News

• Walgreen to buy parts of BioScrip

  By Kathryn Mayer  |  February 3, 2012

  Walgreen Co. has agreed to buy assets of BioScrip’s specialty and mail service pharmacy businesses for $225 million.

• Retirement challenges knock Principal Financial's earnings

  By BenefitsPro staff  |  February 3, 2012

  Principal Financial Group Inc. said its fourth-quarter net income dipped 18 percent as its retirement business continued to face challenges amid the slow economic recovery.

• Critics pan NH bill creating new pension system

  By Norma Love  |  February 3, 2012

  State Sen. Fenton Groen's bill to create a defined contribution plan for workers could dilute pensions that police and firefighters received.

• Blue Cross won't bid on Medicaid, stirring fears

  By JOHN HANNA, Associated Press  |  February 3, 2012

  Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's efforts to overhaul Medicaid hit a rough spot Thursday after the state's largest health insurance company decided not to bid on a contract to help manage the program, leaving some lawmakers and advocates increasingly uneasy.

• Health Net 4Q profit drops on military revenue

  By Associated Press  |  February 3, 2012

  Insurer Health Net Inc. said Friday its profit decreased 25 percent in the fourth quarter under new terms of a contract with the U.S. military's TriCare health program.

• How to reduce stress—and the flu

  By Kathryn Mayer  |  February 3, 2012

  With flu season in full swing, Health Net, Inc. is working to increase awareness of not only standard flu-fighting basics such as habitual hand washing, but also of the strong connection between stress levels and susceptibility to respiratory infections, including flu.

• Annuities make the move into retirement plans

  By Liz Festa, Andy Stonehouse  |  February 3, 2012

  Retirement planning could be given a whole new angle with the Obama Administration's endorsement of the use of annuities in defined benefit plans.

• Contraception mandate outrages religious groups

  By Rachel Zoll  |  February 3, 2012

  The Obama administration's decision requiring church-affiliated employers to cover birth control was bound to cause an uproar among Roman Catholics and members of other faiths, no matter their beliefs on contraception.

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  Unemployment sinks to 8.3 pct.

  By Christopher S. Rugaber  |  February 3, 2012

  In the most impressive surge for the job market since early last year, the United States added 243,000 jobs in January, far more than economists expected. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent, the lowest in three years.

• Pension agency briefs House panel on finances, retirement challenges

  By BenefitsPro staff  |  February 2, 2012

  PBGC director Josh Gotbaum addressed the agency's $26 billion coverage gap, asking for changes to set premiums based on the risk of the insured.