Employee benefits

Opioid painkiller abuse and physicians dispensing of repackaged drugs top the list of cost drivers in the 2012 Survey of Prescription Drug Management.

Mercer has launched a private benefit exchange. Called Mercer Marketplace and developed by Benefitfocus, the exchange is available to employers with at least 100 employees. It will provide access to a broad array of benefits - both traditional and voluntary - from multiple insurance providers. Additional education tools and support will help employees customize their choices to better fit their needs, according to the company.

Its time to take a closer look at employee assistance programs .

John Lamb on helping employees that have reached the tipping point on health care spending.

Third biggest U.S. health insurer says the share of health care premiums it spends on patient care rose to 84.1% from 80.7% a year earlier. The insurer finished 2012 with 18.2 million members in its medical plans, an increase of 64,000 over the third quarter.

The IRS and HHS released new regulations Wednesday for the individual mandate portion of PPACA. The proposed regulations shed new light on the process the agencies will take in determining which individuals are subject to the mandate or whether they’re exempt, and whether their insurance coverage is sufficient.

The overall pace of investment prompted Forrester to warn insurers making only limited mobile efforts soon will lose competitive ground to insurers more aggressively pursuing the technology.

“Too few adults are taking advantage of protection from vaccines, leaving themselves and those around them at greater risk for vaccine-preventable diseases,” says one government health expert.

Americans are again taking advantage of health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements. According to new research, average account balances across the nation in 2012 were up 4% from the year before.

Americans are again taking advantage of health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements. According to new research, average account balances across the nation in 2012 were up 4% from the year before.

Doctors are increasingly taking on more patients to compensate for cuts in payments from health insurers, researchers say, and PPACA is expected to increase the volume.

A small survey from the Midwest Group on Health indicates that, while further conversation is needed, awareness of the challenges surrounding specialty pharmacy is increasing.

Ninety-eight percent of American businesses have fewer than 100 employees and, according to new numbers from LIMRA, the number of small employers offering benefits is at its lowest level in 20 years.

Oklahoma opposed a request by the U.S. that a judge dismiss the state’s lawsuit challenging President Obama’s 2010 health-care reform legislation.

Tax the rich! Raise their rates! Limit their deductions! That seems to be the populist mantra. It’s perpetuated in the press, and there’s some indication that the general public seems to support the idea. Now middle class workers with higher than average incomes seem to be caught up in discussions defining those that are “rich,” says EBA Blogger and The Principal Financial Group’s tax-exempt national practice leader.

“Being able to afford health care and the support I need in my old age,” had 26% of respondents “highly worried,” the most common response in a new survey from UBS Wealth Management Americas.

State exchanges top Americans’ wish list for what they would like the government to set as 2013 health care priorities.

Howard County, Md., will become the first municipality to establish a nonprofit, member-run health co-op to sell individual and small group plans through the insurance exchanges — a move some say could undercut competitors by 30%.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. and other U.S. health insurers will soon have company in Maryland: a nonprofit started by a county government that plans to sell coverage at rates as much as 30% lower than competitors.

With the 113th Congress up and running and the president’s policy schedule filling up by the day, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health polled Americans last week on what they would like the government to set as top health care priorities for the year.