Employer Strategies

The three-year effort to open the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges culminates today, beset by logistical delays and efforts by Republicans to shut down the U.S. government in protest.

Benefits advisers for government contractors say employees will be impacted in the way of retirement savings and more.

Some brokers are eager to start enrollment on Oct. 1 and others want to wait and see what happens, but either way, no one expects people to be knocking down their doors on the first day.

The degree of success will be how well the industry does in solving the “annuity puzzle.”

While the shutdown won’t stop the roll-out, which is largely funded through mandatory appropriations that can’t be curtailed by congressional inaction, it’s an open question whether it will lessen public enthusiasm to enroll.

Customer satisfaction with traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies continues to outpace satisfaction with mail-order pharmacies, according to the J.D. Power 2013 U.S. Pharmacy Study.

Small businesses won’t be able to enroll in new online health insurance marketplaces until Nov. 1 in most U.S. states, the latest delay for the Obama administration’s signature health care law.

Find out more on these ongoing legal spats over the Affordable Care Act and how employers are involved in the arguments.

Creating a smart consumer takes more than health care reform and adopting a consumer-driven health plan.

Pharmacy benefit management specialists say that as prices skyrocket, more and more employers will narrow pharmacies and prescriptions for their employees.