This article was published on July 17, 2018 on Employee Benefit News, written by John Kern. Photo Source: Employee Benefit News. In my 25 years in the insurance business I’ve seen many changes. But there’s always been one constant: Healthcare and pharmacy costs continue to accelerate and no regulatory action has been able to slow [...]
On June 19, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor released the final rule on Association Health Plans (AHPs). The rule seeks to expand health coverage among small employer groups and self-employed individuals. It will make it easier for small business to join together to purchase health insurance without the myriad of regulations individual states and [...]
This article was published on May 22, 2018 on Employee Benefit News, written by John Milne. Small and midsize businesses seeking flexible benefit plans for their employees that also provide a means to contain costs often feel their options are limited. The fully insured world restricts flexible and creative plan options, and many employers are [...]
This article was published on April 06, 2018 on CTViewPoints, written by Steve Kelly. For the New Haven parents of one young boy who needed a tonsillectomy, the news was grim. Not because his diagnosis was risky or complicated, but because the family’s hospital rejected their health insurance and demanded $9,000 up front for the [...]
The 2017 Employer Health Benefits Survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows an increase in the cost of family coverage from $18,142 in 2016 to $18,764 in 2017. While the 3.4% increase is seen as relatively modest compared to previous years, it was also noted that employees paid close to a third of the annual [...]
This article was published on February 05, 2018 on Employee Benefit News, written by Liisa Granfors-Hunt. If your medical plan is fully insured, switching to self-funding (and covering catastrophic claims) can be downright intimidating, even with stop-loss insurance. That’s why many employers are sticking a toe in the financial risk pool by self-funding one or [...]
After reading the article included below, we couldn’t help but agree that the question every employer should be asking this year is…Should I self-fund my employee benefit plan? As the article discusses, this is a great time of year for companies to review their status, evaluate changes that have been made and consider new items [...]
The article below was published on October 9, 2017 by Plansponsor, written by Rebecca Moore. The youngest employees especially feel unprepared to decide what plan they should choose, according to a survey from Aflac. Benefits enrollment findings from the 2017 Aflac WorkForces Report, a national online survey of 5,000 U.S. workers, found that 67% said [...]
The article below was published on September 27, 2017 by Employee Benefit News, written by John Barkett and Julie Stone. The Affordable Care Act brought some significant changes to employer-sponsored healthcare, which employers factored into their long-term healthcare strategies. Revised plans were built to comply with the law’s many complex requirements, even though employers hoped [...]
The article below was published on August 7, 2017 by Bloomberg BNA, written by Sara Hansard. Small and midsized companies are increasingly providing their own health coverage for employees instead of buying fully insured plans since Obamacare was enacted in 2010. As the Affordable Care Act drives up premiums because of more requirements and taxes, [...]
