Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

“Because of globalization, many issues related to business, health and society tend to be more and more common between geographies,” says Nicolas Michellod, a senior analyst with Celent’s insurance practice and co-author of a report that identified trends that are playing a major role in the employee benefits market. “Conditions that impact their employees’ health and productivity encourage companies to look for services beyond traditional benefits schemes.”

During his time in the White House, former President Jimmy Carter, who died XXXX, made the creation of a comprehensive program of national health insurance a top priority. In 1979, he proposed to Congress a National Health Plan. His plan never passed, but many of the plan's proposals have been enacted in some form or another by succeeding administrations, including in Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

There is a growing need for plan sponsors to help participants with retirement readiness and securing their financial future. This will drive plan sponsors to expand their financial wellness initiatives and evaluate retirement income solutions for their defined contribution plans, according to the Institutional Retirement Income Council. Here are four trends the IRIC has identified for 2016.

From the IRS extending Affordable Care Act reporting deadlines to a delay of the Cadillac tax, 2016 is gearing up to be another active year for government regulations impacting employee benefits. Here are 10 regulatory issues that benefits professionals and employers should be aware of in 2016, according to Paychex, Inc., a benefits, HR and payroll provider.

HR technology providers are increasingly designing applications with an employee-first mindset, to enable workers to learn and develop, collaborate, share feedback, steer their careers and even manage other people more effectively. Josh Bersin, founder and principal of Bersin by Deloitte, shares 10 trends that reflect a major shift from a decade ago, when vendors designed HR systems primarily to streamline HR administration and help redesign HR processes. Today, digital technologies are transforming nearly every aspect of HR, from sourcing and recruiting to talent and performance management.

Everything from wellness programs to President Obama’s State of the Union address to the difference between ACA compliance and HSA compatibility made headlines this week. Here’s what EBA readers had to say.

No one wants another year full of Client A cursing at them throughout every meeting or Client B always asking for more, more, more — and then complaining once they get the bill. These are the clients, say Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey, authors of The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways to Engage and Empower Your People, who starve a business of the energy it needs to grow and prosper. It’s time to do some winter pruning, they say, and cut off those bad branches.

Fueled by a story about waivers that could all but eliminate ACA coverage requirements for states and a blog stating what preceded the health reform law was worse, EBA readers debate the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act.

Despite the chance to impact daily decision making on critical healthcare, employee benefit and broker industry issues, many politically active advisers agree they are among just 10% of brokers who are involved in local and national politics. EBA presents leading brokers in each region of the country who are actively working to change the industry.

Zenefits made the list of the year’s most-read EBA stories twice, including a defamation lawsuit that ADP filed against the Silicon Valley startup. Other attention-grabbing articles included the Aetna-Humana merger, Cadillac tax repeal efforts, attempts to tweak the ACA and the elimination of broker commission. Here are the top 10 stories that garnered the most pageviews in 2015.