Health plans - info for employees (BenefitsLink.com)Headlines re Health plans - info for employees, gathered by BenefitsLink.comToo Much Freedom of Choice Causes Bad Decisions; Time to Push Participants in Right Direction- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Excerpt: "Among the most influential of these new ideas is the 'nudge' - a model for how employers, friends, and even the government can structure people's choices to push them in the right direction without restricting their freedom to go their own way. It can take a variety of shapes, from the automatic-enrollment version of the 401(k) to cash payments that encourage recovering drug addicts to stay clean to new kinds of feedback on the power consumption of cars and appliances that will...http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/02/when_shove_comes_to_push/?page... Tips for Outsourcing Benefits Communication and Enrollment- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Excerpt: "Knowing that employees need to understand the value of their benefit plans, companies of all sizes have turned to vendors that specialize in communicating employee benefits. The goal is to make open enrollment and new employee orientation less stressful, substantially elevate your workforce's knowledge and appreciation of your benefits and drive a great ROI for your company." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)http://ebn.benefitnews.com/asset/article/553761/staying-current/tips-outsourcing-benefits-... National Compensation Survey - Employee Benefits in State and Local Governments in the United States, September 2007 (PDF)- (Found June 19, 2008 ) 32 pages. Excerpt: "In addition to presenting data on access to and participation in benefit plans, the tables in this release include data on provisions of life insurance plans, employee contributions to costs of medical care premiums, the allocation of medical plan costs between employees and employers, and employer premiums." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)http://stats.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/sp/ebsm0007.pdf Medical Publisher Launches Beta Health Wiki- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Excerpt: "Science, technical and medical publisher Elsevier's WiserWiki, a clinical health information wiki created by board-certified doctors, could be a big factor in helping consumers overcome their distrust of online health information. WiserWiki, launched in November 2007 and currently in beta, is like other wikis in that it allows users to create and power a collaborative, community Web site that is populated with information contributed by community members." (eWeek.com)http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Health-Care/Medical-Publisher-Launches-Beta-Health-Information-Wi... Wal-Mart Says Most Workers Have Health Plan- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Excerpt: "Wal-Mart Stores, the nation's largest private employer, said on Tuesday that for the first time in its 45-year history more than half of its workers had enrolled in the company's health insurance plan, a potent milestone for a retailer long associated with unaffordable benefits." (The New York Times; free registration required)http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/business/23cnd-walmart.html?ex=1358744400&en=02f6b9b... Survey Shows Consumers Want Health Care Pricing Data- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Excerpt: "An unusual consumer survey by The Regence Group has strengthened the health insurer's conviction that people care about health care prices and quality, and that patients will shop like consumers if they're given the information they need to do so." (Portland Business Journal via bizjournals.com; free registration required)http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/01/07/story6.html?b=1199682000^1571433 Will More Data Create Health Care Shoppers- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Excerpt: "Employers and other big purchasers of health care expect much from an injection of consumerism into the market for health services. But even the most ardent advocates acknowledge that consumer-directed health care still has far to go before delivering its hoped-for results." (Oregon Live LLC)http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/119923530434610.xml&... Consumers Don't Understand Health Insurance Terminology, According to Survey- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Excerpt: "California-based eHealth, an online health insurance provider, commissioned the survey, which questioned 1,010 adults on health insurance terms and their own policy." (Employee Benefit News; free registration required)http://ebn.benefitnews.com/asset/article/514906/staying-current/consumers-dark-health-insu... 'Health Care Benefits: Eligibility, Coverage and Exclusions' Contains 22 Sample Health Care Policies and Summary Plan Descriptions- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Excerpt: "New research from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) has found medical tourism, where an individual travels to another country to seek medical care, is covered by 11% of surveyed organizations." (PLANSPONSOR.com; free registration required)http://www.plansponsor.com/pi_type10/?RECORD_ID=40026 Using Patient Advocacy Programs to Help Fill the Gaps in a Porous Medical System- (Found June 19, 2008 ) Excerpt: "After some initial resistance, the employees of Hess Print Solutions, which hired a patient advocacy company to help improve care and reduce cost, embraced the idea of getting help in negotiating a health care maze that can be full of dead ends. But, as the company learned, advocacy can't resolve every health issue." (Workforce Management; free registration required)http://www.workforce.com/section/02/feature/25/30/21/index.html |