Healthcare plans

Most employees believe that their employer offers them the best health plan they could, and that they might be at a loss to ensure the same on their own, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The biggest U.S. medical insurer is learning to sell health insurance to consumers the way other companies sell shoes, office supplies or iPhones — through a storefront — as PPACA’s sweeping reforms take place.

Brokers may need to be concerned about how a proposed change by the NAIC to the current stop-loss model could essentially trap their clients and remove their options for affordable care – effectively forcing them into state exchanges and eliminating the role of the broker, writes EBA Blogger Sam Fleet.

Experts from Mercer offer up a priority list for benefits providers in 2013. The first one: Prepping for 2014.

United Benefit Advisors recently released the results of its 2012 Health Plan Survey. Since it’s the largest and most comprehensive health plan benchmarking survey in the industry, the results are always interesting, says the company's CEO.

Workplace difficulties faced by the hearing impaired highlight the need for corresponding benefit coverage

Exchange choices mean broker value opportunity

IFEBP research confirms majority will offer insurance coverage in 2014

Insurance Reform

McCutchen case raises the issue of whether a plan administrator is entitled to full reimbursement for payments made to a plan participant who is injured and recovers damages from a third party.

At the National Business Coalition on Health’s annual converence, CEO of Equity Healthcare says PPACA won’t kill employer-sponsored health insurance.

By reaching out to its Latino population to educate workers and provide resources tailored to their specific needs, Pitney Bowes significantly reduced health care disparities in its workplace.

Employee Benefit Research Institute releases its estimate of how much money seniors might need to be confident of covering their health care costs in retirement.

Workplace difficulties faced by the hearing impaired highlight the need for corresponding benefit coverage

Rules for the six state insurance exchanges that won conditional approval from the Obama administration Dec. 10 are split evenly between those with strict criteria for companies that want to participate and states that have opened their exchanges to all comers, a scenario supported by the insurance industry. A high bar for inclusion could limit the number of insurers offering health plans in some states.

With the cost of a private nursing home room running $90,000 a year, many retirees are considering giving all their money to their children in order to qualify for Medicaid. Aside from being a serious financial risk, it shines a bright light on the lack of awareness of long-term care insurance.

While adoption of consumer-driven health plans by employers continues to increase, the perceived risk of CDHP’s high deductibles still makes employees hesitant to switch from the traditional PPO. However, such fears may be unfounded, according to Change Healthcare.

Under health care exchanges, many employees will be selecting benefits previously decided by an employer — providing a chance for brokers and consultants to show their true value, said a panel of experts at the Workplace Benefits Transitions conference December 5.

A majority of high-deductible health plan enrollees misunderstand what types of care are applied to their deductible, leading some to avoid preventive physician visits and tests unneccesarily.

“Investors are concerned about rising health care costs, and they should be,” says one expert with T. Rowe Price, noting that medical expenses topped a list of surveyed respondents’ recent concerns.