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Carlson Capital Management
in MN

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Duncan Financial Group
in PA, Telecommute

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MGKS
in AZ

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The Rising Cost of Drugs and Your Health Benefits: Is There a Prescription?
March 22, 2018 WEBCAST
Burnham

EBIA Employee Benefits Seminar
June 12, 2018 in TX
Thomson Reuters / EBIA

?See 176 Upcoming Webcasts and Conferences

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Understanding the Influence of Decision Support on Employee Benefit Selections (PDF)
19 pages. "What level of guidance do employees prefer? How many distinct recommendations do employees receive? What products are typically recommended to employees for purchase? ... Do employees buy what is recommended? Which employee groups are most responsive to product recommendations? Are employees buying the recommended medical plan, or to what extent do employees 'buy up' or 'buy down' from the recommended plan? Are employees buying [HSA]-qualified plans when recommended to do so? Are employees buying the recommended dental and vision plans? ... How much do employees spend compared with the recommendation and the subsidy provided by their employer?"
Private Exchange Research Council [PERC], via Willis Towers Watson

Check out our 2018 Webinar Schedule

Check out our webinars featuring Sarah Simoneaux and Brian Furgala! Topics will include ERISA updates, dealing with difficult customers, evaluating control groups, an overview of most asked technical questions to TAG, and more to come. Register here.

Patients Overpay for Prescriptions 23% of the Time
"The practice of charging a copay that is higher than the full cost of a drug is called a 'clawback' ... After taking your insurance card, your pharmacist says you owe a $10 copay, which you pay, assuming that the drug costs more than $10 and your insurance is covering the rest. But unbeknownst to you, the drug actually cost only $7, and the PBM claws back the extra $3. Had you paid out-of-pocket, you would have gotten a better deal."
Kaiser Health News

Health Care Spending in U.S., Other High-Income Countries
"In 2016, the U.S. spent 17.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care, while the average spending level among all high-income countries was 11.5 percent of GDP.... Except for diagnostic tests, the U.S. uses health care services at rates similar to those of other countries.... The average salary for a general practitioner in the U.S. is $218,173, nearly double the average salary across all high-income countries.... The U.S. spends $1,443 per person on pharmaceuticals, compared to the average of $749.... The U.S. spends 8 percent of total national health expenditures on activities related to planning, regulating, and managing health systems and services, compared to an average 3 percent spent among all high-income countries."
The Commonwealth Fund

Why Does the U.S. Spend More on Health Care Than Other Countries?
"One reason could be that Americans are less healthy than people in other countries.... Another explanation could be that we use more medical goods and services. This turns out not to be the case.... A third option is for that the prices of the health care goods and services we use may be higher than those of other countries. This does indeed turn out to be the case ... One solution to this 'problem' would be to cut prices of pharmaceuticals as well as physician salaries. However, higher pharmaceutical prices have incentivized more innovation."
Healthcare Economist

Why Is U.S. Health Care So Expensive? Some of the Reasons You've Heard Turn Out to Be Myths
"Compared with peer nations, the United States sends people to the hospital less often, it has a smaller share of specialist physicians, and it gives people about the same number of hospitalizations and doctors' visits ... We pay substantially higher prices for medical services, including hospitalization, doctors' visits and prescription drugs. And our complex payment system causes us to spend far more on administrative costs."
The New York Times; subscription may be required

Provider Networks: Actuarial Perspective on Performance, In and Out of Exchanges (PDF)
169 pages. "This report outlines the range of practice across the industry with respect to alternative networks for Exchanges. It starts with a basic overview and then moves through ways to drive higher performance based on the experiences of the authors of this report. This report is primarily focused on carriers and their efforts to develop networks. However, it also presents the financial perspectives of the individual buyers, hospitals and physicians and state management of Exchanges."
Society of Actuaries

The Total Rewards Needle Is Moving -- Are You on Target?
"What occupational magnets do employers need to provide to remain competitive? ... When is the last time your organization benchmarked your health and welfare plan? How does your 401(k) plan 'stack-up' to the market? When is the last time you performed a compensation study?"
Hill, Chesson & Woody

Update on Top Hat Plan Litigation
"One of the interesting points of the Court's decision was its discussion of the DOL's only guidance on this requirement, Opinion Letter 90-14A, and the question of whether an employee must have 'bargaining power' in order to qualify as a member of 'a select group of management or highly compensated employees.' " [ Sikora v. UPMC , No. 17-1288 (3d Cir. Nov. 24, 2017)]
Winston & Strawn LLP

Press Releases

Willis Towers Watson?s delegated investment business surpasses $100 billion in assets under management milestone Willis Towers Watson

Integrated Benefits Institute Launches IBI Labs as a New Approach to Accelerate Change in Health, Wellbeing and Productivity Integrated Benefits Institute

Alight is named a leader in NelsonHall?s 2018 Health & Wellness vendor evaluation Alight

Empower Retirement Launches Advice and Planning Solution Empower Retirement

NCPERS Honors 164 Public Pension Plans for Contributions to Improved Transparency National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems [NCPERS]

Ascensus Wins 2018 Business Intelligence Public Relations and Marketing Excellence Award Ascensus

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