Health Savings Accounts, commonly known as HSAs, are one of the best kept secrets in employee benefits. If you are enrolled in a high deductible health plan (HDHP), you are likely eligible to enroll in an HSA. Contributing to an HSA enables you to maximize your finances, and each year you go without, you’re leaving potentially thousands of dollars on the table.
As a benefits professional, one of the most important parts of your job is to design and offer health insurance options that fit your organization’s needs. But, designing the right set of medical plans is always a challenge. Your organization’s goals will differ from those of your employees and on top of that, each and every employee has different preferences, health risks, and budgets.
When you choose a health plan, you’re making a complex decision for yourself and for your family - and as we all know, the benefits world is not easy to navigate. Most times you end up buying more insurance than you need in order to avoid risk and gain peace of mind. As a result, you could be paying up to $2000 more per year than you would in a plan that is better fit for your particular needs.
While evaluating and choosing healthcare and supplemental benefits may not be confusing or difficult to those of us who work in the field, it’s important to remember that the average employee doesn’t fully understand what they’re looking at when it comes to benefits. In fact, in a survey conducted by UnitedHealth, they found that only 9% (yes, you read that right) of individuals understand all four of these basic healthcare terms:
As a health insurance broker, your job is to help your clients make wise benefits decisions, and they count on you to provide the insights and best practices needed to implement successful employee benefits programs at scale.
The world has gone remote. We are all making adjustments to keep our heads above water, but your charge as a benefits professional hasn’t changed. Open enrollment is coming and you still need to communicate benefits to your workforce to ensure employees understand and value their benefits.
Millions of people must choose a health insurance plan each year. From seniors enrolling in Medicare to the large share of the U.S. population who choose an employer provided offering or selecting among plans on a state exchange, the one constant across all of these settings is that picking the right health insurance plan is extremely difficult.
Studies show that most of your employees would save a significant amount of money by enrolling in a consumer driven health plan (CDHP). However, the majority of them will avoid this option at your next open enrollment because they’re unfamiliar with how CDHPs work and fear experiencing an economic loss. Their cognitive biases will ultimately cause them to miss out on more affordable (but still high-quality) health care and make your job of promoting these plans much harder. So, how do you get employees to move past these often irrational hurdles and consider electing what can be a financial win for both them and your company?
