High-deductible health plans are one route on the path to health plan cost reduction.

Private disability insurance gets employees back to work more consistently than public programs yet the industry still struggles to get employees enrolled in the benefit.

With health care appeals, a plan administrator can simply grant the appeal .

The study from Truven Health Analytics examined insurance claims data for over 6.5 million emergency department visits in 2010 and found that just 29% of patients actually required immediate attention in the emergency room.

As more companies embrace consumer-driven health care models and prepare for the full implementation of health care reform, employees need voluntary benefits more than ever. This chart pack includes the latest data on voluntary benefits from the Aflac WorkForces Report and UBA’s Ancillary Products Survey.

Technology company Enova is named among the top 50 employers for Gen Y workers.

Most observers agree that target date funds are easier and safer to use for both retirement plan participants and plan sponsors.

In-Plan Life-Time Income Guarantees provide new opportunities for plan participants

Using health care analytics — sometimes called business intelligence — researchers and consultants are mining clinical and claims data to discover gold standards and establish best practices for prevention, treatment and self care and, ideally, help reduce waste, abuse and fraud. The goals are simple but have remained elusive.

People from Maryland will have 13 insurance companies to choose from on their health insurance exchange, state officials announced this morning. The insurance options for California residents on the state’s exchange were also announced late last week amid reports that higher premiums may await those individuals.

Aflac Inc., the largest seller of supplemental health insurance, says President Paul Amos II will have expanded duties for Japan operations and investments as the company prepares for the eventual departure of his father, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dan Amos, 61.

Willis North America announces the creation of its own private exchange and InsureXSolutions adds ancillary benefits to its existing product list.

Should patients undergoing broad DNA testing for a specific ailment be told of unexpected findings that signal risk of cancer or other serious diseases, even if they don’t request the information?

In the trial of 72 people whose depression hadn’t responded to at least two antidepressants, patients taking ketamine were twice as likely to report improvement than those on a placebo.

FSA usage should be encouraged throughout the year. Budgeting is easy when using an FSA calculator before opting into the plan to help participants estimate their yearly expenses. And a broker's role when communicating to clients about better FSA budgeting should entail having multiple communications throughout the year.

Some see a number of signs contributing to a reawakening of the rust belt.

Children of such women were more likely to have scores in the lowest quartile for verbal ability, reading accuracy and reading comprehension than those whose mothers had sufficient iodine levels, according to the study published today.

The economic recession may have sparked a retirement crisis in America, but other significant factors played a role in the derail.

Americans living longer means a corresponding uptick in annuity sales.

MetLife Inc. said it would combine an offshore reinsurer with three U.S. life units after regulators began an investigation into the use of intra-company liability transfers, saying such arrangements could mask risk.