Employers slow to act on health reform
Even though employers expect the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down at least some of the 2010 health reform law later this month, few are actually doing any contingency planning.
Employee Benefits
Articles
WellPoint: Consumers will control health insurance
The future of health insurance is lower profit margins and greater consumer control. WellPoint Inc. just bet $900 million on it.
Area company rolls out inventive wellness benefit
EMC Precision Machining in Sheridan will give each of its 93 employees a new bicycle Friday for exceeding company cost-cutting goals.
Price hikes offset slower health care use
Newly available data from private health insurance plans show that price hikes by hospitals, doctors and drug companies have kept employer spending rising recently even as their employees and dependents have moderated their consumption of health care services.
Companies adopting unlimited time-off policies
Proponents of such policies say they are the future of work—even as they acknowledge that it may take a generation for them to be widely accepted. Some workers, however, are fearful.
Q&A
Sam Gibbs is president of eHealth Government Solutions, part of California-based eHealthInsurance Services Inc. The company, founded in 1997, pioneered the sale of health insurance over the Internet. Gibbs spoke about the options for public and private health insurance exchanges, including the state-based exchanges mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
FirstPerson buys FlashPoint HR unit
Indianapolis-based benefits brokerage FirstPerson acquired the small-employer human resource division of Indianapolis-based consulting firm FlashPoint last week in a bid to provide a wider array of services to small businesses.
COLVIN: Get ready for a perfect storm in Worker’s Compensation
Rates are set to rise as insurers increasingly note the link between older workers’ health and productivity.
Gallagher sees more broker mergers coming
The Carmel office of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. just made its sixth acquisition in five years, and it expects looming changes to tax and health laws to produce even more chances to snap up benefits brokers this year.
Brokers’ hopes dashed by feds
The Obama administration on Friday let stand an earlier rule that said brokers’ fees will have to count toward a 15-percent to 20-percent cap on administrative expenses placed on insurance plans by the 2010 health overhaul.
Brokers get hope on commissions
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners passed a resolution Nov. 22 that urges Congress and the Obama administration to exclude benefits brokers’ commissions from the new requirement that insurers spend only 15 percent to 20 percent of the premiums they collect on administration and profits.
Few employers say they’ll drop health coverage
Few employers in Indiana say they’re likely to drop health benefits after state insurance exchanges are formed in 2014, according to a new survey by the health benefits firm Mercer.
IU embraces medical homes to cut costs
Indiana University announced a partnership with the Indianapolis-based IU Health hospital system that will launch four primary care clinics in Bloomington, which can be visited for no extra charge by those enrolled in IU’s health plans.
Anderson’s GM culture, poor health blamed for high medical costs
Residents of the Anderson area—when they paid with health insurance provided by an employer—spent 76 percent more on health care in 2009 than the average American with employer health insurance, highest among all metropolitan areas in the nation.
Are benefits the key to happy employees?
Employee retention will be a challenge as the economy recovers—and that could hit smaller firms especially hard.
WellPoint insures two-thirds of Hoosier workers
Indianapolis-based WellPoint claimed 63 percent of all employees covered by small-group employers and 66 percent of the workers at large-group employers, according to Seattle-based actuarial firm Milliman Inc.
UPDATE: Medco acquisition could lead to local consolidation
It’s not yet clear how Express Scripts Inc.’s $29.1 billion acquisition of rival Medco Health Solutions will affect the companies’ central Indiana operations—or their 800-plus employees at two facilities here.
More employers put faith in health savings accounts
Sizable Indianapolis companies like the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, consumer-ratings service Angie’s List, Marsh and Wilhelm Construction have switched to consumer-directed health plans. There’s some evidence nationally that the trend is set to accelerate.
Employers face messy decision to drop health insurance
Companies that drop insurance coverage could, without spending any more money than they are now, give workers an 11-percent raise or else help them save as much as $2,000 per year buying health coverage in one of the exchanges, IBJ calculations show.
VCs: Health benefits will be defined contribution
Increasing government involvement in the health insurance market will have the counter-intuitive effect of making the industry more consumer-driven, concludes a new report from a health care venture-capital firm.