Employer Strategies

This is the time of year when most companies with calendar year plans start reviewing their discrimination test to see if they passed or if they have to refund any contributions to the highly compensated employee group. Columnist John Ludwig shares best practices for keeping your clients in compliance.

Brokers from Arkansas to Florida to New York lament that the Affordable Care Act’s SHOP exchanges are undesirable targets to steer their clients to, leaving some independent agents who focused their businesses on individual public exchange enrollment in the lurch come March 31.

The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA) has changed the way your clients manage their employees’ disability leaves. The Standard has found five mistakes employers may make when considering ADAAA accommodations.

Is now the time to offer accident or critical insurance along with other traditional benefit enrollments? With the uncertainty facing the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate and the high costs associated with these medical claims, new research from MetLife finds that communication of these voluntary benefits will help with employee productivity and cost savings.

As the dust settles over the Affordable Care Act and employees get used to operating in the post-ACA world, plan sponsors find themselves in somewhat of a holding pattern with regards to their pharmacy benefits. But strategic decisions are still in play about whether or not employers are going to provide traditional benefit plans once the employer mandate goes into effect in 2015 or send workers to public or private exchanges.

Health plans allowed to continue in 2014 though they don’t comply with new Obamacare rules may be extended for as long as three years, Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini told investors.

As Cigna this week became one of the first insurers to announce its own online marketplace — amid countless others created by brokers, consultants and tech firms — some say the definition of this concept has become muddied.

By ending the sale of tobacco products in its 7,600 pharmacies, CVS Caremark Corp. is redefining itself as a health-care provider in an environment in which millions of newly insured Americans will be looking for quick and convenient medical care.

Health insurers under pressure to keep premiums low are eliminating some hospitals from coverage in a cost-cutting strategy that threatens to freeze out centers that provide specialized care, limiting patient options.

A handful of recent guidance items that the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury have issued make some important changes related to the regulation of “excepted benefits.” These changes are driven in large part by the insurance market reforms and other provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). For the most part, these changes should be welcomed by both employers and employees as they endeavor to comply with the ACA.