Healthcare plans

UnitedHealth Group Inc., the largest U.S. provider of medical coverage, will join the Mayo Clinic in a research alliance designed to merge insurance records and medical data to find more efficient ways to deliver care.

In a government-sponsored study this week, America ranks below its high-income, industrialized peers in both longevity and disease prevention, despite spending more per capita on health care than any other nation.

The U.S. influenza season is off to a fast start, which may hurt insurers, hospitals and people lulled by the milder outbreaks of the recent past.

Spending on hospital visits, medications and other care grew 3.9% to $2.7 trillion in 2011, matching the slowest growth in 52 years of recordkeeping, according to federal data released this week. Before the 2007 recession, growth was close to 8%.

Health-care spending in the U.S. grew at less than half the pre-recession level for the third straight year, as employers shifted more costs to strapped workers and state governments limited payouts for the poor.

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.