Employers everywhere are feeling the pinch of double-digit health insurance inflation. One trend that’s getting some notice as a possible solution is the consumer-driven benefits approach, which typically couples a high-deductible health plan with a personal health account, such as a health savings account. The thinking behind this approach is that employees may be more careful about managing health care expenses when they’re footing a larger portion of the bill. To successfully implement the consumer-driven benefits approach with your employees, there are two critical factors that must be part of your implementation plan:

·         Voluntary benefits

·         Effective benefits communication

    With the move toward high-deductible health plans, your role is changing from providing and paying for traditional benefits to providing access to a wide variety of quality benefits — both core and voluntary. This way, you can maintain a competitive benefits package and still provide employees with options to lessen the effects of their increased financial risk for medical expenses:

    1. Provide choices in health plans. Many employers are offering a menu of two or more health plans ranging from full coverage plans with higher premiums to high-deductible plans with lower premiums. Employees can then select health coverage that makes sense for their own situation.

    2. Use voluntary benefits to expand benefits program choices. Voluntary benefits can enhance and expand your benefits program without additional budget constraints. You can offer a wide variety of individual and group voluntary insurance products from life to disability and supplemental health coverage, and you can fund some of the costs or let employees pay the premiums. Employees can then choose products they need to fill any coverage gaps.

With the consumer-driven benefits approach, if you don’t effectively communicate benefits, employees perceive the approach as mere cost-shifting. That’s why effective benefits communication is vital. A voluntary benefits partner can bring you not only product solutions but also benefits communications solutions, such as one-on-one employee sessions that cover core benefits in addition to voluntary benefits. When done well, benefits communications can help employees learn about their benefits and learn about the value of what their employer provides.

    According to the Watson Wyatt WorkUSAÒ 2004 study, “how well a company communicates the value of its health benefits can do more to retain top-performing employees than the actual richness of the benefits themselves.” In companies that don’t do a good job communicating the value of their rich benefits programs, only 22 percent of surveyed employees were satisfied with their benefits package. Conversely, in organizations that do a comprehensive job communicating the value of less rich benefit packages, 76 percent of employees were satisfied with their benefits.

We are a quality voluntary benefits provider who can help you successfully implement the consumer-driven benefits approach by bringing voluntary coverage choices and effective benefits communications capabilities. You can benefit through better management of your benefits program budget, an enhanced benefits program and improved attraction and retention rates for quality employees. Employees can benefit by having a variety of coverage choices to meet their needs and by getting help to understand their benefits and the value of them.

    Each individual’s lifestyle and needs are different from the next person’s. Our personal insurance products offer a broad range of benefit options for employers and employees, and many can help combat the rising costs of health care.



Quality Benefits Now
347-351-9229
victoria@qualitybenefitsnow.com