Putting it together: Collaboration makes for better benefits programs
During his afternoon session at BenefitsPRO Virtual Broker Expo, Robert Kelley made the case for collaboration between benefits specialists and broker/consultants.
“We know benefits is a science, but it’s also an art.”
So declared Robert Kelley, HR benefit consultant for the North Carolina Office of State Human Resources, during his afternoon session at the BenefitsPRO Virtual Broker Expo. During that talk, entitled “Building a Strong & Robust Voluntary Benefits Program: Employers and Consultants Collaborate,” Kelley made the case for collaboration between benefits specialists and broker/consultants as essential to that “art.”
Building a strong and competitive benefits package is paramount for every company. A study in 2019 found that 66.5 percent of all bankruptcies were tied to medical issues like high costs for care. “We want auxiliary and voluntary benefits to enhance the insurance that you have,” said Kelley. “We want to help everyone with that. Finances are a big thing on people’s minds.”
Related: 2020 sales & marketing tips: Innovation, collaboration and personal growth
If you’re going to take the time to put a benefits package together, Kelley continued, enrollment numbers are also key. “We want good plan design, and we’re going to need that to sustain the claims so we don’t have bad loss ratios.”
Enter the collaboration between benefit specialist and broker/consultant.
Employer benefit specialists are directly in touch with the culture of the workforce, as well as employee needs and priorities. They can help create a plan design addressing those needs. Consultants know about industry standards and best practices, as well as national and regional trends and benchmarks. They can leverage that experience with various clients, carriers, vendors, and TPAs to help employers avoid pitfalls while designing their plans. They can also help with promotion, knowing what works in benefits rollouts.
Because employees value above-board communication from their employers, broker/consultants can streamline any benefits-related communications so they’re easy to understand. Consultants can also work with benefits specialists so they have what they need in their plans.
Kelley gave the example of an employer he knew who was looking at a dental plan. “They were trying to decide if they should have mouth guards or not. They were told by the consultant broker that mouthguards are something you might want to put in there because you can break down exactly for the mouthguard what the percentage of that premium is. It might not sound fun and fancy, but mouthguards are going to help future claims.”
Another good reason for collaboration: Avoiding surprise price increases. “When we do requests for proposals with the state, we’ll be able to see if there’s lowball premiums,” Kelley explained. ”We do work with an actuary. We’re not specialists in our HR department, so we have an actuary underwriter who helps us look at those RFP responses. We can then see based on the plan design and the price if it makes sense. If someone comes into lowball you and you don’t realize it, then not too far down the road it’s going to be a major price increase.”
Collaboration also ensures that everything goes into an RFP contract in order to get priced appropriately.
“Someone once gave me an RFP to review,” Kelley related. “I went back and said, ‘Well, I think everything’s in there if that’s what you want.’ She said, ‘I think after we issue the RFP, during open enrollment we’ll ask the vendor to go to our physical facilities and do meetings.’ I said, ‘You didn’t put that in the RFP.’ She said, ‘Well, they’ll make money, so when the time comes, we’ll ask. I’m sure they’ll go.’ I said, ‘Well, it won’t be priced in. You want to put that in the RFP so they know the expectations and can price it in.’ She did, and I know they had a meeting with the award winner after that and they were glad the expected things were in there.”
It’s a lot of work, but the aim of collaboration is true: “We want the best products at the lowest premiums, and we want the plans to stay viable,” Kelley said. ”That’s the key.”
Check out more of our Expo coverage: