At Waypoint Benefit Solutions, some of the most common feedback we receive from employees is that their benefit plan costs too much money and they don’t understand the full extent of their coverage. Sometimes, this comes down to a lack of education regarding the employee’s benefit package. More often, though, it is a result of a lack of transparency in their benefit plan.
Helping employees understand where every dollar of their plan goes and how to utilize the extent of their coverage is essential for a satisfied, productive employee base. Building a transparent benefit solution requires listening to your employees and what they want, intentionally building coverage from their feedback and auditing all past claims to truly understand your billing.
What is a Transparent Benefit Plan?
A transparent benefit plan simply means that employers and employees understand the following:
- Where every dollar they pay for benefits goes
- The full extent of their coverage
- How their input impacts their benefit plan
- Who they can contact if they have any questions regarding their benefits
This helps hold your broker accountable in coverage and pricing, since employees are aware of what they’re paying for and the extent of their coverage.
What is Transparency in Benefits?
Transparency in benefits means that the following is eliminated from an employee benefit plan:
- Erroneous and excessive charges
- Noncompliant billing, particularly in healthcare costs
- Any form of fraud
- Conflicts of interest pertaining to traditional PPO networks
- Hidden costs and charges
- Prescription rebates that are not provided back to the employee
Additionally, a transparent benefit plan utilizes valuable data from your employees and is built upon their feedback, insight and needs. Employers and employees can clearly follow and understand the extent of their coverage and what they pay for.
How Do I Build a Transparent Benefit Plan?
A traditional broker may believe they understand what a company needs and take a “one size fits all” approach to benefits, but the unique needs and nuances of each company make this method inefficient. Instead, both the employer and employee must play an active role in developing a benefit plan that works for their bottom line and personal needs.
Use Employee Input
Using strategic data mining tactics, such as surveys, have benefit-eligible employees provide their feedback via an employee benefit survey. Benefits are widely used as a tool to attract and retain the best talent in your industry, so finding out what your current employees are looking for in a benefit plan also helps with this.
Survey Your Leadership Team
While employee feedback is fundamental for a successful benefit plan, your leadership team ultimately will make the decisions as far as what you’ll do for benefits. The voice of benefit administrators and your HR team is just as valuable as that of your CEO and CFO, as they will be spearheading the transition to a new plan.
Have your HR team provide their feedback about how your current benefit plan performs with the following factors:
- Technology integration
- Payroll integration
- Communications with employees
- Education for employees about the benefit program
- The extent of benefits offered
- The amount of work for their team
Prioritize these elements when shaping your new benefit plan. This way, the transition will be easier for your HR department and they will ultimately feel more satisfied and appreciated by the consideration of their needs.
Audit Past Claims
In order to save money on your new benefit plan, you must first understand the extent of what you’re spending on your old benefit plan. This means you must audit all of the claims that have been made for the past 18 months under your current plan so you can see what employees are spending the most on, where the most money in plans is going and how much you’re spending. This will help you re-allocate benefit dollars towards where you most need coverage and see where you can save money within your plan.
Transparent Pricing
Now that you have feedback from employees, a full understanding of your coverage and the knowledge of where your money goes within a plan, you can create a transparent pricing model so employees can closely follow where their money will go with the new plan. This promotes trust and a positive work environment among your staff, as employees feel like their voice, budget and feedback matters to leadership and the company as a whole.
Ready to Discover Transparency in Benefits?
At Waypoint Benefit Solutions, we specialize in creating unique, data-driven benefit plans based on feedback from your valued employees, your unique data and our customized solutions. We make your company more competitive — contact us and get started today!