Healthcare benefits

Technology has clearly revolutionized health care – from mobile apps that help employees stay fit and eat right to telemedicine that brings operational efficiency to treatment. But perhaps most compelling is the way it is helping elevate the open-enrollment experience in keeping with the intended consumer-friendly spirit of the Affordable Care Act.

Having more choices is a priority, but most workers are confident in their employer’s selection, study finds.

Agentreview.net launches this month, aiming to give consumers one location to find and critique local insurance agents.

Health plan providers may soon face the similar detailed fee disclosure requirements as retirement plan providers under the Department of Labor’s (DOL) 408(b)(2) regulations.

More and more employers are looking beyond curbing health care costs when measuring the success of health and wellness programs.

Specialty drugs are costly for plan sponsors and employees. Can value-based insurance design deliver better cost and clinical outcomes?

The Treasury Department says it will delay enforcement of an ACA prohibition relating to standalone health reimbursement arrangements until July 1.

How high-cost specialty drugs are altering the duties of the benefit adviser and pharmacy benefit manager

Having a goal, understanding the workforce and communicating in a variety of ways helps increase participation.

Another bullish forecast about private HIX growth estimates that the roughly 2.5 million current enrollees (excluding retirees) could triple in the coming year.

Commentary: Collective information is the new frontier when it comes to big data in the health care realm, says Lockton’s Kayla O’Neal

Democrats Thursday reintroduced legislation that would allow employees to earn paid sick leave, a benefit 43 million employees don’t currently have access to.

Smartphone-based activity and fitness apps are just as accurate as those found on dedicated wearable devices, and may be a more economical alternative for most people.

With the news of the breach of security at Anthem health plans, many employers have been wondering whether their employees are affected and how they should respond.

The cyber attack might affect group health plans, and plan sponsors need to identify if and/or how they are affected and what they need to do in response.

Eight years after drugstore chain giant CVS bought PBM Caremark, Rite Aid followed suit yesterday in announcing plans to acquire EnvisionRx, a 14-year-old PBM with estimated 2015 revenue of $5 billion, and 21 million covered lives.

Would saving an extra $200 billion in health care costs a year sound nice? No, it’s not another ploy to get rid of the ACA … for once. Annually, between $100 billion and $289 billion is spent on hospital visits due to patients failing to adhere to their prescription medicines

Commentary: Americans must take the responsible course when it comes to health insurance coverage, says adviser David C. Smith.

While Anthem’s recent data breach raised concerns on the security of personal data, an employee’s ability to actually understand and interpret personal health information is also an issue.

In the next five years, when it comes to managing costs, wellness offerings and family coverage, C-level executives and benefit managers both cite four changes expected in the next five years, but executives and managers each weigh in differently on their importance.