Headlines about "Health plans - info for employees"

Gathered from the web by the editors at BenefitsLink.com.
The Erosion of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance: Declines Continue for Seventh Year Running (PDF)
23 pages. Excerpt: "Even as employment-based coverage has declined, the share of Americans who receive coverage through private purchase (non-group market) has also declined. The safety net programs -- Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) -- have kept millions of families insured when their employment-based benefits were lost." (Economic Policy Institute)

Leaving Employment by the Federal Government Before Retirement? What Happens To Your Benefits?
Excerpt: "What happens to Your Benefits if you leave before you retire? As many of us periodically think of leaving federal service for various reasons (the grass is greener or the boss from Hell are common reasons) this information is important and can help us make the right decision when or if the time comes." (FedSmith Inc.)

Health Web Sites Merger to Challenge WebMD
Excerpt: "Privately held online health sites Revolution Health Network and Waterfront Media agreed to merge in a deal that could challenge WebMD Health Corp's dominance in the health care space. The companies did not disclose the financial terms in a joint statement, but The New York Times said on Friday the deal was worth $300 million. The combined company is projected to have more than 20 million unique users, the companies said, citing a comScore Media Metrix report." (Thomson Reuters via eWeek.com)

Health Benefit Offer Rates and Employee Earnings
Excerpt: "It is well-known that highly-paid workers are more likely to receive employer health insurance offers. Many of the studies available on the salaries and fringe benefits of workers do not show how the salaries of a group of co-workers influence an employer's decision to offer insurance. For example, even if most employees in a firm earn low wages, employers may still decide to offer health benefits if they also employ a few higher-wage workers in the same establishment who value this coverage. This paper addresses this question by showing how the offer of employer health insurance differs depending on the distribution of worker earnings within an establishment." (Kaiser Family Foundation)

Compensation for Workers with and without Access to Health Benefits at Work
Excerpt: "This paper compares the payroll and benefit compensation of workers that had access to employer-sponsored health benefits at work to that of workers who did not have an insurance offer. By analyzing compensation differences within occupations and establishment sizes for those with and without access to health benefits, we provide new information to help policymakers as they consider how to design effective and targeted strategies to increase job-based coverage." (Kaiser Family Foundation)

Helping Employees Make the Most of the Benefits their Companies Offer
Excerpt: "If you want to offer employees an inexpensive benefit that will foster loyalty and boost productivity, consider a navigation system. No, not a GPS, but a tool that will guide them in making a host of decisions about everything from tuition-reimbursement programs to 401(k) strategies to consumer-directed health plans. By offering more and better education around benefits, companies not only help employees make the most of their perquisites, but also gain from increased retention, higher productivity, and related forms of goodwill." (CFO.com)

Important Information Workers Need to Know to Protect their Health Coverage after Job Loss (PDF)
Excerpt: "When facing job loss or a reduction in hours, workers need to know their options ahead of time to prevent loss of health coverage. There may be several options available to individuals who are losing their health coverage when they lose their jobs . . . ." (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)

Fact Sheet: Your Employer's Bankruptcy - How It Affects Your Employee Benefits (PDF)
Excerpt: "This information sheet focuses on bankruptcy's effect on pension plans and group health plans." (U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration)

Few Employees Are Benefits Experts Despite Importance of Worker Buy-In
Excerpt: "A new survey of human resources officials and benefits managers finds, while there is widespread agreement that it is important employees think their workplace benefits package is a good deal, comparatively few workers actually hold that view. The Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company poll of 650 HR/benefits executives found 90% knew employee buy-in was important. However, a Colonial news release said, 21% thought workers at their companies had a good understanding of their benefits package while nearly 5% of respondents thought their employees knew nothing at all about their benefits." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

Variation in Medical Care Benefits by Occupation, 2008
Chart. Excerpt: "Among the five major occupational groups, the percentage in private industry with access to medical care benefits ranged from 46 percent for service workers to 86 percent for management, professional, and related employees in March 2008." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

BLS's New Employment Cost Indexes for 14 Metropolitan Areas
Excerpt: "This article presents a first look at new estimates from the National Compensation Survey (NCS): Employment Cost Index (ECI) 12-month change in total compensation and in wages and salaries for private industry for 14 selected metropolitan areas." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2008
The annual bulletin has Tables Organized by Ownership and Tables Organized by Benefits. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

What Happens to Your Benefits After Bankruptcy
The article examines considerations of your retirement plan(s) and health insurance if your company is facing the possibility of bankruptcy. (The Wall Street Journal)

Treasury and Small Business Administration Launch New HSA Website for Small Businesses and Their Employees
Excerpt: "The Treasury Department and the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) have announced a new SBA website that provides small business owners and their employees with information about health savings accounts (HSAs). And the White House has simultaneously issued a fact sheet that describes how HSAs are helping small businesses provide health benefits to their employees." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)

DOL Website Provides Updated Contact Information for Hurricane Victims
Excerpt: "The DOL announced that it has updated its website to give plan sponsors a way to provide updated contact information for hurricane victims: 'The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) today updated its Web site to give sponsors of retirement, health and other benefit plans a way to update their contact information following the disruption of operations due to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. This information will allow employees, plan participants and their families, as well as the many support organizations that assist victims of the hurricanes, to reach plan administrators with questions and information related to their benefits." (ERISA Rules and Regulations)

Workers Want Better Benefits Selection Information
Excerpt: "Workers want personalized guidance from their employers, and welcome more interactive information sources, a new survey found. A MetLife news release said its 2008 Open Enrollment survey found employees are seeking more resources from employers to help them make the right decisions. Increasingly, employees are indicating that they would like greater access to benefits information, guidance and personalized support, which could allow them to conduct thorough research." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

Early Retirement? Why It Pays to Stay
Excerpt: "Companies across a range of industries, from financial services to retail, have been extending early-retirement packages in an effort to slash work forces." (CNNMoney.com)

A White Paper on American Workers' Struggles to Attain Financial Security (PDF)
13 pages. Excerpt: "This study from Alliant Credit Union and The International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (ISCEBS) finds that American workers are struggling to get ahead financially and they're looking to their employer for help. American workers are struggling to gain control over their financial lives and many are living from paycheck to paycheck. Unfortunately, employers are not offering the kind of assistance that can aid employees with achieving financial wellness." (International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists)

Employment Rates, Economic Factors Could Decrease Access to Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage for Younger Workers
Excerpt: "The percentage of U.S. residents younger than age 65 who had health coverage through their employer remained at 62.2% between 2006 and 2007, but that percentage likely will decline in 2008, according to a Employee Benefit Research Institute report, the Kansas City Star reports." (Kaiser Family Foundation)

Sources of Health Insurance and Characteristics of the Uninsured (PDF)
36 pages. Excerpt: "This Issue Brief provides historic data through 2007 on the number and percentage of nonelderly individuals with and without health insurance. Based on EBRI estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's March 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS), it reflects 2007 data. It also discusses trends in coverage for the 1994–2007 period and highlights characteristics that typically indicate whether an individual is insured." (Employee Benefit Research Institute)

Health Coverage Stable Despite Cost Trends
Excerpt: "Employment-based health insurance coverage for the nonelderly population (under age 65) of the U.S. has headed downhill in recent years, but is still roughly constant since 1994, according to a study released by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

Choice and Price Competition in Health Insurance Markets
Excerpt: "The question of how choice affects health insurance markets is very relevant for public policy. For example, under the recently enacted Medicare Part D program, most seniors can choose from among dozens of prescription drug plans, and it has not yet been established whether this is a positive or negative aspect of the program." (National Bureau of Economic Research; paid subscription or individual purchase required to retrieve fulltext)

Presence in Virtual Worlds Could Help Health Plans Achieve Real-World Behavior Change
Excerpt: "Second Life is a virtual world of avatars, sims and Linden dollars, and CIGNA, Corp., Partners HealthCare System, Inc. and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are among the first health organizations to establish beachheads on its shores. But it's not, they say, because Second Life and other social networking media (e.g., Web sites) are new and flashy. Rather, their ventures are a response to changes in the way consumers are communicating and accessing health information." (AISHealth.com)

[Guidance Overview] TPA-Provided EOBs That Failed to Inform Former Employee of Claim Denial Did Not Comply with Claims Regulations
Excerpt: "EBIA Comment: To the extent it denies payment of submitted expenses, an EOB is an 'adverse benefit determination' triggering the plan's appeal procedures and requiring a detailed notification of adverse benefit determination. When an EOB fails to contain all of the required bells and whistles under ERISA's claims procedure regulations, a claimant may be allowed to go to court without completing a plan's claims procedures." (Employee Benefits Institute of America)

Know Your Rights under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
Excerpt: "The types of claims discussed . . . are not intended to be an exclusive list of possible claims under ERISA, but rather, representative of some common claims. ERISA is a complicated area of federal law that provides very specific remedies depending on the type of violation alleged. An employee or former employee must also, in many cases, exhaust certain administrative remedies before bringing such a claim." (Hanlon Niemann)

Striking Jump in Consumers Seeking Health Care Information
Excerpt: "In 2007, 56 percent of American adults -- more than 122 million people -- sought information about a personal health concern, up from 38 percent in 2001, according to a new national study . . . . Consumers who actively researched health concerns widely reported positive impacts: More than half said the information changed their overall approach to maintaining their health, and four in five said that the information helped them to better understand how to treat an illness or condition." (Center for Studying Health System Change)

Principal Announces 2008 10 Best Companies for Employee Financial Security
Excerpt: "By providing financial security in what some are calling a recession, 10 growing companies have earned national acclaim for standing by their employees. An independent panel of benefits experts selected The Principal 10 Best Companies for Employee Financial Security -- 2008, in large part for finding ways to maintain and expand benefits rather than slash them." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

A New Grad's Guide to Insurance
Excerpt: "If you want to save some money and protect what you've got (along with what you'll soon be earning), it's time to think insurance. You don't have to spend a bundle. Just putting a few bucks on the right kind of coverage can make a big difference in your life. And, with some jobs, it's just a matter of checking the right box on the benefits form." (FOX Business)

Prescription Data Used To Assess Consumers, Aid Insurers
Excerpt: "Health and life insurance companies have access to a powerful new tool for evaluating whether to cover individual consumers: a health 'credit report' drawn from databases containing prescription drug records on more than 200 million Americans." (The Washington Post; free registration required)

How Much Do Older Workers Value Employee Health Insurance?
Excerpt: "This brief seeks to answer the question in the title by analyzing data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative survey of older Americans. New questions in the HRS enable researchers to compare the value that workers place on health insurance with their perceptions about the cost of coverage." (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

Employee Skepticism About Health Risk Assessments
Article, Podcast, Report. Excerpt: "In an Employee Benefit News podcast and article, Hewitt's Tim Stentiford discusses the challenges employers face when trying to conduct health risk assessments." (Hewitt Associates)

Fewer Employees Covered for Health Care in Micro Businesses
Excerpt: "About 45% of the smallest business owners had health care coverage purchased through the business, through a spouses's employers's plan, or through other group coverage such as COBRA, according to a 2008 survey by the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE). Another 40% purchased individual health insurance coverage. However, only 18.6% of those owners who buy health coverage through their business also offer that coverage to some or all full-time employees." (Wolters Kluwer)

Fifth Report of Results from Sibson's 2006 Rewards of Work Study: Keys to Retaining and Engaging Employees in Different Age Groups (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "For the last decade, Sibson Consulting has focused our Rewards of Work Study around gaining an understanding of how employees feel about their work. What motivates employees? What retains them? What attracts them? These questions have represented the core of what Sibson Consulting considers the 'Rewards of Work.'" (The Segal Group, Inc.)

A Survey of Washington State Businesses about the Future of Employee Health Care Benefits
Excerpt: "An AARP telephone survey of employers in Washington State in March and April 2008 indicates that Washington employers have experienced substantial increases in employee health insurance premiums over the past 3 years, and most of the respondents anticipate that it will be challenging to provide such coverage over the next 3 years." (AARP)

Employers Are Changing Their Benefit Offerings, According to Survey
Excerpt: "SHRM's annual benefits survey shows continuing erosion of defined-benefit pension plans and traditional indemnity health care coverage." (Workforce Management; free registration required)

Employers, Employees Split on Benefit Program Perceptions
Excerpt: "A new MetLife survey shows a significant disconnect between employers' views about their workplace benefit program and the perceptions of employees.' (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

New AMA Guidelines on Medical Tourism (PDF)
1 page. Excerpt: "The AMA advocates that employers, insurance companies, and other entities that facilitate or incentivize medical care outside the U.S. adhere to the following principles . . . ." (American Medical Association)

AMA Approves Medical Tourism Guidelines for Travelers and Employers
Excerpt: "The American Medical Association this week approved guidelines for U.S. residents who travel abroad to receive medical care and for employers who are considering covering overseas care, the Chicago Tribune reports." (Kaiser Family Foundation)

Employees Looking for Help on Managing Finances, Maximizing Benefits
Excerpt: "Nearly half of workers (49%) are interested in receiving financial advice and guidance at the workplace, according to the sixth annual MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends, a national survey of 1,380 full-time employees." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

Ranking Health Plans on Member Satisfaction
Excerpt: "The mammoth study from J.D. Power and Associates can be summed up pretty easily. Health plans do a bad job communicating with members, and they're getting worse at it." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)

A Benefits Primer for Young People Starting Their First Job
Excerpt: "[I] offer a proper primer on health insurance, taxes and retirement plans for employees starting their very first jobs." (The New York Times; free registration required)

Comprehension and Choice of a Consumer-Directed Health Plan: An Experimental Study (PDF)
8 pages. Excerpt: "This study highlights the difficulty many consumers have in understanding comparative plan information. It also suggests that presentation strategies may help consumers understand choices better." (The American Journal of Managed Care)

Many People Base Life Choices on Ability to Retain, Obtain Health Insurance
Excerpt: "Anxiety over becoming uninsured or paying higher premiums is causing some people -- 'especially those with health problems' -- to go to 'great lengths to get or keep job-based health coverage,' the Wall Street Journal reports." (Kaiser Family Foundation)

Increasing Transparency in the Pricing of Health Care Services and Pharmaceuticals (PDF)
8 pages. Excerpt: "This brief explores whether increased transparency about prices for specific health care services and pharmaceuticals would help to temper the rapid growth in costs. The answer is unclear because evidence can be marshaled on both sides of the issue." (U.S. Congressional Budget Office)

Increasing Transparency in the Pricing of Health Care Services and Pharmaceuticals (PDF)
8 pages. Excerpt: "Questions about transparency in health care costs extend beyond the prices for specific services and pharmaceuticals. Workers pay for employment-based health insurance through reduced take-home pay, but those costs may not be evident to many of them. A greater awareness of the total costs of health care and who ultimately bears them might generate increased demand for efficiency in that sector." (U.S. Congressional Budget Office)

Health Plans, PBMs Consider Strategies for Increasing Health Literacy of Their Members
Excerpt: "Nearly half all U.S. adults lack the 'health literacy' skills necessary to understand and act on basic health information - a problem that costs pharmaceutical payers billions of dollars annually on misused medications and contributes to roughly 1.5 million adverse drug events every year, experts say." (AISHealth.com)

California Cap on Chiropractic Treatment Survives Court Challenge
Excerpt: "A state appeals court has ruled that California's 24-visit cap on chiropractic treatments for workers compensation injuries is constitutional." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

This Open Enrollment Period, Benefits Communications Take Center Stage
Excerpt: "Closing the 'guidance gap' between the benefits offered during Open Enrollment and employees' access to tools and information to make the decision-making process less complicated can pay strong dividends for employers. According to the MetLife survey, released today, among those workers that report having access to resources to help them make informed decisions, 82% were satisfied with their benefits offerings – compared to half (51%) of employees who stated that they didn't get the resources they needed." (Business Wire via Human Resource Executive Online)

Employees Want Employer Help with Benefit Decisions
Excerpt: "Employers and their human resource departments are now the number one source consulted for advice during open enrollment season (63%), according to MetLife's 2008 Open Enrollment Survey." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)

Text of Society of Actuaries Survey Report Addressing Longevity Risks
Excerpt: "The Society of Actuaries' recent Risks and Retirement Survey Report identifies and offers approaches to help employers and employees manage today's retirement risks. These risks include outliving one's assets, loss of spouse, decline in functional status and healthcare and medical expenses. In addition, the SOA is leading future retirement research by releasing a series of retirement survey reports. " (Society of Actuaries)

Americans Worry About Funding a Long Retirement
Excerpt: "Americans appear to be underestimating the financial impact of the death of a spouse. About 60 percent of those responding to the survey felt there would be little impact when a spouse dies, but [Anna M. Rappaport, a consulting actuary based in Chicago and supervisor of the biennial report,] said that surviving spouses often experience significant drops in income and benefit coverage, especially women." (New York Times)

More Tying the Knot to Get Health Insurance
Excerpt: "Some people marry for love, some for companionship and others for status or money. Now comes another reason to get hitched: health insurance. In a poll released Tuesday, 7 percent of Americans said they or someone in their household decided to marry in the past year so they could obtain health-care benefits via their spouse." (Chicago Tribune)

Study Says Individual Health Insurance Policy May Be More Stable Than Group Coverage
Excerpt: "For workers in fair or poor health, owning individual health insurance seems to offer more security than relying on employer-sponsored small-group health coverage does." (Life and Health Insurance News)

Retirement to Costa Rica? Retirement Bliss Can Be Dear in Developing World
Excerpt: "Health care is another revelation. What would it cost for non-citizens to purchase a health policy in Costa Rica? Now you are getting into the heart of how much it costs to retire to a developing country. Unless you are a citizen of Costa Rica, you may need to buy an overseas policy issued by an insurer in your home country. For U.S. citizens, Medicare generally doesn't cover treatment in foreign countries, so you may have to come back for medical care." (John Wasik on Bloomberg.com)

Study Reveals Pre-Retirement Attitudes Reinforce Inadequate Preparation for Retirement
Excerpt: "The survey evaluated a cross-section of Americans on their awareness of potential financial risks in retirement and how the awareness impacts the management of their finances before and during retirement." (Wolters Kluwer)

Health Insurance Benefits Offer Rates for Smaller Establishments by Business Age
Excerpt: "Researchers looking at the reasons why employers offer coverage have identified a variety of factors. These include both employee characteristics, such as earnings, occupation, part-time versus full-time status, union status, gender, and age, and employer characteristics, such as geographic region, industry, and firm and establishment size. This issue brief looks at a less well-understood factor that may also affect an employer's decision to offer health benefits: how long a business has been operating. We show that, among smaller and mid-sized establishments, the likelihood of offering coverage is associated with the age of the business." (Kaiser Family Foundation)

Health Plans, PBMs Consider New Ways to Boost the Health Literacy of Their Members
Excerpt: "[S]ome health plans and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) contacted by AIS are taking steps to address the health literacy issues of their members in an attempt to improve therapeutic outcomes and the bottom line." (AISHealth.com)

J.d. Power and Associates Reports Satisfaction with Health Plans Varies Dramatically from Region to Region
Comment by Don McCanne. Excerpt: "Although this was a J.D. Power study of consumer satisfaction, it does reveal a very important point. Only 45 percent of health plan members self-reported that they understood their health insurance coverage. The other half didn't, and that was correlated with lower satisfaction ratings." (Physicians for a National Health Program)

Health Plan Details Elude Most Americans
Excerpt: "Fifty-five percent of U.S. health-plan members don't fully understand 'critical details' of their insurance coverage, including prescription benefits, how to find the right doctor and appeal-coverage denials, a survey found. The majority of respondents rated their insurer lowest on communications and information provided to help them understand their plans, according to the survey released Wednesday by J.D. Power & Associates." (Bloomberg News via Arizona Daily Star)

Survey Findings: Two Roads Diverged: Hewitt's Annual Health Care Survey 2008
Excerpt: "For more than two decades, Hewitt Associates' health care survey has tracked employer health care practices, benefit programs, and efforts to provide and manage workforce health benefits. In 2008, Hewitt commissioned two surveys focusing on employer and employee health care trends and views." (Hewitt Associates; registration required to access findings)

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