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As one of the many outgrowths of the sweeping federal health care law, health insurers and employers must now pay the cost of screening children for obesity and providing them with appropriate counseling.

With about one in three children in the United States obese or overweight, according to government statistics, the need for such programs is clear. But, experts say, creating them will be challenging. Other than intensive hospital-based programs, few proven models exist for helping children and adolescents achieve and maintain a healthier weight, and researchers do not even fully understand the factors that contributed to the rapid rise in childhood obesity in recent years. “If this were easy, if there were clear outcomes for success, we would be investing in these,” said Dr. Samuel R. Nus Read more…

Set and maintain money management guidelines to achieve your goals.

Have you resisted establishing a household budget because it seems too rigid? While you don’t have to track every dime, it’s important to know where your money is going so you can make concrete plans to reach your short- or long-term financial goals.

Start With the Basics
The premise for budgeting is simple. You should be earning more than you spend. To start, write down your take-home pay and expenses for one month in a small notebook that you carry with you. No expense is too small or insignificant; include your morning coffee, parking fees and lunch. Then, start looking at costs that you can avoid or replace with less expensive options.

If you have a partner or multiple bank accounts, tracking income and expenses can be challenging. You

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Tags: Budget, Household Budget

One of the most closely-watched aspects of the federal health-overhaul law is a provision that requires insurers to spend a set proportion of premium dollars on patients’ care and quality-improvement efforts  — 85% for large groups, or 80% for individual and small-group plans. If an insurer doesn’t hit the mark, it has to refund the difference to consumers.

That issue seemed to have been largely resolved last November, when the Department of Health and Human Services released a rule on how the so-called medical loss ratio would be calculated. The first rebates are set to be issued next year.

Now, some state regulators want to reopen the whole can of worms. Yester Read more…

Wondering what the top trends in workplace benefits will be for 2012? Colonial Life and Accident Insurance Company released their top five predictions for the coming year in terms of workplace insurance:

1. Products: Critical illness insurance will continue to get attention

Major medical issues like cancer, heart attacks and strokes usually exceed many employees’ major medical coverage. Critical illness insurance can provide vital out-of-pocket protection in these cases. “One way to think of critical illness insurance is as ‘living life insurance,’” says Randy Finn, assistant vice president of supplemental health products at Colonial Life, where critical illness sales increased 24 percent from 2009 to 2010. “If you get a serious illness such as cancer and die, life insurance helps with that. But what if you survive? You’re like

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Tags: 2012