Insurance

EBA Exclusive: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services took a firm stand on the discussion after a U.S. Senate HELP Committee hearing Thursday in Washington.

“Now is the time to buy before gender rating kicks in and before the best inflation option [5%, compounded for life] becomes unaffordable or goes away,” says one expert.

A brokers’ role with end of life products is to know their clients and give them choices.

Craig Davidson on three good reasons to think about selling voluntary.

Get ready for tip off. Sun Life Financial is set to offer brokers a new place to take employer clients and employees — the NBA basketball court.

Transitions Optical survey reveals only 16% of employees say they receive education from their employer about eye health.

Women and younger workers are particularly likely to favor customizable voluntary benefits, according to a TNS Omnibus survey.

Buck Consultants is the latest benefit and consulting firm to form a private exchange. The move aims to reduce employer uncertainty about 2014 by reducing costs and increasing employee health care options.

MetLife polled hundreds of human resource and benefits professionals about legal services in a voluntary package, and the top reason given among those who make the offering is improving employee satisfaction (69%).

The answer to that question is still fuzzy. That’s because while the Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed to Employee Benefit Adviser that HRAs and HSAs will be offered on the public exchanges, the organization still hasn’t released the details and regulations surrounding these accounts.

Among the noninsurance products available to help employee stress are education programs and credit counseling.

There’s no end in sight to rise of voluntary critical illness insurance benefits.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has appointed former Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson as CEO effective Monday.

With the core of PPACA set to begin in 2014, employers need to start making decisions now. UBA CEO Thom Mangan says that while the “pay” option might be worth considering, there are strong reasons why employers should look carefully at all of their options and do their best to calculate the actual outcomes of each.