Aflac, the leading provider of voluntary insurance in the U.S., today announced that it has launched a suite of resources featuring health care reform and benefits-related information specifically designed for small-business owners. Aflac developed these resources and tools to help small-business owners better understand the complexities of the changing health care landscape and to more effectively communicate about benefits and health care reform with their employees.

The new online portfolio includes a Health Care Reform Benefits Tool, an Employee Communications Toolkit, the Aflac Small Business Blog and the Aflac Small Business Owner page on LinkedIn.

"Our customers rely on Aflac as their trusted advisor on a wide range of benefits issues," said Michael Zuna, executive vice president, chief marketing officer at Aflac. "It's our goal to provide them with effective insurance options and solutions that allow them to offer great benefits while managing costs and maintaining focus on running their businesses. We developed these new resources to help small-business owners understand their benefits delivery options, how to comply with health care reform regulations, and how to improve their employee benefits communications – all with straightforward language and easy-to-implement solutions."

The suite of resources includes:

• Health Care Reform Benefits Tool: The interactive tool clearly explains health care reform requirements for employers. It also helps them understand the employer mandate provision, clarifies new requirements and outlines benefits delivery options.
• Employee Communications Toolkit: The toolkit helps enable year-round benefits communications with easy-to-customize and ready-to-publish communications materials to help small-business owners communicate with their employees. The toolkit includes materials to share with employees such as articles, email templates and bulletin board items. In addition to keeping employees informed and up-to-date, the toolkit includes a "Just for Employers" section with the latest health care benefits information, benefits trends, products, tips and resources.
• Aflac Small Business Blog: With short articles, tips and news items, the blog is a great resource for small-business owners featuring a wide range of timely topics that will help them manage their employee benefits programs and businesses more effectively.
• LinkedIn Aflac Small Business Owner page: Aflac has designed a LinkedIn page specifically for small-business owners that allows them to quickly access and easily share information tailored to their unique business needs. Topics range from health care reform to employee benefits solutions and more.

In addition, Aflac publishes Aflac Insights, a monthly e-newsletter that provides subscribers with the latest benefits insights, tools, articles and more to help them stay informed. To sign up to receive the e-newsletter, click here.

"Small-business owners are managing many responsibilities related to benefits – preparing for health care reform, selecting benefits packages and communicating to employees about upcoming changes," said Zuna. "Aflac's suite of resources simplifies complex subjects to help them make the best benefits decisions and provide best practices on benefits communications so their employees can make informed decisions for their families."

To learn more about Aflac, visit aflac.com/business or follow @aflac on Twitter.