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The Private Benefit Exchange Index rose more last month than it has in any of the three previous months Employee Benefit News and Employee Benefit Adviser have been tracking the growth of the online marketplaces.

As employers prepare their health benefit packages for 2016, they must be up-to-date with current ACA and other developments that impact health plans. Here are the top 10 compliance-related issues employers should address during their planning, according to Mercer.

High-profile merger and acquisition activity in the health insurance market has some employers squeamish about decreased competition and carrier responsiveness, but some industry experts say employers have methods for recourse.

Devices and applications are impacting health care, but it’s crucial not to overlook the human aspect of technology, says Healthways’ Chris Dancy.

Communicating health care and other benefits to employees is no simple task, but it is increasingly vital for companies to do it and to do it well.

Benefits professionals have been on a never-ending regulatory road trip since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 and employers everywhere are asking “are we there yet?”

Almost all employers are experiencing rising costs and pressure to move to higher deductible health plans. Wanting another route, Envision Healthcare undertook an eight-month process to decide which private benefit exchange was right for them. Don King, Envision’s VP of compliance and benefits, shared questions all employers should consider when deciding to move to an exchange at EBA’s Workplace Benefits Summit in Orlando.

Increased regulatory requirements and rising health care costs have spurred more employers to consider defined contribution health care plans, a trend industry experts at EBA’s Workplace Benefits Summit say is a result of a more transformative approach to health care benefit strategy.

While private exchanges are no longer new, they are still in their infancy, and have not seen the adoption rate that many predicted. One reason for the low implementation rate may be the many questions that remain unanswered, says Dan Gowen, senior vice president and an employee benefits national practice leader for Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA, Inc. Here are the top five questions employers are asking:

Hospital consolidation is driving up public exchange bills in mostly urban areas and could jeopardize quality of care.