Health and wellness

With mid-term elections bearing down, the government changed its regulation of Obamacare to give consumers and states more flexibility to decide on their health plans, insurers more time to sign up customers and taxpayers a chance to avoid more costs.

Many employers are turning to private health care exchanges to rein in costs — and benefit consulting firms are reaping the benefits, according to a new report from Moody’s Investor Services.

Health insurers such as WellPoint Inc. and Humana Inc. stand to gain $5.5 billion next year to cover losses from Obamacare in a program the law’s opponents label a bailout.

It's Facebook for your health: How new technologies are helping to drive employee behavior change, using employees' love of social media to help provide an encouraging and accountable environment to reach their health goals.

While millennials may likely be the most savvy generation when it comes to monitoring their health and tracking their progress towards health goals, employers will find that this group needs monetary motivation, finds a new survey.

Facing an end-of-the-month deadline, the U.S. government is increasing efforts to enroll millions more Americans into Obamacare, including appeals from President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.

When employers focus on incorporating financial education and other wellness programs into their company’s culture, it turns out increasing engagement – as well as having the right tools in place – is a shared goal among both conventional employers and unique businesses such as the NFL Players Association.

The Obama administration last week said it will offer relief to consumers unable to purchase health insurance through state-run exchanges that have been hampered by technical difficulties.

The benefits industry is pushing back against a campaign by some policy-makers to increase federal oversight of self-insured health plans, particularly in regards to the purchasing of stop-loss insurance.

At a Republican think tank-sponsored forum on Thursday, congressmen from the right touted a patient and doctor-focused fix to health reform, but remain split on whether to repeal or make piecemeal changes to the Affordable Care Act. They also voiced concerns about employees’ ability to make ends meet as a consequence of the law.

Employers are begging for information on compliance with the Affordable Care Act, and as their benefit adviser you can and should offer them guidance — or risk losing them to an adviser who will. Attorney Peter Marathas of Proskauer Rose LLP has outlined four ACA issues you should already be discussing with your clients.

Consumers shopping on the Obamacare exchanges are thriftier than the general public, with more picking health plans based on price rather than their choice of doctors, a study found.

However employers’ decisions have been determined by the Affordable Care Act, the reasons to continue investing in employee health and productivity remain.

The University of Michigan has been fine-tuning its wellness champion network for over 20 years. Over that time, wellness champs have morphed in number and organizational role, but have always played “an important role for helping to develop our culture of health across the University," explains Karen Schmidt, associate director of wellness and health culture at the University of Michigan.

At Oracle’s first-ever HCM World conference, the technology company demonstrated its commitment to human resources customers, explaining its strategy for Modern HR in the Cloud, which is focused on meeting the needs of employees in a large, dispersed workforce.

A panel of voluntary carriers shares tricks of the trade at EBA’s Workplace Benefits Renaissance in Atlantic City, N.J.

While this might not be the easy tactic, it’s an important transformation in the long run, Employee Family Protection's Vinnie Daboul told attendees at EBA’s Workplace Benefits Renaissance in Atlantic City, N.J.

The employee benefit adviser’s role is a critical one that must be protected in dealing with the “sheer confusion” of the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Kelly Ayotte told NAHU members at the organization’s annual Capitol Conference, where she also proposed several GOP-led repairs to the law.

Among the top Republican alternatives to the Affordable Care Act are bills that focus on price transparency, income taxes changes and tort reform, the Republican National Committee’s Sharon Day told attendees at NAHU’s annual Capitol Conference.

As federal funding for state-run SHOP exchanges runs out in 2015, voluntary benefits may be the key to exchange sustainability, according to Ryan Howells, vice president and general manager of Connecture.