Healthcare plans

Along with tying your shoes and naming your colors, you learned to count in preschool. So, how hard can it be to count things in health data? It’s not hard, but your preschool strategies won’t give you the right answer.

Five unnamed U.S. employers will offer benefits through Mercer’s private exchange, the Mercer Marketplace, starting in 2014, the company announced Monday.

Already topping $20 billion a year, UnitedHealthcare predicts its contract reimbursements to hospitals, physicians and ancillary care providers linked to accountable care will hit $50 billion by 2017.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. says it will more than double payments to physicians tied to quality and cost efficiency within five years, in the latest sign of transformation in the American medical system.

The Affordable Care Act is seen as the regulatory issue with the most pull on the workplace in the next year, with 57% saying it will have a significant impact.

Starting next year, the health care reform act holds that a qualified individual cannot be denied coverage by a plan for related services from an approved clinical trial.

Benefits industry reacts to Obama administration's announcement of employer mandate delay until 2015.

Benefits industry reacts to Obama administration's announcement of employer mandate delay until 2015.

The U.S. government is set to decide this month whether federal health insurance should cover the cost of a $3,000 test that for the first time accurately identifies the signature brain plaques of Alzheimer’s disease.

How neurological medicine can impact workplace interactions and how to better manage leaders.

A strategy to protect your clients’ interests in the new world of health care reform.

John Lamb on why advisers should meet with HR to make open enrollment work smoother.

Without taking a more aggressive approach to improving patient safety, any reform efforts, including the initiatives generated by the Patient Protection and Accountable Care Act and multiple private sector projects, will be severely compromised.

The pilot put together by Ford, the Detroit-based UAW and union trust originates from the four-year contract struck between the automaker and union in 2011 and emulates a similar program used by Boeing Co. Workers and retirees will be invited to the program by their doctor and will be assigned a personal care nurse at no additional cost to the patient.

The Supreme Court’s decision striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act is being hailed as a huge victory for same-sex couples, but the ruling makes benefits administration for employers even more complicated than before.

A new report suggests young and low-wage workers will face the greatest challenges in terms of health care eligibility and cost. Among employees under age 30, only half participated in their employer’s health benefits program in 2013, compared to 70% of employees age 40 and older, according to the 2013 ADP Annual Health Benefits Report.

Enrollment in private health insurance exchanges will likely match the public exchanges by 2017, when about 18% of Americans are expected to purchase their plans through the HIX model, according to Accenture research.

The rising cost of health care is a top concern among employees, with 80% of those surveyed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch saying they’ve experienced an increase in health care costs during the last two years and, among those, 56% are saving less for retirement as a result.

Nearly half of employers are considering making changes to their total rewards program as a result of the Affordable Care Act, yet most do not anticipate making changes that could negatively affect employees.

In wellness programs, disincentives may have a place but experts caution to tread carefully when using this tactic.