Client strategies

Understanding ACA compliance is critical, but it mustn’t come at the expense of fundamental employee education.

Ensuring clients understand ACA compliance is critical, but doing so at the expense of fundamental education is negligent.

Bring many of the industry’ leading minds together with brokers and advisers from across the country who are eager to learn and share insights on the latest market trends and best practices, and you’ve got some of the year’s most thought-provoking conversations. For those who missed out, here are the highlights from EBA’s 2015 conferences.

Commentary: Without building a better plan, continued participation will wane and the program as a whole will fall short of employer health initiatives, says adviser Tim Olson, who shares five steps that will lead employer clients to an improved plan.

Commentary: Executives are starting to acknowledge that engagement alone won’t drive long-term results.

Commentary: It’s important for employees to have someone to help support them during this time. Your clients are in the perfect position to offer that type of assistance.

Teams of benefit experts debated each other on which type of plan is the future of employer-paid health care during a discussion Tuesday at EBA’s Workplace Benefits Summit in Orlando.

Employers more than ever are seeking innovative solutions for health care cost containment from their benefit advisers, and one industry expert says emerging strategies to help brokers thrive in the coming decade should include voluntary benefit sales and plan integration.

The House has agreed to pass legislation that makes possible a repeal of the ACA’s controversial expansion of the definition of a small employer — a bill hailed by the benefits industry for protecting the small and mid-size businesses they feel the expansion threatens to harm.

Notable gap exists between what employers are demanding and what brokers are supplying

A PBE's consumer-facing portal may be "the sexy piece," an Accenture exec says, but many clients are looking for help beyond open enrollment.

While the HR tech platform Zenefits offers a solution that addresses certain employer pain points, it also asks employers to dump their current broker. A new tech solution promises the same benefits without asking employers to sever their current broker relationship.

Some have compared the changes in health care to the changes that occurred in the retirement industry 30 years ago when companies switched from pension plans to 401(k) plans and put the responsibility on consumers to pick investments. But George Tzinas, chief experience officer at BenefitAlign, says it is not the same.

Commentary: The broker’s dependence on the medical carriers — and their value to the broker’s business business — has about run its course, says columnist Nelson Griswold.

Working in partnership with USI and GoHealth, the payroll firm’s platform will serve populations with employer-provided benefits as well as those who must purchase through public exchanges.

Commentary: The health care cost crisis needs to be addressed now. Enter applied predictive analytics.

There are three types of brokers: the transactional broker, the Zenefits-style broker and the new school premier broker — but soon only one of them will be successful.

Not according to employers, who are turning to brokers to help them navigate the ACA, explore technology capabilities and administer group plans, a new study finds.

Michael Turpin, the former CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s Northeast region, shares his thoughts on the new landscape and the potential impact the deal could have on benefit brokers and the insurance industry.

With just three major insurance companies, brokers must distinguish themselves from carriers, create additional approaches to serve clients and develop alternative risk approaches to health benefits, industry experts say.