Healthcare benefits

Northwestern University football players cannot form a union, the National Labor Relations Board ruled, overturning a March 2014 decision and ending the players’ bid to change the college sports landscape.

The uninsured rate in the United States is at one of the lowest points since tracking began, and in states with state-based exchanges the uninsured rate is lower than those using the federal marketplace. But is there enough incentive for brokers to continue to play a vital role in exchange enrollment?

Employer groups under 100 lives will soon be subject to community rating, which could lead to increased costs.

Commentary: Reinforcing a simple three-step approach can help your clients connect employees working through a mental health condition with the assistance they need.

Commentary: Specific innovations in benefits administration software are paving the way and supplying the technological framework to a future primarily based in cyberspace rather than buildings filled with people.

Yelp, the online service which provides customer reviews of local businesses, has teamed with the ProPublica news organization to incorporate health care statistics and consumer opinion survey data onto Yelp’s business pages for more than 25,000 medical treatment facilities.

Trying to institute a wellness initiative in a poor corporate culture is like making dinner with rotten ingredients.

Commentary: Employee leave is right in the middle of policy and business management discussions. Benefit managers would be wise to get ahead of the curve.

Despite some progress in making employees smarter consumers of health care, pockets of resistance remain, sometimes in surprising places.

As private exchange technology providers are acquired, some brokers question what happens downstream to firms they partnered with. Along with the acquisitions, some brokers are not yet seeing a return on investment from their exchange, so what are their long-term plans?

Employers have some decisions to make regarding coverage for spouses and domestic partners following the Obergefell ruling. If there are any modifications to a policy, it’s crucial they’re reflected in the plan document and that employees and TPAs are informed about such changes.

Large employers are playing a waiting game in the coming year on health care cost saving strategies as many wait and see how Washington politics play out.

Brokers continue to be a vital resource for individuals enrolling in health care coverage on the marketplaces setup under the ACA, with some brokers saying in 2015 they helped more than 100 individuals enroll in health care coverage on the marketplaces.

The business response to the ACA, coupled with the growing health care consumerism movement, is rapidly changing the relationship between employer and employee.

Commentary: We have to stop and recognize that certain industries will always offer better benefits than others, adviser David C. Smith says of Netflix’s news it will offer a full year of paid parental leave.

HSAs are growing in popularity as a health benefit offering and experts say they could save employers a lot in health care costs. But employees still need expert advice to understand how and when to use HSAs and how to maximize their full potential.

With the cost of pharmaceuticals consuming an ever-increasing proportion of health benefit expenditures, many employers are responding by adding pricing tiers to their drug plan designs.

Commentary: Who would argue that spending $10,000 is worth the trade-off of cardiac surgery? Or $90,000 for drugs which might avoid a costly liver failure incident? A lot of employers, that’s who.

Advisers who provide a variety of distribution methods, year-round support and targeted messages help employees better understand their benefits, which leads to increased participation.

Commentary: The health care cost crisis needs to be addressed now. Enter applied predictive analytics.