Kaiser Health News has released an article by Michelle Andrews, discussing the trend of self-funding among smaller organizations. "Instead of buying a health insurance policy to cover their workers, a growing number of small and midsized companies are opting to pay their employees’ medical claims directly."
Image: SHRM
Stephen Miller writes for the Society of Human Resources Management, “On July 1, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published an interim final rule with a list of increased penalty amounts for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and other employee benefit and pay statutes.
Photo: BenefitsPro
Rebecca Greenfield from Bloomberg writes for Benefits Pro about a strange new contradiction in the workplace - employee satisfaction is at its highest level in 10 years, yet workers report low satisfaction with their benefits, compensation, time off, and "respectful treatment of employees" at work, according to an annual survey of 600 employees by the Society for Human Resource Management.
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Jack Craver writes for Benefits Pro about how a recent study by Alegeus demonstrates the stress and overwhelm many consumers feel when faced with healthcare decisions. Topping the list are how to plan for out-of-pocket costs (2/3rds of respondants) and choosing a benefits plan (55%).
Benjamin D. Sommers takes a look at why the annual Spring panic around premium increases for ACA marketplace plans is “overblown.” The fact that most increases will be reduced before open enrollment and that most consumers received premium tax credits are both cited as reasons the initial proposed increases are not a big deal.
Read the full article on The New England Journal of Medicine.
Bob Herman writes for Modern Healthcare, “The U.S. healthcare system spent $3.2 trillion in 2015, or almost $10,000 for every person, according to the latest federal projections."
Dan Mangan recently wrote about Obamacare for CNBC, stating that "There were no significant differences in the percentages of adults getting or being offered health insurance through an employer."
Dave Chase advocates for CEOs to question where health plan documents that their organization operates under come from – internally or from the health plan carriers themselves?
A TransUnion Healthcare study has found more evidence that employees are bearing the brunt of healthcare costs in the form of deductibles and OOP maximums, with a 13 percent rise in both between 2014-2015.
"With health care costs jumping in 2016, Americans should prepare for the unexpected," writes Lucy Mueller for Forbes.
