Healthcare

Borrowing from workplace wellness programs, plan sponsors may want to consider providing incentives to boost or start employees’ retirement savings.

Noting how insurers have few incentives to invest in wellness and disease management programs that could take up to three years to pay off, two researchers have suggested multi-year HIX options to promote healthier living and a more efficient health care system in the face of “unintended consequences” from the Affordable Care Act.

The Obama administration says it will investigate benefit plan designs for discrimination and suspect practices that discourage people with costly medical conditions from enrolling in a plan.

Commentary: Why understanding the impact of health plan costs, employer contribution and employee demographics is vital to sponsoring benefits in 2015.

Commentary: Why understanding the impact of health plan costs, employer contribution and employee demographics is vital to sponsoring benefits in 2015.

Most folks would agree that if something isn’t broken, then there’s no need to fix it, but few believe that argument applies to the Affordable Care Act. A flurry of recent research suggests that Americans think the polarizing law deserves public patience, while other findings note that it’s still unpopular.

In light of recent EEOC actions, what should employers with wellness programs that ask disability-related questions or require medical examinations do to minimize the risk of a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act?

The year in business: benefit firms shift their focus as employees bear more health care costs.

Employers need to take a fresh look at their retirement plans annually because there is still a “significant problem” with retirement readiness.

The prevalence of automatic enrollment features and qualified default investment alternatives in employer defined contribution plans have led to a huge increase in the use of target-date funds.