Healthcare

The economy still may be stuck in neutral, but industry brokers, carriers and vendors are bullish about the future of voluntary benefits.

A U.S. court will hear oral arguments on June 8 in a government appeal of a federal judge's ruling that struck down President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul law as unconstitutional.

Republicans in the U.S. House accused the AARP of gaining financially from President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, which the influential elderly advocacy group supported.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a proposed rule March 31 that establishes the Medicare Shared Savings Program authorized in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

While health care costs are inevitably going to rise in the future, a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2011 will likely spend $230,000 on health care throughout their retirement, Fidelity estimates.

Last month, I made the case that health risk assessments are a poor tool for measuring the health of a population or a single individual, and the data they produce are not necessary for the design of good wellness programs. ("No more master key: Health risk assessments unnecessary for wellness plan design," EBN March)

HighRoads, a Boston-based compliance and benefits management firm, conducted a survey months after approval of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, finding that, in general, employers believed that outsourcing costs for health benefits administration will increase because of the law.

How one company used a virtual benefits fair to tame employees' inertia and boost engagement during open enrollment.

Among the many provisions of health care reform legislation is a mandate to cover all preventive services at 100%. Although this provision does not go into effect for grandfathered plans until 2014, it already is in effect for nongrandfathered plans.

Browsing the Web could soon beat out baseball as the American pastime. Many of your employees use the Internet to research their health care options, their new diagnoses or their new diet. The problem is, there are thousands, if not millions, of health care websites.