Healthcare

Dave Cirulis recently was named head of voluntary marketplace strategy for distribution at Lincoln Financial Group, which has spruced up its product portfolio as well as enrollment, service and technology capabilities. He reports directly to Robert Risk, the insurer’s vice president, group protection sales.

In response to a new American Payroll Association survey showing 43% of employees valuing health benefits more important than higher wages, Dan Maddux, the group’s executive director has suggested that employees consider pretax voluntary payroll deductions and flexible spending accounts to ease the sting of rising health care costs and uncertainty about health care reform.

Podcast: Strategic alliances can serve as an inexpensive foothold into the voluntary benefits marketplace for vendors that seek to broaden ...

Long-term care (LTC) insurance is back in the headlines, with several leading insurance carriers seeking rate increases to help offset investment shortfalls in an ultra-low interest rate environment and greater-than-expected plan usage.

The SPARK Institute has sent a comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission asking it to modify its proposed 12b-1 fee rule.

Following sweeping Republican gains in the 2010 midterm election, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) underlined his belief that the election was a referendum against health care reform. "That means that we can — and should — propose and vote on straight repeal, repeatedly," McConnell said of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in a Nov. 4 speech at the Heritage Foundation. …

Flush with victory from election night, Republican strategists are delving into possible measures to repeal or significantly hamper existing health care reform legislation.

The Department of Labor’s new 401(k) fee disclosure requirements that take effect Jan. 1, 2012 go far beyond disclosing mutual fund expense ratios to cover every nook and cranny of expenses in plans, right down to indirect service providers, speakers said at the FundForum USA 2010 conference in Boston Nov. 1.

It’s November, which means three things: open enrollment, turkey dinners and long-term care. Today (Nov. 1) marks the beginning of Long-Term Care Awareness Month, a concentrated push to get employees thinking about how they plan to receive and fund care in their later years.

Most employers say they value their employees. After all, it would sound pretty harsh for an employer to say that its employees are, with a few exceptions, a bunch of idiots who can seldom do anything right.