Practice management

Potentially a result of complaints from consumers and increased competition on the ACA exchanges, benefit brokers may be pleased to find more options on the 2015 plans.

Employers in Southeast Michigan have projected an increase in health care costs this year. Still, to retain talent, businesses say they intend to continue offering health benefits to full-time employees, despite price increases resulting from the ACA.

Employees living paycheck to paycheck need solutions from their employers to meet financial emergencies, yet most employers aren’t aware financial wellness programs and lending solutions exist or that they’re credible.

Commentary: As part of columnist Mel Schlesinger’s sales system that cannot fail series, he discusses how to have a sales value proposition that is different from competitors and opens doors at all times of the year.

Commentary: Blogger John Graham helps benefit brokers and advisers unlearn some of the worst sayings business people tend to tell themselves.

Benefit brokers should be turning their sights to the capabilities of health care data to improve employer clients’ employees’ health. There are doctors asking for even more potential from computer algorithms to interpret such data and could provide a glimpse into the future.

Despite all the technical glitches with Healthcare.gov and state-run exchanges during open enrollment, a large majority of Americans researching health plan options relied on websites for information, but supplemented their research with other outlets for answers, including brokers and advisers.

While one of the most talked about rising employee benefits, brokers vary in their approach to offering this trend because of the realities of use, cost and profit.

Instead of looking outside to increase workforce diversity, companies should first look inside and develop an internal labor map of their own workforce. But, experts caution, analytics alone won’t create greater diversity and should be used in conjunction with other tools.

Industry experts provide an overview of three new voluntary products — that employers might not know about yet — so benefit advisers and brokers can get a leg up before a competitor does.

Advisers looking to protect themselves and their clients from professional negligence or malpractice suits need to enter into an engagement letter, according to an ERISA attorney.

Although most employers review retirement plan costs annually, many are not assessing fees evenly across all asset classes — and that’s where benefit advisers come in.

Commentary: Blogger Rob Lieblein offers insight as to why private exchanges really are the future of benefits and where benefit brokers and advisers should be in the process of hopping on the exchange train.

Commentary: Why your clients should consider allowing work from home as a part of disability recovery for certain employees.

Advisers are key to crafting retirement plan communications and educational materials that their employer clients can use to increase plan participation.

Industry experts say that while unlikely, the historically stable product line may have the potential for price changes as its sales continue to rise.

Commentary: The Japanese have a business philosophy called the keiretsu. Find out how it could improve the way you operate.

CMS says benefit brokers and advisers are expected to be able to enroll their small business clients on the federal SHOP exchange online by sometime later this year.

Commentary: All benefit advisers want loyal employees who are committed, respectful and engaged workers who see projects through to the very end. How do you get them?

Benefit advisers are poised to close the gap between employers’ need to control health costs and comply with the health law and employees’ lack of interest in taking ownership of their health care choices.