Healthcare

The benefits industry is pushing back against a campaign by some policy-makers to increase federal oversight of self-insured health plans, particularly in regards to the purchasing of stop-loss insurance.

At a Republican think tank-sponsored forum on Thursday, congressmen from the right touted a patient and doctor-focused fix to health reform, but remain split on whether to repeal or make piecemeal changes to the Affordable Care Act. They also voiced concerns about employees’ ability to make ends meet as a consequence of the law.

Form 8822-B is approaching its March 1 deadline and many employee benefit plan and trust sponsors and administrators are not aware if this date applies to them. Find out more about this confusing topic from national business and corporate law firm Porter Wright.

Employers are begging for information on compliance with the Affordable Care Act, and as their benefit adviser you can and should offer them guidance — or risk losing them to an adviser who will. Attorney Peter Marathas of Proskauer Rose LLP has outlined four ACA issues you should already be discussing with your clients.

Moody’s Investors Service issued a credit negative rating to health insurers that offer Medicare Advantage plans as 2015 Medicare rates are expected to be detrimental to enrollment and earnings.

A new TIAA-CREF survey of employee-sponsored retirement plan participants uncovers a divide in that Americans are either not familiar or dissatisfied with their investment options.

For a plan unlikely to become law anytime soon, Representative Dave Camp’s proposal to revamp the tax code is causing a lot of agitation among U.S. companies.

Consumers shopping on the Obamacare exchanges are thriftier than the general public, with more picking health plans based on price rather than their choice of doctors, a study found.

The top Republican tax-writer in Congress proposed restructuring the U.S. tax code to eliminate dozens of breaks to pay for reductions in the corporate and individual rates.

The University of Michigan has been fine-tuning its wellness champion network for over 20 years. Over that time, wellness champs have morphed in number and organizational role, but have always played “an important role for helping to develop our culture of health across the University," explains Karen Schmidt, associate director of wellness and health culture at the University of Michigan.