Health and wellness

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.

Hospital jobs in the U.S. declined in back-to-back months for the first time in three years as medical care increasingly moves to outpatient facilities and hospitals anticipate reimbursement cuts under Obamacare.

Mindfulness is making its way into the workplace, thanks in part to Janice Marturano, who left her 15-year tenure as an executive at General Mills to teach employees of all kinds how to train their brain to focus solely on the task at a hand. In her view, it’s whole-body wellness.

Brokers from Arkansas to Florida to New York lament that the Affordable Care Act’s SHOP exchanges are undesirable targets to steer their clients to, leaving some independent agents who focused their businesses on individual public exchange enrollment in the lurch come March 31.

Is now the time to offer accident or critical insurance along with other traditional benefit enrollments? With the uncertainty facing the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate and the high costs associated with these medical claims, new research from MetLife finds that communication of these voluntary benefits will help with employee productivity and cost savings.

How will the ACA and associated changes in the employee benefit market impact the role of the broker? A recent LIMRA survey of small businesses reveals areas where brokers need to step up to the plate.

AOL Inc. blamed President Barack Obama’s health care law for its plan to reduce spending on contributions to employees’ 401(k) retirement plans.

As the dust settles over the Affordable Care Act and employees get used to operating in the post-ACA world, plan sponsors find themselves in somewhat of a holding pattern with regards to their pharmacy benefits. But strategic decisions are still in play about whether or not employers are going to provide traditional benefit plans once the employer mandate goes into effect in 2015 or send workers to public or private exchanges.

Health plans allowed to continue in 2014 though they don’t comply with new Obamacare rules may be extended for as long as three years, Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini told investors.

By ending the sale of tobacco products in its 7,600 pharmacies, CVS Caremark Corp. is redefining itself as a health-care provider in an environment in which millions of newly insured Americans will be looking for quick and convenient medical care.

Health insurers under pressure to keep premiums low are eliminating some hospitals from coverage in a cost-cutting strategy that threatens to freeze out centers that provide specialized care, limiting patient options.

It’s no coincidence that organizations identified as best places to work are more likely to offer broad-based wellness programs, which typically include wellness screenings, health questionnaires, lifestyle management programs, targeted benefit plan designs, as well as incentives and rewards.

Humana Inc. said it has received 202,000 applications for health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges and reaffirmed its 2014 forecast citing better-than-expected Medicare membership growth.

Commentary: The other shoe dropped on Tuesday and columnist Craig Davidson isn't shocked.

Obamacare will reduce the total number of hours Americans work by the equivalent of 2 million full-time jobs in 2017, mostly among low-wage earners, the Congressional Budget Office said.

Insurers participating in Obamacare may have to expand their plans to include more federally funded health clinics, safety-net hospitals and other medical providers used by low-income people, under a U.S. proposal.

Changes in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act could pose a challenge for the Internal Revenue Service's customer service, according to a new government report.

The World Health Organization’s cancer agency warned there will be 22 million new cases of cancer each year within two decades, as the burden of the disease falls disproportionately on developing countries.

Wellness enthusiasts and skeptics alike can find things to back up their views in the PepsiCo wellness study, published recently in the journal Health Affairs. But the wellness debate is far from over.

President Barack Obama said neither he nor members of his administration anticipated the magnitude of the flaws that hobbled the startup of the federal website for people to choose health-care plans under his new law.