Healthcare plans

The health care system in the United States is on the threshold of changing the course of the nation and what happens now “can impact the life of every American more than any piece of policy or legislation we have seen in the recent past,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said Wednesday.

Employers facing benefit enrollment challenges or looking to streamline the enrollment process could benefit from the service of outsourcing the enrollment process. Choosing the appropriate benefit enrollment firm requires careful selection by the employer and its benefit adviser.

The proposals for Healthcare.gov plans are subject to a review process before the final rates are published by Nov. 1.

Benefits decision-makers continue to struggle with the notion of financially justifying their wellness dollars, as wellness ROI is still exceptionally elusive.

Too many employee benefit plan audits are deficient, finds a new report from the U.S. Department of Labor, putting up to $653 billion and 22.5 million plan participants and beneficiaries at risk.

Although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently released some new proposed regulations on wellness programs, employers are still grappling with how to incorporate new health technologies into their programs.

The business benefits of private exchanges are starting to be realized by insurers and brokers alike, with an increased focus on voluntary products, savings for insurers and a reliance on brokers.

The federal government has erased any residual doubt about how out-of-pocket limits set by the Affordable Care Act will govern family members covered under a group plan.

Employers looking for good news on patient safety got a mixed bag of recent news – especially the discouraging report that nearly half of American hospitals fall short in nursing standards.

Data suggest a strong correlation between an employee’s overall sense of confidence in the future and the benefits they participate in at work – particularly non-medical benefits such as life insurance, accident insurance and critical illness insurance.

The possibility of specialty drug pricing financially overwhelming business and union health plans is very real.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 ruling in the Burwell v Hobby Lobby Stores case addressed in broad terms how exceptions to the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for contraceptive benefits coverage can be granted in the private sector, it left some unresolved questions both in the for-profit and in the nonprofit world.

Commentary: The midpoint of the tax year is almost upon us, and many still have work to do to prepare for the new IRS 1094-C and 1095-C filings.

Commentary: When executed efficiently, this strategy can bring a variety of benefits, says AmWINS’s Sam Fleet.

Is your PBM contract up for renewal? Here’s what you need to know.

Brokers need to change the conversations they are having with clients away from the Affordable Care Act and toward other topics, including voluntary, since little will change with the law until the next presidential inauguration, a carrier rep says.

Health care consumers in some parts of the U.S. may face higher premiums next year if some insurers struggle to cover their costs and Congress continues to require that the risk-corridors program established under the ACA be self-sustaining.

Commentary: Expatriate health plans are — here are key definitions and relief as well as the recent IRS guidance on calculations for the 2014 and 2015 fee years.

It’s not enough to simply post a summary plan description on an employer’s intranet to satisfy the ERISA requirement that such information be “furnished” to plan participants.

Covered California’s Small Employer Health Options Program (SHOP) is growing, but a private-sector competitor to the state-run HIX is growing even faster.