Wellness

Next month, the Supreme Court is expected to hand down its opinion regarding the individual mandate contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Their ruling on the constitutionality of requiring every American to purchase health insurance may affect how health reform moves forward. But, one thing the ruling will not significantly alter, in all likelihood, is the development of state-run health insurance exchanges. That's because regardless of the individual mandate, employers and individuals will still be looking for a vehicle that provides affordable health insurance that meets their needs - and exchanges may indeed be the answer.

The last week of March was a busy one here at EBA HQ. With the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of health care reform's individual mandate in our own backyard, EBA couldn't miss the opportunity to head down to Capitol Hill to check out the scene for ourselves - and bring you the latest news on the proceedings in the process.

Congressional Republicans last week issued a politically charged report that quoted President Barack Obama's corporate advisers as predicting his 2010 health care overhaul would raise — not lower — the cost of care.

Republicans on Thursday issued a politically charged report that quoted President Barack Obama's corporate advisers as predicting his 2010 health care overhaul would raise — not lower — the cost of care.

Employers continue to look to their adviser to guide them through health care reform uncertainty. In fact, 88% expect their adviser to educate them on health care reform and its implications, according to a recent survey.

Employee engagement is the goal of just about every wellness and health management program. You need to engage employees to be more active, eat better, get more sleep. … You get the idea. So why is engaging employees so hard? Maybe it’s because we haven’t really thought about it from the perspective of the employee – the end-user of the wellness initiative. According to research from a partnership of Aon Hewitt and The Futures Company, most…

Over time, Chrysler LLC delivered a 2.6 to 1 return on investment for its wellness programs by engaging employees, revealing company resources to those with high risk factors and rewarding healthy behaviors with premium incentives. Notably, the programs are completely voluntary.

U.S. officials on Monday cited two health insurers for excessive premium increases, under consumer protection rules of President Barack Obama's health care reform law that could soon be nullified by the Supreme Court.

In February, the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services issued final regulations implementing the new summary of benefits and coverage requirement under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The agencies also released a separate document providing additional guidance on the SBC requirement, which includes a template for the summary, instructions, sample language, a guide for coverage example calculations and the uniform glossary.

Recently, I had an opportunity to attend a luncheon where Florida Governor Rick Scott gave the keynote address. He was surprisingly bright and certainly on top of things here in our sunny state, which has suffered a few economic kicks in the head over the past few years. He spoke on myriad issues and provided a number of positive statistics that indicated his short time in office has been a success. Unemployment is going down, while tourism is going up. Each topic was one of importance, but I was particularly interested in hearing what this first-time politician had to say about Florida's current position on health care reform.