What Is Data-driven Benefits Strategy

Data is a powerful asset. But in a world where data is king, access is only half the picture. In order to build a data-driven benefits strategy, you need the right team to analyze your data. but it’s only as good as the team that uses it.

Access and insight will combine to help you make impactful changes within your employee benefits and health care programs.

Do you have access to the right data?

Becoming data-driven still begins with data. What data you will need to access will depend on your specific goals. However, there are a few common categories that will serve as the foundation for benefits strategy and health care risk management.

Benefits enrollment and utilization data

Benefits enrollment data includes information about which benefits employees are enrolled in, as well as the demographics of those employees. This data can be used to identify trends in employee benefit enrollment, identify gaps in coverage and develop targeted interventions to help your employees better utilize their benefits programs.

Claims data

Claims data includes information about the medical services that employees receive, along with the costs of those services. This data can be used to identify trends and patterns in employee health care usage, identify areas of high cost and develop targeted interventions to improve employee health and reduce costs.

What is the right team?

Having access to data is just the first step. The real value comes from being able to understand and interpret that data in a meaningful way. So, who is looking at your data? Our approach to data-driven benefits strategy is to combine the expertise of data and financial analysts, clinical staff and benefits experts.

Data analysts have the skills and experience to collect, clean and analyze large datasets. They can identify trends and patterns hidden in vast spreadsheets. By adding financial analysts into the mix, you can expect deeper insight into the fiscal impacts of any patterns that emerge.

Clinical staff bring unique insight from a variety of medical and clinical settings to bring data insights to life for the people who matter most – employees wrestling with health conditions. They can analyze treatment plans, identify opportunities for targeted intervention and uncover future medical risk. Our team includes nurses, pharmacists, a licensed clinical social worker, a dietitian and more to ensure coverage of all components of the health care spectrum.

Benefits experts have a deep understanding of the employee benefits landscape and plan design. They can help implement benefits design that meet both the financial goals of the organization AND the needs of employees.

The impact of data-driven benefits strategy.

What can you expect with access to the right data, and the right team in place?

Better decision-making

With the right insights, employers can make better decisions about which benefits to offer, how much to spend on each benefit and how to best educate their people. Data-driven benefits strategy will eliminate guesswork and give you actionable insight.

Reduced costs

Data analytics can help employers identify areas of waste or inefficiency in their employee benefits and health care programs. Clinical teams can help impact cost through medical claims surveillance, and data-driven benefits design can optimize benefit spend.

Improved employee health and well-being

Employers can build a workplace that improves employee health and wellness outcomes. Deep clinical insight can optimize current treatment plans for any member wrestling with a health concern. Clinicians can also identify future medical risk and develop targeted strategies to help those employees. Education will be driven by data, allowing you to improve member utilization of the services that will be most impactful.

Increased impact on Employees

Benefits that do not serve your members are not really benefits. Employees expect their employer to offer benefits that meet their needs without breaking the bank. Data-driven benefits strategy ensures you can build a plan that is tailored to your people.

Access to data is vital, but having your data is just the beginning. If you want to leverage your data to improve your benefits plan and health care outcomes – make sure you, or your broker partner, have the right team in place to help you turn data into insight, and insight into data-driven benefits strategy.