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  • Raw Bar: Major employers bearish on medical tourism

    That's just one of the themes in this week's Raw Bar. Listen in as the National Business Group on Health's Helen Darling talks about new research, detailing how major employers are smart enough to know that workers won't be rushing to fly half-way around the world for surgery, regardless how much they might save in the process.

  • Investing in wellness makes business sense

    DTE Energy and Food Lion are getting hands-on with wellness to help manage health care costs. In conjunction with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, the two employers are case studies in a new report, "Engaging Consumers at Work," which found workplace education can increase employee participation in wellness programs by 21% or more.

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  • Raw Bar: Medical trend increases expected to get larger

    The medical trend rate, while growing each year, hasn't been escalating as fast recently. For the last five years, each annual jump has been a little bit smaller than the previous one. That's expected to end in 2009. Listen in as Robert Laszewski, president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, discusses the underlying fundamentals and why he thinks things will change soon. He also shares some of his thoughts and analysis on recent congressional happenings, most importantly the chamber's decision to block a 10% Medicare fee cut for doctors.

  • Raw Bar: Retirement readiness benchmark jumps

    New research from Hewitt recommends workers strive to have 125% of their pre-retirement income to deal with uncertainties like health care and inflation when trying to maintain a familiar lifestyle during the "golden years." Listen in as the consultancy's Alison Borland talks about how Hewitt came to the number and what employers and advisers can do to make the figure a little less scary for workers.

  • Employee dietary habits affect productivity

    Employers striving for a more productive workforce may want to begin their mission in the cafeteria. Employees with balanced diets have 10 times more energy, compared to workers with poor dietary habits, reports ComPsych Corp. in its 2008 Health & Productivity Index.

  • Separating self-funding fact from fiction

    Fifty-five percent of the employers in the United States with more than 200 employees partially or completely self-fund their health plans. Yet despite the prevalence of self-insured plans, there is still misinformation about them.

  • Taking off: Expectations for medical tourism continue to soar

    Morgan Armstrong had heard a lot of casual talk about medical tourism; however, discussion on the subject had been growing louder over the past six months. So, the president of Plan Benefit Services, a Columbia, South Carolina-based employee benefit advisory firm hosted a meeting with his clients where he shared what he knew on the subject and asked the employers what they thought.

  • The mechanics of CDH

    There are some hard truths to swallow when analyzing the state of health care in America - like the fact that over half of health care costs are attributable to behaviors tracing back to before any care is necessary. These behaviors may be smoking, lack of exercise, poor nutrition or a mismanaged illness.

  • Chamber highlights health care inefficiencies

    If the United States health care system is to become affordable and effective, then a greater emphasis on technology, transparency and the quality of care is needed to make the system more efficient, said U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donahue at a health care roundtable Tuesday, in Washington, DC.

  • Is one vision rep as good as the next?

    We're trying to ferret out the industry's best again. This time we're focusing on group vision. Just like dental and disability there are dozens of carriers in the market, but are the bonds betwixt broker and rep as strong in vision? How important is rep service on this product line? Those are just some of the questions we're trying answer.

  • Medical costs projected to accelerate

    After five years of steady decline, the growth rate of medical costs will level off at 9.6% in 2009, followed by a possible increase in growth rates, predicts a new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

  • The Friday Fray: Medical Tourism

    This week's Friday Fray discusses medical tourism, a fast-growing area of employee benefits aimed at employees who will travel overseas to receive high-quality but lower cost health care.

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