Keeping employees satisfied is ‘about to get significantly more difficult’ for your employer clients. Here’s how to make it easier for them.

A notice (2014-1) was issued on Dec. 16 expanding on the previous Internal Revenue Service guidance on changes to treatment of same-sex married couples following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on United States v. Windsor.

More than 975,000 Americans signed up this month for health insurance under Obamacare, pushing total enrollment above 1.1 million in 36 states covered by the U.S. healthcare.gov website.

The case at issue is Rochow v. Life Ins. Co. of N. America. His estate sued for a denial of long-term disability benefits as well as profits allegedly made on the benefits.

From Maryland to Hawaii, Obamacare’s state-run enrollment operations are running into technical difficulties, creating new headaches for the White House even as the federal insurance website finds its footing.

(Bloomberg) – Today’s deadline for Americans to sign up for Obamacare health coverage effective Jan. 1 was extended until midnight tomorrow as heavy traffic to the online enrollment system caused a queuing system to be activated. Government technicians deploy the queuing system when traffic at the site, healthcare.gov, approaches 50,000 simultaneous users. Customers can request that an e-mail automatically be sent when traffic subsides. …

President Barack Obama said the thousands of people now signing up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act overshadow the hit he’s been taking in the polls for the defect-riddled roll-out of the Affordable Care Act.

Hundreds of thousands of people whose health plans are being canceled because their coverage doesn’t meet Obamacare rules will be exempt next year from the U.S. mandate that all Americans carry medical insurance.

Security on the ACA exchanges needs to be taken very seriously by advisers.

Will you be prepared when the DOL knocks on your door?

Columnist Mel Schlesinger on why you shouldn't be afraid to prospect on LinkedIn, and he says that includes connection with clients.

Columnist Jack Kwicien on how you go about selecting the right merger candidate.

Benefits broker John Garven juggles enrollment meetings while using Twitter to amplify his business.

Learning curve for exchange-traded funds is steep, yet interest grows

In hoping for expanded access to health insurance, proponents of the emerging HIX marketplace have had to make a few Faustian deals along the way to realizing their objectives. One such tradeoff under the Affordable Care Act involves narrower provider networks – an old strategy used to rein in runaway costs that’s rooted in the managed care era.

In what can be viewed as a victory for plan sponsors, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that statute of limitation periods written into plan documents are valid, as long as those periods are “reasonable.”

High enrollment numbers increase phone hold times on state exchanges, as computer enrollment keeps pace

Much concern had been voiced about the ability for consumers and insurers alike to execute billing and payment between Dec. 23 and Dec. 31 for coverage effective Jan. 1. AHIP offered to extend that deadline to Jan. 10 on Wednesday.

Why small employers haven’t bought into private exchanges — yet

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance on the application of rules in the Tax Code relating to health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts to same-sex couples in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision earlier this year striking down the Defense of Marriage Act.