Healthcare plans

In what can be viewed as a victory for plan sponsors, the Supreme Court ruled that statute of limitation periods written into plan documents are valid, as long as those periods are “reasonable.”

A group of Catholic health and educational organizations don’t have to comply with a federal Affordable Care Act requirement to provide their employees with contraception coverage, a federal judge in New York ruled.

The government failed to send data to health insurers for about 15,000 people who enrolled in Obamacare through early December, an error corrected last week before it could jeopardize their coverage, the U.S. said.

There’s some good news for those who fear that putting health care financial decisions in the hands of employees might produce nothing but confusion. Instead, a new survey indicates that employees who actively contribute to their HSAs do indeed become more engaged and involved in managing their health.

As the year winds down, Contributing Editor Ed Bray outlines what's in store for benefits professionals in 2014. Benefit trends included in Part 2 range from Health Savings Accounts to same-sex marriage compliance.

After speaking with the leader of Towers Watson's Exchange Solutions segment and Liazon’s CEO to understand how small and larger employers should strategically approach the private exchanges, here are the key thoughts employers of any size should consider when deciding whether to shift to a defined contribution approach to health care benefits.

Employers continue to see a rise in health insurance costs. Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage reached $16,351 in 2013, up 4% from last year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) 2013 Employer Health Benefits Survey. So how can employers work to control these costs? A key success factor in reducing health insurance costs is the leadership’s commitment to this strategy. Can you find top-down leadership commitment to a long-term program…

Time may not be on the side of carriers in their quest to set appropriate rates for 2015 if the 2014 enrollments take longer than expected because of further online technical delays, public apathy or both.

In the latest ACA delay announced Wednesday, HHS touts brokers as an alternative for small businesses to enroll

Sebelius cautioned that the “on” switch has not magically been flipped on, though “…the experience is vastly improved each and every day.”

The decision by CMS leaves just eight days for insurers to send bills to those signing up on the last day of the enrollment period.

Consulting firm Towers Watson announced today it has bought private health care exchange provider Liazon, which operates the Bright Choices exchange, for $215 million. The deal further validates the private exchange market, says one of Liazon's competitors.

The cost of employer-sponsored health insurance grew at only 2.1% in 2013, Mercer says, but companies expect levels to jump next year, back to around 5.2%

Social networks kept the 41,000 participants in the Sprint Get Fit Challenge engaged and motivated throughout the 12-week challenge. Collectively, participants (who made up 35% of the telecom company’s population) lost more than 41,000 pounds, took almost 4.8 billion steps, and logged nearly 22 million exercise minutes. By building excitement and supportive competition through social media, Sprint’s wellness leaders engaged participants over the long-term.

A public employer in California is building its own marketplace to mirror public exchanges under the Affordable Care Act — a potential idea for brokers for prospecting.

Used to assess and evaluate changes in employee health, biometric health screenings are a crucial component of a comprehensive worksite health program. As a result, biometric health screenings are increasing in popularity and are being implemented by more and more employers.

Flexible spending account advocates expect most employers to embrace rollover provision.

What the lessons of retail marketing can teach benefit professionals about selling and engaging employees in benefit decisions, resulting in more buy-in on health exchanges.

America’s Health Insurance Plans issues a statement about President Obama's remarks today on the Affordable Care Act.

The number of people who died in hospitals as a result of medical mistakes is approaching half a million, according to Patient Safety America. Medical mistakes not only cost lives and misery but billions of dollars in extra costs, most of which is paid by employers.