Tag: benefits

Secrets to making reference-based pricing work

In order for reference-based pricing to work, health plan sponsors should do it in a way that involves implementing best practices for cost analysis, claim repricing, plan design, patient advocacy (including balance billing protection when necessary), and member education. Ways to Make RBP Succeed Employers, administrators, brokers and courts have begun to realize that determining the value […]

Fiduciary Duties Are Myriad, So Safeguards Matter

Monitoring the performance of service providers, making required disclosures to participants and beneficiaries, keeping good records and filing reports with the government are just a few of the important functions a fiduciary must ensure are properly executed, an enforcement official at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration unit told a group of […]

Turnover Costs: What to Include

Of the many HR metrics we study, perhaps some of the most requested are turnover metrics. It’s important to know how much turnover we have so we can make estimates on how much this turnover is costing the organization and to take steps to reduce both the turnover and the associated costs. These costs have […]

Ask the Expert: Disability Insurance and Medical Expenses

Can you explain how our medical benefits work with disability insurance? When does medical insurance terminate for an employee who is not working due to a short or long term disability? Does disability insurance cover any of the employee’s medical expenses? (We are covered with a private disability insurance, not through SDI).

Freedom and Opportunities for Collaboration Are Cherished Benefits

A newly released survey from Jive Software, Inc. in Palo Alto, California, finds that seven out of ten (72%) employees want to use more technology in the workplace that enables them to work from anywhere. Furthermore, the same percentage state that the freedom to try new tools makes them more effective in their jobs, with […]

Court: Employers Can Condition Health Benefit on Wellness Participation

An employer may require its workers to participate in a wellness program in order to receive health insurance benefits, a federal district court has ruled, dismissing a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Granting summary judgment for the employer, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin said it disagreed […]

Decision in Same-sex Spouse Pension Case May Violate ERISA

FedEx Corp. may have violated ERISA by not awarding pension death benefits to the same-sex spouse of an employee who died one week before the U.S. Supreme Court ended bans on gay marriage, although the company reasonably interpreted its plan’s limitation of benefits to opposite-sex spouses before the 2013 High Court ruling, a federal district […]