Healthcare plans

Employers are familiar with wellness incentives, but the concept of paying employees to encourage certain behaviors is making its way into other areas of benefits.

As employer clients gain interest in onsite clinics, here are six core measures to use to determine their effectiveness.

From the Affordable Care Act to employee classification, there is a multitude of evolving regulations posing challenges for small business owners this tax season.

Michael Thompson discusses how the National Business Coalition on Health plans to address consolidation in the benefits industry and a proposal for a well-being institute.

Presidential candidates are unlikely to advocate for any of these changes so it’s up to employers and their advisers to take a run at them.

Some organizations are deploying a strategy that reduces their HSA contributions in favor of employer-funded indemnity products, such as accident and critical illness insurance.

If your employer-sponsored FSA has a grace period, your employees have an extra two-and-a-half months (until March 15 for plans that ended Dec. 31) to spend FSA dollars from 2015.

The use of telemedicine is growing, with almost two thirds of organizations offering or planning to offer such a service by 2018.

But don’t expect any of the presidential candidates to advocate these changes. More knowledgeable stakeholders like advisers are going to have to take a run at this.

As onsite clinics become more popular, here are six core measures employers can use to determine their effectiveness.

Investing in community, dependent health leads to a more productive workforce, says advocacy group HWHC.

Advisers should prepare to work with companies who say they are considering major plan shifts this year to stay ACA compliant while still attracting and retaining talent.

Premium increases continue to motivate employers to consider cost-saving solutions they previously may have shunned, says Arthur J. Gallagher’s Paul Fetterolf.

How brokers can help businesses with heavy seasonality face unique benefit challenges.

Reviewing a plan provider’s SOC 1 report helps employers determine that the service organization has the necessary controls in place to track the benefit plan’s investments and transactions.

Employers are planning on making big changes to their benefits plans this year as they look to stay ACA compliant while still attracting and retaining talent.

Expert panel at EBA’s Workplace Benefits Renaissance event say clients are now receptive to telemedicine, self-funding and other solutions they previously dismissed.

Has the benefits industry made compliance more complicated than necessary?

Investing in community health leads to better workforce health, says Healthy Workplace Healthy Communities, a group launched to provide employers resources and tools to engage local leaders.

With medical inflation out pacing general inflation 7 to 1, advisers need to help their clients design benefit plans based on the actual health status of their employees.