2026 will reward employers, brokers, and vendors that embrace flexibility, transparency, and consumer-driven benefits design — and those that help employees make smarter financial decisions in an increasingly complex health care landscape.

How can benefits advisors truly differentiate themselves in a crowded market? The answer lies in technology.

For benefits advisors, the bigger story isn't this one-year individual plan bump — it's the volatility their clients are already battling.

Rising health care costs, the aging of the union workforce, and the escalating burden of chronic disease are placing unprecedented pressure on the financial and operational health of union benefit funds.

Plaintiffs allege that all major health insurers in the U.S., including UnitedHealth, Aetna, Cigna, Humana and Blue Cross And Blue Shield, and many smaller ones, have joined with MultiPlan to form a "cartel" that shares their competitively sensitive reimbursement data

Employees enrolled in HDHPs are often the most exposed to price volatility, making pharmacy strategy a critical lever in any cost-containment plan.

This is the story of one benefits consultant's journey from conventional insurance broker to health benefits innovator.

By the time Eric Tennant was diagnosed in 2023 with a rare cancer of the bile ducts, the disease had spread to his bones. He weighed 97 pounds and wasn’t expected to survive a year with stage 4 cancer.