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SourceMedia, the publisher of Employee Benefit Adviser, has acquired Insurance Broadcasting, a provider of online news and live events to employee benefits professionals.

Today, the Center for Health Value Innovation released its 2010 Value-Based Design Report, which takes the national temperature on how value-based benefits designs are progressing in U.S. workplaces.

The Society of Human Resource Management and the Families and Work Institute launched a new partnership called "Moving Work Forward," which hopes to increase the number of employers implementing flexible-workplace arrangements.

The National Business Group on Health reports a growing number of workers seek health and medical information from their employers.

On Monday, yet another federal judge ruled that the individual mandate under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. However, unlike his Virginia counterpart, Henry E. Hudson, who only struck down PPACA’s requirement that all Americans purchase health insurance, Florida District Court Judge Robert Vinson ruled that PPACA on the whole is illegal.

At Jan. 26 hearings on health care reform held by both the House Budget and Ways and Means Committees, the new Republican majority took the opportunity to question Obama Administration officials on the economic repercussions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Florida ruled Jan. 31.

New data by Aon Hewitt show 57 % of 401(k) plan sponsors offered automatic enrollment in 2010, compared to 24% in 2006. Thirty-six percent of plan sponsors who don’t offer the feature said they are likely to add it in 2011.

Small company, big heart It's been a tradition at The Unity Group to give clients chocolates during the holidays. But in 2009 the Bellingham, Wash., firm made the decision to discontinue the expensive (and not exactly healthy) practice in favor of a donation to the local food bank. "With the economy down, we thought that was a great place to give back," says Kari Glennon, sales manager.

There was a time when providing good service at the local level and keeping in touch with employer groups was a marketing strategy in itself. In fact, it may even have been the only marketing strategy a benefits broker needed. But those days died with the changing economy, and the reality is that they aren't coming back.