Advisor strategies

Aon Hewitt expects more than 1.2 million employees, retirees and their families to choose health benefits through the company’s exchanges — revising their earlier estimates upward.

Walmart’s announcement this week that it will drop health care coverage for its part-time employees reiterates that employer-sponsored health care coverage is changing, and those benefit advisers who plan to remain relevant to clients must change, too.

Health care reform has changed the role of the adviser from insurance broker to that of a trusted adviser, counselor and compliance guru. Advisers hoping to thrive in this new environment will embrace the change less as a burden and more as an opportunity.

Complicated and tedious ACA reporting requirements are forcing benefit advisers who want to stay relevant to adapt to a more automated way of doing business.

A panel of some of EBA’s Most Influential Women in Benefit Advising discuss how women are claiming a role in the benefits industry.

With the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility reporting requirements for 2015 quickly approaching, benefit advisers should already be working with employer clients to implement benefit administration systems to ensure compliance with the law, industry experts say.

Many of your employer clients will soon face hefty penalties under the ACA for failing to make an offer of health care coverage. Legal experts clarify what that offer of coverage must be.

Health insurance premium rates are on the rise, a trend that could alter brokers’ selling strategies.

Company executives are increasingly becoming involved with health care benefit decisions. Benefit advisers hoping to win, and keep, their business must tailor their tactics to the C-suite.

Although open enrollment for ACA plans is not set to begin until November 15, a new report estimates that nearly 7 million adults may be able to enroll through special enrollment periods.

Employers are seeking help from benefit brokers and advisers as health care costs have them searching for alternatives to the current system of health care delivery.

Employers and employees more than ever need the help of their trusted adviser to communicate in plain language the complexities of today’s health care landscape.

Brokers and assisters will need to work closer together to help consumers during the 2015 ACA open enrollment, but most agree that will involve overcoming some underlying issues.

A day in the life of benefit adviser Bob White from Plan Benefit Analysts of Tulsa, Okla.

As the country’s demographics continue to shift, employers are facing changes in the makeup of their workforce, according to a report from the Council of Economic Advisers. With those changes come new benefits needs for working families. Brokers can help their clients keep up with these evolving requirements and expectations.

Private exchanges are a complex tool in a complex market, but they continue to evolve as employers switch to them, and brokers learn to work with them. Panelists discussed where they will go next during at opening keynote Tuesday at EBA’s Workplace Benefits Mania.

Road to Workplace Benefits Mania: Ahead of next week’s conference, speaker Reid Rasmussen talks about new employee needs that are likely to erupt in the coming years and how brokers might be able to create an opportunity out of them.

A proposal up for vote in the most populous state would give the insurance commissioner veto power over health insurance rates, among other things, and has brokers fearful of the trend spreading to other states.

An increase in the offering of consumer-driven health care products has not translated into increased understanding on the part of consumers — exposing a need for more assistance from benefit professionals and educational tools.

As media interest in health insurance exchanges decreases over time, the insurance industry may need to develop more effective communications to reach the uninsured.