Benefit plan design

When mistakes are made on benefit plan audits, plan administrators can experience significant hardships, including rejections of Form 5500 filings, which can result in fines of up to $1,000 per day.

Commentary: Hispanics comprise almost 17% of today’s U.S. population. This demographic represents the most significant population trend in Americans under 65 in the next 20 years. This isn't just a population trend, your sales depend on recognizing the cultural shift happening underneath your feet.

Millions are covered under employee stock ownership plans, which take a considerable amount of research and planning before implementation.

As employers search for ways to trim health care costs, advisers are increasingly exploring the use of data to steer plan design.

Zenefits has filed a motion to dismiss an anti-defamation lawsuit filed against it by payroll services giant ADP, continuing a heated row between the two companies that Zenefits says comes down to a a fight for “consumer choice.”

Commentary: Waiting for the results of the 2016 presidential election before doing any Cadillac tax planning is not a good benefits strategy.

Commentary: Columnist Nelson Griswold discusses why sophisticated employee benefit advisers are increasingly discussing self-funding of the health plan with mid-size employers.

Consolidation in the health insurance industry holds both positives and negatives for employer-sponsored health plans, but employers shouldn’t expect to see any major savings resulting from the Aetna-Humana merger until at least 2017, say industry experts.

Friday’s landmark ruling on gay marriage poses both challenges and benefits to employers.

High deductible health plan sponsors, as well as employers considering making that switch, should review their employees’ health care purchasing patterns and their communication campaigns to encourage appropriate use of the plans.

Chiropractors and other ancillary health care providers are breathing a sigh of relief following an about-face by federal regulators with respect to Affordable Care Act’s coverage of their services.

HR technology company Namely has launched an internal benefits brokerage as part of its goal to be an end to end HR solution for growing startups. But the company wants to work with other brokers, not in competition with them.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 ruling in the Burwell v Hobby Lobby Stores case addressed in broad terms how exceptions to the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for contraceptive benefits coverage can be granted in the private sector, it left some unresolved questions both in the for-profit and in the nonprofit world.

Commentary: When executed efficiently, this strategy can bring a variety of benefits, says AmWINS’s Sam Fleet.

Brokers need to change the conversations they are having with clients away from the Affordable Care Act and toward other topics, including voluntary, since little will change with the law until the next presidential inauguration, a carrier rep says.

Commentary: Providing accommodations for workers will disabilities can help reduce employee absenteeism and presenteeism, the type of productivity loss associated with employees working through medical conditions.

Commentary: This is due in large part to improvements in health care, more ways to accommodate people with disabilities and changes in the workplace itself — especially the growing acceptance of telework, says Aetna’s Liz Incze.

Multiple signs point to growth in voluntary benefits sales, but employers would like to see a change in how their employees sign up for the benefit, according to new LIMRA data, released Tuesday.

Commentary: Many executives find themselves having to choose to either pay salary continuation or administer seasonal layoffs. What’s needed in this scenario is an alternative benefit that supports both the interest of the employee and the organization.

For many benefits professionals, the different private exchange offerings and the varied value propositions they present can be overwhelming. So let’s take a step back and examine the issues one at a time.