Editorial Staff

President Barack Obama extended an olive branch on Monday to states struggling to implement his health care law, offering support for a proposal that would give them some flexibility in carrying out its key parts.

Employee Benefit News is soliciting short articles from benefits professionals on best practices related to open enrollment and voluntary benefits. Articles selected by the editors will appear in EBN’s June 1 issue or on the Web site.

AlwaysCare Benefits, Inc. recently noted that it achieved a major business milestone: signing up more than 500,000 employees and dependents for group dental, vision, life, disability, critical illness and accident benefit plans.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has triggered considerable angst about the fate of group health insurance coverage since its passage, but recent research suggests that it’s not expected to affect non-medical benefits.

Voluntary products were a key ingredient of employee benefit packages last year in the face of challenging times, with sales figures revealing a compelling story.

Last April, Eastbridge Consulting Group examined the interchangeability of key phrases describing “voluntary” benefits and the “worksite” market.

Employee Benefit News is soliciting short articles from benefits professionals on best practices related to open enrollment and voluntary benefits. Articles selected by the editors will appear in EBN’s June 1 issue or on the Web site.

Aflac Dental policyholders have a reason to smile. The carrier’s new voluntary dental insurance plan now offers multiple levels of coverage and more generous benefits that include higher annual maximums and better orthodontic coverage.

Younger generations aren’t very familiar with critical illness insurance, but challenging times appear to be spiking their interest in other workplace benefits, according to two sets of jointly conducted surveys.

After seeing enrollment in its medical plans gradually dwindle to less than 2% of total group membership, the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America will shutter this product line and instead focus on dental, disability, life, critical illness and disability offerings.

Critics of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) once warned that the law would decimate mini-med plans – that is, until the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) issued regulatory guidance.

The latest news on industry movers and shakers concerns one seasoned executive’s career move and a veteran disability insurance agent earning kudos for his staff from a leading carrier for a thirteenth consecutive year.

The voluntary benefits bandwidth for independent insurance agents and brokers is growing, thanks to a recent industry partnership.

Be sure to mark your calendar for a series of online educational forums in 2011 on disability and absence management co-presented by two industry leaders.

Nothing in life is guaranteed, but working Americans increasingly are in search of flexible income-protection products that will offset market volatility.

SourceMedia, the publisher of Employee Benefit News, has acquired Insurance Broadcasting, a provider of online news and live events to employee benefits professionals.

Small and large employers say they have no plans to reduce spending on non-medical benefits in light of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a MetLife poll.

SourceMedia, the publisher of Employee Benefit Adviser, has acquired Insurance Broadcasting, a provider of online news and live events to employee benefits professionals.

The nation’s the largest health care and voluntary benefits software provider recently teamed up with NASCO to burnish a technology investment made by Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans and improve CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield’s billing system efficiency.

Three months after a leading private equity firm sought to acquire all of Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc.’s common stock for $60 per share in cash, another suitor has come calling for the provider of legal services through the worksite and individual markets to more than 1.5 million families across North America.