Employer Strategies

The latest federal data shows that benefits costs account for about 30% of employees’ total wages, as private-sector employers spent an average of $28.13 per hour worked for employee compensation in June 2011. Further, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, wages and salaries averaged $19.81 per hour worked and accounted for 70.4% of these costs, while benefits averaged $8.32 and accounted for the remaining 29.6%.

Benefits professionals annually shake their heads in frustration as they spend countless hours preparing open enrollment materials and conducting benefits meetings, only to see employees spend just minutes considering and making their benefits choices. As this year’s enrollment season approaches, new survey results from Aflac give pros hard proof to show employees that not selecting carefully carries meaningful financial consequences.

Whaddaya know? All this time, I thought it was just retirement plan participants who didn’t understand the fees they were paying. Turns out, according to a recent Spectrem Group study, plan sponsors don’t understand plan fees all that well either — only 45% of plan sponsors fully understand their retirement plan fees, according to the report that evaluated some 600 plan sponsors with assets under management of $10 million to $200 million. …

It was a busy summer in the pharmacy benefits management business. First, in June, pharmacy chain Walgreens announced it would withdraw from Express Scripts' pharmacy provider network starting Jan. 1, 2012. Walgreens said the poor contract terms Express Scripts was offering - including prescription reimbursement rates below the industry average - made it impossible for the pharmacy chain to continue its relationship with the PBM.

The rising cost of health care will soon be reflected even more substantially in employee cost-sharing. A new National Business Group on Health survey shows that large employers anticipate their health care benefit costs to climb 7.2% in 2012.

The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program - created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to help employers offset the costs of maintaining early retiree health benefits - may get another $5 billion worth of funds thanks to a bill introduced in the Senate this spring. However, some industry insiders don't expect the bill to gain much traction.

After the Twin Towers fell, the Pentagon stood burning and Flight 93 left a gaping hole in the Pennsylvania countryside on Sept. 11, 2001, Americans depended on human contact to revive our nation's spirit. Many companies consoled employees and their family members with grief counselors, supported them when financial uncertainty arose and - when there was nothing else they could do - just listened to their fears and worries. As our nation marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, EBN examines the success of employee assistance programs, which gained even greater acceptance and utilization after the terrorist attacks. Employers and experts close to the tragedy share how EAPs helped employees in the immediate aftermath and continue to aid them today in a shaky economic environment.

In some organizations, the complex, painstaking and costly business of producing key benefit documents like summary plan descriptions is accepted merely as a legally necessary but thankless task. You won't find that attitude anywhere in the vicinity of Michael Calhoun, director of benefit plan governance for AT&T and winner of this year's EBN Benny Award in the Judges' Choice category.

OhioHealth's manager of benefits administration integrated all of OhioHealth's wellness initiatives into one program, branding the new program OhioHealthy, in 2006. The following year, she consolidated OhioHealth's three health plans into one. Meddock's accomplishments in these initiatives has earned her EBN's 2011 Benny Award for Benefits Leadership in Health Care.

A little over a year ago, I wrote a column about my plans to jump on the dependent eligibility verification audit bandwagon, along with thousands of other employers eager to remove ineligible dependents from their health insurance plans to hedge against ever-rising health care costs.