller, a direct primary care physician in Wisconsin, to help us discern the firehouse of information we get every day.  Dr. Miller gives advice on getting accurate,  science-rooted  information  and helps us evaluate the information we encounter.    This show also delves into how the pandemic has changed the workplace and the practice of medicine.  

Barb sits down with Jamie Lagarde, CEO and President of Sedera, a cost sharing community  that every year has grown by more than 400%.  This episode, explores medical cost sharing as an alternative solution for out of control health care costs.  Lagarde explains the how and why medical cost sharing works to bring down healthcare spend by 20-40% for employees and employers alike. 

  As more companies struggle during the economic downturn, business leaders are having to take harder look at overhead and fixed costs.  One area of concern is the increasing costs and burden of providing employee benefits, more specifically health care. In this episode, Mike Lichman, founder of Eagle Health Plans explains that self-funding can be a good option for all sizes of companies..  This conversation helps the business owner understand  the mechanics of self-funding and provides easy to understand explanations regarding risk tolerance and referenced based pricing.   

  How do you communicate and advertise to your customers during a pandemic?  Do you change your message and focus? How do you sound appropriate to the times and not alienate your current and potential customers?  We talked to an expert in the area of branding and marketing in order to gather the best practices for getting your company’s message out.

Can employers require their employees to sit or stand six feet apart? Wear masks?  Fill out daily health questionnaires?  Can employees refuse to come to work if they do not feel safe? Do they have grounds for suing their employer if they contract COVID-19? In this episode we talk with expert Business and HR Attorney Jane Clark, about  guidance and regulations around changing the workplace to make employees and customers feel safe as businesses around the country start to open up.

  Covid-19 has disrupted many aspects of our lives and has exposed some of the fault lines in the way healthcare is managed and paid for in this country.  In this episode, we talk to Dr. Eric Miller, a veteran primary care doctor who helps shed light on how COVID-19 is shaping the way we talk with our doctors and explains a rising new trend called direct primary care or DPC,  that takes the middle man out of the doctor patient relationship and delivers quality care at a lower cost.  We also talk about employer concerns as they struggle to manage health care costs, employee satisfaction and running their businesses.  For more information about our guest, Dr Eric Miller,  you can check out his website at https://legacymedserv.com/. 

With Shelter-in-Place orders still in effect in many states, employers are having to manage their non-essential employees from home. In this episode, we talk to an HR expert and an employer for advice and guidance on motivating and communicating with your employees from afar. We also give you some insight about what your future workplace could look like when your employees come back to the office.  

The Pathfinder Podcast talks with veteran business consultant, John Hecht, CPA, about maximizing loan forgiveness now, and keeping your business afloat for the future in the wake of COVID-19.