Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss.
Business is the activity of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products. Simply put, it is "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit."
Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence. The trade-off between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system is known as "the compensation bargain". One of the problems that the compensation bargain solved is the problem of employers becoming insolvent as a result of high damage awards. The system of collective liability was created to prevent that, and thus to ensure security of compensation to the workers. Individual immunity is the necessary corollary to collective liability.
A health savings account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged medical savings account available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). The funds contributed to an account are not subject to federal income tax at the time of deposit. Unlike a flexible spending account (FSA), HSA funds roll over and accumulate year to year if they are not spent. HSAs are owned by the individual, which differentiates them from company-owned Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA) that are an alternate tax-deductible source of funds paired with either high-deductible health plans or standard health plans.
A professional employer organization (PEO) is an outsourcing firm that provides services to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Typically, the PEO offering may include human resource consulting, safety and risk mitigation services, payroll processing, employer payroll tax filing, workers' compensation insurance, health benefits, employers' practice and liability insurance (EPLI), retirement vehicles, regulatory compliance assistance, workforce management technology, and training and development. The PEO enters into a contractual co-employment agreement with its clientele. Through co-employment, the PEO becomes the employer of record(EoR) for tax purposes through filing payroll taxes under its own tax identification numbers. As the legal employer, the PEO is responsible for withholding proper taxes, paying unemployment insurance taxes and providing workers’ compensation coverage.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) is an agency in the California executive branch that "manages pension and health benefits for more than 1.6 million California public employees, retirees, and their families". In fiscal year 2012–13, CalPERS paid over $12.7 billion in retirement benefits, and in fiscal year 2013 it is estimated that CalPERS will pay over $7.5 billion in health benefits.
Maximus Inc., trademarked as MAXIMUS, is an American outsourcing company that provides business process services to government health and human services agencies in the United States, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Maximus focuses on administering government-sponsored programs, such as Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), health care reform, welfare-to-work, Medicare, child support enforcement, and other government programs. The company is based in Reston, Virginia, has 34,300 employees and a reported annual revenue of $3.46 billion in fiscal year 2020.
An insurance broker is an intermediary who sells, solicits, or negotiates insurance on behalf of a client for compensation. An insurance broker is distinct from an insurance agent in that a broker typically acts on behalf of a client by negotiating with multiple insurers, while an agent represents one or more specific insurers under a contract.
HUB International Limited is an insurance brokerage providing an array of property, casualty, risk management, life and health, employee benefits, investment, and wealth management products and services across North America. HUB has more than 375 offices across the United States and Canada and more than 10,000 employees. It is based in Chicago, Illinois.
Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. is a global professional services firm, headquartered in New York City with businesses in insurance brokerage, risk management, reinsurance services, talent management, investment advisory, and management consulting. Its four main operating companies are Guy Carpenter, Marsh, Mercer, and Oliver Wyman Group.
Hollard Group is a privately owned insurance group based in South Africa that operates under two insurance licences: short term and life. The company was established in 1980 by Robert Enthoven, and the Enthoven family retains the majority share, locally through The Enthoven Family Trust (EFT) and internationally through Capricorn Ventures International (CVI).
Health insurance in the United States is any program that helps pay for medical expenses, whether through privately purchased insurance, social insurance, or a social welfare program funded by the government. Synonyms for this usage include "health coverage", "health care coverage", and "health benefits". In a more technical sense, the term "health insurance" is used to describe any form of insurance providing protection against the costs of medical services. This usage includes both private insurance programs and social insurance programs such as Medicare, which pools resources and spreads the financial risk associated with major medical expenses across the entire population to protect everyone, as well as social welfare programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which both provide assistance to people who cannot afford health coverage.
Healthy San Francisco is a health access program launched in 2007 to subsidize medical care for uninsured residents of San Francisco, California. The program's stated objective is to bring universal health care to the city. Healthy San Francisco is not a true insurance program, as it does not cover services such as dental and vision care, and only covers services received in the city and county of San Francisco. The program itself acknowledges its limitations, and has stated that "insurance is always a better choice." Healthy San Francisco represents the first time a local government has attempted to provide health insurance for all of its constituents. The program is open to low-income city residents over the age of 18 who do not qualify for other public coverage, and who have had no insurance for at least 90 days. Eligibility is not conditional on citizenship, immigration, employment or health status. The program covers a range of services, but only pays providers within San Francisco. By July 2010, almost 90% of the uninsured adults in San Francisco — over 50,000 people — had enrolled in Healthy San Francisco.
Lockton Companies Inc. is the world's largest privately held insurance brokerage firm, providing insurance, risk management, employee benefits and retirement services. In addition to its Kansas City, Missouri headquarters, Lockton operates more than 100+ locations in 125 countries. Lockton currently employs more than 8,300 people worldwide.
Pension administration in the United States is the act of performing various types of yearly service on an organizational retirement plan, such as a 401(k), profit sharing plan, defined benefit plan, or cash balance plan. Increasingly, employers are also implementing these plan types in combination arrangements for greater contribution potential, such as the pairing of a cash balance plan with some variety of 401(k). The pension administration ensures that an organizational retirement plan neither discriminates against lower-level employees nor becomes an abusive tax shelter. Stress tests include the average benefits test, average deferral percentage, and minimum coverage. Yearly pension administration work involves filing a Form 5500 with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Organizations such as the National Institute of Pension Administrators and the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries offer several professional designations to those who do this work. Pension Administration firms often rely on financial brokers for their business prospects, although they do have other referral sources. Some pension administration firms assign financial advisory work to an internal unit and also accept referrals from an independent broker network. These brokers are often associated with firms like Raymond James, Edward Jones Investments and Morgan Stanley. The brokers may be employees of these firms or independent contractors. The plan assets of the organizational retirement plans in question sometimes reside on a trading platform that the administration firm control. More often, large financial institutions that provide a variety of investment options for plan participants hold the assets. Large firms include Principal Financial Group, John Hancock Insurance, ING Group and Mass Mutual. Pension administrators often coordinate with public accounting firms, as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) requires plans with more than one hundred participants to undergo an independent audit each year. For defined benefit plans, the pension administration firm must employ an actuary to certify the plan's present and future benefit liabilities and compliance with IRS minimum funding standards. Pension administration firms with a large block of defined benefit plans often directly employ an actuary. Firms that only work on a small collection of defined benefit plans tend to retain the actuary as an independent contractor. The actuary completes contribution calculations for the plan and provides a Schedule SB so that the administrators may file the yearly Form 5500. Without this Schedule the yearly filing for a defined benefit plan would be incomplete. Other than the IRS, organizational retirement plan operation and maintenance falls under the regulation of the United States Department of Labor.
Health Advocate, Inc. is a US national health advocacy, patient advocacy and assistance company. The privately held company was founded in 2001 by former Aetna executives and is headquartered in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, currently run by Teleperformance. The company employs registered nurses, medical directors and benefits specialists who address a range of health care and health insurance issues. Personal Health Advocates can help members locate providers, address errors on medical bills, answer questions about coverage denials and assist with insurance appeals.
Anthem, Inc., is a provider of health insurance in the United States. It is the largest for-profit managed health care company in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. As of 2018, the company had approximately 40 million members.
Aon Hewitt is a provider of human capital and management consulting services headquartered in the United States in Lincolnshire, Illinois. From 500 offices in 120 countries, it provided consulting, outsourcing, and reinsurance brokerage services. The "Aon Hewitt" brand and legal entities have now been absorbed into the "Aon" business, leaving "Hewitt" as a name, obsolete.
Zenefits is a San Francisco, CA-based technology company that offers cloud-based software as a service to companies for managing their human resources, with a particular focus on helping them with payroll and health insurance coverage. The company was founded in 2013.
Higginbotham is an independent insurance brokerage firm founded in 1948 that provides businesses and individuals with insurance, risk management and employee benefit services.
