7 questions you must answer before picking a wellness vendor

By Jared Bilski

To get any worthwhile results from a wellness program, it’s virtually impossible to go it alone. But with so many wellness vendors out there, picking the right one can be a daunting task.

So how do employers find the right wellness vendor for their unique company needs?
Before employers begin searching for specific wellness vendors, HR should have detailed answers to the following questions, courtesy of Benefitspro‘s Joe Miller.

Company objectives

1. What is your company hoping to accomplish with this wellness program?

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Good news: ACA deductible cap is eliminated

By Tim Gould

President Obama just signed a law that will give certain employers and insurers more room to maneuver when designing high-deductible and consumer-driven health plans — killing a health reform rule that limited such flexibility.  

In an effort to keep plans affordable, Obamacare placed a cap on the deductibles of health plans offered in the small group market. The cap was set at $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families.

The problem: The cap was too low to keep plans … well … affordable.

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How the best companies hold the line on health plan costs

By Christain Schappel

What’s the prescription for bringing healthcare costs under control? It’s not a single cure-all, but rather a series of medications designed to work together to keep your health plan costs from crippling you. 

Unfortunately, there’s no singular magic elixir to cure what ails your health plan: rapidly increasing costs.

The good news, however, is a treatment regimen does exist that can keep cost increases closer to inflation than what they typically have been for most companies: four to five times inflation.

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Tip Tuesday! What Makes Wellness Work?

By Lisa Weston

More than 75 cents of every health care dollar spent in the United States goes toward treating chronic diseases such as arthritis, asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because these conditions are the No. 1 cause of death and disability, and consequently the primary factor in rising health care costs, moving toward prevention-based care will be the key that helps both employers and employees pull health care costs back from the edge of crisis over the long term.

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Why superstars really matter — and should you pay bad employees to quit?

By Tim Gould

We’ve got proof: Superstar employees not only perform spectacularly on their own, they make everyone around them better.  

At least that’s the conclusion drawn in a recent paper from the National Bureau of Economic research entitled Why Stars Matter.

The research centered around university academic departments. Productivity was measured by the number of papers published, and the number of times those papers were cited in other academic literature.

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IRS clears up murky FSA rule: What you need to tell employees now

By Christian Schappel

The IRS finally caved and let health flexible spending account (FSA) holders carry over some funds from year to year. But that allowance opened up a whole other can of worms. 

The question the IRS’s new FSA rules have created: Can carrying over FSA funds prevent an individual from participating in a health flexible spending (HSA) account?
Answer: Yes.

The only exception: If your cafeteria plan offers an HSA-compatible health FSA, which tend to cover dental, vision and some preventive care and pharmaceutical expenses not covered under a health insurance plan.

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Cue the music! How tunes enhance daily life

By UHC

Music can set the beat for some of life's biggest and best moments.

But, you can also use it as a tool to enrich your everyday rhythms. No matter your preferred soundtrack — classical, country, folk or funk — tuning in could improve your well-being.

Hit 'play' to win
Here are just four ways you can channel the power of music to have a healthy effect on your life:

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