Harness Technology to Maximize Your Employee Benefits Program

By Jenny Matthews & Mark Dungan, Marsh & McLennan Agency

The world of employee benefits continues to be burdensome and expensive for both the employer and employee. The cost of family medical insurance coverage is $18,000 per year, with employers covering 71% of the cost and employees paying 29%, according to Kaiser Family Foundation surveys.

The rising costs in health care have caused providers to offer a number of different benefit plans to find ways to reduce costs. There are different medical options available, such as PPOs, HMOs, and High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP), and each has pros and cons, but many employers and employees feel forced into plans they can afford rather than what plan actually fits their situation best.

Employees these days want to be able to tailor a benefit package that works for their needs, but the administrative burden on the employer to develop and maintain multiple options, and to educate employees on the options, is difficult, especially if they’re trying to run their Human Resources team as leanly as possible.

Another complication is the average consumer doesn’t understand the options clearly. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 30% of employees don’t appreciate the benefits being offered to them, and nearly 50% don’t understand the benefits being offered. With benefits being the largest component of labor costs outside of wages, that’s frustrating for the employer to hear.

To complicate matters even worse, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires employers with over fifty full-time employees to track all of their employee’s hours to be certain they are offering benefits to all eligible employees. Failure to do so results in a fine.

 

Technology Is the Solution

One potential solution is online Benefit Administration. Ben Admin systems are designed to provide online enrollment for employees and to electronically feed election information to carriers. The system provides evidence of a benefit offer for ACA purposes and feeds new hires and termination information to other vendors as needed, which helps on the compliance component with ACA and COBRA regulations.

These systems make choosing and understanding benefits easier than ever for the employee. Instead of filling out paper enrollment forms, they are able to go on their mobile phone or computers to enroll in their benefits. They also have easy access to plan documents that allow them to better understand the health benefits that are being offered.

Many systems integrate a decision support module that asks the employee questions about how they use their healthcare coverage and what their budget is, and recommends the plan that may be best for them (assuming there is more than one). This allows the employee to tailor a package that works for him or her and to have more satisfaction in what he or she is paying for. More employees might choose the lower cost option if they only understood how it worked and could understand best case and worst case scenarios.

Ben Admin systems continue to improve as their popularity grows. Many systems now include Human Resource Information System (HRIS) and Human Capital Management (HCM) functions so all human resource tasks are integrated together. From Paid Time Off tracking to payroll deduction integration, everything is housed in one system that employees can access when needed.

The systems provide consistent messaging throughout the year to all employees regardless of location, simplify the benefits enrollment process that can ultimately eliminate paper forms, ensure compliance with government regulations and allow Human Resources staff to concentrate on more important tasks, such as recruiting and organizational development.

 

Explore Your Options

Technology is changing the way benefits are bought, sold and managed. Employees need to become educated buyers as employers ask them to take on more responsibility for their health and wellbeing. Employees expect an enjoyable retail shopping experience and need greater decision support and mobile access to help them access care as efficiently as possible. Ben Admin systems are part of the solution and are a win-win for both sides.

There are affordable systems in the marketplace for all size groups. Contact a BBB Accredited Business, like Marsh & McLennan Agency, if you would be interested in learning more about how it could help you operate your benefits plan as efficiently as possible.