Communication Archives - Page 15 of 16

ACA Communication—The Struggle Is Real

Justin Held, CEBS

11 Jul 201611 Jul 2016

Employers and employees alike are well aware of the complexities involved in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The results from our most recent survey show that about 40% of organizations rate their employees’ understanding as either poor or very […]

Communication Employee Benefits Health Care

Four Ways to Make Sure EOBs Do Explain

Chris Vogel, CEBS

22 Jun 2016

Have you ever tried to make sense of health care bills after a serious illness? Did you fantasize about marching into your insurance company president’s office, handing him or her a box full of EOBs and demanding a real explanation of your […]

Affordable Care Act (ACA) Communication Employee Benefits Health Care Insurance

How to Tell an Employee You are Appealing Their ACA Subsidy

Lois Gleason, CEBS

31 May 201631 May 2016

Soon the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will begin notifying employers about employees receiving advance premium tax credits (APTC) or subsidies for 2016 on the ACA federally facilitated exchange. For an idea of what the notice will look like, see […]

Communication Employee Benefits

Benefit Communication: Losing Can Be a Winning Strategy

Pat Bonner, Ph.D., CEBS

22 Apr 201609 Nov 2017

If you are a baseball fan, you are probably familiar with this quote often credited to legendary baseball coach Sparky Anderson—”Losing hurts twice as bad as winning feels good.” I’ve got to wonder whether Sparky knew how right he was. His words […]

Affordable Care Act (ACA) Communication

Helpful IRS Employee Tax Tips About 1095 Forms

Lois Gleason, CEBS

04 Mar 2016

In January I shared sample answers to seven questions your employees might have about their 1095 forms. The positive response showed a lot of you are searching for plain language to help explain Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements to your employees. When […]

Communication Employee Benefits Health Care

Three Reasons You Should Consider One-On-One Benefits Communication

Staff

29 Feb 2016

In a new International Foundation Benefits Communication survey, only 19% of employers reported their employees have a high level understanding of their benefits. When asked why this is, employers overwhelmingly said their employees do not read the information they provide or they […]

Communication Employee Benefits

Benefits Communication Growing in Importance and Difficulty

Neil Mrkvicka

25 Feb 201625 Feb 2016

Half of all organizations responding to the Benefits Communication Survey say the number of participant questions they receive regarding benefits has increased in the past two years. Adding to the frustration, organizations identify their top challenge with benefits communication as participants not […]

Affordable Care Act (ACA) Communication Employee Benefits Regulatory

Employees Impatient for 1095-Cs

Lois Gleason, CEBS

01 Feb 2016

You may still be working on your 1095 forms, knowing the IRS gave you an extension until March 31 to send the 1095-Cs to employees, as required under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Some of your employees, however, are doing their taxes now […]

Communication Defined Contribution (DC) Plans Employee Benefits Retirement

Communications Key in Unique 457 Plan Reenrollment Program

Chris Vogel, CEBS

27 Jan 2016

Concerned about how aggressively many Illinois state employees had invested 457 plan assets, plan trustees decided in late 2014 on a bold move: Investments of all 53,000 participants would be moved into a lifecycle fund unless a participant opted out of reenrollment. […]

Affordable Care Act (ACA) Communication Employee Benefits

Seven Questions Employees Will Ask About the ACA 1095s

Lois Gleason, CEBS

22 Jan 201631 Jan 2017

For an updated version of this post for your 2017 1095 season, including a bonus eighth question, click here. You did it! The 1095 forms are ready and going out to employees. Now what? You guessed it: Rampant employee confusion. You’re going […]