Healthcare benefits

Offering benefits and health programs is one thing, but ensuring your employees are using the right benefits at the right time is another.

As employers look to curb rising health care costs, new research connects on-site health care clinic usage and claims costs, with some surprising savings results.

Benefit advisers have an increasing responsibility to keep client data secure, says Tinker Kelly, president and CEO of VEBA. He explains practical prevention tips and what to do if a breach occurs.

Spousal exclusions are usually implemented as a cost-saving tactic but they can be a difficult sell to employees whose spouses may be affected.

A new coalition representing the public and private sectors, as well as Republicans and Democrats, is seeking a full repeal of the ACA’s excise tax on high-cost group plans.

Starting a wellness program may feel like rocket science, but it can actually be quite easy.

Not according to employers, who are turning to brokers to help them navigate the ACA, explore technology capabilities and administer group plans, a new study finds.

The honor recognizes extraordinary contributions such as significantly increasing a firm’s sales and/or market share, providing strategic consulting to help clients achieve their highest goals, fostering employee benefit innovations, advocating successfully for adviser causes and, in general, elevating the status of all women in the profession.

As another insurer megamerger takes place, how will employer health plans fare with a shrinking field of providers?

Michael Turpin, the former CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s Northeast region, shares his thoughts on the new landscape and the potential impact the deal could have on benefit brokers and the insurance industry.

With just three major insurance companies, brokers must distinguish themselves from carriers, create additional approaches to serve clients and develop alternative risk approaches to health benefits, industry experts say.

Worksite voluntary benefits are gaining in popularity on standard ancillary benefit offerings, but the adviser’s sales approach to each needs to be varied.

Commentary: Brokers are strategically positioned to encourage employers to commit to a more productive workforce.

Understanding these ACA compliance requirements and the tools necessary to track the required data can be confusing and overwhelming.

Commentary: Many of the world’s leading employers offer expert second opinions as a valued employee benefit that can save money by averting unnecessary testing and treatment, decrease absenteeism, and promote employee retention.

Employers offering high deductible plans – particularly those who have gone the full replacement route – still need to beef up their educational efforts.

How San Francisco-based Equity Risk Partners’ focus on private equity firms had made the small firm a big player in the niche market.

Commentary: Personal care in times of great distress not only delivers more effective care, but it also does it more efficiently, says Sam Fleet.

The ACA added new employer reporting requirements under Internal Revenue Code Sections 6055 and 6056, applying to employers that sponsor self-insured plans that provide minimum essential coverage regardless of size, and applicable larger employers.

As the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in favor of gay marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges changed the landscape of employee benefits across the country, the question of how the court’s decision would affect domestic partner coverage moved center stage.