Employer Strategies

Encouraging the use of video game-styled features on smartphones to boost participation in your wellness program might get employees off to a good start, but these tools might not be the best long-term solution to building engagement.

Can a benefits manager pushing a wellness program simply tell his or her management team, 'trust me on this?' For Elkay Manufacturing, that positive attitude - and a great combination of personalized incentives - produced great results.

Commentary: October is National Depression Awareness Month. Jeff Guardalabene, a mental health case manager with Standard Insurance Company, offers these tips on how to help your employer clients navigate this important but often uncharted territory.

Walmart Stores Inc. the world’s biggest retail chain, plans to stop offering health benefits to employees who work less than 30 hours a week, a move that will affect about 2% of its U.S. staff.

As Congress continues to explore ways of making our retirement savings system stronger, legislators should consider requiring 401(k) plans to automatically enroll workers, eliminating participant loan features and allowing unlimited Roth 401(k) contributions.

EBN’s annual Benefits Forum & Expo, held last week in Boca Raton, Fla., included a special focus on wearable wellness and an inspirational keynote address from marathon swimmer Diana Nyad. In case you missed the event, here’s our coverage.

Employers and employees have different perspectives when it comes to discussing benefits, and benefit advisers can help close that gap.

Employing a proactive strategy to address the explosive costs of specialty medications can serve the patients who need those specialized meds, with an unbelievable 63% increase in costs expected in the next two years.

Narrow networks of health care providers offer new ways for employers and health plans to control the costs of care. But many of these networks are being constructed without regard to the value they deliver, says Scott Wallace, visiting professor at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear Tibble v. Edison International, a case in which the plaintiffs contend their ERISA plan fiduciaries breached their duty of prudence by offering higher-cost retail-class mutual funds to 401(k) plan participants, even though identical lower-cost institutional-class mutual funds were available.