Health and wellness

Most employers have still not determined how they will comply with complex ACA reporting requirements that began Jan. 1. Benefit brokers and consultants should be discussing the requirements and the solutions with their employer clients, experts say.

Finding ways to deter painkiller abuse has been a high priority for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in recent years. And with opioid abuse costing U.S. businesses close to $26 billion a year, health plan sponsors should take note as well.

The benchmark for demonstrating return on investment of population health management programs has been medical cost savings. But that's notion is changing as employers are discovering that several other measures of program success are also in their grasp.

The proposed regulations provide guidance on the extent to which employers may use incentives to encourage employee participation in wellness programs that include disability-related questions and/or medical examinations.

Commentary: Small employers that reimburse employees or pay directly for all or part of their health coverage have a short window to cease this practice, or they will be subject to an expensive excise tax.

The U.S. Congress adopted a budget that will allow Republicans to bypass Democrats and send a repeal or revision of President Barack Obama’s landmark 2010 health-care law to his desk.

Smaller companies and non-profits are among the organizations that are contemplating a switch in how they manage employee benefits.

Discussion about the ACA has moved from understanding it to implementing it, but employers and their advisers continue to meet challenges in doing so.

Employee engagement is the challenge of many wellness programs, but several companies have improved employee participation with gaming and, yes, zombies.

Democrats and Republicans support repealing the tax, which will affect a disproportionate number of Americans, and is likely to miss its revenue projections, experts say.

Assurant Health announced this week it will be sold or shut down by the end of 2016, a move the parent company attributes to million-dollar losses as a result of the ACA.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to do better at ensuring that health insurance policy issuers and self-insured plan sponsors pay a fee required under the Affordable Care Act known as the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research fee, according to a new government report.

Wellness programs have been at the forefront of employers’ minds, and in light of the recent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s aim to tackle the questions lingering on what plan sponsors can or cannot do, employees are voicing a disconnect in wellness program engagement.

The Affordable Care Act brings new administrative complexity to employers offering health plans, making real-time reporting even more critical.

Health insurance plans purchased through public health care exchanges often generate levels of member satisfaction higher than plans obtained through employers, according to a J.D. Power study.

Two-thirds of tax filers among H&R Block’s client base who received health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act via the state or federal insurance marketplaces had to pay back an average of $729 of the Advance Premium Tax Credit, cutting their potential refund by nearly one-third.

Comparing wellness program participants to nonparticipants is a widely repeated mistake. It continues because employers are not schooled in research study design.

CMS says it will pay close attention to compliance with agent/broker standards during audits of qualified health plans offered in the FFM in 2015.

Wellness programs focused on biometric screenings and health risk assessments remain popular but are slowly giving way to more nontraditional wellness benefits such as paid time-off, parenting classes, leadership training and communication and community volunteer projects.

Major employers like Facebook and Virgin share workplace strategies to improve culture, happiness and, ultimately, a company's bottom line.