Legitimate association plans can help smaller businesses get quality coverage. [/caption]The Affordable Care Act did away with association health plans. Or did it? Can Association Plans Survive The Affordable Care Act after all? Some small employers have relied on association health plans (AHPs) to buy employee health insurance, rather than buying a small group plan....
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How the Affordable Care Act Affects Dental Plans
Although dental plans are “excepted health plans” exempt from Affordable Care Act (ACA) reforms, two provisions in the ACA could affect dental plans. Coordinating dental coverage with the Affordable Care Act’s requirements poses some challenges for plan designers and sponsors. Essential Health Benefits The ACA requires all health plans sold on the individual and small...
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Your Employees Want Education
Only one-third of working adults rated their employer’s benefits education as excellent or very good in a recent survey. With open enrollments coming, how does your benefits education program measure up? The survey, conducted by insurance company Unum, also found that benefits education correlates to employee satisfaction. Among the employees who rated their benefits education...
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How to Avoid Wellness Program Pitfalls
In August, the EEOC filed its first lawsuit against an employer regarding a wellness program. In October, it filed another. Here’s what you need to know to avoid wellness program pitfalls. The first lawsuit, EEOC v. Orion Energy Systems, alleges that Orion’s wellness program violated Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Orion...
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Voluntary LTCI Fills the Long-Term Care Coverage Gap
November is long-term care awareness month. That makes it a good time to educate your employees on long-term care … and offer them coverage for this costly need. As the oldest boomers reach retirement age, now is the time for them to plan for their long-term care needs. According to the Centers for Medicare &...
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Better Employee Communication Could Improve Voluntary Benefits Satisfaction
Employees say they want more choice in their benefits programs. Employers have increased voluntary benefit offerings in response. But only 36 percent of employers are satisfied with employee participation in their voluntary benefit programs. What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate. Eighty percent of employees surveyed for MetLife’s annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends...
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The Benefits of Offering Voluntary Benefits
Voluntary benefits can do two things for your benefit program. For smaller employers, they are a way to provide a variety of benefits at no cost. For larger employers, they can enhance employer-provided benefits. What are voluntary benefits? Under a voluntary benefit program, the employer offers employees a menu of benefits; employees pay for the...
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Your ACA Reporting Requirements
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires certain employers to provide “minimum essential” health coverage to their full-time employees. It also requires them to make certain reports. What are your ACA reporting requirements? W-2 Reporting The ACA requires employers that provide health coverage to calculate and report the cost of that coverage on employees’ W-2 forms....
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Critical Illness Fills a Benefits Gap
Sales of critical illness insurance grew 90 percent (in premiums) between 2011 and 2012. Yes, 90 percent. Perhaps it’s time to consider adding critical illness insurance to your benefits portfolio. Critical illness plans have only been available in the U.S. since the mid-1990s. They were rather slow to take off at first, but the growth...
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What You Need to Know about ERISA
On Sept. 2, 1974, President Gerald Ford signed ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Since then, benefits managers have dreaded running afoul of this huge law. Does ERISA apply to your benefit programs? If so, what do you need to know? ERISA established standards for private sector pension and health benefit plans to increase...
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