IRS rule allowing flexible spending account carry-overs has pros and cons for employers
Originally posted November 17, 2013 by Jerry Geisel on https://www.businessinsurance.com
Employers have a new option to reduce the likelihood that employees will forfeit contributions to their flexible spending accounts, but companies need to evaluate the pros and cons of the approach before deciding whether to adopt the new “carry-over” design.
The option, which the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department announced last month, allows employees to carry over up to $500 in FSA contributions remaining at the end of a plan year to use in the next plan year.
That is an alternative to the modification of the 1984 IRS use-it-or-lose-it rule, which requires FSA participants to forfeit money remaining in their accounts at the end of a plan year. Under the 2005 modification, employers can establish “grace-period” FSAs that allow employees to roll over the entire unused account balance to pay for expenses incurred during the first 21/2 months of the next plan year before the money is forfeited.
Grace-period FSAs are used by more than 40% of employers that offer an FSA, according to consultant Aon Hewitt.
After a year of examining the issue, federal regulators approved the new carry-over approach. However, employers can use either grace-period or carry-over FSAs, but not both. Employers also can continue to offer standard FSAs in which unspent balances are forfeited at the end of a plan year.
The carry-over approach also does not affect the $2,500 limit on annual FSA contributions imposed by the 2010 health care reform law.
The carry-over approach will cut back on “wasteful year-end FSA health care spending by limiting the risk of forfeiture and, in turn, reducing the incentive to spend down as year-end approaches in order to avoid losing unused funds,” the Treasury Department said in a statement when it unveiled the alternative.
At least some employers are expected to adopt carry-over FSAs.
“We will see some movement” to the carry-over approach, said Nicole Wruck, a senior director and health and welfare practice leader with Aon Hewitt in Lincolnshire, Ill. “It seems like a win for many participants.”
“You won't have this rush to spend at the end of the year. Employees will be more careful about spending” FSA account balances, said Jody Dietel, chief compliance officer for WageWorks Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based FSA administrator.
“My best guess is that employers will feel this approach is an enhancement that employees will welcome,” said Michael Thompson, a principal with PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P. in New York.
But others say employees who anticipate major health care expenses early in a plan year, such as orthodontia, could be losers under a carry-over FSA approach.
Andy Anderson, a partner at law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius L.L.P. in Chicago, said with a grace-period FSA, an employee could roll over up to $2,500 and have up to $5,000 to pay major health care expenses early in the next plan year. By contrast, the employee would have a maximum of $3,000 to use in the next plan year under a carry-over FSA.
A potential disadvantage for employers in the carry-over FSA approach is that forfeitures on unused balances could decrease significantly. That could cost employers because many use forfeitures to offset administrative expenses incurred in offering FSA programs, experts say.
“There is likely to be less to offset expenses,” said Jay Savan, a partner with Mercer L.L.C. in Atlanta.
Pending additional regulatory guidance, several unknowns remain involving the interaction of carry-over FSAs and rules affecting contributions to health savings accounts.
Under IRS rules, contributions to HSAs are not allowed when employees are enrolled in general-purpose FSAs. However, when the IRS authorized grace-period FSAs, it said HSA contributions would be allowed during the grace period by converting to a limited-purpose FSA in which balances could be used only to pay for dental, vision and preventive care services.
While consultants say IRS officials have informally said that HSA contributions could be made for individuals with carry-over FSAs — so long as the FSA was amended to be limited purpose — there has been no official guidance.
“The current guidance does not address this, so employers need to tread carefully” said Rich Stover, a principal with Buck Consultants L.L.C. in Secaucus, N.J.
Efforts To Fix Health Care Draw Mixed Reviews
Originally posted November 18, 2013 by Pamela Dockins on https://insurancenewsnet.com
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama is taking steps to correct problems that have plagued his health care reform program since its launch in October. There is debate over whether the president has made enough changes to the program to quell discontent.
The Obama administration says it is working to fix problems with the government's health care website.
Many Americans have been frustrated by the site's technical glitches, which have prevented them from buying health insurance.
This past week, Obama offered a fix to another problem that is causing some Americans to lose their health care policies under his new program. The president said insurance companies could now give these people the option of keeping their old plans for an extra year.
"Now this fix won't solve every problem for every person but it is going to help a lot of people," said the president.
Michael Consedine, the insurance commissioner of Pennsylvania and secretary-treasurer of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said the president's fix could wind up causing confusion. "That fix is a very temporary one and may ultimately cause far greater harm to the insurance marketplace in allowing different products and different policies to continue in a marketplace where we thought there would be a lot more uniformity."
On Friday, the Republican-majority House of Representatives voted to make even more changes. A bill passed with the support of some House Democrats that would allow insurance companies to sell policies that lack all the health care reform mandates and renew customer policies that had been canceled.
The bill's fate in the Senate is uncertain.
Consedine said rapid changes in insurance policies and rates could become problematic at the state level. "We really are feeling like sort of like a ship out on the waves being tossed and turned. The prevailing winds go one direction one day and another the next."
Anne-Marie Slaughter is a former director of policy planning at the State Department and the current head of the New America Foundation, a public policy institute. On VOA's Press Conference USA, she predicted Obama would be able to weather the health care storm.
States to decide which plans are PPACA-compliant
Originally posted November 21, 2013 by Arthur D. Postal on https://www.lifehealthpro.com
States will be the ultimate determinant as to whether they will allow insurers to renew existing health insurances plans in 2014 even though these policies may not comply with the new Affordable Care Act, President Obama and state insurance regulators agreed at a White House meeting last night.
The meeting with several insurance commissioners and Ben Nelson, chief executive officer of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, was held as the White House continued itsefforts to smooth the troubled political waters caused by the rocky rollout of the federal exchange that will be used by residents of 36 states to buy individual and small group policies mandated by the law.
The state regulators used the occasion to raise other issues with the president, including their relationship with federal insurance regulators given a voice in insurance regulation left to the states for 150 years. A major issue brought up with the president was the role they want to play in establishing international insurance standards.
As for the healthcare, law, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, everyone must have health insurance by March 31, 2014, or pay a penalty. However, the exchange website unveiled Oct. 1 has proved unequal to its task, and there are questions whether it will be fully up to speed by the end of the month, as promised by the administration.
The inability of people to access the website, plus the realization that the president’s commitment to allow everyone to “keep their existing policies if they like them” contradicts the law’s mandate that each insurance policy must contain certain essential benefits, has generated a major political problem for the president.
These essential benefits include providing insurance to people with pre-existing conditions, free preventative care, maternity coverage and other benefits. Also included is a requirement to provide contraceptives for women.
However, the realization that most existing policies didn’t include such benefits created a major practical problem as insurers notified thousands of affected consumers that their existing policies would be cancelled.
As the meeting was being held, CareFirst BlueCross Blue Shield, which serves Maryland, announced that it would allow more than 55,000 policyholders to retain their policies for one year even though the policies don’t contain some of the essential benefits mandated by the new law. CareFirst acted one day after the Maryland insurance commissioner said he would approve such action. Other health insurers in the state said they would also do so; others said they would not.
Other states, like Florida, said they would also allow consumers to keep their existing policies for one year. But, others, like New York, Washington and Indiana, said they would not comply. CaliforniaInsurance Department officials said they would announce their decision today.
At the meeting, the state insurance regulators emphasized their concern that different rules for different policies would be detrimental to the overall insurance marketplace and could result in higher premiums for consumers, without addressing the underlying concern of gaps in coverage. They also emphasized the importance of deferring to the states to protect consumers, and highlighted the track record of effective regulation by insurance departments across the country.
However, they acknowledged that they are just standard-setters, not policymakers and reiterated, as stated by Jim Donelon, NAIC President and Louisiana insurance commissioner, that PPACA is “the law of the land."
“Since the passage of ACA, state regulators have been working to ensure that plans are compliant with the new rules,” Donelon said at the meeting.
He said the proposed changes announced by the president in an executive order last Thursday in response to the uproar over the cancellations and the difficulty consumers are having buying policies on the federal website has creating “a level of uncertainty that we must work together to alleviate.”
Donelon made clear, however that state regulators “share the President’s goal of affordable coverage for consumers, and we will work with the insurance companies in our states to implement changes that make sense while following our mandate of consumer protection.”
Donelon attended the meeting with NAIC Chief Executive Officer Senator Ben Nelson, Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Thomas B. Leonardi, and North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin.
The group discussed practical implications of implementing the delay in enforcement as well as outstanding questions regarding what specific provisions would be impacted, and talked to reporters at length at what was accomplished at the meeting in a conference call afterwards.
Amongst the presidential aides attending the meeting was Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Sebelius and officials of the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversaw development of the website, have been under intense fire because the website has failed because of the huge numbers of people who sought access to it, and because testing designed to prove it worked was not even started until a week or so before the Oct. 1 rollout.
The White House released a statement saying the state regulators had been given full authority as to whether to accept the grandfathering. According to the statement, Obama said that his executive order requires that health plans that offer such renewals provide consumers with clear information about consumer protections lacking in those plans and their options and possible tax credits through the exchanges. The statements said that Obama acknowledged that, “States have different populations with unique needs, and it is up to the insurance commissioner and health insurance companies to decide which insurance products can be offered to existing customers next year.”
Additionally, according to the White House statement, the president emphasized that he wants to hear any ideas that insurance commissioners “may have as implementation continues to ensure that Americans across the country have the information they need to get affordable, quality coverage for themselves and their families.”
8 things employers must do to comply with post-DOMA rules
Originally posted November 21, 2013 by Paula Aven Gladych on https://www.benefitspro.com
Employers need to ensure their retirement plans are in compliance with new rules regarding same-sex marriage.
With the Supreme Court’s decision in June to strike down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act allowing the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages and subsequent clarification by the IRS and the Department Labor, many plan sponsors now have to recognize same-sex couples when it comes to retirement benefits.
Only 14 states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage. But according to new rules which went into effect in mid-September, same-sex couples are entitled to all of the federal rights entitled to opposite sex couples, including workplace benefits —even if the couple resides in a state that doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage.
According to Laura Pergine and Janet Luxton of Vanguard Strategic Retirement Consulting, there are eight things plan sponsors must do to make sure their retirement plans are in compliance post-DOMA:
1. Review plan documents.Vanguard recommends that plan sponsors sift through plan documents to determine if there is a definition of “spouse.” If a definition is there, they need to make sure it is compliant. The company said that plan sponsors also should review provisions in their documents that refer to domestic partnerships or civil unions.
2. Review marital status when it comes to beneficiary determination. If a plan participant who is legally married to a same-sex spouse dies, but his beneficiary designation is for someone he isn’t married to, that person may not receive the promised benefits unless the same-sex spouse waives his spousal rights.
3. Review qualified domestic relations procedures.Legally married same-sex couples have the same rights and obligations as opposite-sex couples if their marriage is dissolved. Qualified Domestic Relation Order procedures need to be reviewed to make sure there are no gender-specific references. If there are, they should be removed, Vanguard said.
4. Hardship withdrawals for same-sex spouses are now available.Plan sponsors need to follow the same rules regarding hardship withdrawals as those that apply to opposite-sex spouses.
5. Required minimum distributions.Gender-specific references to required minimum distributions in plan documents need to be removed. Spouses have more options regarding the treatment of distributions received as beneficiary payments.
6. Gender-specific references to rollovers in plan documents or distribution forms need to be removed. Spouses have more flexibility than non-spouses in how they treat rollover distributions, according to Vanguard.
7. Gender-specific references should be eliminated from participant communications. Plan sponsors should consider targeted communication to those employees most likely affected by these changes. Same-sex couples should be reminded to update their beneficiary designations.
8. Previous payment/Denial of benefits based on marital status. The IRS plans to issue guidance on whether or not same-sex couples who were denied an annuity benefit prior to the DOMA decision can now receive that benefit because of the Supreme Court decision.
6 reminders for employees before Thanksgiving
Originally posted on https://ebn.benefitnews.com
This Thanksgiving, looking at the mess of the Affordable Care Act’s rollout, your employees might just be most grateful to retain their employer-sponsored health plans, but there’s always plenty to celebrate on the fourth Thursday of November. Between food, travel, and more food this Nov. 28, be sure to mark the occasion well. And from all of us at EBN, enjoy your holiday!
Here are six things to remind your employees before they leave for their Thanksgiving breaks. We look at the most popular travel destinations, as well as some Fodor-recommended ones. Perhaps most important at the workplace: don’t forget to set your out-of-office alerts.
More and more Americans are forgoing mere turkeys for the Frankenstein monsters that are Turduckens: a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken, like Russian nesting dolls of poultry. Each November, one store in Louisiana sells more than 5,000 Turduckens, which average 1,600 calories a serving. Human resources administrators probably won’t make many friends by encouraging people to watch what they eat on Thanksgiving of all days, but indulgence shouldn't become a habit if you want to work on your wellness goals.
Did you know Thanksgiving was originally supposed to be a fast, not a feast? The settlers of Plymouth Rock were more likely to “celebrate” with prayer and abstaining from food, but the Wampanoag Indians brought their own harvest festival traditions to the table. So if you need an excuse to under-indulge this holiday, just think to yourself, “I’m only behaving like a pilgrim.”
According to data from Hotwire.com, these are Americans’ biggest destinations next week. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade keeps Manhattan on the top of the list, but be sure to book in advance and allow for extra travel time if you plan on hitting any of the following spots, ranked from No. 1 to 5: New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando and Los Angeles.
According to Fodor’s Erin Gifford, it’s tough to beat a Thanksgiving spent the old fashioned way in Plymouth, Mass., but she has more surprising recommendations as well. In Leiden, Holland, for example, the pilgrims spent 11 years before continuing on to the New World, and local churches and museums always mark turkey day. For something closer to home, Gifford recommends Dana Point, Calif., famous for its 10,000-runner Turkey Trot on a scenic route up the coast.
Thanksgiving time off ranges from merely day-of to more than the entire week, so be sure your staff puts up their voicemail and email out-of-office messages. Be sure to say when you will be back at work and what to do in case of an emergency.
The biggest shopping day of the year immediately follows Thanksgiving, and even if your business doesn't need to prepare, your employees likely do. Holiday shopping gets off with a bang, and experts claim the economy relies on it. Still, it might be a good opportunity to encourage saving – the personal finance website NerdWallet says that more than 90% of 2013 Black Friday ads contain the exact same items and prices as last year. Talk about serving leftovers the day after Thanksgiving!
Offering Benefits Still Gives Employers a Competitive Advantage
Originally posted November 14, 2013 on www6.lexisnexis.com
Employee Benefit Research Institute issued the following news release:
The vast majority of workers say that the benefits package an employer offers x{2015} especially health insurance x{2015} is important to their decision to accept or reject a job, but a quarter are not satisfied with them, according to a new survey.
More than three-quarters of employees state that the benefits package an employer offers prospective employees is extremely (33 percent) or very (45 percent) important in their decision to accept or reject a job, according to the 2013 Health and Voluntary WorkplaceBenefits Survey (WBS), by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald and Associates.
Nevertheless, 31 percent are only somewhat satisfied with the benefits offered by their current employer, and 26 percent are not satisfied.
Workers identify lower cost (compared with purchasing benefits on their own) and choice as strong advantages of voluntarybenefits. However, they are split with respect to their comfort in having their employer choose their benefits provider, and think the possibility that they may have to pay the full cost of any voluntary benefits is a disadvantage.
Workers continue to rank health insurance as the first or second most important benefit provided by employers: 88 percent of employees report that employer-provided health insurance is extremely or very important, far more than for any other workplacebenefit, the WBS found.
"Employee benefits continue to be important to workers," said Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI's Health Research and Education Program and co-author of the report. "Employers that offer a strong employee benefits package should find themselves with a competitive advantage over other companies when it comes to attracting and retaining desirable employees."
As the EBRI report notes, benefits coverage in the workplace, including health insurance, is far from universal. Three-quarters ofemployees (7 6 percent) report their employer offers them health insurance. Two-thirds each indicate they are offered dentalinsurance (67 percent) or a retirement savings plan (66 percent), and more than half say they are offered vision insurance 60 percent), life insurance (58 per cent), and short-term disability insurance (5 5 percent) by their employer. About half are offered long-term disability insurance (49 percent) and accidental death and dismemberment insurance (48 percent).
However, just 38 percent report being offered a traditional pension or defined benefit plan, and only one-quarter (25 percent) are offered long-term care insurance. Fewer report being offered retiree health insurance (22 percent) or other non-core ancillary benefits.
The full report, "Views on the Value of Voluntary Workplace Benefits: Findings from the 2013 Health and Voluntary WorkplaceBenefits Survey," is published in the November EBRI Notes, online at www.ebri.org
The Great American Smokeout Day is Today
Originally posted on https://www.cancer.org
The American Cancer Society marks the Great American Smokeout on the third Thursday of November each year by encouraging smokers to use the date to make a plan to quit, or to plan in advance and quit smoking that day. By quitting — even for one day — smokers will be taking an important step towards a healthier life – one that can lead to reducing cancer risk.
This year, we’re celebrating quitters and their supporters with a series of fun characters designed for social sharing on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. We’ve also got lots of other resources and information to help you quit for good.
Have a question about how to quit smoking? Want to know how lawmakers can help in the fight against tobacco use? Sharecare & the American Cancer Society team up to host a Great American Smokeout Twitter Chat. On Wednesday, Nov. 20 and Thurs. Nov 21, ask your question on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #quitforgood. Go online Thurs, Nov 21, 11 am to 4 pm EST to see the answers roll in from the American Cancer Society and other experts!
Get tips on how to kick your smoking habit during the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout on Thursday, Nov. 21st from 1-2pm ET during Everyday Health’s #HealthTalk: https://www.everydayhealth.com/healthtalk/great-american-smokeout.aspx
Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the US, yet about 43.8 million Americans still smoke cigarettes — Nearly 1 in every 5 adults. As of 2010, there were also 13.2 million cigar smokers in the US, and 2.2 million who smoke tobacco in pipes — other dangerous and addictive forms of tobacco.
Why Quit?
The health benefits of quitting start immediately from the moment of smoking cessation. Quitting while you are younger will reduce your health risks more, but quitting at any age can give back years of life that would be lost by continuing to smoke. View sources.
More Information About Quitting
Quitting is hard, but you can increase your chances of success with help. The American Cancer Society can tell you about the steps you can take to quit smoking and provide quit-smoking programs, resources and support that can increase your chances of quitting successfully. To learn about the available tools, call us at 1-800-227-2345. You can also find free tips and tools below.
- Guide to Quitting Smoking
- What are the Benefits of Quitting?
- Desktop Helpers
- Resources and Tools
- Cigarette Cost Calculator
- Expert Voices Blogs on Tobacco and Smoking
- Latest News About Tobacco and Smoking
- QUIZ: Do You Need Help Quitting?
- Fight Back Against Tobacco
- Get the new Quit For Life Mobile app from Alere Wellbeing, available for iPhone and Android
Groups defend small self-insured plans
Originally posted November 14, 2013 by Allison Bell on www.benefitspro.com
Defenders of self-insured health plans testified on Capitol Hill today that the plans are tools for employers to get more control over benefits programs, not get-out-of-federal-health-regulation free cards.
The witnesses — including Robin Frick, a Madisonville, La., benefit plan administrator, who spoke on behalf of the National Association of Health Underwriters, and Michael Ferguson, the president of the Self-Insurance Institute of America, appeared at a hearing on self-insurance organized by the House Small Business Committee health subcommittee.
Some health policy watchers, including Linda Blumberg of the Urban Institute, who also testified at the hearing, have suggested that young, healthy small groups could use self-insurance simply to escape from Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requirements, and that a flight toward self-insurance could destabilize the small-group health insurance market.
Frick told subcommittee members that most PPACA market protection rules will apply to self-insured groups as well as to insured groups.
"Further, some protections, like non-discrimination testing, already apply to all self-funded plans," Frick said, according to a written version of his remarks posted on the committee website.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is giving more flexibility to insured plans in some areas, such as employee participation requirements, than to self-insured plans, Frick said.
Ferguson gave a list of some of the many PPACA rules that apply to non-grandfathered self-insured plans, including the ban on annual and lifetime benefits limits, preventive services coverage requirements, benefits summary requirements, disclosure requirements, external claim denial review requirements, limits on waiting periods, and an emergency services coverage mandate.
Many of the PPACA provisions that exempt self-insured groups, such as PPACA health insurance rate rules, are irrelevant to self-insured groups, because the self-insured plan sponsors already have an obvious incentive to try to hold down administrative costs, Ferguson said.
Workers stressed over finances
Originally posted November 15, 2013 by Maria Wood on www.lifehealthpro.com
Employees are more aware of their financial shortcomings, but with that increased awareness comes greater strain on their psyches. That was the major takeaway of a recent survey by Financial Finesse, a provider of fiscal education.
The third-quarter “Trends in Employee Financial Issues” survey revealed that 19 percent of employees report “high or overwhelming” levels of financial stress, up from 13 percent in the same quarter of last year. Similarly, 41 percent expressed uncertainty regarding their ability to achieve future financial goals, a significant jump from 34 percent in the third quarter of last year and 33 percent in Q3 2011.
What has them so worried? The U.S. economy and stock market were cited by 43 percent of employees as the major stumbling blocks to a secure financial future. That’s an increase from 42 percent Q3 2012 and 40 percent in 2011’s third quarter.
Employees in the upper age range – 45 and older – were the most anxious. According to the survey, 84 percent of those 45 or older admitted to some level of financial stress, up from 80 percent a year ago and 74 percent in the third quarter of 2011. Financial Finesse researchers attributed that escalation to the immediate and conflicting pressure those in that age group may be facing, such as paying for college for their children and caring for aging parents while at the same time trying to save for retirement and confronting higher health-care costs.
Awareness and action
The overall employee financial wellness score dipped below five (4.9) for the first time since the first quarter of 2012. Yet that decline, emphasized the Financial Finesse researchers, is not due to worsening cash and debt management – areas where employees are maintaining good habits. (For example, 88 percent said they pay their bills on time each month, the same percentage as the previous quarter.) Instead, the researchers conclude it is due to employees heightened awareness of their financial challenges.
Consequently, they are taking steps to address their concerns, at least at the older age bands. Forty-eight percent of employees who took a financial wellness assessment were 45 or older in the latest survey, an upward arc from 44 percent in the same quarter of last year and 43 percent in Q3 2011.
It’s also translating into improved retirement planning. When queried if they were on target to replace at least 80 percent of their income, or goal, in retirement, 19 percent answered yes compared to 18 percent a year ago and 12 percent in the third quarter of 2011. The older one gets the more they have made that calculation, with the highest percentages seen at 55-64 (23 percent) and 65 and older (33 percent).
Rising participation in work-based retirement plans was also charted, with the percentage climbing from 87 percent in Q3 2012 to 90 percent in the latest survey. More employees said they have used a retirement calculator: 39 percent in Q3 compared to 34 percent in the prior year.
Survey: Employees still under-informed on ACA, wellness
Originally posted November 8, 2013 by Tristan Lejeune on ebn.benefitnews.com
Only 15.1% of workers at large employers say they are “knowledgeable” or “very knowledgeable” about health care reform and the Affordable Care Act’s public exchanges, and nearly one in five can’t say for sure if their company has a wellness program or not, according a recent survey. The poll’s results, released this month, speak to a population that has confidence in the communication efforts of their benefits administrators, and that points out some serious shortfalls in that communication.
The survey, which spoke with 400 employees at companies with north of 2,000 each, found that only 29.5% could correctly identify times when they can make changes to their health plans, like open enrollment, according to the Jellyvison Labs. Jellyvision, which created ALEX, a virtual employee benefits counselor, says all but one of the employers involved in the survey offer health insurance, but employees still demonstrate large education gaps on their own benefits.
More than 90% of surveyed workers say it’s at least “somewhat important” to understand ACA and its implications, but less than a fifth actually consider themselves knowledgeable. The good news is employee confidence in their employers’ ability to communicate the necessary information is high: nearly 80% think their companies can properly bring them up to speed, and more than one in three rate their confidence levels on this point at eight or higher on a 10-point scale.
Some 77.6% of those polled agree that it is at least “somewhat important” for their organizations to offer a wellness program, but almost one-fifth don’t know with any certainty whether or not their company does so.
“One of the most important things we learned from this data,” says Josh Fosburg, vice president of business development for the Jellyvision Lab, “is employees aren’t getting everything they need to know about their employers’ wellness programs and other benefits. For instance, nearly half of employees in our survey think they have to pay something in order to take advantage of the wellness programming that will help them manage their weight, stay on top of their prescribed medications, or cease smoking. That’s bananas.”
Jellyvision says employers need to “up their communications game” in order to help employees take advantage of everything included in their benefits offerings.