Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Healthcare.gov runs the risk of offering too many health plan choices and the opportunity exists to be able to make it easier for consumers to compare coverage, the website’s CEO, Kevin Counihan, said Monday.

Most employers have still not determined how they will comply with complex ACA reporting requirements that began Jan. 1. Benefit brokers and consultants should be discussing the requirements and the solutions with their employer clients, experts say.

About 25% of health plans in two state-run public exchanges were found to violate the federal mental health parity law, according to research by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that was published in the journal Psychiatric Services.

Commentary: Small employers that reimburse employees or pay directly for all or part of their health coverage have a short window to cease this practice, or they will be subject to an expensive excise tax.

Best-performing state exchanges have thrived on strong, coordinated and targeted outreach, as well as enrollment-assistance programs that are embedded in the community.

Democrats and Republicans support repealing the tax, which will affect a disproportionate number of Americans, and is likely to miss its revenue projections, experts say.

Employees report increased confidence in retirement readiness with lifetime income options, but few utilize such plans when offered by employers. Advisers can help match interest with engagement.

Some New Yorkers can choose from more than a hundred health insurance products offered by more than a dozen insurers participating in the state-run health insurance exchange, depending on where they live, but they’re hard-pressed to find anything other than the HMO-style plans that dominate the landscape.

Big data is playing an increasingly larger role in benefits strategic planning and if a broker, health plan and employer work together, the opportunities for using such data to lower costs and increase well-being can be realized.

Assurant Health announced this week it will be sold or shut down by the end of 2016, a move the parent company attributes to million-dollar losses as a result of the ACA.