Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Psst! PBMs don't want you to know about a class-action settlement involving prescription medicine pricing could result in drug-spend savings of 0.7% to 1.6% for plan sponsors. (Every penny helps these days, right?)

Stay tuned plan sponsors and providers. Fresh off the news that Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) was taking up legislation on 401(k) fees, here is more legal froth on fees reported by colleagues at EBN sister publication Money Management Executive:

I'm not a fan of cannoli myself, but EBN Contributing Editor Karrie Andes sure is, and wants to share it -- so to speak -- with you, her benefits peers.

A week ago today, some employers cringed as Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) introduced the Employee Free Choice Act in the House and Senate (known in less-approving circles as "card check").

In this month's EBN, contributor Karin Landry outlines how the current recession may present an opportunity for benefit managers to consider turning to captives to reduce benefits costs and manage risk.

As news has spread that AIG -- beneficiaries of more than $170 billion of our money in government bailout funds -- is paying out $175 million in executive bonuses this week, the response has been unfavorable, to put it mildly.

When President Obama told attendees at this month's White House forum on health care reform that there were "no sacred cows," and "all options are on the table," few suspected he meant taxing health care benefits, as he campaigned hard last year against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for proposing just that....

As financial and litigation fears both have employers on edge, an EBN report this month offers employers three letters to help protect themselves when making benefits changes/reductions: S, P, D.

Amid rising health care costs and other economic worries, a majority of large U.S. employers remain confident they will continue to offer health care benefits to workers 10 years from now. However, the level of confidence has slipped from last year due to economic concerns and uncertainty over the implications...

Employees are getting hit with a bunch of health care letters these days: HSAs, HRA, CDHPs. And before you toss more at them, VBBD (value-based benefits design), experts tell EBN you need to get into their minds to change workers' attitudes toward health care quality and cost.