Healthcare plans

As health care reform continues to unfold, employers are re-examining the role of their benefit programs in their overall human capital strategy and coming around to the idea that attracting, retaining and engaging workers hinges on the total employee experience, not health care benefits alone.

Employers considering private health care exchanges should leave themselves plenty of time to make the switch, say two employers who’ve made the move in recent years.

Wellness programs are gaining popularity and the Cadillac tax is still a mystery for many employers, but no major changes to benefits are expected next year, study says.

Despite pressure from clients to provide an immediate solution for rising health care costs – brokers need to proceed slowly and cautiously when discussing solutions such as private exchanges, according to a speaker at Employee Benefit News’ Private Healthcare Exchanges conference.

Biometric screening offers value in identifying employees at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and other costly and debilitating chronic conditions. However, employers will probably not see a return on their investment if their employees don’t act on the results.

Sam’s Club, the big-box members-only warehouse, decided to offer health insurance to its customers through a private health care exchange because those small business owner-members were asking for it. In October, the retail chain said it was partnering with Aetna to offer health insurance to members through a private exchange to small businesses.

With the help of predicative analytics, employers, and more importantly their HR and benefit departments, are now able to better administer health and benefit plans to their employee populations.

Open enrollment has been an annual headache for employers, even before the presence of the Affordable Care Act and the numerous plan changes towards more employee consumerism that followed.

Does the rising use of HSAs pose a threat to the 401(k) as the deferral vehicle of choice? The two products can work hand-in-hand to position employees for a better future, if implemented effectively.

Increased competition in the HIX marketplace is expected to pave the way for branded health options with strategic tiers or regional provider partnerships that offer a leg up on narrow networks, especially with 25 million Americans projected to sign up for exchange plans over the coming decade.

Anyone who thinks private exchanges are a new fad should speak with Choice Administrators, the organization that runs CaliforniaChoice. It’s been around close to 20 years, since 1996. President and CEO Ron Goldstein talks with EBA about the business model and how grandmothered plans under the Affordable Care Act could make a big impact in the new year.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to improve the security of the health care information submitted by health insurance providers and pharmaceutical makers and importers on information returns, according to a new government report.

As the Affordable Care Act moves forward, benefits enrollment and management will increasingly be done online. While there hasn't been a major breach in the benefits world yet, the risk is very real.

In anticipation of the 2015 tax season, TurboTax is enabling imports of the 1095-A forms, one of the many new tax forms associated with the Affordable Care Act.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has released highly anticipated draft regulations expected to impact the makeup of health plan provider networks on a state and federal level, including on the ACA exchanges.

Whether plan sponsors like it or not, employees’ expectations of the health insurance purchasing process are being shaped by influences outside of their control.

In exclusive interviews, Mercer’s Julio Portalatin and the heads of several other top brokerages — Gallagher, Lockton, Higginbotham, Willis and Pacific Resources —speak with EBA about their strategies for sustained development and staying ahead of the competition.

The IRS has issued a notice, regulations and other guidance related to the ACA, including information on getting a hardship exemption from the individual mandate for health insurance coverage.

Commentary: Reference-based pricing is slowly catching on with self-insured companies, says AmWINS Group Benefits’ Sam Fleet.

With mental illness and substance abuse costing employers an estimated $100 billion annually in indirect costs alone, benefit decision-makers are seeing value in promoting employee assistance programs as a means to improve their workforce’s mental well-being.