Lisa V. Gillespie

Despite being more benefits rarity than reality, a new Towers Watson analysis finds that the traditional defined benefit retirement plans of yesteryear still hold favor among job-seekers, particularly younger workers who have shown waning hope in their retirement futures.

While more companies today are focusing on wellness programs as a way to cut health care costs, Ed Jones, president of commercial division at ValueOptions, told attendees at the Institute for Health and Productivity Management conference that adding behavioral health clinicians to the mix can yield even greater returns on overall employer investments in health care and wellness.

China may be on the forefront of economic development, but it has a long way to go in providing health care for its hundreds of millions of workers, according to Hocking Cheng, managing director for health management solutions in China for Aetna. Such health care woes may haunt U.S. multinationals that have to contend with employee wellness issues at home and abroad.

Enrollment in health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements continues to grow, but contribution patterns to these account-based health plans are changing, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Information commonly exits in silos: Pharmacy benefit managers, health plans, and absence management, disability and enrollment vendors generally all operate independently and invisibly to other health care entities that are caring for the same population of patients.

In the information age, perhaps the only system left that hasn't gone completely digital or to the cloud is health care. Even insurance companies, who warehouse massive amounts of data, rarely share it with other insurance companies when an employee moves from one job to the next. And for patients to gain access to their own heath records, which largely are maintained on paper, they have to go through a lengthy process - on paper.

You may not be hearing it directly from your employees, but most are not happy with the customer service health plans provide. A new research report published by Temkin Group, a consulting firm, rates the customer experience of 206 large companies across 18 industries.

Wednesday may be the stickiest part of the three-day hearings at the Supreme Court regarding health care reform’s individual mandate, as the issues being argued on this final day have the greatest potential to make HR/benefits managers lives — and those of the employees and families they serve — quite complicated. What is at hand today is the issue of “severability,” whether the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act must fall if the insurance mandate is found to be unconstitutional, or if the other remaining parts of the law can survive.

The Supreme Court steps were abuzz Tuesday morning with supporters, opponents and onlookers, as they either championed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, called it a major setback to religious freedom and personal liberty, or simply wanted to observe the scene surrounding the historical arguments first-hand.

The Supreme Court heard the first of three days of oral arguments on the constitutionality of the individual mandate provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, sparking speculation, analysis and protests throughout Washington, D.C. and the nation.

EBN Associate Editor Lisa V. Gillespie sat down with Gerald Wernette, director of retirement plan services for Rehmann Financial, to discuss multiple issues facing retirement plan sponsors today, including the obligation to provide participants with financial education and how to give those education programs tailored relevance to employees across all life circumstances.

With worries over fiduciary responsibilities, stable-value funds — which offer steady and predictable returns consistent with a conservative principal protection vehicle — can be a solid retirement plan option for certain segments of a workforce, according to experts who spoke at this week’s 401(k) Summit sponsored by the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries. …

More than half of U.S. employers say they are expanding the use of technology to manage costs associated with employee benefits programs. This is according to new research from Prudential Financial.

Although the average person may not be able to afford a retirement advisor, smart and innovative plan design on the part of plan sponsors may make having an advisor unnecessary.

As more employers introduce employees to consumer-driven health plans with a health savings account, utilization grows of those HSAs. Last week, UMB Healthcare Services announced a growth of 36% of HSA account balances, surpassing $400 million dollars following 2011 open enrollment. The number of HSAs stood at nearly 220,000 at year-end.

Ironic as it may be, despite record-high unemployment and the perception of a surplus of talent, human resources professionals may be forced to choose from limited quantities of high-skilled workers, a new Deloitte study shows.

Anticipating the impact of health care reform, nearly four in 10 health plan members with employee-sponsored insurance say they would shop for coverage through a health insurance exchange if they had the opportunity, according a survey released yesterday.

Workers aren’t saving, but those who are, are doing in an employer-sponsored 401(k) plan. In total, 60% of workers report that the total value of their household’s savings and investments, excluding the value of their primary home and any defined benefit plans, is less than $25,000. However, one area in which Americans are saving for retirement is an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan, such as a 401(k). In fact, 81% of eligible workers (38% of all workers surveyed) say they contribute to such a plan with their current employer.

It’s an appealing proposition, to set a certain price to what you’ll spend on employee’s health care costs. Long gone may be the days of having to wait an entire year to know what your numbers are for this year and basing future strategy on numbers you don’t have. It’s the appeal of an exchange, where employers could release their employees to the winds to choose what kind of coverage they want.

In 2002, the most expensive health conditions were heart disease, cancer, trauma, mental disorders and pulmonary conditions. These conditions plague employers, and last week, leaders in business met to discuss ways to manage them affectively to not only get a healthier workforce, but a more cost-efficient one.