Your clients are drowning in the rising costs of employee health insurance, and it may feel like there are no options other than paying the increases or dropping the benefit altogether and paying the fines. But there are solutions.

The key is knowing what options are available and how you can pair services together in a way that works for each employer. Uncovering their needs, understanding their business goals, and crafting a workable solution that helps reduce costs and improve outcomes truly makes you an indispensable advisor.

In our session at the 2019 BenefitsPRO Broker Expo, a group of savvy and honest advisors will share stories about what's worked well and what's not worked out so well as they've implemented new solutions with their client groups. We'll find out what they're doing, how they're doing it, and how they're able to educate clients to the point of making the necessary changes.

➤➤Be sure to attend Wendy Keneipp's Innovation Track session, "How to help employers reduce costs & improve outcomes with creative plan designs" April 3 at 4:15 p.m. at the 2019 BenefitsPRO Broker Expo.

Bret Brummitt of AG Insurance Agencies, Josh Butler of Butler Benefits, and Rachel Miner of Thrive Benefits will share their insights and lessons. They are a wealth of information, having put various plan designs in place for clients of different sizes, industries, and experience levels.

What exactly does it mean to use creative plan designs?

When we talk about creative plan designs, we mean stepping out of the traditional stand-alone, retail health insurance plans. Instead, the goal is to create a longer-term strategy designed to make a difference for employees, save money on the plans, and provide higher quality outcomes.

Plans and strategies will vary,but include pairing smart incentives for employees with programs that have some kind of ROI for the employer. This ROI may initially just be unlocking some kind of data insight to make the case for other changes.

These types of changes can be intimidating for an employer, so taking an educational, data-gathering approach is going to lead to more informed decisions and clients who are more committed to new strategies.

Moving into creative plans designs isn't for everyone. Getting started with innovative companies that are looking for ways to reduce costs, while enhancing benefits, is a good place to start.

How do you introduce the ideas to employers?

From a sales perspective, it can be tricky introducing ideas to employers that may be radically different from anything they've known, and you have to approach it carefully. Offering education and a personalized incentive for change is an important part of the process.

A good way to get that conversation started is by resetting the baseline expectations of the traditional health insurance plans. Choosing the best of what most consumers consider to be all bad options isn't an acceptable or sustainable path. We have to go deeper to uncover a new potential. After getting buy-in to the new expectations, the conversation must then center around education for employers on the utilization and cost of care, not insurance.

And just a word of caution for all the over-eager sales people out there who are enamored with the potential cost savings. During the sales process, pay close attention: Who wants this change more? Is it the advisor or the client? If it's the advisor, you're on the road to a failure. The client has to be ready or the adoption will fail.

How about the employees?

Upsetting the apple cart of employee comfort can be incredibly disruptive and you should approach it with caution. The advisors readily admit to this being the toughest challenge. Keeping people motivated throughout the year is difficult, so communication is paramount.

Use drip campaigns to reinforce why the employer chose certain strategies or resources.
Be honest and tell employees there is going to be a change. Sometimes change is beautiful; sometimes it's hard. But most of the time, it's both. Encourage them to call their advisor for help when they're confused or frustrated, and it will go smoother.
Use some kind of provocative or ridiculous story to tell a real life scenario. The more ridiculous the scenario, the better the audience engagement.

When you implement the plans, does everything go as intended?

We got a pretty resounding no on this one! Hindsight is always 20/20. Problems include:

Implementing a solution with a poor communication strategy. Advisors may understand the strategies perfectly, but the employees need it broken down into a process, and they need to be reminded regularly.
Not respecting the magnitude of the changes and how they affect everyone in the company and on the plan. Employee experience is paramount. If you approach an innovative plan like you would a traditional renewal, that's grounds to get fired, and you probably deserve it.
Not communicating the reality of the workload and expectations. These strategies require more work from the advisor and the HR department. Setting the right expectations from the beginning is critical. HR and Finance need to know each other's goals and be supportive of one another and those stated goals.
Vendors. A lot of navigating value-based insurance design (VBID) is trial and error. Vetting partners is of critical importance. One bad spoke in the wheel will cause the rest of it to fall apart. Sometimes, vendors are tripping over each other and get very territorial. And it's not cheap to hire a number of different vendors who all charge fees.

Bottom line is that creative plan designs can be incredibly beneficial for both the employers and employees, but the advisor must take a strong lead. Education, communication and processes for employers, employees, and your own team members will be the make-or-break points for successfully adopting a new approach to benefits.

Don't miss these other Expo sessions:

Instant Insights /

Expo preview: Lessons of success and failure in creative plan design

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