Enrollment

Infographic

Infographic: Employees’ open-enrollment struggles

Emily Payne | August 16, 2018

What are the top trends benefits educators see when it comes to health care enrollment?

Commentary

Educating before enrolling

Marty Traynor | August 16, 2018

A key part of the open enrollment education and communication process is often overlooked until just before open enrollment, when it’s often too late.

News

Feds push states to offer cheaper off-exchange plans

Michelle Andrews, Kaiser Health News | August 15, 2018

Some analysts say they’re unsure if a new federal policy will make a difference since states have already implemented similar strategies.

Analysis

Half of employees spend 30 minutes or less reviewing benefits

Katie Kuehner-Hebert | August 15, 2018

A fair amount of workers say they feel stressed, confused or anxious when enrolling in their benefits.

Analysis

Hot voluntary products and platforms

Bonnie Brazzell and Nick Rockwell | August 14, 2018

When looking at voluntary sales by product platform, group product sales continued to dominate individual products.

Expert Opinion

Harnessing the power of sentiment analysis to streamline benefits

Armen Berjikly | August 10, 2018

Increasing the benefits available to your employees may sound like a smart move, but it’s crucial that businesses consider whether their benefits offerings actually meet their employees’ specific needs.

Expert Opinion

Taking the facts OUT of benefits communications

Dan Johnson | August 07, 2018

When it comes to enrollment, employees are responding and acting based more on emotional cues than factual ones.

Q&A

Employees still searching for connection, empowerment

Dan Cook | August 07, 2018

Meredith Ryan-Reid, senior vice president for group benefits at MetLife, shares some insights into employee benefits.

Life follows employees to work every day – with Anna Mittag

David Saltzman | August 06, 2018

In the 40s, we hired hands. In the 80s, we hired hearts and minds. Today, we hire every bit of every employee — and that includes issues they deal…

Investigation

Inside Google's invisible workforce

Mark Bergen and Josh Eidelson | August 01, 2018

Earlier this year, the number of contractors outnumbered direct employees for the first time in Google’s 20-year history,

News

Uber drivers win victory on unemployment insurance

Marlene Satter | July 23, 2018

A New York State labor review board has ruled that three former Uber drivers were employees when it came to the issue of unemployment insurance.

Best Practices

Using AI for eligibility file management

Rick Ramos | July 18, 2018

Eligibility files are a source of frustration for HR departments and brokers, but new AI tools can help alleviate some of the headache.

Best Practices

How data analytics can help you reposition benefits offerings

Scott Evans | July 17, 2018

Data analytics are beginning to be used in innovative ways that can make your job as a benefits broker easier.

Is the largest enrollment firm hiding in plain sight?

Eric Silverman | July 13, 2018

Most 1099 contractors mistakenly believe they are beholden to one insurance carrier for enhanced benefit enrollment services.

Analysis

Agents, brokers abandoning ACA exchanges

Marlene Satter | July 06, 2018

In 2018, and brokers and agents accounted for 42 percent of overall enrollment in federal platform exchanges.

Expert Opinion

3 ways millennials and Gen Z will put pressure on benefit costs

Michael Showalter | July 06, 2018

As these generations make up a greater percentage of the workforce, employers will need to re-evaluate their health and employee benefits offerings.

Analysis

ACA enrollment declines greatest among non-subsidized plans

Marlene Satter | July 05, 2018

Between 2016 and 2017, about a million Americans dropped coverage, likely put off by 20-percent-plus premium hikes.

Analysis

Millennials drive interest in long-term care benefits

Allison Bell | July 04, 2018

Carriers may be afraid to sell it, but workers seem to like it almost as much as life insurance.

Best Practices

A tipping point for LGBT policies in the workplace

Alan Goforth | July 03, 2018

Evolving policies and societal attitudes about LGBT benefits create opportunities for brokers.

Expert Opinion

3 ways to reshape how you communicate about benefits with millennials

Mike Dahlinger and Cy Moser | June 27, 2018

When you’re talking about benefits to millennials, things should be a little different.

ACA navigator groups left hanging on grants

Marlene Satter | June 21, 2018

The groups that help people sign up for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act are left wondering when or if they will get funding from the federal government to continue their work this year.

Podcast

Today’s TPAs must deliver much more – with Jeff Bernhard

David Saltzman | June 12, 2018

In today’s fast-paced and rapidly growing self-funding world, a TPA has to be flexible, nimble and multi-faceted.

Analysis

How ACA 'dine and dashers' affect the market

Jack Craver | June 06, 2018

People who sign up for insurance plans and then drop coverage after their health care needs are satisfied leave the remaining insured holding the bill.

Analysis

The multi-generational workforce is becoming increasingly separated

Marlene Satter | May 31, 2018

The percentage of the workforce aged 55 and older is increasing, but Millennials and Gen Z are also increasing in number.

Expert Opinion

Your employees want their financial benefits to be more personal

Chris Whitlow | May 25, 2018

The way employees interact with their jobs, as well as their workplace benefits, is no longer limited to working hours or open enrollment season.

Expert Opinion

Recommendation tools drive adoption of HDHPs, HSAs

Alan Silver | May 23, 2018

Employers who wish to steer more employees to HDHPs will be well served by offering educational resources explaining how these plans work to help employees fully assess their options.

5 way brokers can maximize voluntary benefits portfolios

Denise Szott | May 22, 2018

To meet increasing demands and save themselves time and effort in expanding a voluntary portfolio, brokers should follow these five guidelines.

Expert Opinion

Why TPAs need to embrace virtual assistants

Rick Ramos | May 16, 2018

A chat bot is perfectly equipped for a range of low-level customer service functions, such as confirming and gathering information.

Expert Opinion

Addressing the millennial engagement epidemic

Lorna Borenstein | May 15, 2018

Half of your workforce is only feeling engaged with your company one third of the time. What are you doing about it?

Best Practices

3 ways to better manage benefits for high-turnover employers

Sam Odishoo | May 10, 2018

Some companies hire and fire 40 people a week. They need benefits, too.

News

Full benefits for contract workers? One company says yes.

Marlene Satter | April 27, 2018

SurveyMonkey responded to concerns from its full-time employees that it hasn’t been doing enough for its contract workers by instituting benefits offerings for all contractors at its San Mateo headquarters.

Be coachable: how brokers can stay out of their own way

Eric Silverman | April 25, 2018

Trust the experts to know how to overcome objections and close the sale.

Analysis

What are the biggest challenges of benefits engagement?

Katie Kuehner-Hebert | April 12, 2018

“The more the merrier” does not always apply when it comes to benefits, especially if it results in confusion and low employee engagement.

News

3 provisions in the latest ACA parameters that agents and brokers should know

Allison Bell | April 12, 2018

CMS has now completed work on a 523-page ACA "benefit and payment parameters" package. Here are three things to know.

News

Georgia bill aims to protect broker commissions

Marlene Satter | April 09, 2018

The law would also allow insurers to stop paying commissions for individual coverage sold during an ACA special enrollment period.

News

Medicare Advantage payments to see 3.4 percent increase next year

Zachary Tracer | April 03, 2018

Including changes based on how sick or healthy people are, the total increase in payments to insurers is estimated to be about 6.5 percent, on average,

Research

Recommendation tools make a big impact on employees' benefit selection

Marlene Satter | March 15, 2018

Employees are more likely to purchase products recommended to them than those who bypass the recommendation engine and shop on their own.

News

New personas help HealthCare.gov team explain enrollment scenarios

Allison Bell | March 13, 2018

HealthCare.gov managers are warning agents against enrollment fraud using hypothetical characters and situations.

Research

Generational differences in benefit preferences

Emily Payne | March 06, 2018

When it comes to voluntary benefits, millennials have different priorities than Gen Xers and Boomers.

Analysis

HDHP adoption rate lower than expected

Marlene Satter | March 06, 2018

While employers had hoped HDHPs would prove popular with employees and help to shift health care costs to workers, employees aren’t buying into it.

Editor's Letter News

Welcome to the newly redesigned BenefitsPRO website

Paul Wilson | February 28, 2018

Take a look at our newly redesigned BenefitsPRO.com website. We're excited about it and hope you will be too.

Analysis

Premiums, uninsured rate going up under Trump admin ACA changes

Jack Craver | February 27, 2018

Recent revisions to the Affordable Care Act are going to make health insurance more expensive for those purchasing plans through the ACA exchange, according to a study by the Urban Institute.

Premiums, uninsured rate going up under Trump admin ACA changes

Jack Craver | February 27, 2018

Recent revisions to the Affordable Care Act are going to make health insurance more expensive for those purchasing plans through the ACA exchange, according to a study by the Urban Institute.

Best Practices

3 must-have cost-saving services for employees

Kim Buckey | February 26, 2018

To help keep employee out-of-pocket spending low and reduce company health care expenditures, employers need to provide their people with the tools and resources needed to make informed decisions.

Commentary

A new way to wreck Obamacare

The Bloomberg Editors | February 26, 2018

The Trump administration's latest strike on the Affordable Care Act is an impressive combination of bad policy and bad faith.

How to have an uncomfortable conversation with your client

Piyush Patel | February 22, 2018

When a client's behavior is cause for an uncomfortable conversation, it shouldn't be a surprise when it takes place.

What can TPAs do for an employer's medical costs?

Katie Kuehner-Hebert | February 21, 2018

Instead of juggling all of the various parties within the workers compensation world, employers might be better off working with a third-party administrator, according to a new whitepaper.

The insurance broker's list of banned words

BenefitsPro Editors | February 20, 2018

We asked our audience, what word or phrase would you like to see eliminated from the industry, and why?

The rise of the insurance chatbot

Fazi Zand | February 16, 2018

So ascendant is the humble chatbot that some retail industry pundits are describing 2018 as the year of AI and voice technology.

Sharing success... and failure

Kevin Trokey | February 15, 2018

For the first time in I don't know how long, benefit brokers and advisors are utilizing some truly exciting ideas and strategies on behalf of their clients