6 Ways to Improve Open Enrollment
We may be in the 18th year of the “new” millennium, but employee benefits has been left behind in the 20th century. Despite HR tech innovations, the quality of customer service remains lower than almost every other industry. This year, co...
How to Choose Between An HMO and a High-Deductible Health Plan
So many acronyms! It's easy to get lost in the land of healthcare plan options. For this post, we'll tackle a frequent question: what's the difference between a health maintenance organization (HMO) plan and a high-deductible health plan (HDHP)?If yo...
Out-of-Network Care: What You Need to Know About It
“Care” is defined as physicians and dentists, but also specialists like anesthesiologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists. The services provided by hospitals, labs, radiology facilities, and pharmacies are also deemed ca...
Domestic partnerships, civil unions, and health insurance: the basics
Health benefits for parties in a domestic partnership or civil union can be an effective recruiting tool. Domestic partnerships and civil unions historically provided coverage to same-sex couples. Yet health benefits for such parties can cost a compa...
Qualifying Event Documentation
When a significant even happens in your life, you may be able to make changes to your employer-sponsored health insurance to add or drop coverage for you or dependents. When this happens, the insurance company requires certain documentation to confir...
Workplace Wellness: Workplace Ergonomics & the Prevention of Injury
30Workplace Wellness: The importance of Workplace Ergonomics in the Prevention of InjuryImplementing workplace wellness programs can be a significant task. However, as covered in the latest posts in this series, the benefits of a healthy workfo...
Workplace Wellness: The Importance of Workplace Ergonomics in the Prevention of Injury
Workplace Wellness: The importance of Workplace Ergonomics in the Prevention of InjuryImplementing workplace wellness programs can be a fairly significant task. However, as covered in the last two blogs, the benefits of a healthy workforce can...
Bringing Open Enrollment into the 21st century
One thing that is sure to have employers and employees singing the same tune is a mutual disdain for the open enrollment period. It's a confusing process for workers and a laborious task for even the most efficient companies. If you're one of th...
Workplace Wellness: Preventing Substance Abuse
Substance abuse is the unhealthy use of alcohol, drugs or other substances that negatively interfere with a person’s functioning or well-being. People abuse substances such as drugs, alcohol, and tobacco for varied and complicated reasons. More...
Workplace Wellness: Managing and Alleviating Stress in the Workplace
Stress in the workplace is a serious issue. Many of us exist in a culture where the line between work and life is becoming increasingly blurred. Often, stresses from the day spill into the evening until all our pressures compound into a s...
Open Enrollment Education: Be Proactive
Every year that short window of time opens up when employees are allowed to revisit their benefits. Open enrollment can be an extremely stressful and overwhelming time for everyone involved since it's typically the only time during the year when...
Workplace Wellness: Combat Fatigue in the Workplace
We have all been there on a Monday morning. Feverishly hitting snooze on the alarm as it rudely awakens us from a blissful sleep. Going through our morning routine in autopilot until we find ourselves at a work station rubbing the sleep from our eyes...
Workplace Wellness: Exercise Initiatives
One of the best ways to improve the overall health and well-being of your employees is to introduce different opportunities to exercise into the workplace. As covered in the last blog, regular exercise provides many benefits including health improvem...
Spotlight Series: Understanding ACA Measurement Periods
Once you find out you're ALE status and obligations to the employer mandate, you'll need to find out how many employees you're required to offer benefits to. The IRS allows safe harbor methods for you to use to determine the benefits elig...
Understanding Veteran Exclusions from Your ALE Status
If you are close to having more than 50 full time employees towards your applicable large employer (ALE) status, or just over the hump, there is a law that may be of particular interest to you. Currently, the ACA requires all ALEs to offer health...
Are You an Applicable Large Employer?
With ACA employer mandate forms due as early as March 31, you should have a head start on understanding if you have responsibilities to the healthcare law. Knowing your status as an Applicable Large Employer helps you understand if the m...
Two New ACA Cases Reach Federal Court
Class action lawsuit looms over Dave and Buster’s and six states take on the Federal Government over provider’s fees. Marin v Dave and Buster’s A federal court will decide whether employers may reduce their employees’...
What is ACA Compliance?
Now that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is in full effect, many employers are concerned about ensuring their compliance with the aspects of the law that affect them. If you’re a new employer, or just want to understand how the law affects y...
Health Savings Account 101 Slideshow
Check out our Health Savings Account 101 Slideshow and share with your friends/family/employees/and the world!Cheers to better benefits.If you have any questions about how Lumity can advise your company on the benefits of medical savings accounts suc...
Spotlight Series: Year-End Health Savings Account Eligibility And Tax Season
Yes, it's the end of the year and tax season seems far away, but as many may have switched to an HSA-qualified HDHP during open enrollment, it's important to know how year end eligibility in 2015 could affect your taxes in April of 2016 and beyond.In...
Spotlight Series: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Health Savings Accounts
Having already beaten the drum of HSAs in a previous post, it’s also prudent to identify the negative aspects that can be associated with the use of these accounts. After you’ve decided that an HSA-qualifying HDHP is for you and you&rsquo...
Spotlight Series: Health Savings Accounts and the Inherent Gamble of Health Insurance
Insurance as an industry calculates probabilities of pooled risk. Insurance companies are betting that we (as individuals and on a larger scale, employment groups) will pay more in premiums than they will in medical care costs. As they make this bet,...
Spotlight Series: A Health Savings Account Rundown
We at Lumity tend to hail the existence and use of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) more often than not, partially because our customers tend to have younger, relatively healthy individuals and families in their group that benefit from the selection of...
A Glossary of Health Care Terms
Claim A formal request to an insurance company asking for a payment based on the terms of a certain health insurance policy – usually made by the healthcare provider based on services you use.Co-insurance A percentage of costs fo...
Spotlight Series: The Employer Mandate 2015
Compliance with the employer mandate in the ACA isn’t hard with the right reporting system and technology. In this post, we’ll shine a light on what you need to know and do to comply. When you're done, get in touch with us and see how our...
Lumity Receives $14M in Series A Led By The Social+Capital Partnership
Big things are happening here at Lumity.Our core belief, that people should be able to easily access the information they need to make the right health insurance decisions no matter the size of their employer, drives us.Today we are happy to ann...