EMPLOYEE HEALTH BENEFITS: ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT MATTERS!

Sponsoring an employee health benefits plan is a great way to support your employees. The type and scope of benefits included in the plan are extremely important, but the administrative support that accompanies those benefits is also important. The type of support provided influences the entire employee health benefits experience – both for you and your employees.

Employee Enrollment

The employee enrollment process can be complicated, time-consuming, and frustrating – but it doesn’t have to be. The administrative support that is available to you impacts how and what the enrollment process looks like.

1. Employer Experience

Traditionally, enrolling your employees in a new employee health benefits plan was a lot of work. The plan administrator at your company would have to decipher difficult to read enrollment cards, input them in the system, and chase employees who had not provided enrollment information.

An online employee enrollment platform changes everything. At GroupHEALTH we have developed an industry-leading enrollment platform called Enrol-ME. It eliminates the need for deciphering enrollment cards and inputting the data in the system; this inherently reduces the probability of error. It also alerts you about the enrollment status of your employees, so you can easily manage who has completed enrollment. In short, it significantly reduces the workload for the Plan Administrator at your company and provides a much better employee enrollment experience for you.

2. Employee Experience

The right administrative support for enrollment in the health benefits plan matters to employees too. With the trend to be digital-first, most employees will welcome the opportunity for online enrollment in the health benefits plan.

They’ll be able to use a computer or their phone to complete their benefits enrollment. A system like Enrol-ME walks the employee through the enrollment process so they understand the details about the plan and how to use it. It’s user-friendly and will send reminder e-mails if enrollment isn’t completed and the deadline is nearing. This type of administrative support contributes to a better enrollment experience for your employees.

Online Administration

The administrative support you receive for your employee health benefits plan has a huge impact on employee health benefits at your organization. The online administration platform is the biggest piece to this type of administrative support; a robust, powerful, easy-to-use online platform is essential.

At GroupHEALTH, our WEBS online administration platform is our change-maker when it comes to administrative support. Our system was purpose-built to make plan administration easy. With WEBS online, your plan administrator can manage the plan online, from any location.

Day-to-day activities like adding, removing, or modifying plan member information is simple. The system also provides triggers and alarms to ensure time-sensitive deadlines and milestones aren’t missed. Things like eligibility for coverage over the non-evidence maximum or disability waivers are just a few examples.

Administrative support via an online administration platform impacts how efficiently your benefits plan is administered. Most benefit plans don’t have just one insurer providing all the benefits – this often means multiple bills, from multiple insurers. A powerful online administration system can provide a single bill that incorporates benefits provided by multiple insurers. This reduces the time your plan administrator spends reconciling multiple bills and going back and forth with various insurers. It’s even possible to have the bill sorted in a way that makes sense for your company (by location, employee class, or something else).

The actual software for plan administration is only part of the way that administrative support impacts your organization. Your company will also need training on how to use the software and timely assistance if things go awry. This means real people who can support your plan administrator to keep the plan running smoothly.

Online Access Points for Employees

Administrative support for your employees looks different than it does for you (the employer); some of the most important administrative support tools available to your employees are mobile apps and portals. These access points allow employees to have benefits information at their fingertips.

An effective app/portal provides benefits information, a digital benefits card, coverage balances, and online claims submission. This allows for on-the-go claims submission, easy access to benefit information, and clear claims decisions.

For employees, the administrative support they receive via online access points likely has the biggest impact on their employee health benefits experience.

Plan Changes

The administrative support you receive around making changes to your employee health benefits plan is very important. The right administrative support team identifies ways to make the plan more efficient and suggests changes. It means regularly checking in with you about your plan and tweaking it to ensure it’s the best fit for your organization. It also means making sure that changes are rolled out seamlessly.

Communication and Education

One of the most important ways that administrative support can and should matter to you is how it deals with communication and education about benefits. Your provider should help you communicate benefits information to your employees. This may mean templates and newsletters or in-person training sessions. When your employees understand their benefits, they’re more likely to use them to maintain their health. This is the only way you’ll see a good return on your investment.

An administration team that also helps you teach your employees to be smart shoppers can help contain costs associated with your plan. Communication and support are just two more ways that administrative support really matters.

Good advice is key

Are you getting next level administrative support to elevate your employee benefits experience? If not, it’s time to find a provider who can give it to you. Review your options with one of our licensed advisors on the phone or in-person or contact us for a comparison quote.

Whether you’re looking for extended health and dental coverage, disability coverage, or life and critical illness coverage, GroupHEALTH has affordable benefit packages that work as hard as you do.