Healthcare plans

Electronic medical records are being hailed as a way to save money, but they're also making it easier to commit fraud; text analytics and sophisticated data mining software can help stop it.

As high-deductible and consumer-driven health plans continue to increase in popularity, EBA spoke with Nitra LaGrander, a product manager at Evolution1, a provider of electronic payment, on-premise and cloud computing health care solutions, for tips on how plan participants who are new to these types of plans can easily access their online accounts and take charge of managing their health care dollars.

Long-term care is a "problem every-body will face and no one wants to talk about." But with the shelving of the CLASS Act by Congress, planning for long-term care is becoming part of the national conversation - and that presents an opportunity for brokers.

Eighteen months after passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, group medical benefits costs are on the rise once again, according to The November Employee Benefits Market Survey conducted by The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers.

Consumers who receive a financial needs analysis are more likely to buy life insurance, and purchase larger face amounts, than those who don’t receive an analysis, according to LIMRA’s 2011 U.S. Buyer-Nonbuyer study.

I find Walmart to be a wholly disconcerting place. I just find it very strange that it sells tires, toothpaste, turkeys, tinsel and t-shirts all under the same gigantic roof — and markets this as a good thing. One-stop shopping is one thing, but sheesh. Anyway, Walmart has confused me once more, with two recent developments. Last month, the nation’s largest retailer and private employer announced it would stop providing health benefits to its part-time workforce.…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued its first rebuke to an insurer under the federal rate review provision of the Affordable Care Act.

With an eye on both their employees’ health and their bottom line, multiemployer and public employer plans are rapidly embracing value-based health care — an outcome-driven, consumer-centered approach that focuses not on the dollars being spent, but on how those dollars can improve employees’ health.

The report, “Prolonged Low Interest Rates Take Longer-Term Toll,” says depending on the amount of annuities and other interest-sensitive products in their product, U.S. life insurers may face a considerable amount of interest rate risk. “Despite a moderate uptick in rates through October 2011, the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented announcement of its intention to maintain record low rates through 2013 will further challenge insurers selling interest-sensitive life and annuity products,” the report states. “In addition, the latest Fed stimulus program (Operation Twist) has the potential to lower Treasury yields at the longer end of the yield curve.”

Bereaved spouses who have a relationship with a financial adviser can find the support invaluable in recovering their family’s financial bearings, according to a new survey. The poll, conducted by the New York Life Foundation and the National Alliance for Grieving Children, surveyed 548 parents who lost a spouse or partner and who still had children under the age of 19 at home. …

The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee held a hearing to discuss the relative unpopularity of the Small Business Health Tax Credit that is part of the health care reform law.

The nonprofit Center for Health Value Innovation released the initial results of employers completing the Health Value Accelerator finding that over 20 cents out of every dollar of revenue are going toward health care costs that are under-managed.

The percentage of Americans who have health insurance through their employer slipped to a new low of 44.5% in the third quarter, a drop of over 5 percentage points in three years, according to a poll released last week.

The percentage of Americans who have health insurance through their employer slipped to a new low of 44.5% in the third quarter, a drop of over 5 percentage points in three years, according to a poll released on Friday.

Employers and employees alike have found a more affordable health care option in health savings accounts, according to two national surveys released last week.

Millennials are by far the most confident about their ability to make the right benefit decisions, with 96% feeling “highly confident” versus 66% of Gen Xers and 64% of baby boomers, according to a recent survey conducted by The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. However, nearly 80% of employees spend less than two hours evaluating their group medical, dental, life and disability insurance options and those same Millennials are in danger of being uninsured, according to the survey.

More than 30% of respondents say overweight or obese individuals should have to fork out more for health insurance, according to the most recent Thomas Reuters-NPR Health Poll.

Why do these plans offer tremendous value to both employers and employees? In today’s BeAdvised Samuel Fleet explains why these plans can also act as a strong recruitment tool for top executives.

Advisers take note: It’s not a company’s size but rather the demographic makeup of its workforce that influences whether or not it sponsors a retirement plan.

Some of the federal health care law's requirements related to insurance exchanges threaten the autonomy of U.S. states, which need more support in establishing the marketplaces, state governors said in a letter released last week.