Tag: benefits

Implant Charges Seen as Ripe for Health Plan Cost Control

Implants — spinal fusion; as well as hip, knee and shoulder replacements — have emerged as major price problems today. Costs are up and so is utilization, which explains the cost surge health plans are undergoing for these procedures, according to three attorneys from The Phia Group in Braintree, Mass., who spoke in a Jan. […]

GAO Recommends New Destinations for Forced 401(k) Transfers

Distributing abandoned small accounts in the 401(k) plans of participants who have left the company is a necessary evil for plan sponsors, to keep the plan focused on managing larger, active holdings and controlling costs. Despite the benefits for the plan that this form of housekeeping provides, results from these “forced transfers” may be less […]

Use Value & Outcomes to Assess Plan Fees, TIAA-CREF Says

Retirement plan sponsors now have more information than ever before about the fees they are paying for plan services. This helps meet fiduciary obligations to monitor and assess the “reasonableness” of plan fees, but it also can lead to uncertainty about how best to meet these obligations. The large amounts of information provided by the […]

A Lesson from Google in Fostering “Smart Creatives”

I often talk about the characteristics of the people with whom I want to work. In their book How Google Works, Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg talk about the type of people they had at Google. And the two of them should know—Schmidt is the executive chairman and ex-CEO, and Rosenberg is a former SVP […]