Employee benefits

A new study finds that retirement readiness among the baby boomer generation continued its decline in key confidence measurements that look at whether the age cohort was comfortable with covering medical expenses and income needs when they exit the workforce.

The number of uninsured Americans has dropped to its lowest level recorded since 2008, a new Gallup poll finds, attributing the decrease to ACA successes.

It would appear cash is king once again as a long-term incentive of choice for U.S. companies, yet equity-based incentives such as stock options are still an attractive retention tool, according to research.

Health and wellness programs are virtually meaningless if a workplace culture is bad, according to Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University’s graduate school of business. Speaking during the annual Great Place to Work conference in New Orleans, Pfeffer said that unhealthy workplaces can cause up to 125,000 employee deaths each year and add up to $130 billion in excess annual company costs.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation that would modify the Affordable Care Act’s definition of a full-time employee from one who works 30-hours a week to one who works 40-hours a week.

While it’s not surprising that in 2013 the trend of employers shifting rising health care costs to employees continued to grow, it also appears employers have begun to design health care plans with looming Affordable Care Act provisions in mind.

After a sharp increase of 6.9% from 2010 to 2011, health plan premiums rose at a rate of 1.7% between 2013 and 2014, according to data from ADP.

Pharmacy benefits are typically the most utilized benefit by plan members and one of the fastest-growing in terms of cost. Consequently, selecting the right pharmacy benefit manager is a critical decision in managing a plan and determining member satisfaction with that plan.

Enlivening your staff and company’s workplace culture can be as simple and sustainable as committing random acts of kindness.

Employers have always been concerned about the potential for worker reclassification, but health care reform and a recent National Labor Relations Board decision take this issue to an entirely new level.

Yes, the ACA open-enrollment deadline has passed. No, that doesn’t mean employers cannot terminate or change their health plan — because employees can still enroll on the exchange.

As hopeful evidence that a half-decade of retirement savings doldrums may finally be over, a new examination of employee 401(k) participation suggests workers are back on the savings path – and increasingly using HSAs as a new form of long-term financial planning.

Advisers and employers can use education to boost the enrollment of millennials in voluntary disability programs

A majority of Americans remain uninsured and many based the decision to stay uninsured on the cost of coverage, with many not even visiting an exchange to see a price estimate, a new study from consultancy Market Strategies International finds.

Retirement plan sponsors and their consultants are attentively following the Supreme Court today as it hears oral arguments in Fifth Third Bancorp v. Duddenhoeffer, a case that has implications for the retirement plan industry’s fiduciary standard in employee stock ownership plans.

Typically thought of as the employees’ responsibility, plan sponsors should actually facilitate all aspects of required minimum distributions – from alerting participants about them to activating the fund withdrawal.

The latest ACA enrollment extension could mean big losses for insurers and higher premiums for everyone in 2015, Moody’s predicts.

Overall, state public-sector pension programs continue claw out of the unfunded liabilities that have buried them since the financial collapse, as the total pension debt was over $1 trillion at the close of the fiscal year 2012.

Current regulations don’t require a retirement plan provider’s investment advice be in the best interest of plan participants, but most employers want that to change, an AARP study finds.

A new analysis finds that retirement coverage in the private sector remains a “serious problem” for plan sponsors and employees despite previously reported high levels of access to retiree options, according to researchers from the Center of Retirement Research at Boston College.