Tri-agency rules expound on vaccine coverage mandate
Federal regulators have issued rules supplying the first interpretive gloss on the group health plan coverage mandate, imposed by Congressional legislation last spring, to provide coronavirus vaccines with no cost sharing. Consistent with the legislation, the new...
IRS gives employers more time to furnish 1095-Cs to employees, HHS extends national health emergency
The IRS has again (as it has in past years) extended the deadline to furnish Forms 1095-C to Affordable Care Act (ACA) full-time employees. The Service has moved the deadline to furnish the forms for 2020 from Jan. 31 to March 2, 2021. The deadlines for filing those...
Enhanced Employee Communication Mobile App
With 68 percent of Americans owning smartphones, it’s no wonder employers are considering (and often embracing) mobile apps as an effective tool for sharing benefits and company information with employees and their family members. Across Lockton, our Account Teams...
And the ACA Litigation Keeps On Keepin’ On…
A federal trial court judge has ruled that the Obama Administration cannot use federal funds to reimburse health insurers providing cost-sharing subsidies in the online health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The judge won’t enforce her...
How Technology is Solving HR’s Newest Trends
This week’s post was written by Brianne, who is a Project Manager in our Kansas City office. In addition to being a Project Manager, Brianne is also responsible for managing our vendor relationships and recently was introduced to a vendor that provides a product we...
Open Year-Round: Reconsidering Traditional Benefit Communication Strategies
Employees who are extremely satisfied with their benefits program are nine times more likely to stay with their employer than workers who are dissatisfied with their benefits program. If you’re thinking, “Our company can’t afford to offer more benefits,” you aren’t...
Planting Seeds for Successful Change: 5 Factors to Consider
If your benefits plan runs on a calendar-year basis, then this is an important time of year. It’s the time when you and your company leadership are making crucial decisions about your benefits plan for 2017. And while you’re spending all that effort to decide what...
Read This Before Upgrading Your HR Tech System
This week's post was written by Ron Conine. Ron is a Project Manager, sitting in St. Louis, who loves the technical side of our work. Upgrading to the newest version of an HR technology solution can be a big deal. In approaching the decision to upgrade your current HR...
Driving Technology Innovation in Benefits
The Dig|Benefits Technology Innovator Awards recognize 50 visionaries who are driving technology innovation, overcoming organizational and technology barriers, deploying leading-edge technology and shaping benefit technology regulation and policy. The awards were open...
Employee Engagement and HR Technology
Next week, I will be in Bloomington, Minnesota, at the LEHRN HR Tech Expo. The last few years, Lockton’s HR Technology and Outsourcing Practice has attended and presented at the expo, and this year is no different. Spoiler Alert! I will be speaking on how employers...
Limits on Time to Sue: Include in EOBs, or Else
Another federal appeals court, this time the First Circuit Court of Appeals, recently ruled that if an ERISA plan wants to enforce a plan-imposed time limit for suing the plan, it must disclose that limit in the claim denial notice even if the limit is described in...
How to Get Your Employees’ Attention
Eight seconds. Studies show people have an average attention span of eight seconds, which is less than that of a goldfish. This means you have precious time to grab someone’s attention before you lose them. Between smartphones, tablets, Netflix and Facebook, it’s no...
Why Millennials are ‘Meh’ About Health Insurance
I'll admit, I am a millennial ... but just by a hair. Born in September of 1980, I barely make the cutoff. And with a husband, three kids, mortgage and a minivan, I often have much more in common with Generation X than Y. But, technically, I am a part of the largest...
Configurable vs. Customizable
The configurable vs. customizable battle isn’t quite as dramatic or entertaining as that of Batman vs. Superman, but it’s a pretty big battle in the HR technology world. I can’t even tell you how many vendor demos I’ve sat in on and heard the salesperson throw out the...