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Early adopters to the private exchanges say they've experienced major issues with helping workers better understand the complexities - and do-it-yourself aspects - of the new world of health care.

While employers are continuing to feel the impact from a multitude of changing laws and regulations, worries about the Affordable Care Act have begun to subside, to some degree. But the jury is out on the long-term implications of the ACA, and the ways benefits managers will live up to its stipulations in coming years.

The bill that would establish a federal clearinghouse for state-by-state broker and agent licensing has successfully passed the U.S. Senate as an amendment to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, known as TRIA. It was previously left off another insurance industry bill at this point in the process.

Benefit advisers working with employers offering medical plans — take note. Two important final regulations issued jointly by the IRS, DOL and HHS apply to plan years beginning on or after July 1, 2014. Are your clients compliant?

Commentary: In today’s ubiquitous social media environment, employers face tremendous risks when utilizing social media as part of the hiring process. Even the most stringent recruitment process can become infiltrated with discriminatory practices, whether it’s intentional or not. Human resources professionals continue to struggle with this.

Released this week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s new enforcement guidance on how employers are to accommodate their pregnant workforce is creating mixed emotions from legal experts in the employment space.

A boom in private exchanges and a changing distribution system for health care will create a new landscape for benefits managers and advisers, with more emphasis on consumer-directed health care.

A proposal up for vote in the most populous state would give the insurance commissioner veto power over health insurance rates, among other things, and has brokers fearful of the trend spreading to other states.

The Senate Wednesday failed to get enough support for its reversal plan of the recent Supreme Court Hobby Lobby ruling that will allow some employers to decline providing insurance coverage for some forms of birth control based on religious grounds.

Commentary: Too often wellness programs are started as just another way to reduce heath care costs. Certainly, this is a terrific outcome that good wellness programs will help deliver. However, this focus not only sells the wellness program short, but it also misses the “soul” of the program.

Road to Workplace Benefits Mania: Ahead of the July conference, speaker Harry Gottlieb discusses the need for stronger benefits communication including the problems that arise when it’s not present, and how to fix this crucial element for the benefit of your clients’ employees.

Commentary: Learn about why you may be failing at cross-selling voluntary from columnist Nelson Griswold, and how to fix it.

Few small business employees say they are satisfied with their company’s benefit offerings — revealing a need for benefit advisers to work with employers to create more comprehensive benefit packages with employee needs in mind.

Overall, employers have failed to move the dial on overall retirement confidence levels for their female workforce, despite that demographic’s dominance in handling their households’ day-to-day expenses.

Millions of Americans sought help from navigators and assisters during the ACA's first open-enrollment period, but many were more satisfied with help from a benefit adviser.

Learn about how technology can demonstrate the link between volatility and risk in retirement planning — a distinguishing factor from other advisers, according to columnist Craig Davidson.

With voluntary benefit sales on the rise, experts in the field discuss the broker mindset on a range of products and the carriers that offer them.

Employment education sessions are a critical way to get plan participants more involved in the personal choices they need to make to maximize their retirement account returns.

Your sales tactics need to change depending on the economic outlook of the times. Columnist Jack Kwicien outlines these sales tips so that you can be optimally adaptive, flexible and prepared for any challenge that comes your way.

Wellness and retirement educational tools are paramount in an ever-changing landscape of employee benefits, and Mercer has taken a unique approach in its newest endeavor, Mercer Benefits U.