June 4, 2019
Supporting Mental Health in the Workplace
Mental Health Month in May each year is a campaign to raise overall awareness about mental health in America that started in 1949. The effort to bring mental health to the forefront of employee wellness conversations is relatively new. According to Employee Benefit News, it’s only been in ...
June 3, 2019
Health Plan Costs and Premium Increases | 2018 UBA Health Plan Survey Trends
Average health plan costs continue to rise, with 2018 premium increases at the highest level in the last decade. The average initial or proposed rate increase reported for 2018 was 13.9%, with final rate increases averaging 9.8% after negotiation. Initial analysis indicates that employees bore ...
May 28, 2019
Bringing Design Thinking to HR
Across industries, design thinking has continued its rise in popularity. At its core, design thinking is about centering people in the creation of products. Whatever you’re designing, whether a process or a tool, connecting your work to the people who will use it makes a better solution. As HR ...
May 21, 2019
Is it Time for Unlimited Time off?
While more and more perks — catered lunches, on-site gyms, immunizations programs — are about employee health, wellness, and happiness, they ultimately are also designed to keep workers at work. A recent article in Quartz at Work points out that more than anything, employees want more time off ...
May 14, 2019
Employee Compensation | Money Talks
April 1 may be April Fool’s Day, but for many workers April 2 is no joke. For 2019, it represents National Equal Pay Day, or the day up to which women have to work to make what men made the previous year on average. For women of color, the day is even later in the...
May 13, 2019
Update on DOL’s Association Health Plans Final Rule
On April 26, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an appeal in the court case that recently invalidated portions of the U.S. Department of Labor’s June 2018 association health plan (AHP) final rule. The DOL’s final rule broadened the definition of “employer” under the Employee Retirement ...
May 10, 2019
Compliance Recap | April 2019
April was a busy month in the employee benefits world. The Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) issued its parameters for the defined standard Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit for 2020. In the court case challenging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s ...
May 7, 2019
Ready to Spark Joy in Your Office?
The hit Netflix show “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” has set off a wave of house organization, purging, and general tidying. Many thrift stores and donation centers report being overwhelmed with bags and boxes of items recently filling American’s homes. What, though, of the workplace? Should a ...
April 11, 2019
Compliance Recap | March 2019
March was a busy month in the employee benefits world. The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it will not defend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the court case challenging the ACA’s constitutionality. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) updated two Q&As ...
April 1, 2019
Employer Sponsored Wellness Programs
Wellness programs have been a critical part of leading health care benefits provided by employers to establish a culture of health in the workplace. Comprised of many and varied “plug-and-play” modular initiatives, these programs can include health information portals, seminars, health risk ...
