September 3, 2010

HR Fact Friday: Long Term Care Benefits – A Less Visible Part of Healthcare Reform

Filed under: Benefits — Tags: , , , , , — Paul @ 7:17 am

The recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as healthcare reform is a complicated piece of legislation with many parts. 

One part, that hasn’t gotten a lot of press, is the Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) Act.  

CLASS creates a national voluntary long term care insurance program.   The program is set to begin in 2011.  The Department of Health and Human Services still needs to develop guidelines, so we don’t know much about it.   However, employers should begin to think about whether they’ll participate in the program and stay tuned as facts become available. The program is to be fully funded by employees and benefits will be available to employees after they have paid premiums for at least 60 months. 

 CLASS provides small supplementary benefits for in home care, and is not enough to pay for assisted living facilities or nursing homes.

  • Share/Bookmark

August 27, 2010

HR Fact Friday: HMO Enrollment Surpasses CDHPs for First Time

Filed under: Benefits,Insurance — Tags: , — Paul @ 9:35 am

Enrollment in health maintenance organization plans has surpassed enrollment in consumer-driven health plans, a survey concludes.

While 12.4 percent of employees enrolled in CDHPs this year, 15.4 percent enrolled in HMOs, according the “2010 United Benefit Advisors Health Plan Survey” released Monday, August 23. In comparison, 15.4 percent of employees enrolled in CDHPs in 2009 while 13.6 percent of employees enrolled in HMOs.

The rate of CDHP growth also has slowed, according to the Indianapolis-based alliance of 145 benefit advisory firms. Employers have introduced 18.1 percent more CDHP offerings in the past year, down from a growth rate of 33.9 percent in last year’s survey.

(more…)

  • Share/Bookmark

June 11, 2010

HR Fact Friday: Most Employers to Wait to Cover Adult Children

Filed under: Insurance — Tags: , , , , — Paul @ 8:38 am

Many companies do not intend to comply early with a provision in the new health care reform law that will require group health care plans to extend coverage to employees’ young adult children up to age 26, according to a survey released Tuesday, June 8.

Among the 501 large employers responding to a Hewitt Associates Inc. survey, 77 percent said they will wait until the effective date before offering the coverage. Ten percent of respondents said they will extend coverage early to all eligible adult children, 9 percent said they will continue coverage for graduating students already covered in their plans, and 4 percent were undecided.

The law requires the extension to be made on the first day of the plan year starting after September 23, 2010. For calendar-year plans, which are the most common, the effective date of the provision would be January 1.

Source: Jerry Geisel, Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management.

  • Share/Bookmark

May 28, 2010

HR Fact Friday: Wellness Programs Set to Rise

Filed under: Benefits — Tags: , , — Paul @ 7:00 am

The costs of the health care reform law make it more important than ever that employers keep their workers healthy and motivated to adopt healthy lifestyles, a vast majority of employers said in a recent survey.

Not only did 78 percent of employers agree or somewhat agree with that statement, but most also said they are likely or very likely to create or expand corporate wellness programs as a result of an incentive provision in the new law.

Effective January 1, 2014, employers will be able to use employee wellness program rewards or penalties of up to 30 percent of the cost of individual health coverage, up from the current limit of 20 percent.

The survey conducted by the Chicago-based Midwest Business Group on Health in partnership with Business Insurance, found that 60 percent of employers are likely or very likely to create or expand their wellness programs as a result of the wellness provision, while 33 percent said they are unlikely or not very likely to do so, and 7 percent did not answer.

The survey of 1,300 employers, including MBGH members and the National Business Coalition on Health, gauged their intentions and perspectives concerning the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The survey also found that when it comes to communicating information to employees, 52 percent are educating employees about how the law affects their benefits; 36 percent are describing what they, as the employer, plan to do; and 35 percent are explaining to employees what’s contained in the new law.

Conversely, 38 percent of the employers surveyed said they haven’t decided what to communicate to employees and 6 percent said they don’t plan to inform employees about the law.

Source: Business Insurance, Sally Roberts

  • Share/Bookmark

May 12, 2010

COBRA Subsidy Extended Again, With Maybe More Extensions to Come

Filed under: COBRA — Tags: , — Jane @ 12:13 pm

On April 15th the eligibility period for the federal COBRA premium subsidies, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), was extended again.  This extension provides COBRA premium subsidies for eligible individuals, who are involuntarily terminated from employment, through May 31, 2010.

The previous extension covered involuntary terminations through March 31, 2010.   The latest extension provides retroactive eligibility for those terminated after that date. Employers who sent basic COBRA notices (without subsidy information) to qualified beneficiaries who became eligible for COBRA after March 31, 2010

  • Share/Bookmark

April 30, 2010

HR Fact Friday: Employers Allowing Larger 401(k) Contributions

Filed under: Retirement — Tags: , , — Paul @ 8:32 am

Sixty-eight percent of employers report that their company allows employees to contribute 25% or more of their earnings into their 401(k) plan, according to a recent survey of 401(k) practices by BLR.

This is a significant increase over the 58% of organizations that allowed such 401(k) contribution levels in BLR’s Survey of Employee Benefits in late 2006.

While 22% of responding employers do not match employee 401(k) contributions, 32% match between 2% and 4% of salary, and 33% match up to 6%. Of those organizations that match 401(k) contributions, most (59%) match at least 50 cents on each dollar contributed.

The survey, conducted by BLR’s HR Daily Advisor in November 2009, received over 1,000 responses, of which 75% originated from companies with fewer than 500 employees. The responses were evenly divided geographically within the United States.

For detailed survey results, see the 401(k) Practices Survey Results.

Source: HR.BLR.com

  • Share/Bookmark

April 2, 2010

HR Fact Friday: PTO Plans on the Rise

Filed under: Benefits — Tags: , , , — Paul @ 1:23 pm

Fifty-four percent of employers report that their organization offers a comprehensive paid time off (PTO) plan rather than traditional individual policies for vacation, sick leave, and personal leave, according to a recent survey of PTO practices by BLR.

This is a significant increase over the 43% of companies who reported using a paid time off plan in BLR’s Survey of Employee Benefits in late 2007.

In the most recent survey, virtually all of the companies that said they offer a paid time off plan allow both exempt and nonexempt employees to participate in the plan. Most include vacation, sick time and personal days in their paid time off plan, and nearly half include days off to care for dependents.

Nearly three out of four (72%) companies with a paid time off plan allow days to be carried over to subsequent years. About 30% of such companies allow the bank of accumulated days to grow to between 20-29 days, while an almost equivalent percentage (26%) allow the bank to grow to a maximum of 30-59 days.

The survey, which included nearly 2,000 responses, was conducted by BLR’s HR Daily Advisor in January 2010.

For detailed survey results, see the Paid Time Off Practices Survey Results.

Source: HR.BLR.com

 

Interested in incentive plan management? Checkout Incentease.

  • Share/Bookmark

March 12, 2010

HR Fact Friday: Nearly 25% of Workers Put Retirement Plans on Hold

Filed under: Benefits,Retirement — Tags: , , , — Paul @ 8:46 am

Almost one in four workers in an Employee Benefit Research Institute survey postponed plans to retire this year, with 29% of those citing the poor economy as the reason.

The key other reasons cited by the 24% who put off retirement plans included a change in employment status, 22%; inadequate finances, 16%; and the need to make up stock market losses, 12%, according to EBRI’s 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey, released Tuesday, March 9.

Also, only 69% of workers and their spouses this year reported having saved for retirement, down from 75% in last year’s survey.

Still, 16% of workers said they were very confident about having enough money for a comfortable retirement this year, up from 13% during the previous year. Twenty-seven percent this year said the total value of their savings and investments in general, excluding the value of their primary home and any defined-benefit plan, were less than $1,000, and 54% said the total value was less than $25,000. Annuities or other guaranteed-income product were purchased by 14% of retirees, and 11% of workers said they were very likely to do so.

“Americans’ attitudes toward retirement have clearly tracked the economy the last couple of years, and that seems to be the case in 2010,” said Jack VanDerhei, EBRI research director and a co-author of the survey, in a news release. “Unfortunately, while their attitudes are stabilizing, their preparation for retirement is not. A distressing number of people have no savings at all.”

The survey, based on telephone interviews in January with a total of 1,153 workers and retirees age 25 and older, was conducted by EBRI and research firm Mathew Greenwald & Associates.

Source: Workforce.com, Doug Halonen of Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Workforce Management.

  • Share/Bookmark

December 11, 2009

HR Fact Friday: Offer Benefits? Don’t Forget Wellness

Filed under: Benefits — Tags: , , , , , , , — Paul @ 8:41 am

For each of the last 7 years, MetLife has conducted a huge employee benefits trends study, and data from 2008, including responses from over 1,500 benefits decision makers and 1,300 employees, have just been released. The global company, which provides insurance, employee benefits, and financial services, stressed wellness programs in its report on the study results.

Financial and physical health intertwined. Some of the statistics offered are surprising and disturbing:

  • 59% of people who assess their medical health as fair or poor say they live paycheck to paycheck, compared to 34% of people in very good or excellent health.
  • 70% of people who rate their health as fair or poor are very concerned about making ends meet, compared to 52% of people whose health is very good or excellent.
  • 76% of people who see their health as fair or poor are very concerned about affording health care in retirement, compared to 57% of those in very good or excellent health.

Interestingly, however, the employees who assess their health as fair or poor have healthcare coverage through their employers at nearly the same rate as those who say their health is very good or excellent. So the connection between poor health and tight finances is in no way limited to people without healthcare insurance.

How well are wellness programs? Given that 94% of surveyed employers agree that wellness programs can be at least somewhat effective in reducing medical costs, MetLife researchers expressed some disappointment that the number of employers offering such programs is growing so slowly. Only one-third (33%) of respondents offered wellness programs in late 2008, up from about one-fourth (27%) in late 2005. And, even among organizations employing more than 500 people, the portion offering such programs is only 57%, up from 46% in 2005.

The MetLife study showed that nearly half of employees participate in programs offered by their employers. But here’s the payoff: They don’t do so primarily to earn incentives or avoid penalties but simply to maintain good health. The older they are, the more likely they value the health benefits, while incentives are more important to the youngest workers.

Source: HR.BLR.com (12/10/2009)

  • Share/Bookmark

November 6, 2009

HR Fact Friday: Survey Finds Service Requirements for Joining 401(k) Easing

Filed under: Benefits,Retirement — Tags: , , , , , — Paul @ 10:18 am

Employers are improving access to their 401(k) plans, according to a survey released Wednesday, November 4.

The Hewitt Associates Inc. survey of 300 midsize to large employers found that 74 percent of 401(k) plans do not have a service requirement, up from 61 percent in a comparable survey Hewitt conducted in 2007.

In addition, looking at plans with employer matching contributions, 56 percent of plans in 2009 did not have any service requirements for participants to receive the match, up from 44 percent in 2007.

On the other hand, 10 percent of employers have suspended their matching contributions during the past two years, the survey found.

Employers continue to move away from investing matching contributions exclusively in company stock. Just 17 percent of employers do so, down from 23 percent in 2007 and 45 percent in 2001.

That downward trend coincided with the collapse of one-time energy giant Enron Corp.

Enron matched employees’ deferrals exclusively with company stock and barred employees until age 50 from divesting those shares, leaving thousands to watch helplessly as the value of their shares plunged to virtually nothing.

The survey found a big increase in the number of employers offering an automatic enrollment feature.

Such programs are geared to those employees—typically new hires—who don’t indicate whether they want to enroll in their employer’s 401(k) plan. With automatic enrollment, those employees are enrolled unless they specifically object.

In 2009, 58 percent of employers offered automatic enrollment, up from 34 percent in 2007 and 19 percent in 2005. Of those employers using automatic enrollment, 69 percent default employees into a target-date fund, up from 50 percent in 2007.

The funds are so named because the investment mix is adjusted over time, with a more aggressive allocation for funds with retirement target dates further in the future and more conservative asset allocations for retirement dates that are closer.

A summary of the survey, “Trends and Experience in 401(k) Plans,” is available online at www.hewitt.com.
Source: Jerry Geisel of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management

  • Share/Bookmark
Older Posts »