Healthcare

Business owners who employ between two and 500 workers recently told pollsters they have reshuffled business priorities where now business and income protection have taken center stage.

A combination of regulatory, political and economic factors are set to create an uncertain environment for U.S. health care insurers, Moody's Investors Service reports, leading to a continuation of the negative outlook for the industry.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is now offering its new Dental Prime and Complete programs on both a voluntary and employer-paid basis with three core plan designs to 40,000 small businesses and 79 chambers of commerce throughout Connecticut.

In a sign of the times, the 38 independent provider law firms associated with Pre-Paid Legal Services responded to more than 79,000 requests to handle debt-collection issues in the first half of 2010 – accounting for 7% of the 1.1 million overall requests for assistance during that timeframe.

Health care providers, attorneys and other service providers can breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Several leading service providers across the worksite-market landscape, hoping the economy heads northbound, are poised to reach higher ground in 2011. Consider a few of the most recent developments:

Over the last three decades, the job tenure for American women who work full time increased, while the length of time men workers stayed with an employer dropped, report researchers at the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

WageWorks Inc., which offers consumer-directed benefits solutions, recently acquired the tax-favored and benefits continuation administration business of Fringe Benefits Management Company (FBMC), which offers customized voluntary and core benefit products primarily in the public-sector market.

Just 39% of single and never-married employees have life insurance compared to 61% of all 2,071 working Americans responding to a recent online Harris Interactive survey for the Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company.

Employers with dental or vision benefits have gritted teeth and winced about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s impact on such coverage, but a recent Segal Co. analysis seeks to clear up any confusion about compliance.