Wellness

States and territories seeking to establish a health insurance exchange, funded under the Affordable Care Act, will be required to submit an application for approval during the fall of 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services has announced.

President Barack Obama's signature health care law got a boost on Tuesday when a U.S. appeals court agreed with a lower court that dismissed a challenge and found the law's minimum coverage requirement was constitutional.

More than two-thirds of wellness plan participants find the health care system easier to navigate with the help of an adviser, according to an OptumHealth case study.

As employee benefit budgets remain tight, employers are adopting plan design changes that reduce drug benefit coverage and improve pricing, according to the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute.

Employers implementing wellness programs not only will help lower health-related costs, but their employees will be more engaged and productive while on the clock.

Nationwide Better Health, part of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, closed its doors Sept. 1 after five years in the wellness and productivity business. The company announced on May 25 that Nationwide would sell its productivity services to Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc. and wind down disease management and wellness programs.

Good news for advisers selling disability income insurance: Sales of traditional and voluntary DI are headed upward. But even more exciting is the undercurrent of optimism and excitement among major insurers and disability management experts about the future of disability benefit programs.

This article is the latest installment in EBN's BeneFIT Success series, which chronicles employers' and employees' wellness triumphs. The entire series is available at ebn.benefitnews.com, keywords "benefit success series."

Colorado is America's healthiest state, right? Wrong, says Andrew Sykes, chairman of Health at Work Wellness Actuaries. It's a myth and was one of the biggest challenges Sykes had to overcome when he was hired by Brighton School District - a school district northeast of Denver - to help implement a wellness program at Brighton's 18 schools and other worksites.

Imagine, in the 21st century - with all of the medical, scientific and technological advances and accomplishments our country has seen - a generation of children that is at risk of not outliving their parents. Not because of a national plague or famine. Quite the contrary, the current generation is at risk of dying prematurely because so many of them are overweight or obese.