Category: Benefits and Compensation

This topic provides guidance on how to handle compensation issues in a way that attracts and retains the best talent and advances the strategic goals of your business. You get news and tips on what’s going on nationally and in the states, and updates on changes in regulations, possible governmental action, and emerging compensation trends.

Ask the Expert: Should Employee Be Paid for Enrolling in Benefits?

One of my clients has an employee who is requesting compensation for time spent enrolling in benefits using his/her personal time. The employees have limited access to computers since they work in a production area. The employer will have a computer set up for employees to use during the week of open enrollment. However, employees […]

Does Employee Ownership Work?

By Upendra Chivukula and Veny W. Musum Today, almost 50% of Americans own zero capital wealth. With the already manifest discontent all over the country, this fact is an ominous recipe for even wider, much more serious future levels of unrest. However, there is a solution. Shared employee ownership via Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) […]

Attitude Shift: The Glacial Pace of Hospital Billing Transparency

Hospitals are still resisting transparency, and reacting in unconstructive ways to reference-based pricing. The evidence shows many health care providers have some way to go in embracing changes designed to repair our nation’s cost spiral. We in the self-funding industry can make a difference, and at the same time protect our plan members from unfair […]

Student Loan Holders Would Greatly Value Employer Assistance

A new survey has found that many student loan borrowers in the U.S. would prefer to work for a company that offers student loan management help as part of their benefits package. The survey was conducted among 1,000 individuals with student loans by Iontuition Inc., a member of the Ceannate companies that helps students and […]

Why Insurance is One of Your Most Valuable Strategic Assets

By Michael Welling, Partner, Meridian Risk Management Let’s be honest. No one wants to talk about insurance. The mere thought of buying something you hope you never have to use is quite unnerving for most. In fact, conventional wisdom tells us that insurance is essentially just “a drain on the bottom line” or just “an […]

Plan Loan Activity Slowed Slightly in 2015, ICI Says

The plan loan activity of participants in employer-sponsored 401(k) plans that allow it declined slightly in the first three quarters of 2015, but remained steady with the previous-year period’s levels, according to a recent survey. As of September 2015, the latest available data when the Investment Company Institute issued the report, 17.6 percent of defined contribution plan […]

Steps to Controlling Specialty Drugs’ Impact on Your Self-Insured Plan

By Bruce Roffé  Businesses sponsoring self-insured health plans are desperately seeking ways to reduce health care costs, and it’s no secret prescription drugs make up a significant chunk of those costs. If you look more closely, specialty drugs emerge as a main culprit. These high-cost meds made up less than one percent of all written […]