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Benefits Communications Inc Integrates With Tabulera

Tabulera, a platform to capture, reconcile and pay employee benefit plan invoices, announced that Benefits Communication Inc. (BCI) has entered into an agreement to integrate Tabulera into BCI’s upgraded ElectBenefits enrollment platform.

The Future of Work

Offering employee well-being benefits can stem the Great Resignation.

The Top Five Benefits Trends of 2022

The future of well-being, technology, and flexibility in the workplace.

Personalized Benefits Communication

Are we making it easy enough?

Medical Cost Trend: Behind the Numbers 2022

The pandemic has shifted how and where Americans gain access to care, a shift large enough to influence multiple aspects of price and utilization and, thus, medical cost trend.

HR Tech Survey 2022

Five ways HR leaders can make the most of their technology investments.

Industry News by Category

The Future of Work

Offering employee well-being benefits can stem the Great Resignation.

Six Ways to Apply Science and Smarts to Your Benefits Communication Strategy

Daniel Pink, best-selling author of books around business, work and behavior shares successful real-world examples of his tactics applying psychology to create results. See how a change of perspective can liven up a benefit communications strategy.

Enrollment Best Practices By Generation

All three generational groups – baby boomers, Gen X and Gen Y (millennials) – suffer from lack of sufficient life insurance. The gap varies by generation, thus setting the stage for separate messaging. Check out the best methods for communicating with each group.

Benefits Communications Slowly Turning Around

A recent study reveals that improving employees’ understanding and perceived value of benefits was one of the top priorities of HR and benefits managers in 2013. Check out some of the strategies that helped managers achieve their benefit objectives.

HR Benefits Education Efforts Fall Short

More than two-thirds of employers only talk to their employees about benefits available to them during the enrollment period. See why this doesn’t justify the time and money spent on developing a robust benefits package.

The Top Five Benefits Trends of 2022

The future of well-being, technology, and flexibility in the workplace.

How to Leverage Technology to Alleviate ACA Reporting Requirements

Preparation is key to managing the additional workload brought on by the ACA, which impacts HR, payroll and finance teams. See how using technology to meet the reporting requirements is the most effective way to manage all the paperwork.

Growing Battle Against Cadillac Tax

The Cadillac tax remains one of the more controversial elements of PPACA. Opposition has increased as concerns grow among unions and employers in the wake of 2018. See how hundreds of thousands of workers will be affected.

What Happened to Health Broker Comp?

Broker compensation was down 1.1 percent from the 2012 total based on recent research distributed by the Commonwealth Fund. Industry observers feel PPACA’s increasing MLRs could have significant impact on broker roles. Take a look at the numbers tracked.

Personalized Benefits Communication

Are we making it easy enough?

Employers Dropping Spousal Coverage

As more employers are shifting to self-funded health plans, fewer are offering full or even partial spousal coverage as they redesign their benefits packages. Take a look at the latest trends due to the shifting health benefits landscape.

CDHP Coverage Increases Participant Cost Awareness

Most Americans focus solely on the most basic costs of their health insurance – monthly premium and co-pays. But those who participate in a plan that requires them to engage in management of costs are much savvier about the true cost of health coverage. Check out some of the latest survey results.

IRS Sets 2016 HSA Limits

The IRS quietly announced last week the maximum contribution that can be made next year to an HSA linked to a high-deductible plan for employees with family coverage. Take a look.

How to Sell a CDHP to Employees

There’s a big roadblock to CDHP adoption: rampant consumer confusion. Most employees aren’t going move to a plan they don’t understand. Take a look at these tips on how to communicate and sell a CDHP.

Five Things the Fastest-Growing Insurance Agencies Have in Common

No two insurance agencies are alike, but there are traits that top performers have in common. Check out these five traits that stand out when evaluating the top performers.

Five Things Brokers Need to Worry About in 2015

Now in the new year, brokers are faced with new opportunities as well as new challenges. Check out the top five trends brokers should be thinking about, and perhaps worrying over.

The Future of Benefits Enrollment Technology

Benefits enrollment is being significantly enhanced through the use of innovative approaches that incorporate new technologies. Whether it’s helping employees make the right decisions or adopting new technology to meet ACA requirements or reduce the administrative burden, see what’s ahead.

Google and Insurance: One Year Later

The insurance industry is changing at a rapid pace, even faster than anticipated. Learn how outside industry influencers are changing the game and why insurers should expect a year of major disruption.

The Doctor Will Click on You Now

To cut medical costs and diagnose minor ailments, some health insurers are letting millions of patients get seen online first. While patients with time constraints like the idea, some doctors say they worry that online visits may have higher potential for wrong diagnosis. Check out the opposing sides.

Five Areas of Increasing IT Investment

It looks like insurers are ready to embrace technology to achieve competitive advantage in 2014 as 87 percent of insurers have some level of innovation underway. While analytics and mobile are taking the top of the list, check out the other three rounding out the list.

Insurers Getting Faulty Data from U.S. Health Exchanges

Insurers are getting faulty and incomplete data from the new U.S. – run health exchange, which means some Americans won’t be covered even after they sign up for an insurance plan. Industry consultants report insurers are receiving electronic files they can’t open or have so much missing information, they’re unusable. Continue reading to see why this problem may get worse as more people enroll through the exchange.

Top 5 Technology Investment Priorities For Insurers

The twin needs for organic growth and expense reduction are driving insurance technology investment, new research from IVANS, Inc. indicates.

How Healthcare Spending May Derail Your Retirement

No doubt you’ve read about the ability of unanticipated healthcare costs to decimate your retirement. We never think it will be us or a family member facing such misfortune. Now, a major research effort by AARP provides projections on the size of medical bills that may await you.

Adult Peer Pressure Could Help Boost Retirement Nest Eggs

Even later in life, peer pressure has the ability to make people do things they might not do otherwise, like save more for retirement. A new consumer survey by the ING Retirement Research Institute found that more than half of all respondents said they would be motivated to save more for retirement if their nest eggs didn’t measure up to those of their peers.

401(k) Participants Crave More Education

According to the “Fourth Annual 2012 DC Participant Experience Study” by KK & Company and Greenwald & Associates, 401(k) participants would appreciate if their companies provided them with more analysis, solutions and a better understanding of the tools and guidance the plan provider has to help them optimize the use of their retirement plan.

Three New Standards for Successful Retirement Benefits Communication

The recession brought on new challenges that changed what employees needed to hear about their benefits and what we could say about them—no longer were employers able to offer generous benefits, so what do we communicate now?

Here’s How Gen Xers Sabotage Their Retirement

Personal finance expert Carmen Wong Ulrich has been talking about money since she was a little girl growing up in Harlem, N.Y. and New Hampshire. Today, Wong Ulrich is a respected author, TV and print journalist, and the president of ALTA Wealth Management. She shared with us the biggest mistakes Gen Xers make on the road to retirement.

Medical Cost Trend: Behind the Numbers 2022

The pandemic has shifted how and where Americans gain access to care, a shift large enough to influence multiple aspects of price and utilization and, thus, medical cost trend.

HR Tech Survey 2022

Five ways HR leaders can make the most of their technology investments.

Is the Sky Really Falling on Brokers?

It’s become clear that the PPACA is not the industry death sentence many brokers had feared. The annual Benefits Selling survey reveals brokers’ take on the market, the business environment and their plans for the future. Check out their responses.

Brokers Drive Voluntary Sales

Brokers were the primary drivers of growth in the voluntary market, according to Eastbridge Consulting Group’s 2014 U.S. Voluntary/Worksite Sales Report. Check out the share of sales by segment.

Five Ways to Drive Employee Benefit Participation

A recent study indicates that employees want more from their benefits and are willing to share more of the costs in order to have choices that meet their needs. Find out how to increase participation and engagement during the enrollment process.

Americans Want Health Services, But Don’t Want to Talk Cost

The only time most consumers ask about the cost of care is after the bill comes. Furthermore, a recent survey reveals the more someone makes, the less likely they are to ask about cost of care. Find out why.

Health Law Brings No Drop in Insurance Enrollment at Work, Study Finds

A new study by Mercer reveals there’s little concern that the employer mandate impacted enrollment in company benefit plans. Average enrollment was essentially unchanged between 2014 and 2015 at 74 percent. Learn which industries were affected most by the new rules.

Confusion Scaring Consumers From Health Care

Many Americans are struggling to understand the shifting landscape of the U.S. health care system. Millions don’t know or don’t understand basic components of their health insurance, which may be a factor in the high number who avoid seeing a physician. Take a look at some of the alarming knowledge gaps.

Carriers Worried About Online Competition

A recent LIMRA study asked consumers whether they would consider purchasing insurance over the internet from a non-insurance source such as Amazon and Google, and more than 20 percent said they would. See what else the survey revealed about the greatest 2015 challenges and the industry’s economic outlook.

Voluntary Goes Mainstream

Voluntary benefits are now front and center for many brokers. The Benefits Selling/Eastbridge Voluntary survey shows a steady increase in sales related to voluntary over the last three years. See how sales among the classic worksite brokers and employee benefit brokers compare.

On Board With Voluntary

There’s a strong demand among both employers and employees for voluntary products. Buying intentions are strong and the untapped market potential is vast. Take a look at how broker sales have changed over the last 15 years.

Top Five Voluntary Products by Sales (2014)

Total voluntary/worksite sales had another strong year, jumping nearly 4 percent, new industry data shows. Check out the top five voluntary products and how each performed.

Disability: The Ultimate “Me Benefit”

Millennial and Gen-X employees want lifestyle benefits that help them maintain their way of living. Read how disability should be emphasized as the ultimate lifestyle benefit, helping the ‘me’ generation understand how disability products are a ‘must-have’ to protect their income and way of living.

Top Voluntary Products by Generation

The likelihood of using a benefit in the near future is the number one factor influencing someone’s purchasing decision. Learn which benefits are the best fit for the differing life stages.

Busted: Seven Life Insurance Myths

Myths are just that – myths – yet we continue to believe and repeat them. Review these seven life insurance myths as they’re debunked and explained.

The Voluntary Sales Advantage

Voluntary benefits are quickly becoming the key driver in benefit sales. And, unlike traditional employer-paid benefits, half of all voluntary sales are new coverages rather than takeovers. The market penetration estimates are worth noting – take a look.

The Other Side of Wellness

New research suggests that the traditional methods of wellness such as flu shots, fitness challenges and health risk assessments, while still popular, are being supplemented by more unusual offerings like tuition reimbursement, community charity events, celebrations and more vacation time. Learn how these areas of workplace wellness can improve the overall bottom line.

Employees Want Wellness Plans with Meaningful Incentives

Wellness programs are more popular than ever. Yet engagement studies show that, in most cases, management is more enthusiastic than employees. Discover what employees expect plans to include.

Financial Health a Missing Wellness Piece

A new survey from Consumer Affairs says money worries have become a significant distraction for employees during work hours. Not Facebook, not chain emails, not weight loss – worries about money. See how those worries can be a huge drain on employee productivity.

IRS Allows Just One Wellness Incentive

Most wellness plan incentives won’t count towards the IRS’s determination of whether an employee has been offered “affordable coverage” as defined by the PPACA. Learn which incentive the IRS was willing to consider in its affordability equation.

Study Raises Questions for Employer Wellness Programs

Wellness programs have become increasingly popular, as companies aim to lower their medical costs by promoting healthier behavior. But a recent RAND study finds disease management programs are saving employers the bulk of health care costs.

Penalties Becoming Commonplace in Wellness Programs

The Towers Watson 2013-2014 Staying@Work Survey found that increased wellness opportunities have not translated into increased employee involvement. Many employers are taking action and issuing penalties if employees do not enroll, causing outrage among employees. Learn more about the measures employers should take to improve involvement while maintaining a happy workplace.

Employers Embrace Wellness but Employees Don’t

While employers believe in wellness programs for their workers, it appears workers don’t feel the same way. A recent bswift survey found that while wellness program availability is up, employee participation still lags. Learn about how you can make cost-containment strategies more effective.