Someone on the Inside On Your Side

How To Select An Employee Benefits Consultant Part 9

2008-07-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

The Ongoing Support and Communication

An Employee Benefits Consultant creates a valuable relationship between a company’s Human Resources Department and insurance providers. Through this relationship, growing healthcare options can be understood and discussed.

Employee Benefits Consultants are happy to answer any questions or concerns a company may have after the benefits program has been put into operation. They constantly evaluate and review the benefits package to make sure it is in accordance to the company’s primary expectations. This allows the company to rest assured that the benefit packages chosen coincide with the company’s long-term agenda.

The relationship between a company and an Employee Benefits Consultant is one that is sprinkled with ongoing communication and support. Learning how to select an employee benefits consultant is a valuable asset to your business.

How To Select An Employee Benefits Consultant Part 8

2008-07-14T05:18:00.000-07:00

Selection Criteria for an Employee Benefits Consultant

When a company decides that selecting an Employee Benefits Consultant is the best option for them, it should consider the following areas:

The consultant’s past references
Success rate of past projects
Educational background
What prior judgment the consultant has used

A company will have to choose between an individual, small firms, or private firms of consultants. Usually a smaller firm is designed to come up with custom options whereas a larger firm develops standard options.

A company must make sure that the consultant will be able to compliment their company and focus on the company’s needs. This is usually a long-term relationship so any problems that arise in the beginning should be evaluated and adjusted accordingly. The established relationship between a company and an Employee Benefits Consultant can be very rewarding and pleasantly long lasting.

How To Select An Employee Benefits Consultant Part 7

2008-07-11T05:17:00.001-07:00

Definition of Co-Employment

Once an Employee Benefits Consultant is hired this establishes a co-employment between the consultant and company. This co-employment is extremely beneficial to the company because it allows for the freeing up of time and resources. The Employee Benefits Consultant is only in charge of certain aspects of your business and will successfully handle the tasks that you have hired him for. The company maintains control of all of its daily operations. This includes the directing and hiring of all employees. The main goal of an Employee Benefits Consultant is to facilitate in the setting up of employee benefit plans. Through this they ease the stress load acquired by an employer when choosing the right plan to best suit their company. Selecting an employee benefits consultant is one of the best ways to improve productivity in your business.

How To Select An Employee Benefits Consultant Part 6

2008-07-10T05:15:00.000-07:00

An Employee Benefits Consultant’s Evaluation and Recommendations

As a company is bogged down with hectic work schedules choosing an employee benefits package can cause the work wheels to completely halt. There are so many possibilities when it comes to benefit options. An Employee Benefits Consultant is educated to look at a company, evaluate the company, and then pick the finest solution for the company.

Selecting an employee benefits consultant is one of the best ways to ensure that your business can keep on doing what it does best. This solution will assist in the company dealing and reigning in rising healthcare costs. Businesses should profit financially from the advantage and evolution of healthcare choices. This can be accomplished through an Employee Benefits Consultant’s tracking and evaluating of the trends in healthcare.

This type of consultant can pick out the options that will suit your long-term objectives and benefit goals. After the Employee Benefits Consultant has finished his research he is able to bring you the top recommendations for the greatest choices financially and strategically. This is why an Employee Benefits Consultant, once hired, becomes such a valuable part of the company and employee infrastructure.

How To Select An Employee Benefits Consultant Part 5

2008-07-09T05:14:00.000-07:00

Top Performer Benefits

Employee Benefit Consultants are also aware of so-called top-performer benefits. These benefits may only be offered to your company’s highest-ranking employees. Some of these benefits include: parking privileges, a company automobile, expense accounts, extra paid vacation, a sabbatical with pay, a chauffer, professional affiliations, legal services, estate planning, loans and mortgages, travel clubs, physical exercise facilities, a private executive dining room, a credit card, and a matched donations program.

Companies may choose to offer their employees programs that offer counseling or the admittance to substance abuse rehabilitation centers. Employee Benefit Consultants inform you of the rewards of offering these additional benefits. They can outline criteria for an employee to receive such benefits and offer a plan that will satisfy the company financially.

How To Select An Employee Benefits Consultant Part 4

2008-07-08T05:12:00.000-07:00

Optional Employee Health Benefits

Many companies choose to offer their valuable workforce optional employee benefits. These optional employee benefits include: a retirement plan, disability insurance, health insurance, life insurance, a plan of leave and compensation. These optional employee benefits sometimes also offer reimbursement for an employee’s education, performance bonuses and honored service awards. Each of these benefit programs consists of many subcategories that an Employee Benefits Consultant is aware of.

Many health insurance plans include medical, dental, and vision insurance plans. Each level of coverage will cover a different medical payout. Some plans require that an employee pays a co-payment for doctor’s visits or prescriptions. There are thousands of healthcare benefit plans that a company can choose from. An Employee Benefits Consultant can make this a much easier choice. They are already knowledgeable in benefit areas and can choose the plan that will be a perfect fit for your business’s objectives.

This is true for each of these optional benefits categories. Selecting an employee benefits consultant for your business will help you know which of these optional services are best for your employees.

How To Select An Employee Benefits Consultant Part 3

2008-07-07T05:08:00.000-07:00

Mandated Employee Benefits

An employer is legally expected to pay certain required employee benefits. These mandated benefits include: workers’ compensation, social security, and unemployment insurance. Any company that has one employee to hundreds of employees must pay these benefits. These three benefit plans are government regulated and monitored.

When an Employee Benefits Consultant is hired they will make sure that a company knows about these mandated benefits. The consultant will explain the legal aspects and instrument a plan to set up these benefits for each of the company’s employees. This why a business does not have to worry about the legal technicalities as an Employee Business Consultant will handle these three mandated employee benefits for you.

How To Select An Employee Benefits Consultant Part 2

2008-07-03T05:06:00.000-07:00

The Positive Spectrum of Employee Benefits

Employee benefits play a crucial part in employees’ lives and their families. Employee benefits protect an employee’s family through a time of hardship, whether economical or personal. Through the last three decades employees have come to expect their employer to offer a comprehensive benefits plan. Employee benefits can become a win-win situation for both the employee and employer. By an employer offering a benefits package they are paving the way for a more educated and loyal workforce.

Employee benefits attract a more capable work force and because of this plus employers are able to keep up with their competition in the market place. Also, by implementing employee benefits an employer is allowing for opportunities of promotion and advancement when someone employed by the company makes the decision to retire. Designing the right benefit plan can be a burdensome and complex task.

There are many tax and legal aspects to consider when choosing the right plan. This is why Employee Benefit Consultants play such a valuable role throughout this process. Learning how to select an employee benefits consultant is crucial to building a successful benefits package.

How To Select An Employee Benefits Consultant Part 1

2008-07-02T04:59:00.000-07:00

An Employee Benefits Consultant is instrumental in achieving a company's set goals when implementing a comprehensive employee benefit package.

An Employee Benefits Consultant Defined

The employee benefits package offered by an employer to a prospect employee can either make or break the employee’s decision to accept the job offer. It is a reputable fact that the more satisfied the employee is with their benefits package the more loyal and productive of a worker he proves to be. This is why it is so important for companies to consider hiring an Employee Benefits Consultant. This type of consultant is incredibly knowledgeable within the areas of comprehensive benefit plans.

An Employee Benefits Consultant uses his or her expertise, along with a firm comprehension of the company’s work environment, business goals, and benefit objectives to choose a plan that is harmonious with both the employer and employee.

The Employee Business Consultant focuses on how a business can find a positive working relationship through employee benefits and productivity. They go to the business market and find the best solution for either benefit set-up or renewal. This allows employers to relax as the stress is taken out of choosing the optimum employee benefit plan to suit everyone’s needs involved.

The Rising Cost of Health Cares Hidden Health Risks

2008-06-19T08:39:00.001-07:00

While we are seeing gigantic jumps in the technology and solutions with health care there may be a new problem coming to the surface. That problem is it is too expensive for individuals to get prescriptions filled or they are delaying going to the doctor when there is a problem.

More than 60% of Americans with health insurance coverage reported an increase in their portion over what they were paying last year.

The interesting affect was that roughly 81% took better care of themselves because of the increase in premium. This is a prime example of the pain versus the pleasure principle. The pain of the extra money being extracted from their pay caused them to work at becoming healthy.

But we still have real problem. Prescriptions which are skipped or missed all together can cause fatal problems. With doses based on weight, taking 50% of the planned regiment may cause a relapse. Worse are the individuals who cannot even afford the refill, so they just do not go to get their medication.

The impact on the medical benefits, will be an increase in the utilization of current plans. Further, nearly 2/3rds stated that they only go to the doctors for more serious conditions or symptoms. The regular doctor visits are not happening to catch the problems sooner, which means more expense to help get these guys and gals healthy again.

This type of scenario use to be seen in the elderly only, but now we are seeing this problem in individuals in their 30's and 40's.

Education of the true cost of wellness needs to be at the forefront of this issue. People need to know what to do and how to do it to become healthy. In 2-5 years, their health will improve and so will the claims experience.

The Wellness Push is On

2008-05-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

With the rising costs of health care looming with double digit increases, employers are looking for some relief. The answer is Wellness.

If an employer puts a wellness program in place, over time the employees will become healthier. Not all employees will take advantage of the programs, however even if just 10% of the workforce starts on the program, the overall claims experience will begin to show healthier people.

Between knowledgeable people negotiating rates and employees becoming healthier, we should see a lower increase in the coming years for my clients.

What drives medical premium rate increases?

2008-05-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

Competition is the root.

Even though most do not think hospitals being in competition with each other, they are. The administrators work very hard through marketing and purchasing through the purchase of new equipment and facilities to attract potential users of their services.

Every year hospitals look toward the new technology to be the first in the region with a particular service. The hospital administrators buy the equipment and build the facility and infrastructure. Once the wheels are in motion at the hospital, the administration will go to the various medical carriers and say we need an increase in what you pay us to provide this new service.

It is a negotiation just like any other. The hospital says 27% and the carrier comes back with say 5%. They land somewhere in the middle.

Now this is the underlying current that happens outside of your claims experience. If your guys and gals are high utilizer's (sick) your increase will be added on top of what is in the background.

This is why it is important that your Group Benefit Plan Broker has to have the right relationships to assist in ways to negotiate the best rates.

The True Cost of Wellness

2008-05-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

In the past years we have seen double digit increases in medical benefits. The increases have been staggering, moving at a rate of over 500% over inflation. In Massachusetts we have an average of $7100 per family spent on medical expenses. Compared to the national average of $5100, we are 39% over the national average. And with the medical benefit providers saying we are looking at 11% or more for rate increases for this current year renewals, it is almost as if we are held hostage.

With all this happening, we need to take a long term mindset to bring this under some control. The theory is if we make our employees healthier, even if the difference is just 1% healthier overall, that should affect the claims experience with the carrier.

Lets say a wellness program is started in year one of an employer with 100 employees. With the past experience about 10 go to the emergency room and one person had a heart attack. The large loss brings them a 12% increase, because the provider uses the past years data to rate for the upcoming year.

This year we institute a wellness program. We reduce the average weight of each employee by just 3% and get the employees more active. A smoking cessation program begins and 8 people are successful in kicking the habit. We also educate on what services to use, such as an ER is not for a sore throat, and put some responsibility back on the employees.

In time, maybe year two or three, these now healthier employees will be far less likely to have a large claim. There is always the unpredictable, which is why we have the insurance in place.

In time the new data will start affecting the experience of the group and the employer should see less steep increases and maybe even a flat year is possible.

The healthier the employees, the healthier the company.

What priority does health and wellness have with employees

2008-05-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

The top priority in the benefits program, from my side of the game, is always cost controls. Each year we see and increase in the cost of medical, dental, std and ltd and each year my team and I go to work looking at the usage of the groups that are my clients and where we can shift the money flow to have some sort of cost control.

When we implement a wellness program, many times it is not seen at first as a top priority. Frankly, the average employee never really thinks about their health and the impact on them until something happens. The list below is what I believe go from largest immediate impact.

1. Health risk appraisals such as cholesterol and blood pressures. These are relatively easy to do.
2. A Wellness Seminar. Like a lunch time talk about specific topics
3. Fitness Centers and Health Coaching I see as both the same. A good gym and a trainer who as a nutritionist background would be necessary to implement this part of the program.

I feel that anything done to bring awareness to the employee will benefit both the employee and the employer in the areas of morale, workforce production and cost controls.