Employer Strategies

The nonprofit Center for Health Value Innovation released the initial results of employers completing the Health Value Accelerator finding that over 20 cents out of every dollar of revenue are going toward health care costs that are under-managed.

As employer-provided benefits continue to become a bigger portion of labor costs, organizations are increasing employee cost sharing as well as providing employee health education, wellness initiatives and financial education/advice. According to the Employee Benefits Accountability and Consumerism 2011 survey by WorldatWork, 45% of surveyed organizations report that turning employees into educated consumers of benefits is a very high priority for their organization's top management with more senior leaders now acting as advocates.

In today's BeAdvised, we turn to a former contributor of our sister publication, Employee Benefit News, Karrie Andes. Today, she's writing on two topics that never run short on blogworthy material: Form 5500 and the IRS. Enjoy, and be sure to share your thoughts.

Only 4% of plan sponsors have established goals to engage workers younger than 35 in their defined contribution plans, even though they know the younger generation's participation and contribution rates lag their older colleagues, a survey by Greenwich Associates for Northern Trust finds.

Many small business owners in the United States are reluctant to hire more employees in the near term as economic uncertainty and sagging sales continue to put pressure on company balance sheets, the latest index on small business optimism from the National Federation of Independent Business shows.

The percentage of Americans who have health insurance through their employer slipped to a new low of 44.5% in the third quarter, a drop of over 5 percentage points in three years, according to a poll released last week.

Are you providing a helpful owner’s manual with your CDHP plans? In today’s BeAdvised Helen Box-Farnen shares why ongoing education for participants just may increase the value of this plan.

For most employers, annual enrollment for this year is in the rear-view mirror. That means that you’re done with the emails, the newsletter, the guide, the meetings, the reminder postcard, the online enrollment system, and other communications, right? Not if you’ve implemented a new Consumer Driven Health Plan. Not if you want to avoid disruption from confused employees who are using a CDHP for the first time. Not if you want your employees to get the…

A national coalition of pharmacists and pharmacy owners announced last week a public information campaign to expose the unjustifiably high prices of prescription drugs set by pharmacy benefit managers, the unregulated, multibillion dollar industry that controls prescription health plans for more than 200 million Americans.

A series of interactive computer exercises designed to encourage healthy eating and physical activity didn't help keep middle school students from gaining extra weight, according to a study in the Netherlands.