Healthcare plans

Several insurers were recognized with awards for their use of 'plain language’ by the Center for Plain Language, a nonprofit organization that wants government and business documents to be clear and understandable.

Benefits are typically structured to reward and motivate employees who stay at the company for the long haul. For example, retirement rewards and paid time off usually get sweeter as time goes on. Dangling a long-term benefits carrot makes sense for driving retention right? — Perhaps not when it comes to Gen Y workers. As companies focus on attracting and keeping a pipeline of Gen Y employees, I maintain that, when it comes to benefits,…

Over the course of her 28-year career, Dr. Beverly Bell, medical director of the oncology program at inVentiv Medical Management, has watched children's cancer go from a disease with a 40% to 50% survival rate to one with an 80% to 90% survival rate. She calls acute lymphoblastic leukemia - a type of blood cell cancer and one of the most common types of childhood cancer - the success story of pediatric oncology.

Controlling employer costs for health care benefits is a top priority among finance executives, according to a new study.

More executives of U.S. companies are concerned with reducing the cost of employee benefits excluding health care, according to a new report released by Prudential Financial and CFO Research services last week.

Nearly three in four Americans say they are concerned about their ability to support themselves should they become unable to work due to a disability.

Pharmaceutical companies, which were spared some of the more sweeping regulations in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, could come under more pressure if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down part or all of the 2010 law.

Financial advisers are so uncomfortable speaking about life insurance that more than half (56%) simply don’t do it, according to a recent survey by consultancy Saybrus Partners Inc.

More than 75% of health care incentives are so small or poorly communicated that they go unnoticed by providers. As a result, more than $20 billion in incentives may be wasted annually, according to a study.

At least one-third of surveyed full-time workers lack long-term disability insurance, according to a new report that sheds light on an opportunity for brokers. Employees need education to protect their financial wellbeing and to better understand the risks they face and how they can choose the right coverage through the workplace.

The New York Department of Financial Services has issued a mandate requiring New York life insurers to search the U.S. Social Security Administration’s Death Master File every three months in order to find beneficiaries of the recently deceased who are unaware they are eligible for benefits.

While the number of overall insurers included in the Fortune 500 diminished slightly yet again—from 49 in 2010 to 47 last year to 46 this year—Nationwide provided insurers with one more top-100 slot by moving up 27 spots.

The annual MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends, which tracks major trends and attitudes on the subject of employee benefits, was recently released and it has a good news/bad news message for employers. EBA contributor Ron Leopold shares five ways progressive employers stand out in the benefits arena.

A 65-year-old couple retiring in 2012 is estimated to need $240,000 to cover medical expenses throughout retirement, according to the latest retiree health care costs estimate calculated by Fidelity Investments. This represents a 4% increase from last year, when the estimate was $230,000.

A majority of employees (90%) recognize the importance of group disability insurance and believe their employer should offer it, according to a recent Unum survey — but most (52%) do not understand this coverage. Not only does this present an opportunity for brokers to build their trusted adviser status with employers, it also has great potential to lead to more sales of the product. Because, despite their lack of knowledge about employer-provided disability insurance, 88% of employees surveyed think is it is personally important to be covered.

U.S. hospitals are ripping out wall-mounted toilets and replacing them with floor models to better support obese patients. The Federal Transit Administration wants buses to be tested for the impact of heavier riders on steering and braking. Cars are burning nearly a billion gallons of gasoline more a year than if passengers weighed what they did in 1960.

In kasina’s yet-to-be released 2nd annual study, findings indicate that about 87% of asset managers and insurers use LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, but very few are experiencing increased sales.

Health insurers are on the hook for an estimated $1.3 billion in rebates by August of this year, if they were not in compliance with the Medical Loss Ratio provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for 2011, according to analysis by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

With age comes wisdom supposedly, but even as more Americans are living longer they are not financially prepared for their retirement years and also lack life insurance.

Despite employees’ lack of knowledge about employer-provided disability insurance, almost all respondents recognize the importance of this insurance and desire its coverage, according to a survey released Monday.