Insurance

Millennials are not saving enough to take full advantage of their employer’s 401(k) company match, but benefit advisers say there are many tools employers can use to turn this trend around and engage the younger generation.

The HIX marketplace may offer Americans more choice when it comes to health insurance, particularly as public exchange options expand, but it continues to complicate life for HR professionals.

On the whole, benefits professionals do feel a high level of satisfaction with the majority of technology they use, but shortcomings in end-user experience remain a frustration.

A majority of brokers have seen some of their employer clients drop group coverage altogether in reaction to the ACA and double-digit rate increases. That trend, they say, will rise and advisers need to adjust the way they do business if they hope to survive.

Multiple measures indicate the nation’s unemployment picture is changing for the better. Yet more jobs and an increase in hiring activity also means higher turnover and retention challenges for employers.

With an expected 5.5% rise in health care costs in 2015 – the same year the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate takes effect – employers have high hopes that spending can be reined through increased employee consumerism.

EBN’s inaugural technology survey indicates that 41% of respondents plan to increase their spending on technology next year, with 45% having already increased their spending from 2013 to 2014. Much of that spending is directed toward new employee portals and front-end systems to better integrate and utilize various benefits functionalities (health, retirement, voluntary benefits and more).

On Saturday, the first day of enrollment for 2015 Obamacare plans, the federal insurance website was working well enough that 100,000 people submitted applications, U.S. health secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell reported.

One-third of business owners have no plan to control health care costs, however, most plan to handle their benefits strategies on their own, study finds.

In the midterm elections, a majority of Massachusetts voters checked “yes” for Question 4 on their ballot – a measure that calls for employers with 11 or more employees to earn and use up to 40 hours of paid sick time per calendar year. Companies with fewer than 11 employees will have to provide up to 40 hours of unpaid sick time.