Elizabeth Galentine

It used to be commonplace to find employees of Las Vegas-based Insurcorp at the casinos at 2 a.m. Not to blow off steam after a long workday, but to continue it, conducting benefit meetings for graveyard shift staffers.

While the ever-rising cost of health care continues to be a top concern for employers and employees alike, there is at least one employee benefit headed in the opposite direction. "I always facetiously use the phrase 'life is cheap,' says Bob Harnett, vice president of Lutherville, Md.-based Silberstein Insurance Group. "Life insurance on an employer-paid basis has gotten to be very inexpensive."

In some ways, the perspective a number of employee benefit brokers and advisers take on social media in the workplace reminds me of views held by many employers - at least in the beginning - on the value of workplace wellness programs. Both social media and wellness have their enthusiastic, devoted supporters, as well as skeptics who question the level of time commitment required to be successful and the resulting return on investment, which can be difficult to track.

Obamacare. Or is it ObamaCare? However you spell it, if you're in the health care advisory business you shouldn't be saying it.

Aon Hewitt isn't letting health care reform dictate its business model. If anything, it's the other way around. In addition to publishing an influential report on the implications of health reform for large employers, CEO Kristi Savacool has been to the White House several times in recent months to discuss the company's retiree health care exchange and upcoming active employee exchange model.

From carriers to brokers, enrollers to consultants, the message was the same to the more than 600 attendees gathered Tuesday in Atlantic City, N.J. for the Workplace Benefits Renaissance: Voluntary benefits are a mounting source of opportunity for those who are prepared to take advantage

The theme of this month's issue is strategic partnerships. It's one of my favorite issues of the year, and not just because the nerd in me enjoys the way exploring the importance of finding the right partner ties into Valentine's Day.

A couple of years ago Kris Allison was running Burnham Benefits Insurance Services, a well established employee benefits brokerage that offered a respectable level of financial services. Darin Gibson was managing a rising financial services firm with a decent book of benefits business. Today their companies, now Burnham Benefits and Burnham Gibson Financial Group, are a united team with one-stop shopping for their growing client base in Irvine, Calif., and satellite offices across the U.S.

My father has owned his own company for as long as I can remember. The name and central product have changed a few times over the years as he's sold one business or another and developed new products, but its always been in the IT field.

Over the course of 15 years of working on all sides of the benefits table - from HR specialist to administrator to carrier account manager - Sher Sparano observed the health care process enough to see the lack of resources that HR departments had in handling their employees' benefits.

The leading industry trade organizations expressed disappointment after the December 2 Department of Health and Human Services release of the final medical loss ratio rule failed to remove broker commissions from the administrative side of health reform’s MLR calculation.

Historically, wellness has been associated primarily with weight loss, and since many of us slip right into a food coma come Thanksgiving and don't emerge until multiple holiday parties have left us loosening a belt notch or two, it's no coincidence that EBA features our annual Wellness Challenge issue on the eve of resolution season

As a new mom with an 18-month-old and a one-month-old, I'm only beginning to scratch the surface of what it means to feel parental pride. However, I definitely experienced something akin to it as I was reading through the nomination forms for EBA's 2011 Employee Benefit Adviser of the Year.

In these days of increasing reliance on electronic communication and high-tech Internet applications, in-person meetings have never been more important for Darrell Phillips. By holding regular face-to-face meetings with the 4,000 employees at his 41 501(c)(3) and governmental hospital plan clients across the state of Kansas, Phillips' mission is three-fold: 1) Build trust with the employer; 2) Serve the purpose of the programs by helping employees take advantage of their benefits; and 3) Let employees know they have access to a resource who truly cares about them.

It was about seven years ago that a client of Matt McQuide approached the vice president at Benefit Controls Companies with a serious, if not uncommon, problem. The 1,000-employee textile firm was experiencing unsustainable rate increases of at least 9% to 11% a year. "They looked at us and said, 'If this continues, we won't have a business,'" McQuide recalls.

If there's one thing we're constantly striving for here at EBA it's an ever-strengthening connection to you, our audience of employee benefit professionals. We're finding more ways to interact with you in person, whether it's at this month's Workplace Benefits Mania in Chicago or at the 6th Annual Employee Benefit Adviser Summit in Dallas, September 25-27. We hope to see you there!

Data collected by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners suggest that average consumer rebates would have been more than 60% lower if agent and broker commissions were excluded from medical loss ratio calculations in 2010.

A possible model for PPACA state exchanges, VIRTUAL COMPARE shows how easily brokers can be included in the process.

By incorporating employee health clinics into the business structure of their clients, Matt McQuide and Rick Gantt are able to bring down health care costs while changing the way employers think about health care delivery. Not to mention keep themselves firmly entrenched as the BOR in the process.

The New Jersey Assembly on June 23 approved a bill that will require 750,000 government employees and retirees to contribute substantially more for their health insurance and pensions.