Practice and client management

Commentary: Clients with fewer than 50 employees face skyrocketing premium rates this year and next. Columnist Nelson Griswold has a solution.

As more large brokerages seem to be opening their own platforms, one company wants to provide a means for the smaller independent agent to have a branded, customized private exchange, too.

Commentary: Sebelius was in an “unwinnable position," according to the former head of sales and marketing at Covered California, Michael Lujan. The former insurance agent writes that more engagement with the benefits industry would have behooved the troubled health secretary.

As new social media platforms arise, there are more opportunities for brokers to act as ‘trusted advisers.'

The ACA's first open enrollment period presented some expected — and some out-of-the-blue — challenges for carriers, agents and others tasked with enrolling millions of individuals on the health insurance exchanges. Those challenges should serve as lessons and preparation exercises for the next open enrollment, several industry experts advise.

Commentary: There are upsides to outsourcing, says blogger Michael Klachefsky. In this case, it helps monitor the regulations and legality of employee absences, especially when related to disability benefits.

Enlivening your staff and company’s workplace culture can be as simple and sustainable as committing random acts of kindness.

Advisers and employers can use education to boost the enrollment of millennials in voluntary disability programs

A majority of Americans remain uninsured and many based the decision to stay uninsured on the cost of coverage, with many not even visiting an exchange to see a price estimate, a new study from consultancy Market Strategies International finds.

Commentary: Every single play in football is designed to score, to get into that end zone, says blogger Vinnie Daboul. Here’s how insurance consultants can take a play right out of every football coaches’ book to win the game.

Commentary: Many sales people have quirky things they do to ensure they get the sale, be it a certain way they shake hands or a lucky they carry around. But blogger John Graham says it's time to put less energy in superstitions and more into positive sales actions.

The six vexing questions employers want and need answers to in order to determine benefits.

Scott Mayer, vice president of data analytics for WorkforceTactix, shares a day in his life juggling meetings, email, strategy sessions, parenthood and sticking to his healthy habits.

Most Hispanics have a favorable view of the Affordable Care Act, but need more information about it to understand the law and how to enroll in the health insurance exchanges, HolaDoctor, a leading health website for Hispanics, says.

Republican Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, who sponsored the MLR bill, is moving on from Congress.

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) proposed two bills Thursday enhancing brokers’ work on the ACA’s public exchanges.

New research from a North American sample of HR leaders finds that the Affordable Care Act is not a primary concern among employers, even as the landmark health care law continues to worry the masses.

Ronnell Nolan’s HAFA has taken off in Louisiana, and now she has her sights set on major federal legislation.

Whatever the Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby’s challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, it won’t likely have broad implications for all employers, according to Howard Shapiro, partner and head of Proskauer’s ERISA litigation group in New Orleans.

Voluntary benefit sales are enjoying rapid growth as employers prepare for the impact of the Affordable Care Act by revamping their medical plan designs to include more products such as accident and critical illness benefits.