Employee benefits

Road to Workplace Benefits Mania: Ahead of the July conference, speaker Phyllis Falotico discusses why it’s important for brokers and carriers alike to help employers evolve the experience of voluntary benefits from just providing access to products to driving awareness of the need to their employees.

The DOL’s ERISA Advisory Council plans to identify current industry practices and trends regarding the types of employee benefit plan services being outsourced and the market for delivery of those services as part of its 2014 issue agenda.

Better investment returns have given more support to America's once-faltering DB plans, but benefits executives still stay they need to cut costs to deal with health care expenditures.

More than two-thirds of state and local public employees feel confident that they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement.

Over the next decade, the number of cancer survivors is expected to increase by 30%, and improvements in both detection and treatment have led cancer to become, in some cases, more of a chronic condition than a terminal illness.

With the major elements of the Affordable Care Act taking effect this year, mini-med plans have met their demise, but skinny plans are gaining traction in their place.

Paul S. Amos, who co-founded Aflac Inc. with his brothers and helped build it into the largest seller of supplemental health insurance, has died. He was 88

Employers are spending more money to keep their employees healthy, even if it means sacrificing other benefits.

Data analytics offers companies a better way to recruit employees and identify those who are most likely to stay. But are employers embracing it?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s vigorous zeal for employer compliance with the Americans with Disability Act is not showing any signs of letting up. As a result, legal advisers in the labor and employment field recommend that employers of all sizes conduct a thorough review of their policies and accommodations.

Garrett Fenton, an employee benefits specialist with D.C.-based legal firm Miller and Chevalier, says that the time is right for employers to double down and get their paperwork processed in anticipation of 2015’s employer mandate for the Affordable Care Act.

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s single-employer program is improving, but the funding crisis for multiemployer pension plans is not, according to the agency’s fiscal 2013 projection report.

If it “smells like a benefit plan,” you likely have to follow ERISA, said one speaker at the National Association of Health Underwriters annual convention in Scottsdale, Ariz. Here are some general tips benefit advisers need to know about complying with this law, for your clients and their employees alike.

Multiple vendors providing best-of-breed solutions that are not integrated with each other present budgeting, deployment and management costs and challenges for benefit managers.

The IRS has issued final regulations clarifying tax credits for small employers offering coverage to their employees through the SHOP exchange.

While health plans with accompanying HSAs are becoming increasingly popular, there’s evidence that employees aren’t always seizing the opportunity to save, or save the maximum amount.

Still in their infancy, private exchanges present a tremendous opportunity to rein in health care spending and help HR deal with more pressing issues. But what makes a good one, and how are they growing?]

With the employer mandate just around the corner, small- and medium-sized businesses are beginning to consider so-called "skinny" health plans to provide basic coverage and avoid major penalties.

In a major 5-4 ruling on religious freedom, the Supreme Court of the United States Monday ruled that religious rights of two Christian company owners trumped the rights of its employees to receive full contraceptive coverage promised by mandates in the Affordable Care Act.

Public HR departments may need to tweak their traditional management and operational techniques to be more in line with the private sector, as tax revenues grow shorter and employees' needs become more complex.