Employers are trying out all kinds of approaches to better manage retiree health costs, though the day will eventually come when just a handful will offer such benefits to the over-65 set.

Employees are feeling good about the economy and – guess what? – they want more money.

A study comparing the 1992 and 2012 graduating classes of the Wharton Business School students offers more evidence that millennials believe that having children won't be possible, given the demands of work and social action they expect to shoulder.

As employers weigh their employee insurance options in light of health care reform, research continues to suggest that many are not inclined to end sponsored coverage of their workforce.

Participation in employer-sponsored insurance plans by workers ages 30 and under trailed the rate of their elders by as much as 20 percent.

Baby Boomers confidence in their retirement plans continues to decline, a trend dating back to 2011, according to a report from the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI). During that time, the percentage of Boomers showing high levels of confidence in their financial preparations for retirement dropped from 44 percent to 35 percent. 

Identity theft and data security is a concern of every shopper whether they shop online or at brick-and-mortar stores. But as the more profound breaches at Macy’s and Target have gained hold on consumer minds, voluntary benefit offerings have surfaced on private insurance exchanges to help combat this growing digital dilemma for employees.

When the feds issued guidance on how the Supreme Court’s DOMA ruling would impact employees’ health care benefits, many firms were left wondering: What about retirement plans? Well, the agency just answered that question. 

Throughout 2013 employees demonstrated positive savings behaviors in their 401(k) plan, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 401(k) Wellness Scorecard. The report reveals year-over-year trends in plan participant behaviors, along with employers' adoption of 401(k) design features in plans serviced by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Employees aren’t always going to be happy with their benefits options or the changes you make to their plans. The first step to handling any complaints or concerns that arise: Not making any of these anger-inducing mistakes.

By Andy Stonehouse
A new PwC survey suggests millennial employees are feeling the pinch more strongly than other workers, and notes that ongoing financial stress can be a tremendous drain on worker productivity and performance – and will be until remuneration begins to match the rapidly increasing cost of living.

43 percent of employers report the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) has affected their current retirement benefits strategy and spending, and 45 percent believe PPACA will change their retirement plans in the future. According to the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute, 55 percent of employers who believed the PPACA has changed their retirement benefits strategy said they are spending less money on retirement benefits and shifting costs to employees.

Health care is one of five industries linked to the highest obesity rates, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Are women under more stress at work than men? According to a survey focusing on workplace stress, they definitely are, by a large margin.

The more I write about health care – it's been close to a couple of decades now – the more convinced I am that any attempt, however incremental, to improve the U.S. system is bound to hit a minefield somewhere along the line. It's a complex enterprise that affects every one of us very personally, and it arouses passions to a degree that maybe no other area of American life does.

What if you could have a wellness program that engages employees, improves health and saves money?

In a 2013 Towers Watson survey, 78 percent of companies identified stress as a top lifestyle risk factor that is a workforce risk issue. Health care companies should be especially concerned, as a separate survey found health care workers to be the most stressed workers in the nation.

Health care employees have higher obesity rates than almost any other industry's workers, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

In an effort to practice what they preach, Boston-area hospitals have begun to adopt widespread changes to encourage healthier eating among patients, visitors, and staff and to make their own facilities less damaging to the environment. Sugary sodas, candy bars, harsh cleaning agents, and disposable surgical tools are being phased out in favor of more local produce, fruit-infused water stations, solar panels, and reusable instruments.

Michigan hospital leader's anti-obesity campaign sparks a community phenomenon. Last year, during a presentation on healthy eating, Mary Cristante, RN, caught herself slinking lower and lower in her chair. Reginald Eadie, MD, known as the "soda pop doc" for rallying Detroiters to cut down on their consumption of sugary drinks, was telling the group about the body mass index.

As a health care solutions organization, Amerinet is on the front lines, working with our members to implement solutions that help them reduce their costs and enhance the quality of care they provide. Among those solutions is population health management (PHM). PHM refers to health care providers taking responsibility for caring for the health outcomes of defined groups (or populations) of patients.

Despite an ever-increasing focus on wellness in the workplace, employers often overlook a key contributor to the health and well-being of their employees – sleep. New research shows sleep-deprivation runs rampant in today’s workplaces, but gives hope that employers who choose to offer sleep solutions can have a positive impact on the problem, while building their company’s culture of health.

The level of employees' well-being is a more important contributor to on-the-job productivity than their chronic disease status, according to a study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The study, Comparing the Contributions of Well-Being and Disease Status to Employee Productivity, shows that well-being improvement can increase productivity in both healthy populations and those with disease. 

Population health was a hot topic at the 2014 American College of Healthcare Executives Congress in Chicago this week, with health care leaders from around the nation and world sharing ways to improve health under value-based care initiatives.

Hillary Bisnett grew up on a farm in Dowagiac, Mich., that grew asparagus, raspberries, strawberries and 16 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Her father tried practices to reduce his family's pesticide exposure and protect the water and soil. He believed the unique flavor, especially of tomatoes and strawberries, was a result in part of his nearly organic farming practices.