Insurance

Overlook these health plan failures at your peril

04/24/2014

If you focus strictly on the ACA health care reform law’s free-rider penalties for not providing full-time employees with health insurance, or not providing insurance that’s affordable and offers minimum value, you’re missing the bigger picture.

ACA state exchanges get thumbs up from Consumer Reports

04/23/2014

Back in November, Consumer Reports magazine urged its readers to hold off on buying health insurance through websites operated by the state-based exchanges authorized by the Affordable Care Act. Now it holds a different view.

Small business owners: Do you offer health benefits?

04/15/2014

Two-thirds of small business owners polled say they offer health insurance to their employees. However, size matters—the more employees, the more likely they receive health benefits.

ACA: House bill defines full-time work as 40 hours per week

04/09/2014

Legislation passed April 3 by the House of Representatives defines a full-time job as averaging 40 hours per week, up from 30 hours specified in the Affordable Care Act.

ACA: What majority agrees on

04/08/2014

As the Affordable Care Act’s March 31 deadline loomed for individuals to sign up for health insurance, 38% of the public viewed the law favorably and 46% opposed it, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

33% of firms eye private health exchanges

04/02/2014

Most employers plan to continue sponsoring health benefits for their employees, but will change the way those benefits are managed and delivered in the coming years. New research finds that traditional models for providing employer-sponsored health benefits will continue, while private insurance exchanges are emerging as corporate America’s new favored way to provide coverage.

Final business: 5 steps to take when an employee dies

04/01/2014

Beyond its obvious emotional impact, an employee’s death almost always leaves unfinished business for HR and payroll. Follow these steps to help smooth the process when you’re notified of an employee’s death …

Real-world cost of health insurance: $270 per month

03/31/2014

The news is full of reports on the premiums being paid for health coverage acquired through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges. Depending on the political spin, they’re either onerously expensive or ridiculously cheap. Could the truth be somewhere in the middle?

Beware promising that benefits are permanent

03/27/2014

Here’s something to think about when you revise your handbook or send out an announcement outlining your benefit plan: Be sure to tell workers that benefits can change at any time and that this year’s offering isn’t a promise that the benefits described will continue indefinitely.

Era of low health care cost growth continues

03/26/2014

The cost of providing employer-sponsored health care benefits is expected to increase 4.4% this year, a slight uptick from 2013, when cost increases fell to a 15-year low, according to an annual survey by Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health, an association of large employers.