Wellness

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded a total of $109 million in grants to 28 states and the District of Columbia to increase resources for conducting health insurance premium rate reviews.

All those reams of paper in your office — documents to enroll new hires in benefit plans, disenroll ineligible dependents and the like — are costing your company money. A lot of money.

The Kansas City Collaborative (KC2), a three-year long value based benefit project, succeeded in helping the 15 participating employers share best practices for overcoming health care challenges. Nine of these companies reported that they have saved almost $11 million in direct health care costs by implementing a value-based benefits initiative.

New data reflect an increase in the number of uninsured Americans, prompting some benefit industry representatives to question the impact of federal health care reform.

If you’re a customer of WellPoint, Inc., your employees’ records soon will come under the guidance of a computer. Granted, a very smart computer, but a computer nonetheless.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service are asking for public input on a proposed health care reform rule that would make it easier for employers to determine whether the health insurance coverage they offer is considered “affordable” for employees.

Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services issued proposed regulations under the privacy rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The proposed regulations address the changes to the accounting requirement under the HIPAA privacy rule, pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. The regulations also create a new requirement that covered entities - health plans, health care clearinghouses and health care providers - provide an access report to individuals upon request.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, prescription drug spending is expected to rise to $457.8 billion in 2019 from its current amount of $274.5 billion. With sobering numbers like these, it's no surprise why benefit plan sponsors and participants are continually seeking ways to cut medication costs.

Nationwide Better Health, part of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, closed its doors Sept. 1 after five years in the wellness and productivity business. The company announced on May 25 that Nationwide would sell its productivity services to Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc. and wind down disease management and wellness programs.

Prior to joining ValuMarket - a family-owned chain of grocery stores in Louisville, Ky. - Amy Bisig had no experience in wellness programming. She clearly made a great impression on CEO Greg Newman, who hired her anyway to be the company's corporate wellness director.