Red Rock Financial Group: Workers Compensation & Employee Benefits

Utilizing technology to take benefits engagement to the next level – Articles – Employee Benefit News.

More than half of U.S. employers say they are expanding the use of technology to manage costs associated with employee benefits programs. This is according to new research from Prudential Financial.

“Employers are looking for their insurers to do more than pay claims,” says Joseph M. Hayes, chief information officer of Prudential. “They want a streamlined benefits process using technology that allows their employees and benefits administrators to connect directly with their insurers.”

Half of those polled (51%) say it is important that their benefits systems interface with their insurance carrier’s systems and more than half (59%) are looking for insurance carriers to offer flexibility to adapt and connect to other carriers or a third-party administrator. The study also found that employers who had a positive experience using benefits technology to manage/track employee absences also reported improved worker productivity.

“One of the most valuable features of benefits technology is the ability to monitor and track absence,” says Hayes. “Since worker productivity heavily impacts the cost of doing business this can be a vital tool in managing the bottom line.”

While respondents varied in their utilization of online tools, all agreed that both usage and user experience could be improved. More than half of employers noted they would increase their use of online tools if their websites were easier to navigate, functionality was more useful and tools/sites were less cluttered and easier to read. Even though employers were generally satisfied with the functionality of their employee benefits online activities, they cited a need for improvement in submitting claims, integrating payroll processing, managing/tracking employee absences and recording evidence of insurability.

The survey also showed a low to average use of online benefits tools among employees, with less than half conducting any online activity this year. The most commonly used tools are online enrollment (50%) and 401(k) management (47%). Additionally, employees are generally satisfied with the quality of online tools rating most features as “good.” Functions cited as having relatively high usage but less than good satisfaction ratings are obtaining educational information about insurance and retirement plans (27% fair or poor) and downloading/obtaining forms (19% fair or poor.)

IBM receives patent for payment system that compares food purchases with health records – Articles – Employee Benefit News.

During carb-laden lunches in the IBM cafeteria over 10 years ago, a master inventor and his colleagues decided they were eating too much. From this Pavlovian inspiration, Mike Paolini submitted a patent for a technology that coordinates an automatic wellness rebate program.

“As engineers, we like to be rewarded in what we do right,” explains Paolini. He says that the technology builds on a point-incentive system that encourages employees to buy and eat healthy foods. The patent details a micropayment network to buy food, which runs employees’ purchases against their health records. If the employee buys apples instead of Tootsie Rolls, then the system communicates with the employer’s payroll server to deliver a reward.

“I wondered if there was a way to change our behavior, because right now we’re fighting marketing from restaurants, ads and your evolutionary desire for fat and salt … To be healthy, we really need to change our behavior pattern and that was the thought [behind this technology],” Paolini says.

The technology adjusts the desired calories depending on the individual’s metabolism or their diet and health needs. This means wellness programs could target incentives within specific disease management groups, such as monitoring sugar for diabetic employees.

“You take the food pyramid and make inherent rules for everybody, then target it toward an individual, and in a way that helps them change their behavior for the better,” he adds.

Paolini, who works as a senior staff technical member for IBM, worked on the idea in his spare time. IBM applied for the patent in 2001 and received patent approval late last year.

The source for determining what food is healthy and what is not can be input from any directory, whether that is a database from the FDA, an insurance company or some other outside source.

“There is no specification of what is healthy,” says Paolini, adding that an individual could subscribe to any database that exists. Individuals could follow a gluten-free diet or a kosher diet, for example.

“The potential is there, depending on the incentives. We often have people who sign up for a health program get a rebate off of their insurance,” he explains. Other plans offer discounts to employees who participate in walking programs, smoking cessation programs or work with personal trainers based on an honor system.

“Right now it’s generic, but there’s no reason that it couldn’t be personalized,” he says. As a firm believer that people should pay for what they receive, Paolini strongly supports reduced premiums for employees who eat healthy food, exercise and don’t smoke. With patents like the one IBM submitted, employers could reward their workers instantaneously for specific well-being activities.

Gaming gains in popularity

With the ability to monitor health decisions and behaviors in real time, wellness programs will gain a strong backbone. Gaming has been gaining popularity among employers as the technology steadily becomes more sophisticated. Gaming also uses a point system for healthy decisions and often uses friendly competition to spur engagement.

“Games take a very complicated behavior and make it easy to understand,” explains Adam Wootton, director of social media and games, Towers Watson. He compares the practice to a frequent flier program model.

If the ROI for wellness programs is high now – IBM estimates that for every $1 they spend on their employee wellness program, they get $3 back in health care cost reductions and productivity gains – imagine the possibilities if employers could immediately reward people’s wellness activities for every possible health dimension.

This may seem far-fetched, but many similar technologies to the IBM patent already exist in the consumer marketplace.

“There are some things like the Body Bugg and Fit Bit that are out in the consumer market. They aren’t really being used for employee incentives yet, but they are starting to be pulled into wellness platforms. So those [technology applications] aren’t that far out there,” says Jennifer Benz, founder, Benz Communications. “There’s a lot of interesting things going on with … recording your information, being able to understand your own data and do something with it as an individual.”

Body Media, Fit Bit and Body Bugg are all big names on the fitness gadget circuit and often use Blue-tooth technology to monitor an individual’s activity level, sleeping habits and calories burned, and send data to people’s smartphone.

Paolini points out that these technologies don’t factor in healthy eating standards, or dietary and allergy restrictions, and many have you enter diet information manually online. “But the basic elements are there, and a lot of people have lost a lot of weight using [this technology,]” he says.

Companies like ShapeUp and Limeade can be reliant on self-reported data, but also use tracking health data and social support to engage employees with their employer’s wellness program.

Benz explains that Limeade, for example, provides access to programs and devices like Runkeeper and Nike+, and uses gaming principles to encourage people to compete. “Any source of data that is out there can be sent into an employer’s wellness program,” explains Benz.

These programs are basically personalized trainers or coaches that are available to the consumer on demand and on every device they have access to. For example, you can have your health information programmed on a smartphone or device and transfer it to a treadmill, which could tailor your workout.

Make it useful now

The current challenge, according to Benz, is how consumers and employers can make technology useful now. That entails delivering specific recommendations for individuals and making sure they receive them.

“For a lot of employers, it’s not about the shiniest technology that’s out there, it’s about what the majority of the workforce can use. It’s more about getting mobile Internet devices in the hands of everyone who needs them,” she says.

Smartphones have become miniature computers with the potential to reach a larger employee base than expensive, traditional devices with Internet. They also have inherent features that could bring benefits communication and engagement to an entirely new level.

Many apps and mobile websites have taken advantage of geolocation in smart phones that allow employers to upload information and data onto employees’ mobile phones. This could direct employees to the nearest in-network health carriers by using their phones’ GPS capabilities. This feature could also enhance an employee discount program by showing nearby businesses that have discounts.

“All of this takes benefits that were previously not valued by the employee because they didn’t know about them or didn’t have access [and makes them easily accessible and useful],” explains Wootton.

Many experts forecast that employers who harness the power of social media will create a strong culture of health in their workforce.

It will be interesting to see how “social media grows up around all of this, because I think there is a great opportunity in sharing your results in almost a support group,” says Paolini.

Employers can also use social media participation as a way to advertise employee testimonials, another great way to communicate messages about benefits. Having employees share their stories builds up a perception that healthy lifestyles are the norm in the company and that a culture of health pervades.

“Social technology is the way we share our data and celebrate the successes of people and use that to motivate others through friendly competition,” explains Wootton. “You can motivate people in Boston in almost anything by telling them that New York is doing it better.”

Still, concern remains that sharing health data over social media and increased transparency in wellness programs have Orwellian consequences.

Privacy concerns are “a moving target,” suggests Benz. As people get used to new technology, it will always move forward. For instance, sharing personal information and family photographs online is now considered acceptable, whereas in the past it would have seemed unthinkable.

As this technology becomes more mainstream, Benz says, it won’t seem strange for an employer to require an employee to undergo genetic testing to understand their full health history and get the lowest price on their health coverage.

Right now, employers can’t use that information or the results of that process, but just as they can require online health assessments and biometric screenings for lower medical plan rates, they could require genetic testing some day.

Before this day comes, however, employers need to concentrate on keeping employees healthy and engaged with their benefits the oldfashioned way.

“There’s a lot of cool technology out there, but you can’t use it if you’re not doing a baseline of having good programs in place and educating people as well,” says Benz.

She suggests ensuring that all health and wellness information is on the Internet, not behind a firewall. She emphasizes that employers should communicate around their benefits and wellness initiatives all year long.

“Focus on the user interface. The expectations of consumers now are very high,” adds Wootton. Apple products, for example, don’t even require owner’s manuals. Also, consider requiring a single password for users. In general, a user who has never seen the technology before should be able to get it right away, he says.

Good and bad news for your social media policy

By Denise M. Keyser and Mary Cate Gordon

The National Labor Relations Board recently issued a second report on social media cases. The NLRB continues to refine its analysis of the two most common issues presented to it in social media cases: whether the employer’s policy itself is overbroad and thus violates employees’ right to engage in concerted and protected activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act; and whether the employee action at issue is truly concerted and protected by the NLRA.

First, the (relatively) good news: Consistent with established case law, individual griping is insufficient to invoke NLRA protection. Thus, for example, a Facebook posting of a purely individual complaint, made with no intention to induce co-workers into group action and not resulting from a group discussion of terms and conditions of employment, is not a protected or concerted activity. Online expressions of personal anger with co-workers or an employer, made solely on the posting employee’s own behalf and not involving the sharing of common employee concerns, are not protected, concerted activity.

Next, the bad news: the NLRB continues to view as impermissibly overbroad policies that generally prohibit “disparaging” or “inappropriate” comments, “disrespectful” conduct or the disclosure of “sensitive” or “confidential” matters. Only policies that provide specific examples of prohibited conduct will be approved. For example, a policy that proscribes the use of social media postings that are vulgar, obscene, threatening or intimidating, or which violate other specific employer policies, will be lawful because the prohibitions are sufficiently detailed. A policy that requires compliance with securities regulations and other laws prohibiting the unlawful use or disclosure of confidential or proprietary information is lawful, because contextual limitations within the policy adequately define the prohibited conduct.

Denise M. Keyser is a partner and Mary Cate Gordon is an associate in the law firm Ballard Spahr LLP. They can be reached atkeyserd@ballardspahr.com and gordonmc@ballardspahr.com, respectively.

Four steps to take when conducting a retirement plan provider review – Articles – Employee Benefit News.

Every three to five years the Department of Labor would like you, as a plan sponsor, to review the providers that work with your retirement plan. As a fiduciary to your plan, you have an obligation to ensure that the providers you’re working with are appropriate and that the fees that are paid for their services are reasonable. It’s not required that you make any provider changes, but the retirement plan marketplace is very dynamic, and it’s likely that when you conduct a provider review you’ll discover some surprises. Here are some suggestions for managing a provider review process.

1. The investment adviser. A good investment adviser can add genuine value to the operation of your plan. What you are looking for is an investment adviser who:

* Is paid a consulting fee in “hard dollars” in accordance with a contractual agreement where you receive an invoice containing an actual bill for services outlined in a contract, rather than “soft dollars” (compensation that you do not see, which flows from the mutual funds).

* Works for an organization that is willing to acknowledge its fiduciary responsibilities and is large enough to act as a fiduciary to the plan. Many independent advisers will offer to sign on to your plan as a fiduciary; however, that has very little meaning, since their organizations are not large enough to compensate your plan in the event of a significant fiduciary breach.

* Works predominately with retirement plans. Hiring a personal investment adviser to help manage the company’s retirement plan may not be a good idea. The retirement plan business has become incredibly complex and requires a specialist.

* Is capable of managing the provider review process for you, saving you a lot of work. Remember, you need to review your recordkeeper, trustee and custodian as well.

To generate a list of investment advisers to contact, survey your peers. Also, take a look at the larger banks and brokerage firms operating in your area and add them to your list. Ask for proposals from five of the best and bring three in for presentations.

2. The request for proposal. A good investment adviser can manage the remainder of the provider review process for you. He/she should be able to supply you with a draft RFP document that you can email to a number of recordkeepers. Since the recordkeeping business has consolidated significantly, you can comfortably consider around five recordkeeping firms, including your existing provider.

It’s not unreasonable to ask your investment adviser to receive and summarize all of the RFP responses for you. This process typically produces a spreadsheet that compares the attributes of all of the candidates. Generally, it makes sense to bring in three recordkeepers for presentations.

3. Evaluation. As you review the summarized RFP responses, keep in mind the following:

* The recordkeeping business is highly technology-driven. Ensure that the recordkeeper you select has a commitment to continuous technology improvements.

* Visit the websites. Your participants’ experiences will be significantly enhanced by an intuitive and friendly website.

* Review sample participant statements. This is one document every participant looks at. Make sure it’s easy to understand.

* Consider hiring a corporate trustee. Believe it or not, I still talk to large companies that have individuals (corporate executives, no less) serving as trustees of their retirement plans. Given how litigious our society is, this doesn’t seem to be a necessary risk for corporate executives to bear, especially since the cost of a corporate trustee is only around $1,000 per year.

* Consider your market segment. If you’ve hired a good investment adviser, he/she should bring you a set of recordkeepers that make sense for the size plan you have. A good way to check this is by the types of references the recordkeeper gives you, but it doesn’t hurt to ask what their average client size is and where their clients tend to be located.

Costs in this marketplace for each of the providers you might hire (investment adviser, recordkeeper, trustee and custodian) tend to be a nonissue. The retirement plan marketplace is super-competitive. There are a lot of qualified providers who are good at what they do. In my opinion, if you receive a quote that is quite a bit different from the others (it is either significantly higher or lower), then it is fair to assume that provider does not work a lot with the size plan that you have and would not be a good fit.

But since the retirement plan marketplace is so competitive, price can be an area of negotiation. This is not something that I see plan sponsors take advantage of enough. If you like a particular organization, feel they would be a good fit, but they are priced just a little higher than a competitor, go back to them and ask them to match the competitor’s price. I’ve not heard of an instance recently where a provider was unwilling to make a price adjustment if they thought they were going to get the business.

4. Conversion. I’ve observed that 90% of all provider searches conclude in September or October. That’s because the majority of retirement plans have plan years that end on December 31, and most plan sponsors like to convert over to new providers effective with the new plan year that begins on January 1. If you have a December 31 plan year-end, there are some good reasons not to run with the crowd:

* Your conversion may flow much more smoothly if you choose a conversion date other than January 1 (it might also make sense to stay away from February 1). Plan providers are exceedingly busy with January 1 conversions. You have better odds of receiving much better service, and someone at the recordkeeper’s office might actually return your phone calls, if you choose another conversion date.

* You wanted to take time off for the holidays and not answer retirement plan questions, right? Those last-minute, critical decisions that need to be made in order to keep your conversion on track are out there waiting to ruin your holiday cheer.

* Where are all your employees, and why is no one attending your employee education sessions? Aren’t they as excited about the new plan as you are? Not if you’re scheduling education sessions between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

Scheduling a conversion for any date other than January 1 or February 1 will be much easier on you, be welcomed by your recordkeeper and will make better sense to your employees. If you decide to do this, your new recordkeeper may even give you a reduction on your conversion costs!

According to the Department of Labor, reviewing your providers every three to five years is your fiduciary responsibility. Even if you don’t make a provider change, file the proposal summary in your plan file. It is great documentation of your due diligence.

Contributing Editor Robert C. Lawton is an independent consultant based in Hales Corners, Wis. He has more than 25 years of experience working with retirement plan sponsors and is a Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist, an Accredited Investment Fiduciary and holds Series 7, 31 and 66 licenses. He may be reached at boblawton14@gmail.com.

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Much has been left up in the air around the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, with several mandates not yet fully realized – Articles – Employee Benefit News.

Much has been left up in the air around the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, with several mandates not yet fully realized because of delays in rules and the possibility of the Supreme Court ruling parts of the law as unconstitutional.

The uncertainty might lead employers to think it’s not vital to follow all the rules, especially if they add administrative burdens, but an expert says this is far from the truth.

“The devil is in the details, there are a lot of details around these requirements,” said Amy Bergner, partner and attorney at Mercer at the Society for Human Resources Legal & Legislative conference Tuesday. “Start now and try to get your arms around some of these concepts and get them in your mind how they relate to each other.”

She went over several possibilities: If the Supreme Court rules the individual mandate is constitutional, there will be no change for employers; if the mandate is unconstitutional, other parts of the law would still be upheld, so there would be less cost increase with employees mandated to get coverage; or the entire law is unconstitutional, but even then, some of the more popular benefits could remain because of employee demand.

“How would it be if you told your employees you weren’t covering dependents until 26 anymore? You would hear something about it,” she said, alluding that employers would on their own, keep the new age limit.

If the individual mandate is upheld, there is a chance that employees will move onto their employer plan, which might possibly drive up costs, a fear that employers had when the law was passed.

There has been some speculation that employers will pass their employees into exchanges, but Bergner said that comes at a great risk.

“Until there is a groundswell of employers dropping coverage, you don’t want to be the employer of non-choice,” she said. “Most of us have bought into the theory that having a healthy workforce means a productive workforce. If you lose control of seeing the results around your workforce health, you lose a lot of control.”

Though employers might not pass on full-time employees to exchanges, Bergner said it might be a good idea for employers who are still paying for retiree health care or for part-time employees.

“There may be parts of your population that you want to find another source of coverage for, the exchanges would be a good place for them to go.”

She also went over the newly released summary of benefit plan requirements and what they mean for employers. Though she noted that the original intent was to give more transparency to employees looking at different plans, the way it’s paned out hasn’t exactly done that.

“The requirement is being imposed on employers, but a lot of companies have already invested in engaging employees and make benefit plans clear if there are options. On top of what you’re doing is another layer,” she said. Now, employers are only required to give out the exact plan summary an employee has, and it has to be within 90 days of hire, meaning that it will not serve the purpose of showing different options. On top of it, employers will have to include every part of a plan, even if it’s from different carriers.

“It kind of defeats the purpose of helping them compare, but it was intended to help employers.” The deadline for providing the summaries to employees is September of this year. “I think there is a lot of angst about this, but at the end of the day, vendors are planning on doing this, particularly if you’re fully-insured.”

More U.S. Workers Willing to Trade Pay for Extra Security and Richer Retirement Benefits, Towers Watson Survey Finds – Insurance Broadcasting.

NEW YORK, February 27, 2012 ? Faced with the possibility of future reductions in employer-provided benefits, an increasing number of U.S. workers say they are willing to trade some of their pay for more secure and generous retirement and health care benefits, according to a survey of more than 9,200 workers by global professional services company Towers Watson (NYSC, NASDAQ: TW). The survey showed nearly half of the workers polled are worried about reductions in their retirement benefits over the next two years.

The Towers Watson survey found that more than half (55%) of respondents are willing to pay a higher amount from each paycheck to ensure they have a guaranteed retirement. That compares with 46% two years ago. Additionally, 50% of respondents say they would trade a portion of their pay to ensure they have access to health care benefits if they retire before they are eligible for Medicare benefits, versus 40% in 2009. More than half (53%) of those polled said they would be willing to trade a portion of their pay in return for more generous benefits.

“Since the economic crisis, employees have been paying much closer attention to their retirement readiness, and many are willing to look at new ways to balance their mix of pay and benefits,” said Kevin Wagner, a senior retirement consultant at Towers Watson. “This may reflect their firsthand experience with financial market volatility, continuing worries about the economy and fears of future cutbacks to benefits. Workers, especially older employees, may also be reeling from declines in their retirement account balances as well as home values due to the financial crisis. As a result, retirement security has become significantly more important to them.”

This growing interest in retirement security is not limited to older workers. In fact, the survey found that some of the most dramatic changes in attitudes toward risk, rewards and security trade-offs have been among younger employees and those with a defined benefit (DB) plan. Among DB plan participants younger than 40, the number willing to pay for a guaranteed retirement benefit jumped by nearly 70%, from 39% in 2009 to 66% in 2011.

Workers Fear Further Benefit Reductions Looming

The Towers Watson survey found that many employees fear that additional cuts in their retirement and health benefits are on the horizon. More than four in 10 (44%) are worried about reductions to their retirement benefits over the next two years, with younger DB plan participants particularly concerned (63%). Employees are even more concerned about having to shoulder more financial responsibility for their health care costs. Nearly three in four employees (73%) are concerned about higher out-of-pocket health costs and copays over the next two years, compared with two-thirds (67%) in 2007.

“The fact is that predictable health costs and retirement guarantees have become significantly more important over the last few years to employees, no matter what their age. Employees are clearly becoming more interested in adjusting the balance between financial risk and opportunity toward security, especially when it comes to their retirement benefits. For employers, addressing employees’ retirement and health care benefit preferences could very well help to lessen their financial worries and increase engagement levels,” said Bill Daniels, a senior retirement consultant at Towers Watson.

Other findings include:

•           Rising health care costs is the most important reason employees are concerned about retirement security, cited by 64% of respondents. More than half (56%) cited concerns over Social Security or Medicare benefits, and higher prices for necessities.

•           Older employees, women, lower-paid workers and those with health issues are most willing to relinquish control over their retirement investments in exchange for more stability in their retirement benefits over the long term.

About the Survey

The Towers Watson Retirement Attitudes Survey was conducted in June and July 2011, and includes responses from 9,218 full-time U.S. employees at nongovernment organizations with 1,000 or more employees. For more information, visit http://www.towerswatson.com/newsletters/insider/6411

About Towers Watson

Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW) is a leading global professional services company that helps organizations improve performance through effective people, risk and financial management. The company offers solutions in the areas of employee benefits, talent management, rewards, and risk and capital management. Towers Watson has 14,000 associates around the world and is located on the web at towerswatson.com.

Symetra Introduces Trio of Value-Add Programs to Group Life & Disability Income Offering – Insurance Broadcasting.

BELLEVUE, Wash. — (Feb. 23, 2012) — Symetra has introduced three new value-add programs to its group life and disability income (DI) insurance offering. The following new benefits are available to covered employees and their families on new group life and/or DI policies — at no additional cost to the employer:

Travel Assistance Program: Offers a variety of 24/7 travel services — from help finding a physician to medication or eyeglass replacement to legal assistance — in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Employees are covered whether they are traveling on business or for pleasure on a trip 100 miles or more from home, lasting 90 days or less.

Identity Theft Resolution Program: Helps employees protect themselves against identity theft and provides support in the event their identity is stolen. Whether it’s replacing lost credit cards, offering translation services or providing access to emergency cash, help is just a phone call away, anywhere in the world.

Beneficiary Companion Program: Offers relief from the confusion and frustration many people face trying to manage a loved one’s final affairs. Dedicated beneficiary assistance coordinators can offer guidance on how to obtain death certificate copies for final notification as well as manage notifications to entities like government agencies, credit card companies and financial institutions.

“Our new value-add programs provide welcome benefits to employees and their families,” said Tom Foran, Symetra vice president, Group Life & Disability.”These enhancements help employers offer a more compelling benefits package at no additional cost, which can be a genuine advantage in a competitive marketplace.”

The three programs are offered through Symetra by Europ Assistance USA.

Symetra announced plans in January 2011 to expand its group life and DI operation, with a focus on mid-sized businesses. Since then, the company has assembled a seasoned leadership team and continues to expand in-house underwriting, claims, actuarial and field sales capabilities. Next week, Symetra’s Connecticut-based medical stop-loss insurance and group life and DI operations will move from South Windsor to a new, larger location in nearby Enfield.

For more information about the Symetra Group Life & Disability Value-Add programs, visit http://www.symetra.com/EmployeeBenefits.

About Symetra

Symetra Life Insurance Company is a subsidiary of Symetra Financial Corporation (NYSE: SYA), a diversified financial services company based in Bellevue, Wash. In business since 1957, Symetra provides employee benefits, annuities and life insurance through a national network of benefit consultants, financial institutions, and independent agents and advisors. For more information, visit www.symetra.com.

Symetra Group Life and Disability Income Insurance is insured by Symetra Life Insurance Company, 777 108th Ave. NE, Suite 1200, Bellevue, WA 98004, and is available in all U.S. states except New York. The policies are not available in any U.S. territory. Employee Assistance and Value-Add Programs are not available in all U.S. states or any U.S. territory.

Trustmark Voluntary Benefit Solutions and Innovative Process Administration (IPA) Offer Enrollment Platform That Ties Core Medical and Voluntary Benefits Together – Insurance Broadcasting.

LAKE FOREST, Ill., Feb. 28, 2012 – More employers prefer to offer their employees both core medical and voluntary benefits at the annual open enrollment. Trustmark and Innovative Process Administration (IPA) have teamed together to make the process easy, educational and self-directed for employees to enroll all benefits online at the same time.

“Integrating Trustmark’s payroll-deducted voluntary benefits on the same platform that hosts an employer group’s core medical benefits simplifies and streamlines the process for all involved,” said Terry Zastrow, Vice President of Technology, Trustmark Voluntary Benefit Solutions. “Employee benefits brokers, in particular, will find this as an innovative, packaged approach to give more options to both employer group clients and their employees.”

Instead of menus of options, riders and enhancements, Trustmark’s voluntary accident, critical illness and cancer, disability and universal life insurance plans are presented on the IPA platform as popular packages, making employee selections easier. Screen messaging prompts guide employees through the enrollments process. Avatars and built-in videos offer easy-to-understand plan descriptions, quickly educating employees before they make benefit choices. The Trustmark IPA enrollment platform can be used both during open enrollment periods and for new hires at any time of year.

David Essary, Vice President, Consulting for Univers Workplace Solutions, said, “The IPA enrollment platform loaded with Trustmark voluntary products has the flexibility to accommodate enterprise HR systems, payroll systems and core carriers, as well as offer the best stand-alone benefit administration platform in the industry. It has been and remains the core feature of our business.”

Employee benefits brokers who already use the IPA enrollment platform for core benefits or those who are interested doing so with the inclusion of voluntary benefits can visit http://trustmarksolutions.com/brokers-contact for more information.

About Trustmark Voluntary Benefit Solutions

Trustmark Voluntary Benefit Solutions has been serving the insurance market for nearly a century, specializing in payroll-deducted voluntary benefits, including Life, Critical Illness, Disability and Accident. All plans are underwritten by Trustmark Insurance Company, a Trustmark Company.

Through its subsidiaries and operating divisions, the Trustmark Companies offer a full line of health, life, and benefit administration products and services to groups and individuals. The success of each Trustmark Company is based on building and maintaining trust through personal, responsive service and flexible benefit solutions. To learn more, visit www.trustmarksolutions.com

Workforce Benefits Renaissance: How voluntary benefits will set the strategic broker apart – Articles – Employee Benefit Adviser.

From carriers to brokers, enrollers to consultants, the message was the same to the more than 600 attendees gathered Tuesday in Atlantic City, N.J. for the Workplace Benefits Renaissance: Voluntary benefits are a mounting source of opportunity for those who are prepared to take advantage.

With health care reform and the economic downturn creating “the perfect storm,” LIMRA’s Pat Cronin explained how brokers’ “opebportunity is clearly in the voluntary benefit,” as employers cannot afford to continue to take on the cost of more group benefit offerings, said the assistant vice president for the research firm in a session on key trends in voluntary.

Ron Neyer, assistant research director for LIMRA, addressed specifics, pointing out that depending on company size, anywhere from 9% to 30% of employers are considering adding a new voluntary benefit in the next two years. “They’re going to need convincing to bring in some of the voluntary benefits they’ve been considering,” he said, adding that brokers should be encouraged since employers are still considering adding such benefits despite both the recession and uncertainty created by health care reform.

During the keynote presentation at the conference on the future of health care reform and the broker response, Denise Hanna, partner with Washington-based Locke Lord Strategies, called the federal government’s promotion of flexibility in establishing state exchanges “a blessing and a curse,” saying if the government wants the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to be successful “we’re going to need significant marketing an education” — an opportunity for brokers to position themselves as indispensable experts.

Speaking on a panel addressing the role of brokers in the exchange environment, Rodger Bayne, vice president of sales and marketing for Group Benefit Services, echoed the sentiment. “The states fail to recognize all of the complexities of the marketplace and what brokers do to communicate these things,” he said.

However, in a session on how to set yourself apart from the competition Dan Robinson, president of White Plains, N.Y.-based Advanced Voluntary Concepts, warned brokers that they are “doomed to fail if you don’t realize you need an entirely different mindset, approach to selling” voluntary benefits, explaining that “voluntary is symbiotic, it’s communication, it’s strategy, it’s a long-term approach.”

Census report reveals health care tax deductions were the only itemized deduction that grew. – Articles – Employee Benefit Adviser.

Fri. Feb. 24, 2012 NEW YORK (Reuters) — As medical costs go up and household income lags behind, more people are likely to qualify for health care tax deductions.

A recent Census report (here) shows a decline in median household income; real median household income was $49,445 in 2010, 7.1% below its 1999 peak of $53,252.)

Indeed, in 2009 (the latest year for which data is available), health care tax deductions were the only itemized deduction that grew, rising nearly 5% from the previous year to a total of $79.9 billion, according to Internal Revenue Service data. The amount has probably gone up since then.

To qualify for a health care tax deduction, you need to spend more than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income on health costs, as only the expenses above that threshold can be deducted. The U.S. Census has reported that real median household income in 2010 was still below its 1999 peak, so the combination of rising costs and lower incomes could produce more qualifying deductions.

If your out-of-pocket medical costs rose last year, or your income fell, it’s certainly worth sorting through all your receipts to see if you qualify, even if you never did before.

You might discover that you’ve been pushed over the limit by a new baby, or simply because you’re facing higher deductibles and co-payments in your insurance plan.

“People are cavalier about thinking about medical expenses, because not many people spend over 7.5% of income… (on health care), but with incomes reduced, more and more people may qualify,” says Bob Meighan, a TurboTax vice president and certified public accountant. “It is time to reevaluate.”

Some 10 million taxpayers claim this deduction, for an average of $7,915 each. If you make $100,000 and spend $10,000 on medical care, you’d get a deduction of $2,500, worth $700 in the 28-percent tax bracket.

A long list

What’s included in deductible medical expenses? Actually, quite a lot. Doctor and dentist bills, eye glasses and contact lenses, hearing aids, prescription drugs (including birth-control pills), crutches, transportation to doctors’ appointments, and nursing home fees.

Acupuncture appointments, chiropractor visits, stop-smoking programs, and as of last year, breast pumps, too, are deductible. Laser eye surgery, infertility treatments, and service animals are all deductible. And the list goes on. For the full list, see the IRS’s Publication 502 (here).

If you’re married, the deduction covers medical expenses for you and your spouse. If you have dependent children, their expenses go into the tally, too. If you paid for medical care for one of your older kids-up to age 27-that’s included, as part of health reform. Those kids don’t have to be on your health insurance, or considered dependents, for you to claim the medical costs you paid for them in this deduction.

You may also be able to claim the medical expenses you paid for your elderly parents. To do this, either they need to live with you for the entire year and you need to provide more than half their financial support, or you need to claim them as dependents. The latter is a tougher hurdle on income, but does not require your parents live with you, and would give you additional tax benefits.

“Most people don’t claim their elderly parents as dependents because their parents are still living off their own retirement money, but there are lots of situations where the next generation is providing enough support to do so,” Smith says.

Who’s a dependent?

Generally, that would require your parents to have run through their retirement funds, have income (excluding Social Security) below $3,700, and for you to be providing more than half their financial support during the year.

With the economy tough and family structures changing, “We’re getting a lot more questions on things like, ‘does my girlfriend qualify or my parent qualify as a dependent?’,” says TurboTax’s Meighan. “It’s a very important area, and it would surprise some people to realize that they have a dependent in their household.”

For the health care deduction, the big no-no is double-dipping. If you were reimbursed by your insurance, you can’t claim the deduction for the amount you got back.

And if you paid the bill with money in a flexible spending account or health savings account — which are funded with pre-tax dollars — you can’t count that same bill toward the health care deduction.

Your health insurance costs generally don’t go here either. Most employees pay their portion of it with pre-tax dollars, while for the self-employed, the health-insurance deduction appears as an adjustment to income that is not subject to the 7.5% limit.

Some 3.6 million taxpayers claimed that deduction in 2008, reducing their adjusted gross incomes by a collective $21 billion, according to IRS data.

So as you prepare your 2011 taxes, don’t forget about last year’s medical bills — they might just save you some cash now.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum and Linda Stern)

New study shows influence of income inequality and job loss on retirement security – Articles – Employee Benefit Adviser.

NEW YORK | Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:08pm EST (Reuters) – Most retirement planning exercises begin and end with a simple question: How much income will you need to replace after you quit work?

But looking at income alone isn’t enough, as spending habits change during retirement – you’re no longer paying FICA taxes, saving for retirement or incurring work-related expenses for clothing and transportation. And saving habits change, too.

A new report from the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute looks at the interaction of income, expenses and savings in retirement. Using survey data from 5,000 retired households from 2000 to 2009, the report details how different socioeconomic groups of older Americans are faring in retirement.

Although the median income for retired households is 57% that of working households, retired households spend about 80% of what working households spend. More affluent households, which have been able to save for retirement, use those assets to plug the gap between income and spending.

From a retirement planning standpoint, EBRI’s most important finding is that overall spending in retirement falls with age, which means that a retiree won’t need a constant replacement rate of pre-retirement income. The EBRI research also reflects the profound influence of income inequality and job loss on retirement security.

“The main reason is that health deteriorates with age, and that means people can’t necessarily do all the things they planned,” says Sudipto Banerjee, research associate at EBRI and author of the report. “Discretionary spending on things like vacations and entertainment fall.”

That finding reinforces what my colleague Linda Stern reported recently, namely that U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that the early years of retirement are the most expensive.

The two largest expenses in retirement are non-discretionary: housing and health care.

Housing costs, in particular, point to the economic squeeze facing lower-income seniors. EBRI found that housing made up 47% of expenditure in 2007 for the lowest-income quartile, compared with 41% for the highest-income quartile. Health spending was steady across all income groups, at 9% to 11%.

But spending on health increases with age. In 2009, people between the ages of 50 and 64 spent 9% of their total budget on health items, while those 85 or older spent 18%.

In its annual estimate, Fidelity Investments said a 65-year-old couple who retired in 2011 would need $230,000 to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses, excluding nursing home care.

Single people, African Americans and high school dropouts were among groups that outspent their resources and found it the most challenging to maintain a secure retirement, EBRI found.

Overall, households in the lower half of income distribution experience a rising gap between income and expenditure even before retirement. Households in this group are seeing savings deteriorate between ages 50 and 64, a period of life that should be years of high savings accumulation for retirement.

“This might be the result of rising health care costs,” Banerjee says. “These households don’t have much of a wealth cushion there to support them through a large expenditure shock, like a catastrophic health problem.”

“Some of these groups will see falling living standards in retirement,” he adds. “There’s just no magic wand solution.”

Households in the top half of income distribution also see their resources dwindling with age, but they are maintaining surpluses throughout retirement, according to the EBRI report.

The household study that EBRI used to generate its report came from the Health and Retirement Study conducted by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, which contains detailed data on spending in 32 different categories.

(Editing by Jilian Mincer and Andrea Evans)

© 2010 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Workers’ compensation writers are taking steps to improve the profitability of the troubled line, industry experts
said.
From 2006 to 2010, workers’ compensation premiums fell by about 30%, while profitability dropped, said Ed
Keane, senior financial analyst at A.M. Best Co.
“Rates are clearly underwater,” said David Sandler, chief operating officer of U.S. casualty for American
International Group’s Chartis, the second-largest workers’ comp writer.
AIG has shrunk its overall workers’ comp book from $6.73 billion in 2006 to $3.13 billion in 2010. A large chunk of
that stemmed from the guaranteed cost market, specifically specialty workers’ comp of $250,000 in premiums and
smaller, where AIG has shrunk its book from about $3 billion to $3.5 billion in 2005-2006 down to $650 million to
$700 million in 2012.
“We’ve been pulling back because we think the business is underpriced. That book is priced as high if not higher
than it was in 2005 to 2006,” said Sandler, “but we are getting a result that is dramatically worse. You can’t get the
rates you need.”
The general drop in workers’ compensation premium was driven by a combination of factors including rate
decreases, competitive market conditions, return audit premium and a weak macroeconomic environment, Keane
said.
Only 45.4% of Americans had jobs in 2010, the lowest rate since 1983 and down from a peak of 49.3% in 2000,
according to the U.S. Census.
Another factor impacting the drop could be the growth in large deductible programs and captives, Keane said.
Workers’ comp premiums fell 34% to $32.2 billion from year-end 2005 to 2010, while the industry’s loss and lossadjustment
expense ratios ticked up every year, rising from 74.5 in 2006 to 87.9 in 2010, according to BestLink.
The workers’ comp industry’s combined ratio for 2010 was 116.8, and A.M. Best Co. is estimating a combined
ratio of 118.5 for 2011 and 120.5 in 2012, which would be the highest since the industry recorded a 120.9 in 2001.
One challenge facing the line is it is heavy regulated, Keane said. “You’re not going to be able to get rate
increases as often as you do in other lines,” he said.
Harry Shuford, chief economist with NCCI Holdings Inc., said from 2007 to 2009, workers’ comp premium fell 23%.
Of that 23%, 7% was due to changes in bureau rates and loss costs, while four other factors were each
responsible for a 4% drop: reducing in carrier pricing; decline in total payroll; the adverse impact on manufacturing
and contractors; and that smaller companies were hit harder by the economy than larger companies.
Contractors and manufacturing account for 20% of workers’ comp payrolls, but 40% of premiums, due to the risker
nature of the business, Shuford said. Smaller companies tend to buy workers’ comp from the first dollar, while
larger companies are more likely to have large deductibles, he said.

Workers’ comp “in general, is very challenging,” said Sandler. AIG had been the largest writer of workers’ comp in
2007, but fell to the No. 2 largest writer in 2008, a position it holds today.
Sandler said the market can be divided into the smaller guaranteed-cost market of $1 million or less premium,
which is heavily regulated by filed rates and class codes, and the larger, national accounts that have more price
flexibility.
AIG and other companies are experimenting with predictive modeling, to get a sense of what types of accounts
may perform better than others. “The only way you can survive is if you get better at risk selection,” Sandler said.
Price increases in the large deductible national market in the 10% to 12% range, but that may not include
deductible increases and other terms and condition changes, he said.
Sometimes a deductible increase can be as or more effective than a straight rate increase, Sandler said.
“The further away from day-in and day-out losses the better it is for the company. In the comp line, the more risk
that gets transferred to the carrier the worse it is for the carrier,” he said.

“There’s no question that the price levels in the market in 2010 were grossly inadequate,” said Christopher
Cunniff, senior vice president of workers’ comp at Liberty Mutual Group, the largest U.S. workers’ comp writer.
With today’s low interest rate environment bringing 3% to 4% yields, “in order to get a reasonable rate of return of
even 7%, workers’ comp carriers should be writing to a combined ratio of 100 or below,” he said.
2011 saw premiums beginning to rebound, Cunniff said. “There were more increases than decreases,” he said.
“Many companies are reporting pricing going up 5% to 10% in the second half of the year,” he said.
But for companies to earn a reasonable rate of return, rates will have to continue to rise “significantly” in 2012, he
said.
There’s reason to be concerned about loss trends.
Because of the large number of unemployed workers looking for jobs, companies tend to have fewer vacancies,
which means fewer opportunities for injured workers to return to the job in a different capacity while they heal,
Cunniff said.
Also, insurers are worried about the potential for medical inflation. “Workers’ comp is a long-tail line, and any
increase in medical inflation puts extreme pressure on the line,” Cunniff said.
And with the economy starting to warm up, hiring is on the rise. While that might mean larger work forces and
higher premium volume, it also brings the risk of more claims, Cunniff said.
Shuford said the downward pressure on rates has ended. “There’s not much upward pressure, but at least the
downward pressure has gone away,” he said.
Also, employment and payrolls have stabilized and premium growth is on track to be positive in 2011 for the first
time since 2005, A.M. Best said.
Other interesting trends show that Travelers, No. 3 largest writer, has done better the industry, dropping its
adjusted loss ratio from 73.14 in 2006 to 59.09 in 2010. Travelers has also bucked the decreasing premium trend,
and grew its business from $2.79 billion in 2006 to $2.8 billion in 2010. Travelers is the only company in the top 10
that can make that claim.

The No. 4 largest workers’ comp writer, Hartford, has also performed better than the industry, dropping from 68.89
in 2006 to 59.06 in 2010. Travelers and Hartford declined to comment.
Two residual markets — New York and California — remain in the top 10 workers’ comp writers, although the
California fund has fallen from No. 3 in 2006 to 7th in 2010, according to BestLink.

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Gay spouse given health benefits in U.S. court case – Articles – Employee Benefit Adviser.

Wed., Feb. 22, 2012 SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — A U.S. judge last week ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional and said a federal government worker should be allowed to enroll her same-sex spouse in her health insurance coverage, the latest rebuke of a law reviled by gay rights activists.

The ruling came from U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush.

Congress passed DOMA in 1996 and President Bill Clinton signed it into law. It prevents same-sex couples who are legally married in a handful of states from enjoying more than 1,000 federal benefits awarded to heterosexual married couples.

Rita Lin, an attorney for the plaintiff, said last week that White’s ruling could have wide implications for same-sex couples in areas like tax and pension benefits.

“The reasoning of the opinion applies to anyone who has been discriminated against under DOMA,” Lin said.

Attorneys for the House of Representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.

Plaintiff Karen Golinski has worked as a staff attorney for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco for more than 20 years.

She sued the U.S. government after it refused to enroll her spouse, Amy Cunninghis, on her federal family health insurance plan. The couple married during a five-month legal window in California before voters in 2008 passed Proposition 8, a gay marriage ban.

The case is one of a handful around the country challenging DOMA. A Massachusetts federal judge also struck down DOMA in 2010, and that ruling is currently on appeal.

Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice initially argued that DOMA prohibited Cunninghis from receiving the same benefits as she would receive if Golinski were a man.

Last year, however, Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama called DOMA unconstitutional and said that while they would continue to enforce it, they would quit defending it in court.

In response, the U.S. House of Representatives — which is controlled by Republicans — stepped in to defend the law.

In his ruling on Wednesday, White wrote that animus towards gays “is clearly present” in the legislative history from when the law was passed. The federal government has traditionally refrained from inserting itself into spousal relations, White wrote.

“The Court finds that the passage of DOMA, rather than maintaining the status quo in the arena of domestic relations, stands in stark contrast to it,” White wrote.

White issued a permanent injunction preventing the government from further interfering with Golinski’s ability to enroll her wife in the insurance program.

The House of Representatives could appeal White’s ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which recently found California’s gay marriage ban unconstitutional. Supporters of Prop 8 have asked the court to revisit its ruling.

The DOMA case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Karen Golinski vs. United States Office of Personnel Management and John Berry, 10-257.

(Reporting By Dan Levine; Editing by Eric Beech and Cynthia Osterman)

© 2010 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.