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Here's a recent roundup of industry accomplishments.

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded a total of $109 million in grants to 28 states and the District of Columbia to increase resources for conducting health insurance premium rate reviews.

Prepaid card programs are becoming one of the more desired incentive rewards among corporate HR execs, according to a survey from incentive marketing firm Young America. Nearly half (46%) of HR executives use prepaid cards for their incentive/reward programs, compared to 33% who reward with cash and 47% who use checks, according to the survey of 355 executives in HR, sales or marketing departments at U.S.-based companies with motivational or incentive programs in place. …

Amidst all the talk of health benefit costs skyrocketing, there may be good news on the horizon. Early responses to a Mercer survey still in the field suggest that the average growth in health benefit cost will slow to 5.4% in 2012, the smallest increase since 1997. Still, cost growth remains well above both general inflation and growth in workers’ earnings.

All those reams of paper in your office — documents to enroll new hires in benefit plans, disenroll ineligible dependents and the like — are costing your company money. A lot of money.

In today's BeAdvised, Andy Torelli talks about how he treats his strategic partners. Is it a good idea to view them as partners or providers?

So, what are they, you ask? Not so fast. Tweet your best benefits communication pearls to EBN Associate Editor Lisa Gillespie (@EBN_LVGillespie). Her favorite will win a copy of “You Can’t Not Communicate 2: More Proven Solutions that Power the Fortune 100,” by David Grossman.

Around the time they turn 50, many people unconsciously begin to ratchet up their spending. Instead, prominent retirement planning scholar Alice P. Munnell thinks financial planners and employers need to wage a campaign to get their clients and employees to hit the pause button at this crucial midpoint in their lives. …

Don’t be fooled by Hedda Bolgar Bekker’s peppered hair and grandmotherly stature — she is most definitely not your average 102-year-old. Quite the contrary, Bekker still works 20 hours a week as a psychologist and travels to speak about aging and the workforce.

The Kansas City Collaborative (KC2), a three-year long value based benefit project, succeeded in helping the 15 participating employers share best practices for overcoming health care challenges. Nine of these companies reported that they have saved almost $11 million in direct health care costs by implementing a value-based benefits initiative.