More than two-thirds of employers only talk to their employees about the benefits available to them during the enrollment period. And that just doesn't get the job done.
That's what a survey commissioned by Alegeus Technologies, a major benefits administrative company, found when it surveyed employers and employees about benefits communications.
"Findings revealed a clear gap, with nearly 40 to 50 percent of consumers expressing dissatisfaction with content clarity, depth, variety, frequency and degree of personalization of employer health care benefit communications. Meanwhile, employers were found to be overconfident — rating their communications to be nearly 20 percentage points more effective than consumers perceive them to be," Alegeus reported.
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The research revealed that 65 percent of employers who responded only communicate with their workers about benefits during the enrollment period window. Worse, "nearly 60 percent rely exclusively on plan summary documents and enrollment forms to communicate benefit plan and account options."
Such practices, of course, fly in the face of plenty of research results that indicate this is an awful way to get folks to sign on for the benefits package that will both serve them best and justify the time and money the employer has invested in designing a robust benefits package.
Alegeus said that only a third of respondents offer interactive tools such as plan comparison calculators, and just 17 percent offer interactive evaluation tools that integrate personal data into their plan recommendations.
Poor communication about health savings accounts and related vehicles has led to significant misunderstandings about those health plan options, Alegeus said. While more employers offer HSAs and variations on that theme, and they are offering incentives to get more employees to sign on for them, less than a quarter of employees said they knew the difference between an HSA and traditional plan options.
Just 30 percent of consumers who held an HSA account were able to pass a basic quiz about the plans, and 42 percent of HSA account holders viewed their plan as primarily a spending account. A quarter still did not know they could hold over HSA dollars, and 41 percent didn't know they could invest those dollars in other types of financial vehicles.
"Consumers continue to assume greater responsibility for the selection and funding of their health care, and many are unprepared to make informed choices without significant education and support," said Alegeus CEO Steve Auerbach. "Employers have a huge opportunity to enhance employee benefit satisfaction through more effective communication strategies and more robust decision-support resources."
Alegeus came up with a list of 10 ways to improve benefits communications to employees to help them make more informed choices during the enrollment period.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
