Healthcare plans

Willis Re created a new group to provide those in the life insurance and annuity market with advice on risk mitigation and financial leverage, the reinsurance unit of the London insurance brokerage Willis Group Holdings P.L.C.

Allstate Corp., already the second-largest U.S. auto insurer, said on Wednesday it would expand into online sales by buying Esurance from White Mountains Insurance Group for about $1 billion.

As employers shift to an employee-driven benefits model, plan participants’ perceived value and satisfaction in their benefits are declining, according to Prudential’s fifth annual “Study of Employee Benefits: Today & Beyond.”

Health care is a highly regulated industry, but medical imaging isn't as regulated as one might expect. Most of the regulations center around breast imaging, which was recognized nearly two decades ago as an area that needed to be standardized and regulated at the federal level.

American Westbrook Insurance Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Hendricks Holding Company, Inc., has acquired substantially all of the assets of The American Worker Plans, Inc., expanding the services available through its benefit wholesale division.

GreenWood International Insurance Services, Inc., a Massachusetts based managing general underwriter, announced they have been acquired by Pan-American Life Insurance Group, a leading provider of life and health insurance in Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic market.

The annual Milliman Medical Index (MMI) contains some grim tidings for health insurers and others concerned by the rising cost of health care, as for the fourth straight year, costs rose by at least 7%.

Ternian Insurance Group has introduced HealthBasic, a limited medical plan for small employers with as few as five lives. The plan features different levels of coverage for different classes of employees: a mid-level plan for owners and two affordable limited medical plans for salaried and hourly employees.

A coalition of 27 health, aging, labor and consumer organizations has released a report, the "Consumer Platform for Health IT," which they call a vision for a patient-centered health care system.

Almost everyone in Massachusetts has health insurance under a state mandate, but many doctors do not accept the subsidized insurance programs available to low-income residents, a new study shows.

Large health insurers expect an increase in deals in the industry after last year's U.S. healthcare overhaul made it tougher for smaller companies to compete.

U.S. hospitals that improve medical care for elderly patients and reduce deadly errors will get millions of dollars under an incentive program launched on Friday that aims to cut overall Medicare costs.

A corporate health care exchange run by Aon Hewitt is “open and ready for business,” according to Ken Sperling, global health & benefits practice leader for the human resource consulting firm. Aon Hewitt Announced last week that it is launching the exchange for employer groups of 1,000 or more full-time employees beginning as early as January 2012. While the infrastructure — based on Aon Hewitt’s existing retiree benefit exchange model with 2.4 million participants — is built, the timing depends on securing a viable number of both employer and insurance company participants.

Many of us remember when employers provided an opt-out credit to employees who did not enroll in their medical coverage. Over time, as health care costs continued to rise, the opt-out credit was the first to go in most organizations. Then some employers, in an effort to control costs, began to replace the opt-out credit with a spousal surcharge. But is the opt-out credit poised for a return?

There is a dramatic difference in how employers tackle health cost trends. Some are doing "everything possible to control costs and improve workers' health, while others have not been willing or able to do it as aggressively," Helen Darling, president and CEO of the National Business Group on Health told attendees at the Health Benefits 9-1-1: Heightened Urgency to Control Cost and Improve Health conference.

A sluggish economy hasn't slowed the nation's health care consumerism movement, according to a recent analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

You may remember the two extremes depicted in the 2008 presidential election regarding health care. We heard health care proclaimed as an inalienable "right" of sorts. Politicians would ask their constituents polarizing questions like, "Is health care a right for all Americans?" or, "Is it a privilege to which only the wealthy minority are entitled?," as if these two extremes were the only positions that a health care stakeholder (consumer, provider or carrier) might have on such a complex topic.

Amid the nationwide noise of budget debates and court battles over the constitutionality of health care reform, Vermont has gone largely unnoticed as its legislature uses the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's state exchange requirement to set the stage for an eventual switch to a single-payer health care system. Bob Gaydos, president of the Benefits Group of New England, spoke with EBA about his efforts to slow down the fast-paced bill that, as of press time, had already passed in the House and was a week or two away from passing in the Senate. "There's no doubt it'll pass at this point," says Gaydos. "You've got to applaud the governor on a well-played political hand."

It's like taking gourmet cooking lessons, but continuing to eat at drive-throughs. It's like buying a highly praised book and leaving it on the shelf. In a similar fashion, your clients' wellness programs might not reach their potential if they are unable to engage employees and change behavior.

The New Year began with a wince for many employers around the country as they saw their health insurance premium costs increase once again, some by double-digit percentages. The recession, medical cost inflation, and uncertainty over health care reform dealt a punishing blow to employer-sponsored health care programs, forcing the majority of organizations to pass some of the cost increases on to their employees. Still, despite the trying times, some employers were able to hold their rates steady.