Employers may be overstating employees’ benefits confidence levels
With open enrollment just around the corner, what can benefits managers do to educate and empower employees to be active users of their benefits?
When it comes to employees’ understanding of how to leverage their benefits effectively and find the best care at the right price, how confident are they? In a recent consumer survey, Further, a leader in health care spending and savings account administration, found that 60% of employees reported having a high confidence that they know how to fully leverage their health savings accounts (HSAs). Comparatively, 75% of employers say that employees have a high understanding of their HSA.
Even with the majority of employees reporting to have a high confidence in navigating the HSA world, 40% of employees report feeling less than confident in understanding their account, suggesting that employers are also overstating – or misunderstanding – how comfortable employees are with navigating their benefits. And, employees may be guilty of overstating confidence as well.
Related: Benefits utilization training: Help employees be prepared
With open enrollment just around the corner, what can benefits managers do to educate and empower employees to be active users of their health care benefits? As health care costs continue to rise, a pivotal shift has taken place in how HSAs are leveraged. Consumers are forced to find new ways to pay for today’s expenditures. In fact, when consumers were asked if they primarily use their HSA to pay for health care now or if they primarily use it as an investment tool, 65% report that they are using their HSAs for spending, with 23% stating they use the account for equal parts saving and spending.
Yet, employers have a drastically different perception. More than 66% of employers associate HSAs with savings, leaving a gap in how employees are actually perceiving and leveraging these powerful accounts. Now is the time to recognize that employees’ needs have changed and HSAs are not primarily valued as a savings and investment tool. Instead, employers and brokers need to update their language to educate and empower employees to fully leverage these accounts to help pay for care today.
Empowering employees to be active health care consumers
Employers can play the role of educator when it comes to navigating the health care industry and finding the right care. In a survey conducted by Kaiser Family Foundation, only 51% of consumers could correctly calculate how much they would have to pay for a hospital stay based on their deductible and copay. What’s more, only 16% could calculate how much they would have to pay for an out-of-network lab test and three in 10 incorrectly believe that receiving care at an in-network hospital means that all the providers delivering services at that hospital are in-network.
Data from Further’s study also shows that about 40% of American adults have reportedly skipped a recommended medical test or treatment and 44% say they didn’t go to a doctor when they were sick or injured in the last year because of cost. With cost playing such a large factor in when and where to seek treatment, in the absence of tools and resources to determine the best place to seek treatment, employees may be abstaining from treatment altogether, potentially leading to more serious health concerns down the road. Employers can fill this knowledge gap by providing tools and resources for employees to shop for the right health care option.
6 steps employers can take to fill the gap and empower employees
- Encourage employees to take advantage of the free resources available through your health plan. This includes taking full advantage of preventive care benefits, including an annual physical, mammogram and other routine health screenings, to leveraging the 24-hour nurse line for answers to health questions and determining where to get care.
- Promote virtual visits and convenience care clinics as the least expensive ways to treat many routine illnesses. Seeing a nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant, for minor illnesses, may save money. And, teach employees that the emergency room is only for true emergencies.
- Use shopping, price and quality decision support tools to compare cost differences for services at an outpatient center versus a hospital, and prescription costs at different pharmacies.
- Share tips with employees such as asking for generic drugs when possible, asking for a 90-day supply, and promoting prescription apps for additional savings.
- Encourage employees to speak with their doctor and pharmacist about their consumer-driven health care plan (CDHP) and treatment options. Doctors may recommend alternative, less expensive procedures.
- Avoid using industry acronyms and make information available early in the open enrollment process.
Changing the narrative
In the wake of COVID-19, 63% of employees are paying more attention to their health and benefits. Yet, due to measures to minimize the spread of COVID-19, employees may have also experienced delays or postponement of preventive care. With these temporary delays, now is the time for employers to push for even more employee attention on benefits going into open enrollment and beyond, so preventive health care is not overlooked.
Also, over the past few years, employee usage of HSAs is showing a pattern of spending the funds, yet employers are saying “HSAs are for saving.” With the new interest momentum in benefits growing, coupled with the language disconnects, there is a tremendous opportunity to change the dialogue around HSAs to position them as spending accounts, to pay for health care today. Employers can then better educate employees on how to shop for the right care at the right price for them. This will empower employees to not only navigate open enrollment confidently, but employee adoption of benefits will increase, creating smarter and healthier employee populations, and preventive care can be a priority.
This open enrollment season will likely look different. With many companies continuing or even permanently shifting to remote work, effective communication will be critical to ensuring that employees select the best benefits package for themselves and their families. In the wake of COVID-19, employees will look for strong communication leveraging technology to make health care decisions. Therefore, all employees should have access to tools such as email, comprehensive online benefits portals, and mobile apps. Employers and brokers should not only evaluate the message that is being delivered, but also the best medium to communicate through.
By shifting the dialogue and positioning HSAs as spending accounts, employers will not only present the accounts in the way employees are actually using them, but will also start a new dialogue with employees that goes deeper than simply understanding the account for open enrollment purposes. Implementing an ongoing education program that extends throughout the entire year empowers employees to becoming more literate and confident health care consumers not just for the couple of weeks of open enrollment, but 365 days a year.
Matt Marek is chief executive officer and president of Further, a national leader in health spending and savings account administration dedicated to guiding account holders across the U.S. in saving and spending wisely on their health care. Further serves large corporations, small businesses, labor unions, retirees, and groups in the public sector by providing health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), voluntary employee beneficiary association (VEBA) accounts and commuter benefit services.
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