Employer Strategies

Commentary: Blogger Kevin Hilst shares tips for benefit advisers and professionals on how to make sure a vision RFP zeroes in on what distinguishes a great product from a commodity.

Several tech companies this week announced they would be adding egg freezing benefits to their health plan. While that may sound like a nice perk to some, making this and other benefit plan changes comes with risks that your employer clients, with your help, should consider.

On the heels of news about Aon Hewitt’s estimated more than 1.2 million HIX enrollees exceeding its expectations for 2015, Bright Choices Exchange operator Liazon is crowing about its own expansion plans.

The new CEO of the federal health insurance marketplace, Kevin Counihan, knows there is room for improvement, but says new processes have Healthcare.gov ready for 2015 open enrollment.

What's keeping female employees from getting more deeply involved in their own retirement savings? Better plan design and more personalized communications can help offset women's reluctance - or perceived financial inability - to help make savings plans.

A fix is in the works to ensure agents and brokers can identify themselves and therefore receive commissions for their work on the federally-facilitated marketplace, an agency official at The Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight said Tuesday.

Initial numbers for 2015 open enrollment put participation in Mercer’s Marketplace exchange at nearly five times the size of 2014 rates. The consulting firm also added 40 additional clients to the exchange who were not previously with Mercer.

Using an electronic, cloud-based system to help with your open enrollment can allow employees to take the extra time to make sure they're getting the most out of your voluntary offerings.

A third of Americans have no retirement savings and those who do aren’t saving enough — automatic escalation can help.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 has helped to reduce costs and limit liabilities for multiemployer plans. But the landmark legislation will sunset at the end of the year, which has many stakeholders and consultants predicting future retirement uncertainty for the more than 10 million participants in multiemployer plans across the nation.