The price of healthcare benefits rises dramatically every year, and it looks like 2021 will be no different. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) projects that next year’s healthcare benefits will cost 5.3 percent more than they did this year, further necessitating effective cost management strategies for employers who want to increase their savings.

While some brokers may offer rate holds to business owners to combat this struggle, employers should still think twice before accepting such an offer, especially if they don’t have access to important data about their claims.

Here’s why you may not want to accept a rate hold from your benefits carrier:

Trust in Transparency

The benefits industry has jaded many business owners into thinking that they should take their brokers at their word when it comes to securing the best possible prices for their plan. Because of this, many employers have become accustomed to paying more every year for their benefits, trusting that their brokers are truly getting them the best possible deal.

In reality, though, knowing whether or not you’re getting the optimal price on your benefits package is impossible if you don’t know what you’re paying for. Most fully funded plans don’t allow advisers to access claims data, meaning that business owners have to put all their trust in brokers who get paid on commission. The average benefits plan provides little transparency, and that means that employers have no way of knowing if they’re getting a good deal or if their carrier is getting a good deal.

No Deal Without Data

Your benefits plan is one of your company’s largest expenses, and yet, many employers don’t know how much they should be spending on their plan. Your broker may frame your rate hold as a good deal, but if you don’t know the numbers behind it, you may be getting ripped off.

Imagine this happening with other major purchases in your life. If a car salesman offered you a brand-new high-end sports car at 50 percent off, you might think you’d be getting a great deal. But you’d never sign the papers without knowing the actual price and quality of the car – otherwise, you might end up having to pay off a $50 million car (discounted to just $25 million!) with a faulty brake system.

Rate hold offers from your carrier should be met with the same skepticism and scrutiny. Otherwise, you can still end up paying too much for a low-quality plan.

The Search for Something Better

Rather than accepting a rate hold, work with an adviser who has the tools to access the data within your benefits plan and can help you adjust your costs accordingly. For example, if you’re paying $600k for your plan, but the numbers show that you only have $400k in claims, you may be giving $200k back to your carrier without even realizing it. A great adviser could analyze the data and prevent that money from going to waste, enabling you to put it toward:

• Bonuses or raises for your employees
• New and qualified hires
• Employee retention to avoid COVID-19 layoffs

A rate hold may sound like the best option available to your business, but you may just be settling if you don’t have an adviser working to create savings from your plan.

Letting Go of Rate Holds

Before convincing yourself that a rate hold is the best way to avoid dramatic price hikes in your benefits plan, speak with an adviser who wants to help decrease your benefit costs. By increasing the transparency in your plan through access to important data, your adviser can help find savings that might otherwise be buried in your plan, going straight to your carrier instead of being invested back into your company.

Contact us today to learn more about how a great adviser can help you gain access to incredible savings in your benefits plan.

Though fully funded benefits plans may be the best choice for some businesses, self-funded plans can provide employers with unique tools that can help them access and use the data that is often hidden in the benefits industry. Carriers use data as justification to increase premiums – often dramatically – while keeping the specific numbers hidden from employers. As a result, business owners frequently pay more than necessary for the employees’ care, all while being kept in the dark about why these additional expenses are imposed.

Understanding why access to data is so important and working with an adviser who can get access to important numbers in your plan can help you and your employees save big while ensuring they get the care they need.

Uncovering the Numbers
One of the biggest problems contributing to overspending on benefits is the simple fact that many medical procedures aren’t even needed. In fact, a 2014 survey conducted by the John Hopkins research team revealed that up to 30 percent of medical care – including 22 percent of prescription medications, 25 percent of medical tests, and 11 percent of procedures – may be deemed “unnecessary.”

Having access to data like this can empower you and your employees to make better, most cost-effective choices about healthcare. Your adviser can help your employees advocate for care that they need without overspending or overmedicating.

Mysterious Mistakes
Errors in data collection are bound to occur in any industry, but in a world as pricey as the benefits industry, those mistakes can be expensive. According to a report from The Associated Press, an Equifax audit found that hospital bills costing $10,000 or more contained an average billing error of $1,300. Believe it or not, that number isn’t even the most alarming one when it comes to medical billing errors – the Medical Billing Advocates of America have found that up to 80 percent of medical bills contain mistakes.

Of course, these billing mistakes are rarely detrimental to the carrier. Instead, employers and patients are the ones who get hit, potentially throwing away thousands of dollars as a result. A great adviser will have tools and strategies to reduce erroneous spending and ensure that you’re only paying for the care your employees receive.

An Adviser on Your Team
From the moment your employee becomes unwell to the time they’re finally feeling their best again, there is plenty of opportunity for incorrect data to increase costs and compromise their care. Working with an adviser who has the necessary tools to access that data can not only help your employees return to wellness, but also save them (and you) money in the process.

A good adviser knows to take benefits data with a grain of salt, and they can use the data that they find to:

• Search for cost-effective alternatives to help your employees save money
• Work with patient advocates to enforce proper billing
• Reduce unnecessary and invasive medical procedures

By working with an adviser who has access to the tools they need to see the data for themselves, you regain control of your benefits plan.

Data You Can Trust
Working with an adviser who knows how to access your benefits data and use it to your advantage can be crucial in developing a high-quality, low-cost plan. By examining variables like unnecessary medical care and billing mistakes, your adviser can more effectively work for and with you, building a benefits plan that’s based on numbers you can believe in.

Contact me today to learn more about how better access to data can give you a better benefits plan.

As the spread of the novel coronavirus has transformed the world over the past few months, the way we view the healthcare system has been altered forever. For example, many providers are now relying heavily on remote appointments to ensure that patients with non-emergency symptoms are treated without exposing themselves or others to the virus.

While much of the United States is only just finding out about how great telehealth can be, this tool has been helping employers and employees receive high-quality, low-cost healthcare for years. If you’re still unsure about implementing telehealth into your own benefits plan or just want to know more about how it can impact your employees for the better, consider how this tool can be of particular importance during the time of COVID-19:

Staying Safe While Getting Treatment

Spending time in a waiting room full of sick people when you only have a minor ailment is never desirable, but during a time like this, it’s even riskier. Many providers are now offering telehealth options to keep both patients and doctors safe, and if your plan already includes remote treatment opportunities, your employees may already be familiar and comfortable with communicating with their doctor from a distance.

By including telehealth in your benefits plan, your employees can accomplish much of the healthcare process while practicing social distancing, including:

• Diagnosis
• Prescription
• After-care

Reducing the necessary amount of time spent out of home receiving care can help keep your employees from getting seriously ill or infecting others.

Peace of Mind For the Whole Family

Your workers may have other people in their life who need care during this time. Imagine this scenario: your employee is working from home while their partner, who has been deemed “essential,” is still going to work and having to interact with other people face-to-face. One of your employee’s two young children gets sick enough to raise concern. Without telehealth, your employee has to go to the doctor with both of their kids, risking the health of their family, the medical staff, other patients, and everyone their spouse interacts with at work.

With telehealth, however, your employee can have a remote video call with their child’s doctor without even needing to get their kids in the car. With their whole family covered, no one has to worry that they’ll be exposing their family members to all the germs that can be found in a doctor’s office.

Saving Money When It Matters Most

Telehealth isn’t just convenient – it’s a far less expensive way to get high-quality care for minor ailments and illnesses. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports that telehealth visits can cost just $45 for non-emergency calls compared to $160 at an urgent care center.

As money grows tight or becomes a concern for workers during this uncertain time, these savings will mean that much more to your employees. The last thing you want your workers to have to worry about right now is how they could afford their care if they got sick, and including telehealth tools in your plan can help reduce their financial stress.

High-Quality Care From a Distance
Seeing a doctor face to face can be necessary sometimes, but in many other minor medical situations, a remote appointment can make a stressful time a bit easier for your employees. By keeping your workers safe, protecting their families, and saving them money, including a telehealth option in your benefits plan can be imperative in helping your workforce through the coronavirus pandemic.

Contact us today to learn more about how telehealth can keep your employees safe and healthy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a great strain on business owners and employees alike. Many employers feel stuck, wondering how they can keep their company afloat while still paying their employees and giving them the healthcare that they may need now more than ever. The solution to these issues may be found inside their benefits plan, but it takes a knowledgeable adviser to unlock these savings opportunities.

The more your adviser works with your business, the greater the likelihood that they’ll be able to help it adapt to all the challenges surrounding us.

A Year-Round Discussion

A great adviser will stay in touch with you over the course of the entire year to ensure that the plan you have is still the plan that’s best for your business. An adviser who keeps up-to-date with your business can help your plan evolve with your company, which is highly valuable during the best of times. When an unexpected health crisis happens, though, this familiarity with your company can help your business bounce back faster as well.

An adviser who interacts with your business from January to December will have a far better understanding of your company’s needs, goals, and resources than a broker who only reconnects with you when it’s time to renew. When money gets tight and employees need to depend on their benefits plans more than ever, an adviser who has seen the ups and downs of your business can come up with tools and strategies that can help your company and employees make it through complicated times.

Connecting With Employees

Employee education is crucial to an effective, cost-saving benefits plan. If your adviser is truly making the effort to get to know your business and the people in it, they’ll create an interactive and personal experience for your workers through means such as:

• One-on-one meetings to answer employees’ questions about their plan
• Group meetings with your company to introduce or explain new tools and strategies
• Remote educational tools that allow employees to access benefits information from anywhere

The more comfortable your employees are with your adviser, the more likely they’ll be to take their recommendations when faced with widespread health or financial challenges. Plus, when you know that your adviser has made the effort to connect with your employees, you can rest easy knowing that they see your workers as people rather than numbers in a system.

Adjusting to Changes

Even the best advisers can rarely make big benefits changes happen overnight. A great adviser, however, will build you a flexible plan that can be altered over time based on your business’ needs. Working closely with your adviser and giving them insight into the inner workings of your company can facilitate their efforts to change your plan based on what you and your employees need most.

If your adviser knows your business well enough to know where to create more savings opportunities, you can then allocate those savings to employees who need help paying their bills. Or if your business is struggling through this time, those savings could go toward keeping your company afloat while preventing layoffs. An adviser who knows your business well can find hidden quality and savings opportunities that other brokers may overlook.

Putting People First

An adviser with a human-first approach can greatly improve your employees’ experience, even during times of adversity. If your adviser gets to know your company all year long, interacting with employees and demonstrating their ability to adapt your plan to changes, you and your workers will be much better equipped to handle whatever challenges your business may face.

Contact us today to learn more about how your adviser can help make this challenging time easier for you and your employees.