Benefits Think

Comparing wellness program participants to nonparticipants is a widely repeated mistake. It continues because employers are not schooled in research study design.

The reality is that monitoring your service providers is an essential component to fulfilling your fiduciary duty as an employer. The tangible tasks that you must take on, such as, reviewing performance and educating participants, are easily executed. The confusion lies in the intangibles.

The EEOC released its highly anticipated, proposed regulations setting forth the EEOC’s interpretation of the term “voluntary” as to the disability-related inquiries and medical examination provisions of the American with Disabilities Act.

The right employee benefits consultant partners with you to remove obstacles and help simplify today’s complex benefit issues so that you can focus your core business objectives. The time you invest up front can pay off enormously if you find a consultant who understands your needs and can help you build a strategy around them.

In human resources and insurance circles, we’ve been talking about wellness for quite some time. And most employers have dived in and now offer a wellness program. So, how are these wellness programs performing? Too often, the answer is “not well.”

Recently BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, announced that it would follow Fidelity and Federated in making changes to its money market fund offerings. These changes are in response to SEC reform rules announced during the summer of 2014, which will permit floating NAVs, redemption fees and liquidation windows in prime money market funds.

Commentary: All Americans are concerned about escalation of health care expenditures. But, does anyone really want the government in the middle of how we access care? Legislation in New York could make that happen.

Commentary: Employees can make the transition to high-deductible health plans and be successful when provided some key education and support from the financial services marketplace.

If I had a dollar for every time an industry professional reacted to my choice of college major with, “Risk Management and Insurance?  I didn’t know you could major in that,” I would be a rich man. From what I see, many people who make up the industry did not set out with the intention of working in insurance or employee benefits. So why would a young professional just entering the job market choose employee…

Commentary: Despite all the media coverage of the Affordable Care Act, there is still a fair amount of confusion and misunderstanding about the law, even among employees whose job it is to administer benefits.