Articles
When an employee terminates mid-month, COBRA's first premium period is commonly prorated to cover only the remaining days, then full monthly billing resumes. Most employers don't know this until something breaks.
When your plan mandates mail order for maintenance medications, manufacturer coupons often stop working, and the savings the plan captures may not be the savings you think. Here's what's actually happening and what employers can do about it.
No federal law requires ERISA plans to cover gender affirming care today. But discriminatory exclusion language, expanding Mental Health Parity enforcement, and conflicting executive orders are creating fiduciary exposure employers aren't tracking.
ALE adoption of ICHRA grew 39% year-over-year on a like-for-like basis. Here's what the transition actually looks like on cost, communication, and ACA reporting.
Reference-based pricing reprices outpatient surgical claims to a percentage of Medicare instead of accepting PPO discounts off inflated billed charges. On a single $75,000 procedure, that difference can exceed $22,000.
A broker who negotiates once a year, at renewal, isn't negotiating. Year-round preparation, claims data, and marketplace benchmarking are what actually move the number.
Voluntary supplemental benefits, including life, disability, accident, and critical illness, can be offered to all eligible employees at near-zero employer cost. Here's why mid-market CFOs should close that gap before the next open enrollment.
ERISA preemption shields most Illinois self-funded private-sector plans from state insurance mandates. But exempt doesn't mean drop it. Your workforce, retention, and what employees had under BCBSIL belong in the decision too.
A PDF in the break room doesn't reach your third-shift workforce. Here's how manufacturers can build an open enrollment communication strategy that actually works for hourly, multilingual, and deskless workers.
Rush and Endeavor plan to merge into a 12-hospital, $11 billion system, putting them alongside Northwestern and Advocate at the top of Chicago's market. Research says hospital mergers raise prices 6% to 9%. Here's how employers should prepare.
The 4-month cap on short-term health plans isn't a coming threat. It's a 2024 rule the agencies stopped enforcing in 2025. Here's what actually touches a self-funded plan, including a new fertility excepted benefit proposed for 2027.
Low average HSA balances are a plan design signal, not an employee engagement problem. Here's what the data says about deductible misalignment, seed contribution strategy, and why fixing this protects both employees and the employer's bottom line.