Employee benefits

The number of individuals enrolled in consumer-driven health plans hit 22 million in 2010, reflecting a 1% increase compared to 2009, report researchers from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald and Associates.

A Senate panel last week deepened a probe of co-pay based mini-meds that raised pointed questions about the plans' value and transparency for workers, even when employers are unable to sponsor more comprehensive coverage.

Standard Insurance Company, whose group product line includes disability, life, AD&D, dental and vision coverage, now offers the Protector Platinum individual disability income insurance plan in 20 states.

A recent Aflac survey of 1,000 working Americans suggests there will be increased opportunities for brokers and advisers to sell voluntary dental plans, particularly among those between the ages of 35 and 54 in a post-health care reform market.

What happens when a division of the nation’s second-largest payroll company teams up with the creator of an online benefits education and enrollment platform for group insurance products in the voluntary marketplace?

Every company has a few: a Negative Nellie or Nelson who, no matter what you do, would never be happy. Like, if you offered every employee a million dollars, they'd be upset it wasn't given to them in small bills.

In a three-month period, about one-quarter of U.S. adults experience at least one day of back pain, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

Walk into any well-run early learning/child care facility, and you'll likely be floored by an assault of cuteness: happy children working on art projects, being read to by caring teachers and eating nutritious snacks.

For employers, managing talent has never been more important. Organizations, particularly ones who've suffered massive layoffs over the past two years, are leaner and meaner.

Principal Financial Group will exit the medical insurance business (both insured and self-insured), the firm announced Sept. 30.

According to a survey on workers' perception of employee benefits, both high- and low-wage earners say benefits are vital to their health and financial security.

The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act begins to take effect on Jan. 1, 2011. Under the CLASS Act, which is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a public insurance option offering employees voluntary long-term care insurance will be an option for employees to consider.

The employee benefits market in Southeast Michigan has historically been heavily union-oriented. As a result, the rich benefit packages had little need for voluntary coverage offerings such as hospital indemnity plans.

When the Departments of Labor and Treasury sent out an RFI on annuities as a retirement savings vehicle in 401(k) plans earlier this year, Allianz Life Financial Services was one of 800 respondents.

If there was any doubt, the October 2010 401kExchange Opportunity Indices (reporting the percentage of plans that indicate they are currently searching for or thinking of changing recordkeepers, funds or advisers) definitively show that DC plan sponsors are much more concerned about finding the right adviser than changing their funds or recordkeepers.

Recent events and trends have thrust the topic of lifetime income products for retirement plans into the limelight. Retirements among the leading edge of Baby Boomers, medical advances increasing Americans' longevity, the market swoon of 2008 and continuing volatility in the financial markets have all contributed to a consensus that today's workers need options for their defined contribution plans that mimic the retirement income benefits of a defined benefit plan.

If you want employees making better health care decisions, then give employers the data they need to create effective health plan choices.

Despite more than two-thirds of employees' self-proclaimed ignorance of critical illness insurance, the benefit is on the rise. Imagine what improved product knowledge and an enthusiastic broker could bring.

On New Years Day, millions of Americans will awaken to a very unpleasant surprise. Hundreds of medicines and drugs they were able to purchase just the day before on a tax-free basis will no longer be available tax-free.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance to manufacturers and importers of branded prescription drugs on the annual fee imposed by the health care law.