Health Plans are Preparing to Participate in Health Benefit Exchanges

More than two-thirds of health plan business leaders who participated ina KPMG LLP webcast poll in September say they have analyzed the operational impacts and developed a plan of action to become exchange ready (39 percent), or had started implementing required changes and are on schedule to meet the…

Providing Health Care Benefits is top Business Challenge for Company Leadership

According to a survey by Adecco Staffing US, companies are holding back on hiring due to rising costs of benefits. More than half of the more than 500 senior executives polled in the United States cite providing health care benefits to employees as the greatest business challenge they face.

However…

In Many Industries, Economies of Size Is Shifting to Economies of Numbers

For decades, “bigger is better” has been the conventional path to efficiency in industries ranging from transportation to power generation. New research from the Columbia University’s Business School shows a radical shift from building big to building small—a change that has profound implications for both established and emerging…

Uncertainty About Post-Election Policies Tempers Outlook for Commercial Real Estate

Uncertainty over how the national elections will impact the next Presidential Administration’s approach to domestic economic policies, along with a host of global challenges, tempers commercial real estate executives’ market outlook for the remainder of 2012, according to the Q4 Sentiment Index released by The Real Estate Roundtable. The…

10 Most and Least Expensive Urban Areas in the Cost of Living Index

Among the 304 urban areas that participated in the third quarter 2012 Cost of Living Index, the after-tax cost for a professional/managerial standard of living ranged from more than twice the national average in New York (Manhattan) NY to just more than 20 percent below the national average…