Employee benefits

Something is costing your health plan a whole lot of money, and it's largely due to uninformed choice. No, it's not lax benefit selections, but rather early induced deliveries.

Cost increases for health care are perhaps slowing down somewhat, with employer health benefit expenditures not expected to increase in 2012 at the same explosive growth rate of recent years. Costs for all types of medical plans are expected to increase by 9.9% for 2012, according to a survey by Buck Consultants. It's the first time since 2001 that Buck's survey has projected cost increases less than 10% for any type of plan. The firm has been conducting its survey since 1999.

Delivering quality health care benefits to an employee population has only become more complicated due to legislative policy and escalating claims costs - making consumer education and empowerment all the more important in containing cost increases.

Although the tax implications of total compensation may sound as dry as the Sahara, Ernst & Young principal Sean Watts says that knowing the potential pitfalls before developing or changing your total comp strategy could help you avoid a compliance sandstorm and be the oasis your bottom line needs.

Aon Hewitt isn't letting health care reform dictate its business model. If anything, it's the other way around. In addition to publishing an influential report on the implications of health reform for large employers, CEO Kristi Savacool has been to the White House several times in recent months to discuss the company's retiree health care exchange and upcoming active employee exchange model. "We have been on the front line," says Savacool, "really influencing the development of health care reform, influencing our clients with respect to how they put their own health care strategies together."

A dear friend, who is a veteran nurse, recently told me about her husband's post-operative experience. The surgery itself went well; immediately after his return to the nursing unit, he was appropriately asked by his nurse, "How is your pain?" Using the almost-universal pain scale, she asked him to rate his pain from zero (being no pain at all) to 10 (being the worst pain you've ever experienced).

As Americans live more of their lives online, perhaps it only makes sense that online recognition has taken off in the corporate context.

Throughout his 35-year career in the employee benefit business Larry Brodsky has come across few opportunities to introduce a product to an employer that is both new and almost universally appreciated. The president of Lawrence S. Brodsky Agency in Palatine, Ill., found such a product about two years ago after a Web search for pet insurance introduced him to Pet Assure. Not an insurance program - but a discount plan for pet owners.

How well is your agency managed? Is it being managed to generate maximum top-line revenue and maximum bottom-line profit?

The Hartford's recent announcement to divest its retirement division has more to do about the economy and the parent's corporate direction, perhaps instigated by an activist investor, than it does about the quality of its retirement business.

The pending implementation of the Department of Labor's new rules on fee disclosure was one of several topics that had hundreds of financial advisers, consultants, fiduciaries, IRA experts and record keepers gathered in the Big Easy, at the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries 401(k) Summit buzzing with nervous anticipation.

When the recession hit, older employees put the brakes on their retirement plans and companies shelved plans to hire, train, develop and promote younger talent. With the economy growing again and retirement savings beginning to recover, baby boomers are again thinking about retirement. As a result, employers are again thinking of ways to attract, engage, and retain new talent.

As advisers continue to look for ways to become more of an asset to their clients, medical tourism is a field that continues to evolve and grow, often saving employers and employees tens of thousands of dollars in the process.

It used to be commonplace to find employees of Las Vegas-based Insurcorp at the casinos at 2 a.m. Not to blow off steam after a long workday, but to continue it, conducting benefit meetings for graveyard shift staffers.

Civilian employment costs rose more modestly by 0.4% during the first quarter, primarily because growth in benefits slowed after a sharp rise in last year's fourth quarter, Labor Department data showed last week.

The perception that a connected, mobile workforce can never get away from work is eroding and employers and employees are becoming more comfortable with the advantages mobile technology offers, according to Doug Ring, chief technology officer with Peoplefluent, an HR software and technology company.

The sale of asset-based long-term care insurance protection continues to grow significantly, reveals research by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.

Republicans on Thursday issued a politically charged report that quoted President Barack Obama's corporate advisers as predicting his 2010 health care overhaul would raise — not lower — the cost of care.

A new research report from the Commonwealth Fund offers new insights into America’s uninsured.

Employers continue to look to their adviser to guide them through health care reform uncertainty. In fact, 88% expect their adviser to educate them on health care reform and its implications, according to a recent survey.