Employers Weigh COVID Vaccine Mandates

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: September 2021 Cobb Business Journal As Delta variant concerns continue to mount and vaccine hesitancy persists among a large segment of the American workforce, employers anxious to return to a somewhat normal work environment are weighing a number of strategies in their attempts to […]

COVID-19’s Impact on Employees’ Insurance Preferences

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: March 2021 Cobb Business Journal For decades, life insurance sales have been dwindling to the point that, according to a 2020 Limra survey, just over half of American adults reported having a life insurance policy down from 63% in its 2010 survey.  Early indications […]

Calibrating COVID-19 Surcharges and Incentives to Ensure Compliance

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: November 2021 Cobb Business Journal While the news cycle has been saturated with reporting on employers requiring that their employees either be vaccinated or be fired, most employers are looking to take a more delicate “carrots and sticks” approach. To be sure, once the […]

Likely Healthcare Changes Under the Biden Administration

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: February 2021 Cobb Business Journal With the January Senate runoffs behind us and Democratic control secured in the upper chamber of Congress, there is much speculation regarding what impact the new power dynamic in Washington will have in a variety of areas.  Given that […]

Unlocking the Potential of Health Savings Accounts

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: January 2021 Cobb Business Journal As employers and individuals alike have attempted to maintain reasonably affordable health insurance coverage in the face of ever increasing health insurance premiums, it will come as a surprise to no one that deductibles and out-of-pocket maximum exposure have […]

The ACA Has Another Day in the Supreme Court

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: December 2020 Cobb Business Journal The Affordable Care Act (ACA), originally signed into law on March 23, 2010, finds itself once again in front of the United States Supreme Court.  This time, the issue at question is whether the entire law should fall because […]

Medical & Dental Insurance Carrier Integration – An Emerging Trend

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: November 2020 Cobb Business Journal Historically, employers who made a decision to integrate their medical and dental plans with a single insurance carrier came to that decision largely on the basis of desiring administrative convenience or packaging discounts.  While strong arguments still exist for […]

Calibrating Employee Premiums to Ensure Affordable Care Act Compliance

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: October 2021 Cobb Business Journal When the compliance aspects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became enforceable in 2014, most large employers subject to the ACA’s Employer Shared Responsibility provisions were keen to ensure that the benefit plans they offered to employees met the […]