Exchanges

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is the latest big-name company to move its active employee base to a private exchange, joining other brand-name companies such as Time, Inc., Sears, Darden Restaurants and Walgreens.

As many as 90,000 Sears employees are finding it easier to shop for health care, are savvier about their coverage choices and finally understand the meaning of value since the 129-year-old retailer switched to a private health insurance exchange three years ago.

In a last-minute push before a special enrollment begins Sunday, officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Treasury Department Friday wanted to remind consumers to sign up for coverage and avoid noted fees seen in this year’s tax season.

Commentary: Three common employer concerns about exchanges and how to address them.

Illinois’s remedy for the state’s worst-in- the-nation $111 billion pension-funding shortfall was disliked by lawmakers who voted for it, the new governor who inherited it and public employee unions who sued to void it.

A strong relationship will lead to a better health care system and more informed consumers, HHS secretary says.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General intends to focus its investigations in fiscal year 2015 on the public health care exchanges, adding 5-10 reviews over the course of the year.

Despite predictions that private exchange enrollment will hit 30 million in 2017, employers remain cautious about them, including those early adopters who say they had little choice but to move to one.