Healthcare benefits

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.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners will investigate the security posture of health insurer Anthem following its huge hacking breach.

Employers opting to drop or forgo health care coverage for employees are still eager for ways to help their staff manage health care needs. Benefit firm FirstPerson has unveiled a unique solution to do just that.

Consumers cite complex language, lack of time as roadblocks to making a purchase, study finds.

Corporate spending on wellness programs is surging, but motivating employees to use them continues to be a rather expensive struggle. There are lots of reasons for this, but a really unfortunate one is bad timing.

Not all corporate data breaches are of the spectacular variety that health insurer Anthem recently announced, involving 80 million members. But any company that offers a wellness program needs to take special precautions to ensure employee health information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

For some employers the move to a private exchange is as much about the role of benefits as an attraction and retention strategy as it is about saving money over the long term.

Broker information was not compromised as part of a cyber-attack on Anthem’s IT system and the carrier says it is working with brokers to assist and inform their clients about the breach.

Commentary: Step up your game or your clients may choose to become your competitors, says the head of Pittsburgh Business Group on Health

The information compromised includes names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, street and e-mail addresses and employee data, including income, Anthem said.

Benefit Advisors Network partners with exchange firm to help clients get coverage for benefit-ineligible employees.

It may still be too soon to tell how widespread wearable fitness trackers will become in corporate wellness programs but for Phoenix Companies, a life insurance and annuity company based in Hartford, Conn., wearable wellness is anything but a fad.

Time Inc. joins the ranks of big-name companies using a private exchange for active employees. The company has selected Towers Watson’s OneExchange to deliver medical, prescription drug, dental and vision benefits to its full-time active employees and their dependents for the 2015 year.

Commentary: Bundled MEC plans insure workers while helping employers avoid new penalties, says Sam Fleet.

An atypical market culture has left benefit firms vulnerable to the destructive powers of inertia, says Joe Markland, and advisers must change their mindset to survive.

Both groups place a high importance on life insurance and are most receptive to it, LIMRA finds.

As calls for the EEOC to issue guidance on wellness programs continue, employees are on board with their employers’ involvement in health and wellness programs.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission came under fire during a U.S. Senate committee hearing on employer-sponsored wellness programs Thursday, with one witness calling on Congress to end the “sorry state of affairs."