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Is Your Benefits Communication Reaching Your Millennial Employees?

"When it comes to benefits information, the challenge ... has become how to provide the same tech-centric and customer-friendly user experience that millennials have come to expect as everyday consumers.... Effective communication ... involves creativity and revitalizing older strategies: Make information available anytime, anywhere ... Speak to each individual, not the group ... Offer benefits they value ... Don't just talk...listen ... Encourage interaction."

Taxability of Long-Term Disability Benefits: Where Do You Stand?

"Many will be surprised to learn that a LTD benefit that provides 60% of their monthly earnings will be taxed just like their income is taxed when they are working if the premiums were paid by the employer. And the majority of employer-paid LTD plans provide a LTD benefit that is less 50% of an employee's monthly earnings after taxes. Many disabled employees cannot survive on this income replacement."

Golden Years for Retiree Health Benefits

"With an increase in doctors scorning Medicare, an explosion in prescription drug costs, the ACA closing of the Part D 'donut hole', the emergence of a new trend in retiree products, (i.e. EGWP, Medicare Advantage, RRAs) and the advent of healthcare exchanges offering affordable protection to young retirees, a new shift is firmly underway. Even the most paternalistic employers are reexamining their retiree product portfolios and the overall justification for staying in the retiree market."

More Pre-Tax Dollars -- Are You Offering Commuter Benefits Yet?

"Depending on the type of plan implemented, employees can access their accumulated funds via a debit card or can order their commuting pass and have it delivered directly to their home. Either way, it's another way to help employees increase their spendable income -- more money in their pockets instead of Uncle Sam's."

BigLaw Benefit Trends Emerge

"In a stark reversal from prior years, [law firms] have achieved heath-inflation rates below the national employer averages for the middle-market segment and collectively have achieved increases averaging 3-5%.... Over the last two years, [there has been] a large increase in law firms embracing self-funding, embracing high-deductible health plans as the primary or single plan option ... while negotiating tighter prescription drug contracts with pharmacy benefit managers.... [M]any major firms are moving towards introducing exotic high-limit, Lloyd's disability policies that can now protect up to $250,000 of monthly partner compensation in the event of a disability."

Why 'Experts' Were Wrong About Employers Dropping Coverage

"The fact that employer-sponsored coverage continues to be a tax protected benefit and individually purchased coverage does not ... explain why employers will continue offering coverage for the foreseeable future.... [T]he fact that any termination of coverage must consider a newly created tax burden that gets placed directly onto employees' backs creates an unsustainable economic picture for the employers.... Employees are mobile and place a huge premium on benefits ... Any employer's consideration in disrupting its labor supply is predicated on its employees finding a comparable benefit on their own. That simply does not exist."

Take Advantage of Health Insurer Cherry Picking

"Health insurers are increasingly focusing on two methods that allow them to cherry pick the most favorable employee populations from the small group market and provide them with large group benefits and risk-adjusted premiums. The first method [uses] Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) ... The second method ... is less common and isn't permitted in some states (i.e. New York), but viable nonetheless. This approach uses self-funding to free a small employer from the community-rated market."

And You Thought There Was Nothing New in Healthcare? Shifting from 'Volume' to 'Value'

"Recently, a new player -- Create -- has come onto the scene in New York and New Jersey and is challenging the traditional idea that employee benefits must be delivered through conventional, big-name insurance carriers. The concept is a marketplace of health systems where employees shop for and select a health system as their exclusive care provider. So rather than carrying an insurance carrier card your health insurance ID would bear the name of the hospital network of your choosing."

Bridge Your Engagement Gap -- Go Mobile

"Consumers are getting their information through smartphone apps; whether it's shopping, paying for coffee, checking train schedules, hailing a taxi -- you name it. [Those] responsible for internal communication need to embrace the fact that employees want to get their benefits info like they get everything else -- through an app[.]"

Making American Healthcare Great Again

"The [ACA] got a few things right. There should be no pre-existing condition exclusions and no lifetime maximums. There should also be essential benefits which every American should be guaranteed. This system should not be government run. The Veterans Affairs healthcare system and Medicare funding paralysis give us a very sharp focus on the future if government is in charge of healthcare."