Healthcare

At Jan. 26 hearings on health care reform held by both the House Budget and Ways and Means Committees, the new Republican majority took the opportunity to question Obama Administration officials on the economic repercussions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

New data by Aon Hewitt show 57 % of 401(k) plan sponsors offered automatic enrollment in 2010, compared to 24% in 2006. Thirty-six percent of plan sponsors who don’t offer the feature said they are likely to add it in 2011.

The National Business Group on Health has launched an ambitious, three-year initiative aimed at helping employers design benefit plans that reflect the latest information and expert recommendations on cancer treatment and prevention.

Worksite voluntary benefits as we know them are dead. Driven largely by the spiraling cost increases in group health insurance, over the past decade or so employers have been shifting benefit costs to employees.

To say that the industry's segmentation and understanding of defined contribution plan advisers is crude would be quite an understatement. At the grossest level, the industry looks at whether advisers are commissioned or fee-based and whether they serve the small-plan market or the large-plan market.

Every year brings something new in this business, but the changes you'll see this year - and the ones you'll be anticipating - could be dramatic. That's thanks to a bevy of new regulations, some final and some still in the proposal stage, from the Department of Labor.

Beginning in 2014 all employers with at least 50 employees must buy comprehensive heath insurance for all full-time employees or pay a penalty of $2,000 dollars per employee.

According to WellPoint Inc. research, 83% of American employees think more highly of employers that offer voluntary insurance benefits than those that don't.

Most economists seem to agree that we are in the middle of a slowly expanding economic recovery. What will be the long-term impact of this historic financial collapse and recovery on the employee benefit and voluntary landscape?

In recent years, employers increasingly have embraced the opportunity to enhance their employee benefit packages by offering access to voluntary benefits such as dental, long-term care, and property and casualty insurance.