Healthcare plans

A U.S. bankruptcy court judge has denied a request by American Airlines parent company to abandon collective bargaining agreements with its pilots in an effort to save more than $1 billion a year in labor and benefit costs.

Of the 14 life insurance firms monitored by Corporate Insight, Liberty Mutual and USAA were cited as having the strongest social media performances and were awarded top grades.

Experts who have crunched the numbers on retiree medical cost estimates that factor in Medicare premiums, prescription drugs and the occasional illness project frightening bills – even for healthy individuals.

Citing family obligations and the desire to revise a textbook, Therese (Terri) Vaughan will step down as CEO of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Her effective resignation date in the first quarter of 2013 has not yet been determined.

Although it’s unclear when obesity is deemed “severe” enough to constitute an ADA-protected disability, it is now clear that “morbid” obesity” warrants such protection.

In a gadget-driven world that has nearly erased any boundary line between work and life, there’s an app for just about anything. The employee benefits landscape is no exception.

Are health savings accounts simply better than 401(k) plans?

Employers are invited to participate in third annual survey of the Center for Health Value Innovation, a research tool aimed at pinpointing current innovations and results in health benefit and outcomes-based design.

Getting employees to support health savings accounts depends on the way they’re communicated alongside the concept of a high-deductible health plan, which can be a tricky proposition. But there are solutions at hand.

Health Savings Accounts are estimated to have grown to more than $14.1 billion in assets through June 30, representing 7.1 million accounts, according to a survey and research report by Devenir, a broker-dealer and registered investment adviser based in Minneapolis.

The 1988 Paralympic Games in South Korea changed my outlook on disability - and ultimately helped shift the focus of my group benefits career to disability income insurance and instilled a strong belief in an advocacy-based approach.

For decades, health care consumers have been told once you have a problem, then you should go to the doctor. But now, as high-deductible health plans become ever more prevalent, employers are encouraging employees to go to the doctor first - before they get sick - and in turn the employer will often cover the visit at 100%.

Behavior change may very well be one of the keys to true health care reform. Given the proper market environment, American consumers will respond accordingly and adapt.

While President Barack Obama's open support of same-sex marriage hasn't caused any immediate change in federal law, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled recently that part of the Defense of Marriage Act - which denies federal benefits to same-sex married couples - is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. Noting that a "Supreme Court review of DOMA is highly likely," however, the 1st Circuit put the ruling on hold.

For all employers' focus on curbing obesity statistics through healthy eating and exercise programs, it can be easy to forget that smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. One employer, Nelnet, is remaining vigilant about stamping out smoking among its employee population.

As employers move past the anxiety and drama over the Supreme Court ruling on health care reform, there's no escaping the fact that steep employee medical benefit costs remain as a serious concern - not only in the United States, but all over the world.

Last September, after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act gave the Department of Health and Human Services authority to review premium rates in states that didn't have strong enough review programs, the agency began handing down decrees of "unreasonable" premium rates for insurers that proposed increasing rates by an average of 10% or more - meaning HHS can publically shame an insurer.

"The whole onsite clinic thing has been a buzz the last few years," says Michael Troup, partner at Forsite Benefits.

We talk a good game in the health care system. We say we want to empower patients, but how powerful do we really want them to be? We say we want to give them enough information so they can make informed choices, but how do we deliver that information so that patients truly understand what is being said? As health care reform continues and open enrollment periods occur, encourage your employees to know that they are the key to this empowerment that everyone's talking about. Thus, it's important that they be educated about, and encouraged to exercise, their medical freedoms - specifically, the freedom to request the surgeon of your preference.

Most employees don’t think they should be required to participate in wellness programs to qualify for employer-provided health insurance, according to a new survey released by the National Business Group on Health. Moreover, they don’t think employers should charge employees more for health coverage if they don’t meet specific health goals.