Now more than ever, employers need to step up their employee benefits game beyond providing group health insurance.

Thanks to the Great Resignation, employees are demanding more from their current and prospective employers. And those that don't deliver lose employees or have trouble attracting new talent, as long-time colleagues head for the exits.

Q: We have an employee who wants to make changes to her cafeteria plan election, even though benefits are already effective. Is there a grace period that allows her to change her election?

Employers: Don't make this common cafeteria plan mistake!

Once cafeteria plan benefits become effective, the elections are "locked in." Employees cannot change their minds and make changes to pre-tax cafeteria elections during the plan year, once benefits become effective — unless a special enrollment period as defined under IRC Section 125 applies, or the employer is correcting an administrative error.

July 1 was the deadline for health plans to make public their in-network negotiated rates, out-of-network billed charges, and more.
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While health plans will be required to post this information, employers who sponsor their group health insurance for their employees will need to take steps to ensure that their plans comply with the law, if they have not already done so.

Employers nationwide are looking for ways to attract and retain talent and differentiate themselves from competing employers, and many are looking to the two most popular voluntary benefits: employee dental and vision plans.​

That's important in today's tight job market. After all, a recent survey from CareerBuilder found that 55% of workers believed an employer's menu of benefits was more important than salary when considering a job position or offer.

It always takes more time than usual to onboard new employees — particularly ones who are new to the workforce altogether — to your employee benefits plans.
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Keep in mind that the ritual of choosing a benefits package is a brand-new experience for people who are new to the workforce, and you should prepare to educate new employees on how to effectively choose and use their new coverages, as well as all the details like premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses.

While most organizations ramp up their benefits communications about a month before open enrollment starts, the efforts often drop off at the start of the year.

That's a shame because many employees are woefully unaware of how their benefits function and are often not taking full advantage of what their employer and they are paying for. Employees that don't understand their benefits fully may end up paying out of pocket for services that are covered.

More employers are including narrow provider network insurance plans among their plan offerings to their employees to give them a lower-cost premium option.

Narrow provider networks limit the number of covered providers included in health insurance plans. While these plans have been mainstays on Affordable Care Act marketplaces, employers have been slow to adopt them.

Despite the job market upheaval and intense competition for talent, there is a mismatch between the value that human resources executives and job prospects put on employee benefits, according to a new survey.

One in five workers surveyed said that health care and health insurance are a major factor when deciding to accept a job, compared with only 13% of human resources executives, according to the "2022 Health at Work" survey by Quest Diagnostics.

A new survey has found that managing health care costs and expanding mental health benefits will be a top priority for U.S. employers as they ramp up benefits to compete for talent in the tight job market spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, virtual care is expected to become an essential and long-lasting feature of employers' health insurance and employee benefits strategies over the next few years, according to the "2022 Emerging Trends in Healthcare Survey" by Wills Towers Watson.