Employee benefits

Using health care analytics — sometimes called business intelligence — researchers and consultants are mining clinical and claims data to discover gold standards and establish best practices for prevention, treatment and self care and, ideally, help reduce waste, abuse and fraud. The goals are simple but have remained elusive.

People from Maryland will have 13 insurance companies to choose from on their health insurance exchange, state officials announced this morning. The insurance options for California residents on the state’s exchange were also announced late last week amid reports that higher premiums may await those individuals.

Aflac Inc., the largest seller of supplemental health insurance, says President Paul Amos II will have expanded duties for Japan operations and investments as the company prepares for the eventual departure of his father, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dan Amos, 61.

Willis North America announces the creation of its own private exchange and InsureXSolutions adds ancillary benefits to its existing product list.

Should patients undergoing broad DNA testing for a specific ailment be told of unexpected findings that signal risk of cancer or other serious diseases, even if they don’t request the information?

In the trial of 72 people whose depression hadn’t responded to at least two antidepressants, patients taking ketamine were twice as likely to report improvement than those on a placebo.

FSA usage should be encouraged throughout the year. Budgeting is easy when using an FSA calculator before opting into the plan to help participants estimate their yearly expenses. And a broker's role when communicating to clients about better FSA budgeting should entail having multiple communications throughout the year.

Some see a number of signs contributing to a reawakening of the rust belt.

Children of such women were more likely to have scores in the lowest quartile for verbal ability, reading accuracy and reading comprehension than those whose mothers had sufficient iodine levels, according to the study published today.

The economic recession may have sparked a retirement crisis in America, but other significant factors played a role in the derail.

Americans living longer means a corresponding uptick in annuity sales.

MetLife Inc. said it would combine an offshore reinsurer with three U.S. life units after regulators began an investigation into the use of intra-company liability transfers, saying such arrangements could mask risk.

A number of misconceptions have prevented these entrepreneurs from doing a better job preparing for retirement.

In order to successfully reach their goals employees must begin embracing the concept of Retirement Readiness with the same commitment as their employers.

Meanwhile, doctors are protesting new guidance for the diagnosis of some mental disorders, including autism, contained in the revised edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Sixty-nine percent of employers tells the IFEBP that they definitely plan to provide employer-sponsored health care when exchanges begin in 2014; in 2012, only 46% of companies were willing to commit to that.

Property and casualty insurers are voicing concerns that longstanding tax exemptions for municipal bonds could be disrupted as part of a broader U.S. tax-code changes being considered by Congress.

The California Bankers Association recently announced a long-term care benefit for employees of member banks throughout the state. The initiative is one of the first of its kind for any large U.S. association, and could be a bellwether for the financial field and beyond.

A 65-year-old couple exiting the workforce in 2013 is estimated to need $220,000 to cover health care costs throughout their retirement, an 8% decrease from last year’s $240,000.

With 15 U.S. states opting out of President Barack Obama’s Medicaid expansion, hospitals that treat poor and uninsured patients are asking the government to delay $64 billion in planned funding cuts.