Benefit plan design

President Barack Obama’s health secretary has called companies and other organizations, seeking financial contributions to help promote the 2010 health care law that takes full effect next year.

Determining if your coverage is affordable is only one of several steps employers need to take before the end of the year, and that’s not even considering the preparations they should have made already.

People with health insurance saw increases in their medical costs slow from 2009 to 2011, signaling potential structural changes in the industry that could cut health care inflation and save the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars, according to two studies.

Countless pieces of legislation are introduced in Washington each year and nothing is done with them. As NAHU pushes for a hearing on the MLR bill in the Senate, what are its chances?

In the new world of "Obamacare," a.k.a. the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the birth of the insurance exchange is propelling us all the way back to the future.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a statement this morning that the application for public health insurance, reported in March to be 21 pages long for individuals, has been shorted to just three pages.

Guest blogger Mark S. Gaunya talks about what advisers must do in the 'Obamacare' world where insurers are assuming more risk and consumers more cost.

Mercer’s private exchange now has more than 20 carriers signed on to provide benefits, including dental, vision, life and disability products. Find out what carriers were added.

As most employers worry about whether to “pay or play” as of 2014 and whether or not certain employees will need to be counted as full-time for health care reform purposes, there is an elephant in the room: the approaching nondiscrimination rules that apply to all health plans that are not grandfathered.

What happens if, during the course of the appeals process, the plan administrator comes across information that might impact the decision on appeal that makes the administrator want to grant the appeal?

Mercer has announced an initial group of insurance carriers that will offer benefits through Mercer Marketplace, the company’s private benefits exchange for employers’ active employees and their families.

The delay of the feature of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act intended to help small businesses was because of concerns raised by insurers, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday.

The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury released proposed regulations on how religious organizations should apply the contraceptive coverage requirements under PPACA, alleviating some concerns religious organizations had previously expressed.

Two employers, Darden Restaurants and Cummins, share how they reached the decision about whether or not to move employees to health care exchanges.

Wellness programs may suffer or change direction with the arrival of the health care exchange marketplace.

The $1.3 trillion U.S. health-care system overhaul is getting more expensive and will initially accomplish less than intended.

Because there can be various ways of assessing what constitutes a full-time employee eligible for coverage under the PPACA, the IRS has issued guidance in the form of several notices, as well as temporary regulations.

The state health exchanges that are central to the U.S. Affordable Care Act are costing the federal government more than twice its initial budget to complete.

Starting in 2014, workers at companies with fewer than 100 employees were supposed to have been able to choose from a variety of health plans through new small-business insurance marketplaces. They’ll instead wait until at least 2015.

NBC Universal’s medical director voices concern about the lack of education for high-deductible health plans, particularly as exchanges come online.