On Thursday, June 17th , the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in a 7-2 ruling. In California v. Texas, the original plaintiffs argued that the reduction of the individual mandate penalty to $0.00 rendered...
One major repercussion of the COVID-19 pandemic is that employees are embracing the voluntary benefits their employers are offering them, but they'd like to see more choices and issues such as mental health and voluntary benefits have risen to the fore. The Hartford's...
As the labor market tightens and businesses struggle to attract new talent, many companies are starting to boost their employee benefit offerings, particularly voluntary benefits. But besides added benefit choices, what many employees want is relief from continually...
The IRS has set the maximum amounts employees can funnel into their health savings accounts and health reimbursement accounts (HRAs) for the 2022 policy year. The IRS updates these amounts every year to adjust for inflation in addition to minimum deductibles for...
As you will recall, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) includes a 100% COBRA subsidy for people who were laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the law, which took effect April 1, the Department of Labor was required to issue model notices that...
Group health plan insurers are expected to pay out $618 million in rebates to plan sponsors for the 2020 policy year after seeing use of health care services plummet during the COVID-19 pandemic. That's according to a Kaiser Family Foundation estimate in April, which...
With so many people having been relegated to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers are now wrestling with how to proceed as it starts to wane. Many companies are considering implementing hybrid, flextime work schedules after seeing success with...
Research has found that employers who offered their workers stand-alone vision benefits experienced $5.8 billion in cost savings in the aggregate over four years due to reduced health care costs, avoided productivity losses, and lower turnover rates. That’s because...
As the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel gets brighter, more health insurers are ceasing to offer cost-sharing waivers for COVID-19 treatment. After legislation was enacted in 2020 that required health insurance companies to cover COVID-19 tests and vaccines,...
One of the main recommendations for employees with 401(k) plans is that they should contribute at least enough to their plan every paycheck to ensure they receive the maximum they can in their employer's matching contributions. But a new study by Willis Towers Watson...