Employee benefits

Catalyst Health Solutions Inc said it will buy Walgreen Co's pharmacy benefits management unit for about $525 million in cash, a deal that might spur more consolidation before big generic drug launches that could boost the business.

Women are more affected than men by the intrusion of work into their home-life through e-mails, phone calls and texts and report higher levels of psychological distress, according to new research.

Fiduciary concerns ranked high on the list of hot topics at this week’s American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries annual summit in Las Vegas, Nevada.

From analyzing the developing definition of fiduciary to discussing the best ways for advisers to differentiate themselves from the competition, the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries 10th anniversary 401(k) SUMMIT gave more than 950 attendees plenty of tricks of the trade to improve their business and stay informed on industry developments.

Johnson Controls Inc., the Wisconsin-based automotive interiors giant, came out on top on the most recent list of the 100 best corporate citizens in America.

When employers present employees with an easy, one-click option to enroll in or make a contribution change to their 401(k) plan during the annual health benefits process, the result is significant increases in 401(k) participation.

Major brokerage firms are taking different tacks in preparing brokers for expected new rules from the Department of Labor that will constrict their ability to advise companies on retirement plans.

A new report from Kalorama Information, a New York-based research firm, estimates the U.S. electronic health records market at nearly $15.8 billion and predicts it will increase to $31.9 billion in 2015.

U.S. women have made big economic and educational gains in recent years, but they still trail men in terms of pay and participation in the workforce, according to a White House report released on Tuesday.

People who have to make treatment decisions for a seriously ill family member may suffer emotional consequences as a result, according to a study published Monday.

Democratic senators on Tuesday expressed concern that companies hired to help pay and oversee medical claims under the Medicare health insurance program may have costly conflicts of interest.

The American Institute of Stress estimates that stress in the workplace costs U.S. corporations over $300 billion annually.

Last month, the Center for Health Value Innovation released its 2010 Value-Based Design Report - a study of more than 170 companies, representing more than 4 million covered lives, produced in partnership with Buck Consultants - which takes the national temperature on how value-based benefits designs are progressing in U.S. workplaces.

Some of you may remember exercise instructors such as Jane Fonda or the late Jack LaLanne. When I was a kid, my mom had Jack LaLanne exercise books.

For once, we weren't trying to innovate, iterate or invest in something new. We simply wanted to successfully launch a consumer-driven health plan. We thought it would be easy, since many employers had already delved into these issues before us.

For many of us who travel by plane, post-9/11 security restrictions have changed the way we prepare. Our packing has changed, our attire has changed and we now enter the airport hoping to make it through the screening, scanning and patting down with our humor intact.

The ink is barely dry on our 2011 calendars, and here in Palm Beach County we're already finding ourselves in the thick of a request for proposal for our self-insured health plan for 2012.

Employers like to look over one another's shoulder when it comes to benefits programs, and benchmarking data provides this opportunity.

Health care reform has been good for business - true or false? These days, it still depends on whom you ask. Ask a producer who sells critical care insurance, though, and the answer you'll probably get is "true."

Voluntary benefits is often referred to as "worksite marketing." Many carriers, in fact, refer to their voluntary products as "worksite voluntary benefits." Recent developments in enrollment technology, however, are rapidly making the term "worksite" obsolete and no longer relevant to the voluntary benefits process. The term "worksite" derives from how these benefits have had to be enrolled. As products that are voluntarily purchased by employees, the only consistently effective means of presenting (and selling) them have been one-on-one employee meetings with licensed benefit counselors (enrollers) at the workplace during the workday.