Health and wellness

A mounting U.S. deficit could pose a much greater threat to the survival of President Barack Obama's health care reforms than either the Supreme Court or 2012 elections.

U.S. health officials will allow states to select the basic set of medical benefits that must be offered by insurance plans participating in new exchanges mandated by the federal health care overhaul, the government said on Friday.

U.S. health care reforms have enabled 2.5 million young adults to join or remain in their parents' health insurance plans, says the U.S. government on Wednesday, up from 1 million reported earlier this year.

U.S. health care reforms have enabled 2.5 million young adults to obtain insurance coverage, the U.S. government said on Wednesday, up from 1 million earlier this year.

One in five workers suffer from a mental illness such as depression or anxiety and these conditions increasingly affect productivity in the workplace as many struggle to cope, a report by the OECD said on Monday.

Self-insured companies across America have implemented employee wellness programs to control rising health care costs and address major health issues like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

The Supreme Court last week set the schedule for briefs to be filed ahead of hearing arguments in late March over President Obama's sweeping health care overhaul law.

Telecom giant Sprint estimates it saved approximately $1.1 million through a social media wellness challenge it launched last summer. Fourteen thousand of the company’s 40,000 United States employees participated in the 12-week challenge, which ran on a social media platform.

Televising U.S. Supreme Court proceedings would benefit the public, some said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, while others called the idea possibly unconstitutional and a potentially harmful influence.

As the effects of the recent financial crisis continue to spread across the globe, financial stress is an issue for both women and men.

The Essential Health Benefits Coalition has backed recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine to the Department of Health and Human Services' on an essential health benefits package.

Obese adults in the United States use a number of prescription drug types more frequently than normal-weight adults, says a new study from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A vast majority of New York State’s small business owners are giving two thumbs up to health insurance exchanges as a viable way to provide health insurance to their employees, according to a statewide survey commissioned by HealthPass New York, a NYC-based commercial health insurance exchange. The survey also found that exchanges have the potential to change the health care marketplace in New York at a time when many small business owners are struggling to keep afloat.

The leading industry trade organizations expressed disappointment after the December 2 Department of Health and Human Services release of the final medical loss ratio rule failed to remove broker commissions from the administrative side of health reform’s MLR calculation.

It's no secret that most provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act arent' going to win any popularity contests. However, a recent poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation reveals Americans' most liked PPACA provisions.

Most U.S. health insurers last year would have satisfied the much-disputed spending rules under President Obama's health care reform, according to a new report by a congressional watchdog agency.

In 2009, the Civil Service Employees Association Employee Benefit Fund was at a crossroads. The benefit fund, which provides dental and vision benefits for more than 300,000 public employee union members and their dependents in New York State, was facing a double-digit spike in its health insurance costs and seemed resigned to renewing a policy with an insurer that was not meeting the needs of the fund's 60 employees.

Anticipating the increase in age of covered dependents to 26 starting in 2011, as required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the benefits team at Dick's Sporting Goods decided to clean the company's benefit rolls data with a dependent eligibility audit before this provision went into effect and before annual enrollment in the fall of 2010.

Just one generation ago, HIV/AIDS was regarded as a relentless and indiscriminate killer. In the early 1980s, when the federal government first started tracking the disease, a newly diagnosed patient had a maximum two-year life expectancy, and HIV/AIDS related illness was the second-leading cause of death in American men. Today, it's not even in the top 10.

What is it? No, not your vending machine/cafeteria options. Not employee engagement (or lack thereof).