Benefits Think

Employers and advisers must pay close attention to the details of, and thoroughly document, the process it follows in selecting or changing a TPA.

Advisers and employers must fine-tune their health benefit strategies to address the specific requirements of the largest workforce generation.

The CVS-Aetna deal, for example, would have the potential to take over costly, and previously difficult-to-control, primary care costs.

Machine learning allows human resources professionals to deemphasize tedious aspects of the job while allowing them to pull a greater amount of insight from the results.

As group purchasing coalitions become more popular, they are increasingly susceptive to mismanagement due to low volume, lack of risk control and poor adviser experience.

More employers will stretch matching contributions, include HSA information in education sessions and incorporate behavioral economics/finance elements in plan design.

Put together a multidimensional strategy, including the financial resources and human capital that will be required to achieve personal and company objectives.

Education offerings, student debt repayment programs and helping employees with short-term money issues will be big employer priorities this year.

Long used by larger companies, these medical stop-loss systems are now benefitting a wide range of businesses.

Perceived benefits of CVS/Aetna deal are likely to encourage organizations to consider consolidating as well — could Walmart and Humana be next?