Behavioral psychology plays a key role in crafting meaningful and effective employee recognition programs.

A recent study finds wide variety between the lowest and highest charges for 10 common conditions, highlighting the unpredictability of health care costs.

Only 6% of those surveyed by Aon Hewitt plan to exit employer-sponsored health care entirely, but around 28% are eyeing the next three to five years for a move to a private health care exchange.

A glass-half-full crowd of benefits brokers and agents – that could be the theme of this year’s National Association of Health Underwriters Capitol Conference. The organization concluded its three day lobbying stint Wednesday with a morning of discussion panels on health reform, remarks from a Republican congresswoman, a talk with a representative from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and an address from NAHU’s president.

Buck Consultants announced this week that it would be starting a private health care exchange while Liazon unveiled a new web partnership to support its own.

MetLife polled hundreds of human resource and benefits professionals about legal services in a voluntary package, and the top reason given among those who make the offering is improving employee satisfaction (69%).

Many employer plan sponsors are expressing a high level of interest in adding Roth 401(k) in-plan conversions as an option to their 401(k) plans in 2013. The recently passed Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 made it possible for retirement plan participants to convert existing 401(k) plan balances to Roth 401(k) balances, whether or not the participant is distribution eligible.

Lawmakers, nonprofit groups address gathering of benefit advisers to discuss brokers’ role in health care reform.

The answer to that question is still fuzzy. That’s because while the Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed to Employee Benefit News that health reimbursement arrangements and health savings accounts will be offered on the public exchanges, the organization still hasn’t released the details and regulations surrounding these accounts.

“Those with an income shortfall are far more likely to be low-income, low-asset households, and they spend down their liquid assets at a far faster rate than households that do not have an income shortfall,” says one expert with the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Mercer is one of the latest companies to enter the private exchange game, and the consulting giant gave employers an opportunity to check out the service during a conference call Thursday. Company executives revealed some of those specifics during the call, especially during the Q&A period for the audience.

Even companies who have no interest in getting involved with a public health care exchange for active employees might help steer their pre-65 retirees toward the marketplace, experts with Fidelity Investments said Thursday.

Even companies who have no interest in getting involved with a public health care exchange for active employees might help steer their pre-65 retirees toward the marketplace, experts with Fidelity Investments said Thursday.

UnitedHealth Group Inc., the biggest U.S. medical insurer, is set to face claims that it failed to properly oversee a Las Vegas doctor who gave colonoscopy patients hepatitis C by mishandling the anesthetic Propofol.

As growing numbers of employers enhance their online branding and communications via social media, the National Prevention Information Network offers tips on Twitter setup and strategy.

Americans say they’re filling up less on fast food and pizza, according to a U.S. survey.

“We are making progress, we are on track and we will be ready,” Gary Cohen, director of the Department of Health and Human Services consumer information division, told the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing in Washington.

The federal government has given approval to launch nonprofit, member-run co-ops in 24 states. The CEO of one of these co-ops offered insight into what such organizations will need to survive.

Most employers still haven’t calculated their costs under the health care reform act, though a majority plan on playing rather than paying, according to a new survey by the Willis Human Capital Practice.

In a Midwest Business Group on Health webinar, representatives from three private health insurance exchanges offered insight into what employers, employees and the overall market can gain from the emerging model.