Healthcare plans

The Family Medical Leave Act was signed into law 20 years ago today, offering an opportunity to dissect its successes and stumbles in offering workers expanded access to protected leave.

The government said the rules announced last week would broaden the types of organizations eligible for an exemption from the birth-control mandate and make it easier for them to escape it.

A study released Monday morning from the ADP Research Institute indicates that while 77% of eligible full-time workers select health coverage, only 15% of eligible part-time workers do the same.

The cost of prescription medication used to treat aging-related conditions has been steadily increasing over the past five years and could soon overtake spending on chronic conditions.

CDHPs control health care inflation with no deleterious effects on members’ health or financial position, maintains contributing editor Andrew Sykes.

Focusing on cost alone ignores an important half of the health care equation: good health, says Truven’s Dr. Ray Fabius.

Its time to take a closer look at employee assistance programs .

The overall pace of investment prompted Forrester to warn insurers making only limited mobile efforts soon will lose competitive ground to insurers more aggressively pursuing the technology.

“Too few adults are taking advantage of protection from vaccines, leaving themselves and those around them at greater risk for vaccine-preventable diseases,” says one government health expert.

Americans are again taking advantage of health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements. According to new research, average account balances across the nation in 2012 were up 4% from the year before.

Americans are again taking advantage of health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements. According to new research, average account balances across the nation in 2012 were up 4% from the year before.

Doctors are increasingly taking on more patients to compensate for cuts in payments from health insurers, researchers say, and PPACA is expected to increase the volume.

Ninety-eight percent of American businesses have fewer than 100 employees and, according to new numbers from LIMRA, the number of small employers offering benefits is at its lowest level in 20 years.

Oklahoma opposed a request by the U.S. that a judge dismiss the state’s lawsuit challenging President Obama’s 2010 health-care reform legislation.

“Being able to afford health care and the support I need in my old age,” had 26% of respondents “highly worried,” the most common response in a new survey from UBS Wealth Management Americas.

State exchanges top Americans’ wish list for what they would like the government to set as 2013 health care priorities.

The second-biggest U.S. health insurer’s 2013 forecast reflects “uncertainties” that include a flu outbreak, U.S. budget negotiations and implementation of President Obama’s health care overhaul.

The earnings of the largest American medical insurer met analysts’ estimates, the company reported, along with a bump in enrollment that came with a Brazilian acquisition last year.

Workers underestimate what employers spend on their health care, but overestimate their own health status.

Two of the largest U.S. drugstore chains, said they are running short of influenza vaccines as an earlier and more severe flu season drives up demand from Michigan to New Jersey.