When it comes to employee benefits, HR professionals spend countless hours preparing items for open enrollment and holding benefits meetings for employees. However, often times, workers don’t spend much time making their benefit selections. According to a new survey from Aflac, employees who don’t select benefits carefully could face financial consequences as a result. According to Aflac’s Workforces Report, 75 percent of employees who make benefits coverage decisions during open enrollment later regret their decision. In the survey, forty-two percent of workers say they have wasted money because of mistakes they made with their insurance benefits. Also, more than four in five respondents say they are at least “somewhat” concerned about the possibility of an unexpected medical expense. The survey was recently conducted with 980 employees responsible for insurance decisions and outlined the ways Americans make costly mistakes in benefits decisions. The survey also revealed the ...

A study conducted by NCCI Holdings Inc. finds prescription drugs make up 19 percent of workers’ compensation medical costs. That amount is only slightly higher than its 2010 estimate. The study is called Workers’ Compensation Prescription Drug Study: 2011 Update. NCCI Holdings Inc. is a workers’ compensation rating and research organization. The study by NCCI is based on data collected from medical services provided between 1996 and 2009 for claims that happened between 1994 and 2009. According to the parent of the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc., medical costs per workers’ compensation claim average more than $6,000 and climbed to almost $25,000 for lost time claims. The study also found that even though drug costs per claim grew 12 percent in 2009, overall prescription cost increases were driven more by an increase in use rather than by an increase in the price of prescription drugs. The NCCI says dispensing of drugs continued to increase in almost every state ...

This past July, New York’s Marriage Equality Act went into effect. Gay and lesbian couples who live in New York lined up at the city clerk’s office to get married. State law already recognized same-sex marriages were legal in five other states, as well as in the District of Columbia and many other countries (including nearby Canada). "These marriages, in whichever state, are what I call 'feel-good marriages,' " long-time gay activist Larry Kramer said in a statement he released to THE NEW YORK TIMES after the law was passed. "Most straight people who are congratulating us so effusively don't understand that these marriages share none of their federal benefits and entitlements, the right to inherit without punishing taxation, the right for our joint incomes not to be taxed so hideously high, the right to share insurances. … So why do we continue to get so excited when so few worthless crumbs are thrown our way?" Changes could come at the federal level. In 1996, President Bill Clinton sign ...

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, about 1 million young adults obtained health insurance during the first quarter of 2011. This is the result of a health care reform law provision that requires companies to offer coverage to employees’ adult children up to the age of 26. Health and Human Services (HHS) says during this timeframe, 69.6 of young adults who are between the ages of 19 and 25 were insured. This number is up 66.1 percent from 2010. HHS says that 3.5 percentage-point increase represents 1 million young adults that are now with health insurance. This information comes from a recent survey by the National Center for Health Statistics. The young-adult provision, which went into effect January 1 of this year for companies with calendar-year plans, was one of the first mandates from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to go into effect. According to the reform, the only eligibility requirement that employers can enforce is that the employee’s child is young ...

Spincraft, a company in North Billerica, Massachusetts, was cited by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for numerous serious workplace safety violations. The inspection of Spincraft was brought forth upon discovery of a serious eye injury to one of its workers while operating a portable grinder. It was discovered that the portable hand tool did not have the proper guard installed nor was instruction given for safe operating speed. OSHA’s guidelines and procedures are expressly written for this type of avoidable injury. Upon inspection of the rest of the plant uncovered 32 other serious safety violations resulting in $173,000 in proposed fines. Serious violations are classified as those that have great potential for serious injury or death. These violations include the following: Blocked emergency exits Electrical hazards Open floors and platforms Failure to inspect cranes, including ropes and switches Ladderway o ...