Core and Group Health

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced this week that $51 million in grant money through the Affordable Care Act is now available to states to strengthen oversight of insurance premiums and rate hikes.

Enrollment for most leading U.S. health insurers continued to decline through 2009, according to a new study.

Almost 1 million employers, or 19 percent, plan to extend health care coverage to their employees' adult children before they're required to do so next year, according to new research from Hewitt Associates.

Hewitt's survey of more than 500 large U.S. employers, representing 6.9 million covered employees, shows approximately 950,000 workers will be able to obtain health coverage for these dependents earlier than Jan. 1, 2011.

New analysis from the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows the $5 billion allocated for a temporary reinsurance program for early retiree health benefits will likely run out two years before the program's 2014 end date.

Most U.S. companies concede in a new survey that it's going to take more than health care reform legislation to curb rising health care costs, and that the workplace should play a pivotal role in encouraging healthy behaviors.

Voluntary life sales accounted for 24 percent of all voluntary sales in 2009, and new life sales were $1.3 billion for the year, up about 14 percent over 2008, according to Eastbridge's U.S. Worksite Sales Report.

House Democratic leaders released a scaled-down version of a tax and unemployment benefits extension bill Wednesday in an effort to get the measure approved before Congress breaks for its Memorial Day recess.