Healthcare

Employee Benefit Research Institute releases its estimate of how much money seniors might need to be confident of covering their health care costs in retirement.

Women make up about half of the workforce and are becoming breadwinners of their families yet many don’t take advantage of group life insurance.

Rewards expert Bob Nelson discusses why employers struggle with employee reward and recognition, why old-school strategies like years-of-service awards don’t work and why Generation Y seems to need so much feedback.

Two Midwestern employers, Twin City Pipe Trade Services Association and the Midwest Employee Benefit Funds Coalition offer suggestions for building engaging health fairs for employees

Workplace difficulties faced by the hearing impaired highlight the need for corresponding benefit coverage

The authors of a recent medical report say diabetes is leading to increasing rates of vision loss, and they recommend upping efforts to prevent and quickly diagnose diabetes in order to prevent expensive eye treatments.

Pediatric dental and orthodontic coverage could see significant changes under health care reform, particularly in terms of reimbursement. Evelyn Ireland, the executive director of the National Association of Dental Plans, talks about regulations that might or might not have people smiling.

Rules for the six state insurance exchanges that won conditional approval from the Obama administration Dec. 10 are split evenly between those with strict criteria for companies that want to participate and states that have opened their exchanges to all comers, a scenario supported by the insurance industry. A high bar for inclusion could limit the number of insurers offering health plans in some states.

Many states led by Republican governors have already said they won’t build their own insurance exchanges. That puts the onus on the Obama administration.

Of the six states that have won HHS approval to run their health care exchanges, some, like Maryland, have opened theirs to all comers, while others, such as Connecticut, plan strict criteria. Insurers will have to twist and contort to play by the irregular rules.