Employee benefits

Less than one week after Obama won a second term in office, dozens of employers already were setting about the business of offsetting the impending business costs of implementing health care reform or other Obama policies they view as unfriendly to their industry.

A Mercer survey suggests that, as employee engagement stalls, work-life balance could be the difference between keeping or losing top talent.

From increasing involvement and understanding of benefits during the open enrollment process to guiding a plan participant through a wellness program, interactive technology is becoming an ever more important and prominent part of the employee benefits communication package.

Key considerations for employers and their brokers looking to self-fund.

Aetna and other insurers that initially fought President Obama’s health care overhaul are reversing course and supporting the effort by funding a group planning to spend $100 million to help the uninsured get coverage.

Justices this week gave no obvious indication of their stance on the case of James McCutchen, who was sued by his benefit plan administrator in an attempt to recoup medical expenses.

As PPACA is implemented, the number of IT, software and service jobs created could easily boom into the hundreds of thousands.

Dr. Nazneen Razi, the chief HR officer for the parent company of Blue Cross/Blue Shield, says there are common traits among those succeeding in the new global environment.

Given the choice, employees worldwide tend to select benefits that offer immediate gratification rather than those that potentially deliver value over the long term, according to a survey of 10,400 workers in 10 key markets.

More and more, workers aged 53 to 65 perceive traditional ideas of retirement as outdated. A new report says 55% plan to keep working full-time as long as their health permits.

Health care reform shifts how hospitals are reimbursed, taking into account patient satisfaction — which could well be mitigated by long emergency room waits — but will online reservations encourage patients to seek even more expensive ER care for non-emergencies?

Provisions associated with PPACA increase the amount an employer can offer for tobacco cessation from 20% of the total cost of health coverage to 50%.

HHS outlines various conditions and services insurers must cover, and rules to let companies expand employee wellness programs in new proposed regulations of the ACA posted Tuesday.

Retirees can expect to pay a greater share of health care costs out of pocket, benefits industry report states.

Equity Healthcare CEO Robert Galvin last week told the National Business Coalition on Health that Congress, even PPACA supporters, want employer-sponsored insurance in the game for the long haul.

States received an extra month from the Obama administration to decide whether to build online marketplaces for medical insurance after Republican governors pressed their resistant to the president’s health care law.

Several Republican leaders have either confirmed that they’ll be letting the federal government handle their states’ health care exchanges, or have yet to say, and the deadline is Friday.

Access to quality life insurance for middle and lower income families has disappeared over the past 10 to 20 years. A life insurance agent simply cannot make lower income American’s a primary market and be financially successful, says blogger Tinker Kelly. But how can you overcome that?

Expansion of consumer-directed health plans and investment in health management programs produced the lowest average annual employer cost increase since 1997, according to the National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, conducted annually by Mercer.

Rumor has it that the Department of Labor recently hired a lot of new field auditors, which could only mean one thing — more audits. Which Principal Financial's Aaron Friedman says means it is safe to say that more 403(b) plans will be put on the firing line as well. Just what we need, right? Well, a little work now and some knowledge may help, so keep reading.