In the face of rising health care costs and steady criticism of its existing plans, the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail colossus is adopting a less expensive health benefits program. One reform is the creation of health savings accounts for employees.
The move by the world's largest private employer is the latest sign of HSAs' fast-growing popularity as a way to control health care costs. The federal government created HSAs just last year.
Only 7% of businesses surveyed last May by Buck Consultants had begun to offer HSAs. But 32% said they plan to start one by next year.
HSAs combine catastrophic health insurance with upfront deductibles. Workers divert part of their pay into a savings account; the money can be invested so it grows. That account also pays for a worker's medical expenses.
Basically, in return for higher deductibles, insurers aim to lower premiums.
That's a key incentive for corporations, whose profits are increasingly pinched by escalating costs for health care.
Toyota Motor Corp has developed a derivative of the Cherry Sage shrub that is optimized for absorbing pollutants from the air.
The new Kirsch Pink plant is reportedly 1.3 times more effective at absorbing NOx, SO2 and other air pollutants than its parent stock, the Cherry Sage. The new plant, which flowers between May and November, also diminishes the urban heat-island effect 1.3 times more effectively than the Cherry Sage, according to the company.
The Kirsch Pink is the work of Toyota Roof Garden, established in 2001 as one of the businesses in Toyota’s Biotechnology and Afforestation portfolio.
Toyota’s Biotech Efforts
Toyota established its Biotechnology and Afforestation Business Department and began research and development in January 1998. In May 1999, the Toyota Biotechnology and Afforestation Laboratory was established to layout the framework for research and development in the agricultural biotechnology field and to speed up Toyota’s biotechnology business.
Innovation always has the power to disrupt business. Here’s what to watch in the years ahead.
1. AJAX WHAT IT IS:Software tools that make browser-based applications behave more like software running on a PC.
2. BIOGENERICS WHAT IT IS: Generic forms of the patented drug proteins sold by big biotech firms.
3. DEEP WEB SEARCH WHAT IT IS: Technology that boldly goes where no search engine has gone before.
4. HIGH-DEFINITION RADIO WHAT IT IS: Forget satellite. Regular radio is getting an upgrade, with CD-quality audio and many more channels.
5. HYBRID CELL PHONES WHAT IT IS:Wi-Fi-enabled cell phones that bring together cellular and landline phone systems.
6. MICRO FUEL CELLS WHAT IT IS: Batteries for portable electronic devices that use a refillable external fuel supply, from hydrogen to natural gas, methanol, ethanol, and sodium borohydride.
7. WI-MAX WHAT IT IS: Wi-Max is like Wi-Fi on steroids, with a theoretical range of 30 miles.
We grow most of our vegetables and salad greens in our garden. There's one disadvantage — we don't like to eat out much because we are accustomed to fresh food.
More Suburbanities Growing Their Own Food
The Corvallis Gazette-Times is reporting that many backyard farmers say they're growing food out of a fear that much of the commercially grown food found at the supermarket isn't safe. For example, Jules Dervaes and three of his four grown children work tilling their urban garden full-time. The garden produces about 6,000 pounds of food a year — enough to feed the Dervaes, their menagerie of ducks, chickens and bunnies and even some diners seeking organic meals at local restaurants.
"We're farming on just a 10th of an acre here," Dervaes said. They're at the forefront of a small but growing number of city dwellers who are ripping out lawns and replacing them with vegetable beds and fruit trees.
Harvard scientists said they've discovered a way to fuse adult skin cells with embryonic stem cells. The breakthrough could lead to the creation of useful stem cells without first having to create and destroy human embryos. The technique, researchers said, could circumvent some of the "logistical and societal concerns" that have hampered stem cell studies.
Scientists have proposed two new techniques for growing meat in a lab by a process that could one day make beef cows obsolete. According to researchers, a single cell could, theoretically, produce enough meat for the entire world for a year.
Lab-grown meats could be designed to be healthier too, they say. For one thing, where most commercial meats are high in omega-6 that can cause high cholesterol and other health problems, with lab-grown meats the omega-6 could be replaced with the healthier omega-3 fat. Also, the lab-grown meat wouldn't need to be treated with antibiotics or other drugs commonly used by the meat industry, and the environmental burden of raising livestock would be greatly reduced.
One problem they've yet to overcome, though, is how to "exercise" an animal that doesn't exist. Without exercise, the meat wouldn't have the same "cow-like" qualities and texture that we're used to.
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