Leading employee benefit law practitioners willing to act as mediators or expert witnesses in legal disputes can now be found by logging onto The American College of Employee Benefits Counsel’s website.

An appeals court on Tuesday sharply questioned whether the state of Virginia could challenge President Barack Obama's signature health care law, which requires Americans to buy insurance in a bid to slow health care costs.

Lawyers for President Barack Obama go to court on Tuesday to try to save the cornerstone of his health care overhaul, arguing that the requirement for Americans to buy insurance is constitutional.

The Vermont House passed the final version of a health care reform bill last week that creates a path for a universal, publicly financed health care system in the state.

A pension expert panned federal lawmakers’ efforts to increase oversight of state and local governments’ public pension plans.

A Rhode Island state court has upheld a statute under which insurance companies that want to wind up their operations can buy policies back from policyholders.

Last week American General Benefit Solutions (Benefit Solutions), a business unit of American General Life Companies, unveiled a series of informative video presentations for its most popular plans to help agents promote its extensive line of employer-funded and employee-paid insurance products.

Large health insurers expect an increase in deals in the industry after last year's U.S. healthcare overhaul made it tougher for smaller companies to compete.

Here’s a roundup of recent promotions and staff changes in the industry.

Last week LTC Financial Partners, LLC (LTCFP) announced the formation of a new division called Worksite Academy to help solve a critical problem for employers: maintaining productivity with an aging workforce.

In a renewed attack against President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul program, House Republicans voted on Tuesday to deny funding for a central element of the law that sets up marketplaces for people to shop for health insurance coverage.

Payroll and benefits outsourcing provider Paychex has acquired online 401(k) administrator ePlan Services.

Republicans in the U.S. Congress are launching a fresh attack on the healthcare law by targeting grants to states for creating insurance exchanges, just as congressional budget analysts said on Thursday setting up the marketplaces may be delayed.

A corporate health care exchange run by Aon Hewitt is “open and ready for business,” according to Ken Sperling, global health & benefits practice leader for the human resource consulting firm. Aon Hewitt Announced last week that it is launching the exchange for employer groups of 1,000 or more full-time employees beginning as early as January 2012. While the infrastructure — based on Aon Hewitt’s existing retiree benefit exchange model with 2.4 million participants — is built, the timing depends on securing a viable number of both employer and insurance company participants.

Two Republican congressional leaders have written to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman demanding information on how the IRS is spending $1 billion in funds the agency received under the health care reform law.

Retirement plan participants who don’t own a long-term care insurance policy and instead choose to self-insure for any LTCI needs in the future run the risk of seeing their life savings decimated by major medical expenses, cautions Jonas Roeser, senior vice president of marketing and operations for LTC Financial Partners LLC.

I enjoyed the article, "Is stop-loss the answer?" on page 14 of the April issue. I started my insurance career marketing and selling self-funded plans and spent time as a stop-loss sales representative for a managing general underwriter, so self funding is near and dear to my heart. I agree with the comments in the article that self funding is a viable option to consider for larger groups. Heck, I even had a couple of 20-life groups that ran successful self-funded plans for many years. That said, there are deep issues to consider if you are not proficient in self-funded plans.

This month I thought I'd deviate from my normal approach and follow up on a previous column using a case study approach.

As I am writing this, my two-year-old is smacking my leg, trying to crawl onto my lap and attempting to commandeer the keyboard. All of these "adorable" antics make it difficult for me to work, type, or even think.

Growth in the long-term care market has been on the upswing the past several years. The turbulent economy and recent changes to health care have increased awareness of this valuable protection. Employers are taking this time to re-evaluate their employee benefits and many see LTC insurance as a product that can be easily added to a benefit plan without a lot of additional costs.