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People suffering from obesity are undertreated.

As bird flu spreads into new areas, it should start getting the attention of risk managers at multinational companies.

The U.S. Department of Justice has singled out "most favored nation" clauses as a potential roadblock to competition, but payers argue that these are a way to control costs.

The healthcare reform law is placing added pressures on employers, as it adds direct and indirect costs to providing healthcare benefits to workers. "Employers need to look for creative solutions, because rising costs are not going to go away ... . If you want to continue providing healthcare benefits, you need to think outside the traditional box," an expert says.

Analysis of medical claims data reveals important clues about employee health, allowing companies to intervene with those who are most at risk, and to ask hard questions of their carriers at renewal.

More than 20 states offer such plans to employees, and in 2010 more than 70 percent of Indiana's 30,000 state workers chose high-deductible plans linked to health savings accounts.

Grotesque and sometimes fatal medical errors grab headlines, but medical providers who commit errors are saddled with tremendous psychological burdens.

As healthcare reform continues to drive toward more drug-price transparency, employers and benefits managers need to up the ante on drug manufacturers and pharmacy-benefits managers.