Ongoing communication
To build and sustain employee satisfaction with their benefits, help your clients implement a year-round approach to benefits communications, tailored to different employee groups’ experience and needs. Some brokers will host lunch sessions for employees in the first months of their HSA eligibility. Not only do they take questions, but sometimes the conversation turns into a helpful give-and-take with employees offering each other tips on how they’ve used the accounts successfully.

Tie certain communications to calendar
For example, March and April would be an obvious period to reinforce the tax advantages of HSAs. The HSA custodian might have a ready-to-go newsletter or e-mail that can be sent to your clients on the latest rules regarding tax deductible contributions. If not, check the IRS’s website for important information — such as contributions for 2010 can be made as late as April 18 — that can serve as useful reminders for human resources representatives.

Be sure to also send your clients news articles that discuss consumer directed health care and how employees can take advantage of their health accounts. Ask HSA custodians about ready-to-use communications such as interactive tutorials, brochures and other educational materials that you can share with clients. And check organizations like the Employee Benefit Research Institute and America’s Health Insurance Plans, which periodically issue reports and studies about the benefits of HSAs and rising adoption rates.

Go the extra mile
Old-fashioned customer service also remains an effective way to bolster employee engagement in their HSA plans and help cement client relationships. Many brokers, for instance, meet with their clients during the first month or two of the plan year, and then hold quarterly meetings thereafter. Some brokers check in even more frequently, sending e-mails directly to employees to see if they have any questions or posting answers on their websites to frequently asked HSA questions. Another tactic is to host an after-hours web seminar for employees and their spouses or other family members who want to learn about their health care benefits. Some advisors really extend themselves to their clients.

One, for example, found herself facing disgruntled employees who were ineligible for the new HSA offered at work because they were enrolled already in their spouses’ flexible spending accounts. So, the advisor set up a schedule to track the expiration date of those FSA plans. One month before the FSA plans expired, she reminded the employees not to re-enroll in them so they could open HSAs instead. It’s not surprising that employees may be initially confused about how HSAs can help them manage their health care spending.

Many have spent years making co-payments at the doctor’s office or pharmacy without being aware of their total medical costs. In many cases, human resource managers also are learning about high-deductible health plans and HSAs right along with the employees they serve. That’s why it’s important for brokers to persuade employers to embrace a strategy of ongoing education. Done correctly, employers can achieve a dramatic increase in HSA effectiveness and employee satisfaction.