Insurance

Numerous states and cities across the country decided during last week’s midterm elections to raise their minimum wage, which has legal and retail employment experts predicting changes to other benefits could occur as a result.

The wisdom of offering 401(k) loans has long been debated, with some arguing that allowing them is an incentive for employees to participate in the plan, while others believe they do more harm than good since employees often reduce or stop saving in their 401(k) plan after taking a loan from it.

The Affordable Care Act’s inclusion of pediatric dental coverage as an essential health benefit has small employers facing a dilemma: Whether to embed dental coverage within a medical plan or offer dental benefits as a stand-alone plan. Market confusion about what these plan options include and exactly what the health reform law requires highlights the need for expert benefit adviser help.

As an effort to comply with the ACA, some employers have been considering offering employees a lump sum of cash to purchase health care coverage on the exchanges, but the DOL now says such an arrangement isn't going to cut it.

Preparing Americans for retirement is at the forefront of priorities for lawmakers and industry, as putting off saving for retirement for even a few years will woefully shortchange employees in their golden years.

Delays, limited awareness, competition and insufficient subsidies among problems outlined in a Government Accountability Office report on state and federal small group exchanges. CMS says brokers will play a key role in any future growth.

Rather than ignoring emails, employees may be more inclined to remember to take part in health offerings such as immunization clinics if notices are sent out via text messages - given our text-obsessed culture.

Focusing on quality of care, data analytics tools and consumer-oriented websites are innovations discussed at National Business Coalition on Health conference.

The pro-Affordable Care Act national non-profit group Enroll America is expanding its outreach staff and launching new technology-driven tools in order to reach the still uninsured and enroll them in health insurance during open enrollment, which starts Saturday.

As retirement confidence among employees remains low, small business owners and their workforces may even be less prepared due to the scarcity of formal retirement education and established retirement savings plans to help this demographic.