Health and wellness

The Internal Revenue Service said that the sequestration process could have an impact on the amount that certain small tax-exempt employers receive on the refundable portion of the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit.

The new CEO of the federal health insurance marketplace, Kevin Counihan, knows there is room for improvement, but says new processes have Healthcare.gov ready for 2015 open enrollment.

A fix is in the works to ensure agents and brokers can identify themselves and therefore receive commissions for their work on the federally-facilitated marketplace, an agency official at The Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight said Tuesday.

Wearable wellness is here to stay, yet precisely how the devices will affect employer programs remains to be seen.

With an endorsement from the Affordable Care Act, outcomes-based wellness programs are gaining popularity. In the process, the way employers incentivize participation is changing in step with evolving user-friendly technologies.

Walmart’s announcement this week that it will drop health care coverage for its part-time employees reiterates that employer-sponsored health care coverage is changing, and those benefit advisers who plan to remain relevant to clients must change, too.

EBA’s annual Workplace Benefits Summit, held last week in Boca Raton, Fla., included a celebration of our Advisers of the Year, strategy and marketing tips from benefit professionals, and the presentation of our inaugural Most Influential Women in Benefit Advising awards.

The more things appear to change, the more they appear to stay the same. That’s what a consumer health advocacy group in Florida is saying about double-digit health insurance premium increases that it says have been predating, and now post-dating, the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Encouraging the use of video game-styled features on smartphones to boost participation in your wellness program might get employees off to a good start, but these tools might not be the best long-term solution to building engagement.

Walmart Stores Inc. the world’s biggest retail chain, plans to stop offering health benefits to employees who work less than 30 hours a week, a move that will affect about 2% of its U.S. staff.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s new focus on employer wellness programs has many health and benefit managers scratching their heads on what is acceptable when it comes to voluntary health screenings and incentive rules under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

EBN’s annual Benefits Forum & Expo, held last week in Boca Raton, Fla., included a special focus on wearable wellness and an inspirational keynote address from marathon swimmer Diana Nyad. In case you missed the event, here’s our coverage.

Employing a proactive strategy to address the explosive costs of specialty medications can serve the patients who need those specialized meds, with an unbelievable 63% increase in costs expected in the next two years.

Narrow networks of health care providers offer new ways for employers and health plans to control the costs of care. But many of these networks are being constructed without regard to the value they deliver, says Scott Wallace, visiting professor at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.

Health care reform has changed the role of the adviser from insurance broker to that of a trusted adviser, counselor and compliance guru. Advisers hoping to thrive in this new environment will embrace the change less as a burden and more as an opportunity.

Can a cafeteria plan prevent an employee from heading to the exchange? New IRS direction clarifies mid-year changes for your client’s cafeteria plan participants.

Complicated and tedious ACA reporting requirements are forcing benefit advisers who want to stay relevant to adapt to a more automated way of doing business.

With the ACA’s employer mandate on the horizon, many employers with part-time and variable hour employees are also re-evaluating their benefit offerings for part-time employees.

Commentary: Your new wellness vendor’s presentation showed impressive results from their work with other clients – risk factors reduced, cost curves bent, and ROI blossomed. It all sounds terrific.

All comprehensive wellness platforms should consist of four core programs — wellness, disease management, EAP and work life components — says Yale Mallinger of wellness company HMC-HealthWorks, but it’s what makes up those components that counts.