As a team of benefits strategists, we work hard every day to make sure we’re exceeding client expectations and providing the most innovative and value-generating plan designs and advisory services.
The rising costs of benefit plans bring bottom line scrutiny into the picture, the impact of benefits on employee lives is significant and everything is more complicated than it needs to be.
Did Your Open Enrollment Give You Heartburn?
You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from HR executives and benefits administrators around the country . . . Open enrollment has come and gone, renewals are locked in.
Here are some of the pain points we commonly hear from benefits administrators:
- I had to cut a benefit your employees need.
- I had to tell them their contribution was going up.
- My broker was not much help during open enrollment.
- It is more complicated and expensive every year.
It really is enough to give someone heartburn. As we celebrate American Heart Health Month, we just had to say—you do not have to accept the status quo.
Open Enrollment Support
Navigating open enrollment is a challenge. Successful implementation will need to address insurance guidance, employee engagement, employee education and a host of other topics.
How was your latest experience? Were employee questions and concerns easily answered with an internal communications toolkit? When you had questions about specifics did you encounter an email chain or were you able to simply make a call? Did each step of the process get completed on time and with excellence?
Standard brokers can meet your basic plan design and enrollment needs.
Best-in-Class brokers go above and beyond to ensure both employer and employees are educated, engaged and enabled through the enrollment process.
Just look at the chart below (courtesy of our friends at Zywave) and ask yourself—am I working with a standard broker or a best-in-class partner?
Renewal Outcome
Set the enrollment process aside for a moment and ask one simple question—what was the actual outcome of your organization’s renewal? According to PwC’s data, over the past 5 years, the costs associated with benefits have risen by an average of 5 to 7 percent per year. Was that your experience?
If so, this could mean cost increases of six figures or more. And these impacts aren’t just felt on the bottom line, they hit your employees as well. More money comes out of each paycheck, or benefits are cut to decrease costs. A carrier change to reduce costs could completely change provider networks and create major disruption. It doesn’t have to be this way.
At Apex, our clients experience an average renewal increase that is close to 0%. We are proud of that number, and that we achieve it with little to no disruption to our clients’ employees.
Before you know it, next year’s renewal will be here. Avoiding the heartburn and driving wins for your people and the bottom line starts with a benefits partner that provides best in class open enrollment support and a proven track record of cost savings. Does that describe your current broker?
If the answer is “no”, we strongly encourage you to click the link below so we can begin helping you identify potential savings for your next renewal.