Trusted News for Credit Union Leaders
Credit Union Times
AUGUS T 16, 2017 | VOL. 28 | NO. 28 | CUTIMES.COM
hen President
Trump rolled out
his budget proposal in May, it
included massive cuts to federal
student loan programs.
Now that piece of paper seems
so three months ago. In a politically divided nation, sometimes the
best bet is on nothing happening.
But even if no changes occur
in the ultimate budget Congress
must pass this fall, college costs
will continue to rise and students
and their families will be strug-
gling to pay the higher out-of-
pocket costs.
Sallie Mae and other banks are
gearing up for a bigger role, and so
too is CU Student Choice, the larg-
est CUSO, with members holding
half of the $4 billion in private stu-
dent loans on credit union books
in March. Another CUSO, CU
Campus Resources of Madison,
Wis., was acquired by Thrivent
Federal Credit Union in May.
Those involved in education finance are assessing the political
scene, weighing last year’s election results, discussions about
cuts at the U.S. Department
of Education and budget proposals from Trump and House
Republicans.
“We expect there will be major
changes coming. We don’t know
what that means or what that will
look like,” Scott Patterson,
EDUCATION
Filling the Student Lending Gap
JIM DUPLESSIS
jduplessis@cutimes.com
Y15
HEALTH CARE
Controlling Costs
Employers are starting to think
outside the box when it comes
to health care sticker shock.
While still pursuing tradition-
al methods to controlling rising
health care costs, such as cost
sharing and plan design chang-
es, large employers are increas-
ingly looking to new cost-savings
methods and ways to improve
outcomes and increase satisfac-
tion for their employees, accord-
ing to the Large Employers’ 2018
Health Care Strategy and Plan
Design Survey, by the National
Business Group on Health.
“As we approach 2020, em-
ployers will continue to do all that
they can to control costs through
demand-side initiatives — im-
plementing consumer-directed
health plans, modifying plan de-
sign and cost-sharing strategies,
and adding price transparency
tools,” the authors wrote. “How-
ever, employers are increasingly
focusing on areas that address
how health care is delivered and
paid for — telehealth, onsite
clinics, centers of excellence and
accountable care organizations.”
“Another strategy many em-
ployers are pursuing involves
new ways to guide and navigate
employees through the complex-
ities of the system,” they write.
“At the same time, employers
also remain focused on special-
ty pharmacy, which continues
to be a primary driver of health
care costs.”
And rising costs are still a
grave concern, according Y14
Must Reads FOCUSREPORT:
HUMAN RESOURCES
& BENEFITS
Three guarantees in life
are death, taxes and
rising health insurance
costs. Learn how some
credit unions are
reducing their health
care expenses while
continuing to offer
quality benefits to their
employees in this Focus
Report. Y6
Fiscal Storm
Survival
DAVID BAUMANN
dbaumann@cutimes.com
uerto Rico’s cooperativa
system — state-insured
credit unions that are
a foundation of many
communities — can withstand
the island’s financial crisis, even
though they heavily invested in
government bonds.
That’s the word from the Fiscal
Oversight Board — the institution
created by Congress to sort out
the fiscal mess that has led to the
island seeking court protection
from its debts.
The board has amended and
approved the fiscal plan submitted by the Corporation for the
Supervision and Insurance of Cooperativas (COSSEC), which insures and regulates the cooperativas that operate in addition to
the credit unions insured by the
NCUA.
That plan provides the first official glimpse into the financial cooperative system since the financial crisis.
And despite the current financial health of the cooperativas, the
board created a new committee
to oversee the agency. The committee was directed to develop
a long-term plan that could ultimately include moving the institutions into the NCUA system
or the banking system operated
by the Office of Commissioner of
Financial Institutions of Puerto
Rico.
FINANCE
Y16
Implementing
Change
Employees must
buy in to corporate
changes. Y12
Attracting Top
Talent
Don’t recruit
like a banker
would. Y8