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As employers shift to an employee-driven benefits model, plan participants’ perceived value and satisfaction in their benefits are declining, according to Prudential’s fifth annual “Study of Employee Benefits: Today & Beyond.”

After a relatively quiet couple of years, life insurers are ramping up their efforts to replace legacy systems—policy administration in particular. These deals are notoriously time- and labor-intensive, and extremely costly, yet as life carriers acknowledge the need for organic growth and new business flexibility, they are actively participating in policy admin modernization projects.

Health care is a highly regulated industry, but medical imaging isn't as regulated as one might expect. Most of the regulations center around breast imaging, which was recognized nearly two decades ago as an area that needed to be standardized and regulated at the federal level.

Electronic prescriptions among U.S. office-based prescribers increased 71% to 326 million in 2010, compared with 190 million the previous year, according to an annual progress report from e-prescribing network vendor Surescripts.

A perfect storm combination of eroding Social Security trust funds, high unemployment and a flood of baby boomers all hitting retirement age at the same time will put enormous strain on the system for the next two decades and result force retirees and their advisors to come up with alternative retirement income plans and strategies to make ends meet.

The majority of employers want to prepare their employees for a financially secure retirement, but have found educational campaigns unlikely to result in substantial changes in behavior. Instead, Steve Utkus, director of Vanguard’s Center for Retirement Research, recommended that employers use “participant inertia to their benefit and do it exclusively with plan design.”

I'm happy to introduce to you EBN's newest staff member: Associate Editor Brian Kalish. He brings you today's post about a new DOL iPhone app that allows employees to track their own hours. Sound like a nightmare waiting to happen? Some attorneys agree. Keep reading, share your thoughts in the comments and send Brian an email to welcome him (or pitch him a story!). You can reach him at brian.kalish@sourcemedia.com.

American Westbrook Insurance Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Hendricks Holding Company, Inc., has acquired substantially all of the assets of The American Worker Plans, Inc., expanding the services available through its benefit wholesale division.

GreenWood International Insurance Services, Inc., a Massachusetts based managing general underwriter, announced they have been acquired by Pan-American Life Insurance Group, a leading provider of life and health insurance in Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic market.

Employee Benefit Adviser magazine is now accepting nominations for four annual awards: Employee Benefit Adviser of the Year Health Plan Adviser of the Year Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year Voluntary Benefits Adviser of the Year