Health and wellness

Every year, large consulting and brokerage firms conduct surveys on what companies are doing to mitigate the impact of rising health care costs. Questions about wellness initiatives have become a standard feature in such surveys.

In a three-month period, about one-quarter of U.S. adults experience at least one day of back pain, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

Thanksgiving now has come and gone, and the annual holiday season is in full swing. This time of year can be one of the best, but it can also be one of the most taxing on our bodies.

The advantages of educating employees about their benefits through technology are many: The information transmitted to their Web browser or smart phone is always up to date, it's scalable to any population, yet allows an employer to individually tailor information to an employee.

Proud to say you have 80% participation in your company's wellness/health promotion program? Not to rain on your parade, but that number may be misleading, according to Dr. Jeanne L. Wendel, professor of economics at the University of Nevada (Reno).

The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act begins to take effect on Jan. 1, 2011. Under the CLASS Act, which is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a public insurance option offering employees voluntary long-term care insurance will be an option for employees to consider.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, not all rules are equal. Some requirements apply to all plans, but others don't apply to a particular plan if that plan qualifies for - and then maintains - "grandfather" status. The PPACA statute itself provides few specifics on how this is supposed to work, leaving it up to regulators at the Departments of Treasury and Health and Human Services to spell out the details. In response, regulators have issued two sets of guidance.

Benefits advisers and HR executives know a lot about health and wellness programs. We read about them, discuss them, recommend them and - increasingly - implement and run them.

On New Years Day, millions of Americans will awaken to a very unpleasant surprise. Hundreds of medicines and drugs they were able to purchase just the day before on a tax-free basis will no longer be available tax-free.

Two efforts to repeal PPACA’s 1099 filing requirement failed in the U.S. Senate on Monday. Under that requirement, approximately 40 million businesses would have to file a Form 1099 for every vendor that sells them more than $600 in goods.

If you haven’t taken the time to grab a cup of coffee with the folks at legal, or have lunch with your friends in accounting, now would be good. Over the next eight years, your company will need to examine — and implement where needed — a significant number of provisions associated with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

As the benefits team, you already know it’s your job to inform and educate your employees and their families about the changes associated with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But do you have something prepared for those run-ins with senior-level management?

As predicted by producer organizations, the interim final rule on medical loss ratios issued Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services left agents and brokers on the administrative side of MLR calculations.

The new Health Care Reform Interactive Timeline has garnered a gold recognition from ASBPE’s prestigious Digital Azbee awards.

A number of Facebook communities have sprung up to lend emotional and moral support to patients with diabetes, but the sites can also house questionable and biased information, report researchers at Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Long-term care (LTC) insurance is back in the headlines, with several leading insurance carriers seeking rate increases to help offset investment shortfalls in an ultra-low interest rate environment and greater-than-expected plan usage.

Following sweeping Republican gains in the 2010 midterm election, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) underlined his belief that the election was a referendum against health care reform. "That means that we can — and should — propose and vote on straight repeal, repeatedly," McConnell said of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in a Nov. 4 speech at the Heritage Foundation. …

Flush with victory from election night, Republican strategists are delving into possible measures to repeal or significantly hamper existing health care reform legislation.

A new study concludes that online health improvement programs are scalable to an entire workforce but should account for gender differences to get the best results.

New research on disease management services deflates the argument that a comprehensive program might increase health care costs because of the increased services.