Insurance

Generics, mail delivery cut drug benefit costs

04/25/2011

Pennsylvania-based 84 Lumber has cut its prescription benefit costs—for the company and for employees—by offering incentives to workers who use generic medicine and have it delivered via mail to their homes. Total plan costs dropped 13% from the prior year as the use of a home delivery service increased 83.4%.

Baltimore salon styles benefits rare in industry

04/21/2011

At most hair salons, stylists are on their own when it comes to time off and health benefits. But the owners of Studio 921 Salon & Day Spa in Baltimore are different, offering one paid week of annual leave to employees who have worked a year, a 401(k) plan with a 3% match and group health insurance.

Making the clear-cut case for adding vision care benefits

04/20/2011

Poor vision and eye disease cost U.S. businesses more than $8 billion a year in lost productivity, and even more in direct health care costs. Plus, there is a significant link between vision and overall health. Here are five practical reasons to add vision benefits to your menu of health-related benefits:

Remind employees: They must continue to pay health insurance premiums while on FMLA

04/15/2011

Employees out on unpaid FMLA leave are still entitled to health insurance benefits if they were covered before going out on leave. However, if the employee was required to pay part of the premium before taking leave, that obligation continues.

Health care reform: Will employers keep offering coverage?

04/12/2011

While some politicians continue to call for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act health care reform law, employers (and HR pros) must proceed as if that won’t happen, says a noted health policy expert. Will companies take advantage of a relative lull in reform implementation to plan ahead? Or will they decide to scrap health benefits, banking on reform to insure their employees?

37 ways to lower your health care costs

03/22/2011

Average employer-paid health benefit costs have increased about 6% per year for the last five years. At least in the short term, the year-old health care reform law may make the problem even worse. All the more reason to act now to get your health care costs under control. One of the most effective ways: conducting a dependent audit to make sure the people you’re covering are actually eligible for insurance benefits.

Medicare reporting rules delayed until 2012

03/15/2011

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently postponed until next year a requirement that certain partially self-insured employers must report any one-time or lump-sum payments to persons entitled to Medicare benefits.

Can we require employee to use Medicare?

03/04/2011

Q. We have an older employee who is now eligible for Medicare. Can we require him to take Medicare coverage instead of our health plan?

Health law repeal dies in Senate; now look for business groups to seek piecemeal changes

03/02/2011

Although the House of Representatives passed legislation in January repealing President Obama’s health care reform law, the bill arrived DOA in the Senate. Now look for opponents to push piecemeal changes to the law. Where do businesses want them to start?

AK Steel to pay $175 million for Butler retirees’ health care

02/28/2011

AK Steel has settled a lawsuit brought by former employees of its Butler Works operation north of Pittsburgh after the company announced it would cut some retirement health benefits and begin charging premiums for others.