BenefitsPRO Magazine-February 2014

Have got some (satisfaction)

compiled by Denis Storey and designed by Joe Schlue

Most workers are satisfied with the health benefits they have now and express little interest in changing the mix of benefits and wages offered by their employers.

Dental’s big shift

Nathan Solheim

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Acts 10 essential health benefits have given brokers and agents plenty to chew on during the laws implementation.

Health Care Abroad Israel

Amber May

Sometimes we lose perspective in the health care debate, so maybe it would help to look at how other countries have addressed health care delivery and funding.

Connecting with millennials about voluntary

Alison Daily

Its a new era for employee benefits.

Take a second Look

Amber May

Although millions of Americans use some form of corrective lenses to see, when employers break out their vision plans as an ancillary benefit, the rates at which employees sign up for and use the plans drops dramatically.

Exchange Pioneer

Kathryn Mayer

Alan Cohens Liazonand its Bright Choices exchange modelforeshadowed a wave of private exchanges as well as PPACAs public model.

Is the affair with the company match over?

Christopher Carosa

Well never know if St. Valentine wouldve loved 401(k)s, but we can be pretty sure hed have liked the idea of the company match.

HSA holders top 20 million

Kathryn Mayer

Consumer-driven and high-deductible health plans continue to rise, and now cover 28 percent of those with health insurance, according to a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Time to get back to work

Denis Storey

So much for easing back into the flow of things after a couple of weeks at home painting rainbows, playing Candy Land and drinking way too much tea.

What I’ve learned

Denis Storey

This month, we thought it might be fun to get some brokers to tell us what theyve learned off the record. Needless to say, it was a lot easier to get you guys to open up. Here are a few of our favorite responses.

Access drives Medicaid patients to ER

Dan Cook

People with private health insurance coverage have better access to primary care providers than do their counterparts who are covered by Medicaid and Medicare.

Voluntary stories

Marty Traynor

In his book Tell to Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story, Peter Guber writes about how motivating people to act in the way we want often depends on our ability to touch a chord through a story that illustrates our message.

I read my obituary

Brian Hicks

I stumbled across my obituary recently. Well, it wasnt mine exactly. Still, it was a little eerie reading about this other Brian Hicks, born in April and an avid reader and a writerjust like me.

The groupification challenge

Bonnie Brazzell and Gil Lowerre

Based on industry trends, Eastbridge coined the term groupification more than 15 years ago to describe the underlying direction of the voluntary industry.

Dental source list

Charlene Harris

The Swiss Effect

Peter Westerman

Switzerland is a prime example of a system very similar to that being implemented through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Actand the elements that differentiate the Swiss system from PPACA might point to where were headed.