Bush Proposes New HSA Tax Breaks
Arguing that a consumer-directed approach to health care has the potential for providing more Americans with medical insurance while reining in rapidly escalating costs, President George W. Bush has called for enhancing tax incentives associated with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and other types of consumer-directed plans. Among other proposals, Bush advocates raising the limit on tax-deductible contributions to HSAs and creating new deductions and tax credits for the purchase of individual health insurance policies.

Employee Satisfaction With Benefits Correlated To Job Satisfaction
Workers who are happy with their benefit packages are also likely to express satisfaction with their jobs and loyalty to their employers, according to an annual survey on employee benefits trends conducted by MetLife. Moreover, many workers place a high value on workplace relationships and work/life balance when deciding whether to change jobs, the study found.

Health Management Programs May Cut Health Care Costs
Employers looking to lower their health care expenditures while improving the health of their employees should consider implementing a ?population health management? program, Bruce Hochstadt, M.D. and Patricia Curran, R.N. recommended in a two-part paper published by Buck Consultants.

Cancer Leading Cause Of Long-Term Absence From Work
More employees filed long-termdisability claims for cancer than forany other illness in 2005, according toan annual report on disability trendsreleased by insurance providerUnumProvident. Cancer was theleading cause of long-term absencesfrom work for the fifth year in a row,the report said, with breast cancermaking up nearly a quarter of allcancer claims.

Congress HoldsHearings OnHealth Care Costs
Two congressional committees heldhearings related to the rising cost ofhealth care in March. The Senate FinanceCommittee invited testimony on issuessurrounding federal health care tax policy,and the House Energy and CommerceCommittee’s Subcommittee on Healthconsidered proposals on improvinghealth care price transparency.

Small BusinessHealth Plans BillPasses SenateCommittee
In a move that could mark the end ofa long-running stalemate, the Senate Health,Education, Labor and Pensions Committeevoted on March 15 to allow business andtrade associations to join together acrossstate lines to offer affordable healthinsurance to their employees.

High Costs Discourage Participation In Disease Management Programs
When copayments are levied for participation in disease management programs, patients may underuse recommended services, thereby decreasing the effectiveness of these programs, according to a study published in the March issue of the American Journalof Managed Care.

Mental Health Benefits Do Not Add To Cost Of Health Insurance
Expanding mental health and substance abuse insurance benefits may be possible without increasing the overall cost of employer-provided health insurance, according to a study published in the March 30, 2006 issue of The New EnglandJournalof Medicine.

Employers Should Encourage Purchase Of Disability Insurance
Because most workers underestimate their chances of becoming disabled, employers should consider sponsoring group disability insurance plans and do more to educate their employees about the need for income protection, a study by The Hartford Financial Services Group recommended.

Thinking Out Of The Cube: Moving Toward A Mobile Workforce
Until recently, encouraging significant numbers of employees to telecommute did not make good business sense for many employers. That was before the arrival of affordable communication technologies...

Workers Increasingly Decline Employer-Provided Health Benefits
Growing numbers of workers are declining an employer?s offer of health insurance largely because they cannot afford to pay their share of premiums, according to a study conducted for the Robert Wood Foundation by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota.

U.S. Provides Few Guaranteed Benefits To Working Families
Compared with other developed countries, the U.S. relies disproportionately on employers to provide essential benefits to working families and does little to protect the employment rights of younger people, according to a report released by the Project on Global Working Families.

Employers Charged More For Health Care Due To Low Medicare And Medicaid Payments
Medical providers levy higher charges on private insurers to compensate for low Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, adding a cost burden of more than $900 per private family plan per year...

Small Employers With Poor Benefits Risk Losing Employees
Employees of small companies are far more likely to express dissatisfaction with their employer-provided benefits than workers at larger companies, which could make it difficult for small businesses to retain valued employees, according to MetLife?s annual Employee Benefits Benchmarking Report...

Government Panel Advocates Basic Universal Health Care
In an interim report released in June, a committee set up by Congress to gauge public opinion on the current health care system and formulate a plan for achieving reform advocated providing basic universal health care coverage for all Americans by 2012...

Setting Up A Tax-Advantaged Commuter Benefits Program
For a relatively small investment, employers can help employees reduce their commuting costs while providing them with additional options for traveling to work by implementing a tax-advantaged commuter benefits program...

Fewer Americans Planning For Long-Term Care
Americans are less concerned about the financial impact of long-term care (LTC) costs than they were roughly a decade ago, and they are less likely to plan for the possibility that they may require care, according to a survey..

Adult Care Responsibilities Costly for Employers
Employees with adult caregiving responsibilities may be frequently absent from work or even leave their jobs, resulting in a productivity loss for employers that could be as high as $33.6 billion a year, according to a Metlife Mature Market Institute study...

House Committee Approves HSA Reform Legislation
The House Ways and Means Com-mittee approved in September the Health Opportunity Patient Empower-ment Act of 2006 (H.R. 6134), a measure that would raise the limit on employee and employer contributions to tax-advantaged health savings accounts (HSAs), allow tax-free rollovers from other tax-advantaged savings accounts to HSAs, and provide incentives for employees to enroll in HSAs...

More Women Buy Supplemental Insurance
Purchasers of supplemental insurance products, such as disability and critical illness policies, are overwhelmingly female and middle-aged, according to a study by disability insurance provider UnumProvident..

Employees Worry About Health Benefit Reductions
Faced with rapidly escalating medical costs and increasingly complex insurance plans, most employees are concerned about health care affordability and reduc-tions in health benefits; furthermore, they want assistance from their employers in managing health care, according to two recently published surveys...

Wal-Mart?s $4 Generic Drug Program Could Force Lower Prices
The recent rollout by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of a discount generic pre-scription drug program appears to be placing pressure on drugstores and other retailers to lower generic drug prices...

Automatic 401(k)Enrollment Not A Panacea For Low Savings Rates
Automatically enrolling employees in 401(k) plans is effective in increasing over-all participation rates, but many enrolled workers will still fail to save adequately for retirement unless 401(k) sponsors improve default contribution rates...

Rising Costs Fuel Discontent With Health Care System
Americans are increasingly worried about the impact of health care costs on their financial well-being, and they believe steps should be taken to slow the rising cost of medical care, according to an an-nual survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)...

Worker-Friendly Reforms Anticipated As Democrats Take Control Of Congress
As the Democrats take control of both houses of Congress, the minimum wage, health care policy, and tax issues are among their top legis-lative priorities...

Employers Support Measures To Provide Health Care Coverage
U.S. employers of all sizes recognize the value of offering health care bene-fits in attracting and retaining workers; however, smaller employers would like coverage to become more affordable, and larger employers want improvements in quality and reductions in administrative costs...

Health Insurers Urge Congress To Extend Coverage To The Uninsured
With the goal of providing health care coverage for all children within three years and most adults within a decade, the insurance industry group America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) has proposed anexpansion of public health insurance pro-grams and federal subsidies for the purchase of private coverage...

Employers Can Do More To Help Employees Quit Smoking
Employers must do more than simply ban smoking from the workplace if they want employees to quit the habit for good, the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) concluded in a recently released study of employers' approaches to smoking cessation....

Universal Health Care Plan Proposed In Senate
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has unveiled an ambitious plan to provide universal health care coverage for all Americans by requiring individuals to sign up for private insurance equal in quality to the coverage currently available to U.S. Congress members and federal workers...

Parents' Concerns About After-School Care Lower Job Productivity
Working moms and dads are less productive on the job when they are worried about what their children are doing in the after-school hours, according to a report by nonprofit research and advisory organization Catalyst...

President Bush Proposes Changes In Health Insurance Taxation
In his State of the Union address delivered on January 23, President George W. Bush proposed limiting the tax deductibility of employer-sponsored health care benefits, while providing a new tax break for Americans who purchase medical insurance on the individual market...

Loss Of Financial Safety Net Worries Workers
Financial stress is increasing among Americans as responsibility for funding retirement and health care shifts from employers and the government to individual workers and their families, according to a study commissioned by MetLife...

Governor Announces $12 Billion Plan To Provide Universal Health Care To Californians
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California has unveiled an ambitious plan to provide health insurance to all 36 million residents of the state, including 6.5 million people who are currently uninsured...

Working Parents Appreciate Emergency Backup Daycare Benefits
More than half of working parents scramble to arrange emergency care for their sick children up to four times a year, and nearly one-third need backup care up to eight times a year, according to a study by employee benefits firm ComPsych...

Older Workers Value The FMLA
A majority of workers age 50 and older covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) have taken time off from work to deal with a personal or family medical crisis, and most older workers consider the FMLA to be relevant to their own lives, a study published by AARP concluded...

Plan Design Can Improve 401(k) Savings Rates
By making relatively minor and inexpensive changes to the design of defined contribution retirement plans, employers can significantly improve participation and savings rates among employees, according to a recently published study on the behavioral economics of retirement savings habits...

Workers Remain Confident About Retirement, But Are They Ready?
Today's workers will experience a retirement different in many ways from the post-work years of past generations. While most Americans realize this, many are not adjusting their planning strategies, according to the 2007 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), sponsored by the nonpartisan Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) and survey research firm Matthew Greenwald & Associates ...

Couples' Financial Priorities Shift With Age And Income
When talking about money, older and wealthier couples tend to discuss strategies for managing their assets during retirement, while younger and less affluent couples talk more about how they are spending or saving their current income, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive for the Wall Street Journal Online ...

Younger Workers Lack Awareness Of Tax-Advantaged Savings Opportunities
Employees between the ages of 18 and 24 are less likely than older workers to participate in tax-advantaged retirement and health savings plans, but they are more likely than their older colleagues to fault their employers for failing to educate them about taxes, according to a survey conducted by online tax preparation service CCH CompleteTax...

Long-Term Care Crisis Looms For Baby Boomers And Their Parents
Many members of the baby-boom generation are not preparing adequately for their own potential long-term care requirements or the needs of their elderly parents, according to two recently published research reports...

Employer Interest In Wellness Programs Grows
Recognizing that programs designed to help employees manage their health more effectively can boost productivity and lower health care benefit costs, many employers are looking to expand their companies’ wellness initiatives...

Current Health Care System Hinders Price Transparency
Medical insurers, providers, and state and federal agencies are increasingly making health care price information available to the general public or to members of specific health plans, according to a recently released report...

Americans Support A Wide Range Of Health Coverage Options
With health care costs rising, around half of Americans are worried that their families will soon be unable to afford medical insurance or that their employers will make sharp cuts in their health care benefits, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive for the Wall Street Journal Online’s Health Industry Edition...

Workers Need Support In Using Consumer-Driven Health Plans
Many employees who have moved from traditional health plans to consumer-directed account-based health plans (ABHPs) are dissatisfied with their choice, largely because they are not fully aware of how to maximize the tax advantages and savings features of these accounts, according to a survey by professional services firm Towers Perrin...

Health Care Costs More Burdensome For Women
Even women who have health insurance often do not obtain the care they need and struggle to pay medical bills, according to a joint report by nonprofit advocacy groups the Commonwealth Fund and the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC)...

Health Care Cost Shifting Creates False Economy
Shifting prescription drug and other medical costs to employees is an ineffective means of cutting health care expenditures, and it often discourages employees from seeking treatment essential to health-related productivity, two recently published reports have asserted...

Workers And Employers Split On FMLA
Following a request for comments about the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), the Employment Standards Administration/Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released a report summarizing some of the positive and negative experiences workers and employers have had with the law...

Health Plan Terminology Confuses Many Workers
The survey of nearly 2,100 participants in employer-sponsored health care plans found that 43% of workers are uncertain about what treatments and services their health care plan covers. When asked if they would feel comfortable explaining specific terms relating to health care coverage to a friend or co-worker, 49% of respondents told researchers they are familiar with the term ?co-pay;? 46%, with ?deductible;? 36%, with ?flexible spending account;? and 35%, with ?out-of-pocket maximum.? Fewer than one-third of respondents said they would be able to define the terms ?lifetime maximum,? ?health savings account,? ?coinsurance,? ?formulary,? or ?center of excellence?...

Benefits Strategies Must Adapt To Changes In The Workforce
Faced with an array of challenges, including escalating health care costs, an aging workforce, and mounting demand for better work-life balance among employees of all ages, employers should develop benefit strategies and educational tools that will enable them to remain competitive over time, a study on employee benefits trends released by insurance provider Unum and research firm LIMRA International recommended...

Half Of Americans Lack Emergency Savings
Fewer than half of Americans have saved the recommended three months’ living expenses to shield them in emergencies, and women are less likely to have a rainy day fund than men, according to a poll conducted by financial website Bankrate.com. ...

Working Mothers Increasingly Prefer Part-Time To Full-Time Jobs
While most women with preschool and school-age children want to remain in the workforce, the percentage of mothers who prefer full-time work to part-time positions has declined noticeably over the past decade, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. ...

Benefit Cost Increases Outpaced Wage Inflation In Second Quarter
Total compensation costs for U.S. civilian workers rose 0.9% between March and June 2007, with benefit costs climbing 1.3% and wages and salaries increasing 0.8%, according to the most recent Employment Cost Index report released by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)......

Women More Positive About Employers' Work/Life Balance Programs
The perception among women of employers’ efforts to help workers balance their personal and professional lives tends to be more positive than that of men, with the gender gap being especially large among employees of smaller and moderately large companies...

Health Care Among Top Issues For Independent Voters
As the 2008 presidential election approaches, Americans who are not aligned with either the Democrats or the Republicans are increasingly citing health care as one of the leading issues likely to influence their voting decisions...

Employees Place High Value On Workplace Health Care Benefits As Costs Escalate
Amid growing concerns about the rising cost of health care and the potential barriers to obtaining insurance coverage, workers with access to employment-based health plans appear to value medical benefits above the actual dollar amount that employers contribute to the plans, an annual survey on health confidence conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) revealed.

401(k) Plan Sponsors Adding Automated Features
As the trend among employers toward automatically enrolling employees in 401(k) plans gathers momentum, many retirement plan sponsors are also adopting additional automated features designed to help workers prepare more effectively for retirement, a study released by human resources consultancy Hewitt Associates concluded.

Paying For Testing In Advance Encourages Preventive Care
A health care plan in which members pay in advance for preventive tests may be more effective in encouraging positive behavior than standard health care plans or plans that pay the insured for attending screenings, according to researchers Dan Ariely and Janet Schwartz of Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Studies.

Cost Of Providing Workers Compensation Benefits Declining
Relative to wages, payments made by U.S. employers for medical care and cash benefits for workers disabled due to workplace injuries or diseases appear to be declining, according to a study of trends in workers compensation benefits released by the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), a nonprofit organization that conducts research on social insurance.

Paid Time Off Banks Can Reduce Unscheduled Absences
While a growing body of evidence suggests that paid time off (PTO) programs can help to reduce the number of unscheduled employee absences, many employers are reluctant to switch from traditional time off (TTO) benefits to a PTO model, according to a survey conducted by the Alexander Hamilton Institute (AHI), an employment law consultancy.

Employers Making Progress In Managing Health Care Costs
Companies that make sustained and comprehensive efforts to better manage the delivery of health care benefits are seeing impressive results when it comes to controlling costs, as indicated by the results of the 2008 “Health Care Cost Survey” conducted by human resources consultancy Towers Perrin.

Federal Rule Allows Employers To Cut Health Care Benefits For Older Retirees
The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a final rule on December 26, 2007 that wouldallow employers to continue what it calls the longstanding and common practice of providing more generous health care benefits to younger retirees than to retirees 65 and older who qualify for Medicare, without violating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).

Cafeteria Plans Provide Tax Savings And Flexibility
Section 125 “cafeteria plans” can help business owners and employees alike trimconsiderable sums from their tax bills. Under Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code, workers are permitted to withhold a portion of their pre-tax salaries to pay for premium contributions to employer-sponsored insurance plans and to cover qualifying unreimbursed medical and depen-dent care expenses.

401(k) Reform Needed To Boost Retirement Savings
An examination of the experiences of other countries, especially Australia, may prove useful for U.S. policymakers as they consider ways to improve retirement savings rates among American workers, a white paper released by the nonprofit Retirement Solutions Foundation has suggested.

Eldercare Programs Can Improve Productivity
Companies that have corporate eldercare programs in place to assist employees in managing their care responsibilities for older family members have seen an improvement in engagement levels among these workers, according to a study released by work/life benefits consultancy, LifeCare Inc.

Companies Not Doing Enough To Ease Workplace Stress
 Despite the fact that stress is the most frequently cited reason among U.S. workers for quitting a job, most employers fail to acknowledge the link between employee stress levels and business performance, and relatively few take action to reduce stress in the workplace, a report published by human resources consultancy Watson Wyatt has warned.

Lack Of Health Insurance Leads To Late Cancer Diagnosis
 While cancer sufferers in the United States without health insurance are usually able to get treatment eventually, they are significantly more likely than those with private insurance to receive their cancer diagnosis at a more advanced stage of the disease, according to an article by researchers from the American Cancer Society (ACS) that appeared in the March issue of the medical journal The Lancet Oncology.

Bringing Mom Back On The Job After Having A Baby
 Losing experienced, hardworking employees can be costly for your business. So when one of your valued employees announces she is pregnant, do more than just congratulate her?think about ways to encourage her to return to work once the baby is born.

Cost Of Prescription Drugs Worries Many Americans
 While Americans generally appreciate the potential benefi ts of taking prescription drugs, a majority believe prescription medicines are too expensive, and four in ten have had problems paying for drugs prescribed for themselves or for family members, according to a poll conducted by USA Today, together with the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Employers Find Group Life Insurance A Key Benefit
 Imagine one of your employees passes away unexpectedly. Just think of the emotional and fi nancial transition his or her family would face. You can see why group life insurance is such a valued benefi t for the spouses and families of your employees.

Most Workers Support Proposed Modifications To FMLA Rules
 In the wake of a proposal by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to amend the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to make administering leave easier for employers, results of a recent survey by the National Coalition to Protect Family Leave suggest that a majority of workers support many of the concepts embodied in the rule changes.

Senator Proposes Tax-Advantaged Disability Savings Account
 Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) has introduced a bill in the Senate that would enable families with disabled children or other family members to contribute to a tax-advantaged account designed to make it easier for disabled people to maintain their health, independence, and quality of life.

Diversity Not Defined In Many Workplaces
 Most employers claim to support diversity in the workplace, but fewer than one-third have formally defined what diversity means, and there is no common language to help companies in managing their diversity initiatives, according to a study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the American Institute for Managing Diversity Inc.