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Brokers and agents say the state exchanges did little to engage them during the first enrollment period under the ACA, and many in the industry agree improving the partnership between the exchanges and brokers will be critical to the survival of the state marketplaces.

Corporate spending on wellness programs is surging, but motivating employees to use them continues to be a rather expensive struggle. There are lots of reasons for this, but a really unfortunate one is bad timing.

Under-performing 401(k) plan? Maybe it's where you live. Judy Diamond Associates reviewed more than half a million 401(k) plans throughout the country to determine which states had the highest amount of under-performing plans. Rankings are based on rate of return, participation and employee contributions.

Commentary: The FBI is still investigating the potential causes of the data breach at Anthem, the nation’s second-largest health insurer. There is still no clear indication who perpetrated the attack, reported Feb. 5, how they did so, or what could’ve been done to stop it, but informed sources point to a number of strong possibilities on all counts.

The giant breach at health insurer Anthem (previously WellPoint) potentially affecting up to 80 million insured members and employees, reminds us that the hacking threat to protected health information is persistent and growing. The HHS Office for Civil Rights Web site of large breaches lists more than 90 major incidents of hacking, which have become much more prevalent during the past two years. Here are the 10 largest healthcare hacking incidents to date.

One-on-one coaching, auto features are keys to saving for the future.

Anthem Inc., the second-biggest U.S. health insurer, said it’s going to take about 10 to 14 days to figure out who was affected by a data breach and begin notifying those people.

The most common vector of cyberattack is still poor habits by associates, says Joseph Smith, former CIO of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Not all corporate data breaches are of the spectacular variety that health insurer Anthem recently announced, involving 80 million members. But any company that offers a wellness program needs to take special precautions to ensure employee health information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

For some employers the move to a private exchange is as much about the role of benefits as an attraction and retention strategy as it is about saving money over the long term.