Benefit plan design

Commentary: Our focus on each item that comes along in the employee-employer relationship blinds us to the bigger picture issues.

A potential plan to pool the health care purchasing power of Detroit’s Big Three automakers in the form of a CO-OP or similar entity sounds intriguing to industry insiders, but they also caution that it wouldn’t be an easy road.

Despite the regulatory uncertainty about how the Affordable Care Act’s excise tax will apply to employer-sponsored care offered through onsite clinics, employers appear committed to the concept.

Commentary: Many brokers underestimate the impact a comprehensive disability management philosophy can have on the total cost of an employee benefits program.

Commentary: Just because vendors are promising you will avoid penalties because you were able to provide a “good faith” effort, doesn’t mean you actually will be penalty-free.

The number of employers who could be subject to the ACA’s Cadillac tax is predicted to rise if employers remain stagnant on health care plan changes, underscoring a need to make plan adjustments sooner rather than later.

The Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges primarily affects the administration of benefits and almost exclusively applies to employers in those states that previously did not recognize same-sex marriage.

Commentary: EBA columnist Nelson Griswold says benefits RFPs are universally awful and HR should abandon them. Advisers, he says, should also be wary of them.

Commentary: Specific innovations in benefits administration software are paving the way and supplying the technological framework to a future primarily based in cyberspace rather than buildings filled with people.

Commentary: Employee leave is right in the middle of policy and business management discussions. Benefit managers would be wise to get ahead of the curve.