Health and wellness

Regulatory changes continue to challenge health and life insurance carriers to meet new market demands and stay competitive. Benefit advisers also looking to remain relevant should watch closely carrier reaction to these key issues in 2015.

Potential fixes to Affordable Care Act exchange enrollment and tweaks to the law itself are recommended by industry insiders at Washington panel.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that Andrew Slavitt, the second-ranking official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will take over the role of administrator of CMS in an acting capacity following the resignation of Marilyn Tavenner.

Commentary: Research shows that three quarters of health care costs are related to the lifestyle choices of human beings. Adviser Joseph Appelbaum shares his D.C. firm’s cost-cutting success story.

Marilyn Tavenner, head of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — the agency largely behind the rollout of the Affordable Care Act —plans to step down at the end of February, she told her staff in an email Friday.

Mid-sized and larger organizations are still struggling with at least three key ACA compliance requirements: exchange notice management, annual health care reporting and penalty management.

Stay current with this checklist of 2015 contribution limits for retirement and health care benefit plans.

Advisers share why they entered the private exchange business and key players detail how to help employer clients chose the right exchange.

More than a year after technical glitches on Healthcare.gov emboldened Affordable Care Act critics and fueled late-night talk show jokes, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has since forged partnerships with four digital platforms to help promote the current open-enrollment period.

The advent of private and public health care exchanges has expanded employers’ horizons to consider subsidizing pre-Medicare eligible retiree health benefits through the individual market.

Congress’ first week was a busy one, as new lawmakers worked to make changes to the Affordable Care Act — changes employers should bear in mind as they develop their benefit plan and ACA compliance strategies in the coming year.

Brokers and employers applaud the recent push by Congress to revise the ACA 30-hour work week definition, but the change could mean an immediate workload increase for benefit advisers.

Walgreens and WebMD have announced a new partnership that will create a virtual wellness-coaching program on Walgreens.com.

As government policy continues to shift responsibility for health maintenance from employer to employee, wellness initiatives are turning out to be simply a piece of the bigger puzzle in health care’s key to overall wellness: health management.

Industry experts offer tips to create a program and help employees save for the future.

Large employers are increasingly putting an end to their most generous health-care coverage as a tax on "Cadillac" insurance plans looms closer under the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans, industry organizations and a coalition of employer groups are ramping up their efforts to change the ACA’s definition of full-time employment from 30 hours a week to 40 hours a week.

The ACA’s employer mandate is now in effect for large employers, but there’s still plenty of work to do. Experts share the month-by-month updates advisers should be providing to clients this year.

The ever-increasing scope of wellness technology is drawing more and more employees into worksite programs, but keeping those workers on track can still be a challenge.

Although consumer support tools were better during open enrollment year two as compared with the first go on Healthcare.gov and the state-based marketplaces, there is still a lot of progress that needs to be made.