Health and wellness

For millions of low-income Americans, the road to health care reform in 2014 could prove to be a jagged line as they bounce between public exchanges and Medicaid as their income fluctuates over the year.

In a sign of just how difficult it is to rein in out-of-pocket costs, 35% of 2014 bronze-level plans in the Small Business Health Options Program exchange had deductibles that exceeded suggested annual caps under the Affordable Care Act.

Copayments and co-insurance fees have increased on average 34% compared with those of the pre-Affordable Care Act individual insurance market, according to the results of a new HealthPocket study released Thursday.

From ignoring chronic disease to failing to align vendor and employer goals, defined-contribution health strategies through private exchanges are not right for every employer.

This is spurring a new push into communities to sell the state’s program face-to-face.

With the issuance of the final employer mandate regulations, employers mandate can now make employee coverage decisions and prepare for enforcement beginning as early as Jan. 1, 2015.

This week started out with the much anticipated employer responsibility ruling and first shocked us with the additional employer mandate delay. But there’s much more to the ruling that advisers and plan sponsors need to be aware of in the coming months.

Fewer people are getting their primary health insurance coverage through their employers, according to a Gallup Poll released Wednesday, which also reported the number of uninsured Americans has reached a five-year low.

Welltok Inc., vendor of a Web-based health wellness platform called CafeWell that providers and payers can offer to consumers, is the latest organization to collaborate with IBM Corp. to enhance the health care cognitive computer capabilities of the Watson supercomputer.

The day after Addie Wilson was quoted in a newspaper article complaining about her experience with President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, her mobile phone rang while she was in the bathroom.

Obamacare health plans enrolled 3.3 million people through January, with young adult participants increasing 65% from a month earlier, the U.S. government said.

Wellness can specifically increase job satisfaction among current and prospective employees. However, employers can’t expect these results to occur overnight. While many launch wellness programs, they often fall short of expectations. Perhaps the biggest reason this happens is inadequate communications to employees.

Health insurers told to pay $150 billion in taxes over a decade to help fund Obamacare are now shifting at least part of that cost back to taxpayers.

Some locations of the Planet Fitness health club chain have begun charging some of their members a portion of the indoor tanning services tax mandated by the Affordable Care Act, whether or not they use the tanning services.

President Barack Obama said a delay until 2016 in his health care mandate for mid-sized employers is an adjustment that doesn’t undermine the law.

The short-term motivators and health advice typical of wellness programs provide general benefits across an employee population, but people needing sustained weight loss require concentrated behavior change assistance specific to their condition.

Hillary Clinton, once President Barack Obama’s political foe, emerged as his top ally on what would become his signature policy achievement: revamping the U.S. health care system.

Monday's IRS decision to allow some smaller employers even more time to comply with the ACA's employer mandate has some in the industry applauding, others frustrated.

The Bright Choices Exchange is designed to offer ancillary benefits and access to mid-sized and large employers nationwide.

Employers with fewer than 100 workers won’t have to provide health insurance until 2016 under Obamacare, as the administration said it would again delay a key requirement of the health law.