Melissa A. Winn

The benefits industry is pushing back against a campaign by some policy-makers to increase federal oversight of self-insured health plans, particularly in regards to the purchasing of stop-loss insurance.

Employers are begging for information on compliance with the Affordable Care Act, and as their benefit adviser you can and should offer them guidance — or risk losing them to an adviser who will. Attorney Peter Marathas of Proskauer Rose LLP has outlined four ACA issues you should already be discussing with your clients.

At this week's Workplace Benefits Renaissance in Atlantic City, much buzz surrounded the changing industry landscape under the ACA, with most people agreeing benefit advisers looking to stake their claim on this new terrain need to focus less on brokering to confused employers and more on advising them.

As federal funding for state-run SHOP exchanges runs out in 2015, voluntary benefits may be the key to exchange sustainability, according to Ryan Howells, vice president and general manager of Connecture.

Lawmakers in Maryland and Wisconsin are working to make retirement plans more readily available to private sector employees. Their efforts follow recently enacted California legislation that requires employers to contribute 3% of a worker’s salary to a retirement account.

LIMRA survey finds 70% of advisers predict the ACA will slash group medical sales, with many saying health care reform will drive employers out of the market altogether.

Employers looking to increase productivity should encourage employees to use their paid time off, an Oxford Economics study released Thursday suggests.

Employers offering spousal benefits are more likely to attract new employees and retain the ones they already have, a new study from staffing firm Spherion shows.

Employees with ready access to mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets, prefer accessing employee benefit and pay information using mobile apps rather than using their desktops and laptop computers, an ADP Research Institute Study shows.

Companies cannot deny an employee disability benefits based on their ability to perform a job that only exists “in theory,” a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

Copayments and co-insurance fees have increased on average 34% compared with those of the pre-Affordable Care Act individual insurance market, according to the results of a new HealthPocket study released Thursday.

A group of Republican representatives on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are demanding answers from the U.S. Treasury about the decision-making process behind the latest delay to the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate.

The Department of Health and Human Services has yet to release any data on the number of small businesses that have enrolled in the Affordable Care Act’s Small Business Health Options Program, angering lawmakers who have been prodding the agency for answers.

Fewer people are getting their primary health insurance coverage through their employers, according to a Gallup Poll released Wednesday, which also reported the number of uninsured Americans has reached a five-year low.

The number of employers contributing to their employees’ HSA or HRA continues to grow, reaching a record high in 2013, according to a new Employee Benefit Research Institute report. However, the dollar amount of employer and employee contributions is slipping.

Large and mid-sized agencies and brokerage firms enjoyed a six-year high in revenue growth and profitability in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to Reagan Consulting’s quarterly Organic Growth and Profitability survey.