Employer Strategies

With the cost of employer-provided health care benefits at large U.S. employers expected to rise another 7% next year, a new survey by the National Business Group on Health suggests employers are eyeing a variety of cost-control measures but also sharply boosting financial rewards to engage workers in healthy lifestyles.

While retirement plan sponsors do not have a fiduciary obligation to tell participants that they have made an unwise investment choice, they should limit investment options to strategies that meet the acceptable diversification criteria outlined in ERISA.

Forty-seven million women will now have access to eight new prevention-related health care services under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced on Wednesday.

Want to disseminate summary of benefits and coverage materials as required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on a mobile device?

Getting employees to support health savings accounts depends on the way they’re communicated alongside the concept of a high-deductible health plan, which can be a tricky proposition. But there are solutions at hand.

U.S. companies hired more workers than expected in July, but continued weakness in the manufacturing sector pointed to sluggish economic growth.

Consumer awareness of bank-sold life insurance has improved, and much of this improvement can be credited to generations X and Y, according to a report from LIMRA. The periodic report, "Bank on It! Opportunities With Today's Bank Customer,” found the majority of generations X and Y would consider buying life insurance policy from their bank—significantly higher than members of the older baby boomer and silent generations, where only about a third of these consumers say they would consider it.

Health Savings Accounts are estimated to have grown to more than $14.1 billion in assets through June 30, representing 7.1 million accounts, according to a survey and research report by Devenir, a broker-dealer and registered investment adviser based in Minneapolis.

Ask a roomful of HR leaders to name their biggest stressors and some interesting answers float up – sometimes literally. A new social experiment by Impact Group suggests that, as the economy recovers, these practitioners are engaging in some big-picture thinking, and their worries may only be ballooning.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) poses both a moral and business dilemma for worksite wellness programs, but a leading authority suggests that it can be overcome with careful thought and the right strategy in place.