Bruce Shutan

Flexible spending accounts have long been a favorite tool among working Americans to help budget for out-of-pocket costs but they could be an unintended casualty of health care reform.

Hospital consolidation is driving up public exchange bills in mostly urban areas and could jeopardize quality of care.

Health insurance carriers have not poached healthier customers from the exchanges for plans sold outside the exchanges, which some feared would lead to adverse selection in the public exchange market, concludes a recent issue brief.

New workplace programs are helping companies reduce the stigma associated with mental health.

A potential plan to pool the health care purchasing power of Detroit’s Big Three automakers in the form of a CO-OP or similar entity sounds intriguing to industry insiders, but they also caution that it wouldn’t be an easy road.

Greg Giangrande, executive vice president, chief human resources officer for Time Inc., is the recipient of EBN’s 2015 Benefits Leadership in Health Care Award.

Employers looking to attract top talent are using social media to make the employer brand the focus of their recruiting efforts.

Covered California recently announced $10 million in new grants for the upcoming exchange open-enrollment season awarded to 68 “navigator” groups, including about 12,000 certified insurance agents who played a pivotal part in enrolling 43% of state residents for 2015.

Proposed rate increases for 2016 health insurance coverage that a dozen carriers will sell on Covered California’s state-run exchange will be just 4% compared to the 4.2% rise approved for 2015.

Public exchange plan participants spent less money on medications in the first quarter of 2015 than the first quarter of 2014 amid changes in the demographic mix of enrollees, according to newly released data from Express Scripts Holding Company.