hiu-digital.com | HIU 53

absenteeism, more accidents and more

claims for disability.

• Wide diferences in costs and results from

available medical providers are making

it more important than ever for employ-

ees to be smart consumers of healthcare

services. Employees who look to their

employers to sponsor their health insur-

ance plan also look to their employers for

ways to navigate the healthcare system.

Employers no longer want an inch-thick

binder of choices; they want solutions tai-

lored for their own situation. Even more

important than that, they want long-term,

sustainable strategies that set a direction

and course for their organization, so they

can avoid the annual hope of pulling a

rabbit out of a hat.

Benefts are no longer the function only

of the HR department. In more and more

companies, CFOs and CEOs now are

involved in selecting and implementing

employee health plans. Tat requires a dif-

ferent type of presentation to profession-

als who are looking for proof and smart

thinking that is in synch with their own

business eforts.

STRATEGIES

Benefts consultants need to approach em-

ployers with strategies that:

• Align economic incentives between the

plan and the employees.

• Reward employees for making good

healthcare choices.

• Include a meaningful preventive and

health-improvement program.

• Contain efective employee education,

information, tools and technology.

BEST PRACTICES

Te marketplace for employee benefts

has changed greatly in recent years, and

successful organizations are utilizing best

practices that have been developed based

on emerging data on programs that have

produced excellent results. It is no longer

about fnding an insurer that will buy the

business; it’s about implementing strategies

and practices that are proven to work.

Te proven best practices used by suc-

cessful benefts consultants include:

• Full-replacement, account-based

consumer-driven health plans (either

HSA or HRA, or both)

• Alignment of incentives/disincentives

• Biometric screenings

• Health risk assessments

• Ownership and accountability

• Education and communication

• Quality and cost transparency tools

• Health coaching

• Chronic disease management

• Integrated system support

COMMUNICATION,

COMMUNICATION,

COMMUNICATION

Once these practices are aligned and a

long-term strategy developed, it is critical to

make the business case to the employer and

later to the employees. Communication is

critical to success.

With the employer’s management

interest now spanning human resources,

fnancial and sometimes operations,

the benefts consultant may be making

a proposal presentation to a conference

room full of people with diferent needs

and concerns:

HR concerns: Employee attraction and

retention, minimized impact on adminis-

trative burden, assistance with open-

enrollment presentation and other em-

ployee communications.

CFO/Financial concerns: Bottom-line

results, fnancial analysis to show expected

results.

CEO/Operations concerns: Brand and

image of the organization, increased pro-

ductivity and employee morale.

How the strategy is communicated can

spell the diference between securing the

client or not.

Afer management is sold, it is just as

important—for the long-term success of

the benefts program—to communicate

efectively with the employees.

Tere needs to be a structured, edu-

cational open-enrollment meeting. Te

open-enrollment meeting needs to be

about much more than how to fll out the

forms. Open-enrollment presentations

should incorporate educational informa-

tion on the role that the employee plays

in the successful execution of the beneft

plan. In addition, this is a prime opportu-

nity to ensure that employees understand

the real value of the entire beneft package,

how to utilize the health plan to improve

their lives, as well as why and how they

will be rewarded through incentives and/

or wellness programs ofered.

Te open-enrollment meeting is just

the beginning. Tere must be ongoing

support of the employee benefts program

through continuous communication with

employees. Tis can include:

• Letters/emails to employees

• Newsletters and intranet information

and resources

AFTER MANAGEMENT IS SOLD, IT IS JUST AS

IMPORTANT—FOR THE LONG-TERM SUCCESS OF

THE BENEFITS PROGRAM—TO COMMUNICATE

EFFECTIVELY WITH THE EMPLOYEES.

TURNING STRATEGIES INTO RESULTS

54 HIU | hiu-digital.com

• On-site education

• Face-to-face personal health coaching

Te goal of all communications with

employees should be to reinforce the strat-

egies and best practices that the benefts

consultant has developed for each client.

RESULTS

Te results that employers seek through

implementing comprehensive beneft

program strategies and best practices can be

seen throughout an organization, including:

• Lower costs for the employer and em-

ployees and their families

• Health improvement of employees:

• Employees with signifcant weight

loss

• Reduced number of smokers

• Blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose

reduction

• Increased physical activity and

healthier diets

• Reduced medical trend costs on renewal

(with the proper programs in place)

• Greater employee satisfaction which

leads to better retention and attraction of

productive employees

Here are a few real-life examples of

employers that relied on trusted advi-

sors to enhance their employee benefts

programs:

Trucking industry company (400 em-

ployees): Implemented CDHP combined

with a consistent program of education

and communication.

• Saved $1 million savings in operational

costs from health plan without reducing

employee benefts.

• Reversed healthcare infation in the

frst year. On a scale from 1 to 10, this

company went from “1” to “7”. When this

employer embarked on its new benefts

program in mid-2012, it had no beneft

strategy and was doing virtually nothing

to control costs.

• Achieved 18% cost savings in 2012, with

projected higher savings for the following

four years.

Industrial machinery company(250

employees): Implemented CDHP, health

screenings and a number of health-im-

provement programs.

• Employer saved over $7,500 per employ-

ee and a total of $1.9 million over four

years compared to if it had not changed

its approach.

• Achieved 95% participation rate in

completing annual biometric screening

and health risk assessment. Tis data is

essential to efective wellness programs.

• Employees and spouses completing an-

nual physical exams increased to 95% in

2013. Te national norm is 33.6%.

• Since this program began in 2010, this

company’s employee contributions to

their health plan have increased only fve

percent to 10% for non-tobacco users

AND benefts have remained the same.

Engineering company (230 employees):

A full-replacement HRA plan, a company-

owned 9,000-square-foot ftness center

with two full-time trainers and an ever-

expanding series of health-improvement

programs.

• Tis self-insured company achieved aver-

age of $1,500 cost savings per employee;

on track for a projected health plan cost

savings of 18% (two-year).

• Eighty-eight percent of employees with

back, shoulder, knee or neck pain have had

signifcant reduction in pain, 36% report-

ing their pain is completely eliminated.

• Nearly 90% of employees with high

cholesterol, high blood pressure and/or

glucose complications have had a reduc-

tion in their biometric testing levels for

these conditions. Some employees are

completely of their medications.

National retailer (700 employees): A

full-replacement CDHP; HRA account

funding contingent upon employees and

their adult family members completing a

biometric screening.

• One-hundred percent coverage for

generic preventive medications and

enhanced benefts for preventive brand

drugs; conducted monthly and quarterly

wellness campaigns and clinical health

coaching with a focus on health lifestyle

management.

• Improved employee benefts and no in-

crease in payroll contributions for three

straight years.

• Ninety-fve percent completion rate for

employees and spouses of their annual

biometrics and health risk assessments.

• Established a ftness center in the central

ofce where employees can use exercise

equipment and weights on a daily basis.

• In 2013, the company implemented an

on-site Health Education and Personal

Health Coaching program.

• Tese results were achieved through the

work of benefts consultants with many

parts of the employer’s team: HR, execu-

tive, fnancial and operations.

Te brokers of yesterday can become the

trusted advisors that employers now need,

but they must be willing to commit to work-

ing closely with employers and employees

throughout the plan year. Tat is the only

way to turn strategies, best practices and

communication into results. HIU

TURNING STRATEGIES INTO RESULTS

hiu-digital.com | HIU 7

THIS MONTH’S EXPERTS

Kevin Daum is a

marketer, speaker and

columnist for Inc.com and

Smart Business Magazine.

Kevin has authored

several books, including

Amazon bestsellers Video

Marketing for Dummies, ROAR! Get Heard

in the Sales and Marketing Jungle and

Green$ense for the Home: Rating the Real

Payof on 50 Green Home Projects, which is

the 2011 winner of the American Society of

Journalists and Authors’ Outstanding Book

Award. Kevin is a graduate of the MIT

Entrepreneurial Masters program and has

received the Global Learning Award three

times from the Entrepreneur’s Organiza-

tion. For more of his Inc. columns, go

to KevinDaum.com/inc.

Sam Fleet is president of

AmWINS Group Benefts,

a wholesale broker of

comprehensive group

insurance programs and

administrative services.

With more than 20 years

of health and beneft experience, Sam has

guided the rise of AmWINS Group Benefts

from a small regional organization to a

successful wholesale broker and group in-

surance administrator. Responding to the

crisis of rising medical care and health

insurance costs over the past few years, the

company empowers brokers and their

clients to survive and thrive in the new

health insurance landscape by developing,

distributing and administering niche insur-

ance products and services

Karen Gustin is senior

vice president—group

feld sales, national

accounts and broker

blocks for Ameritas

Group Division. She

joined Ameritas in 1983.

Gustin is past chair of the National

Association of Dental Plans board of

directors and serves on the board of the

National Association of Vision Care Plans.

She can be reached at kgustin@ameritas.

com. For updates on healthcare reform,

visit ameritasgroup.com/reform.

Patrick McClelland is the

vice president of commer-

cial accounts for VSP

Vision Care. He joined

VSP in 2003, bringing

more than 25 years of sales

experience with him.

Patrick has the overall responsibility of 45+

sales staf and manages VSP’s sales, service

and renewal functions for employer groups

of up to 1,000 employees throughout the

country. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree

from the University of San Francisco.

Roy Ramthun is a

nationally recognized

expert on Health Savings

Accounts and consumer-

directed healthcare

issues. He led the U.S.

Treasury Department’s

implementation of HSAs after they were

enacted into law in 2003. President

George W. Bush then tapped Mr. Ramthun

to be his healthcare policy advisor at the

White House, where he developed the

president’s proposals to expand HSAs

while overseeing the implementation of

the Medicare prescription drug benefit

(Part D). He continues to be an advocate

for consumerism in healthcare and is a

frequent speaker at conferences and

seminars around the country.

Roy has over 25 years of healthcare and

public policy experience, both in govern-

ment and in the private sector. He has

served on the staf of the U.S. Senate Com-

mittee on Finance and the U.S. Health Care

Financing Administration (now known

as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid

Services). He also spent eight years with

Humana Inc. Roy holds a Master of Science

degree in Public Health from the University

of North Carolina, and a Bachelor of Science

degree from the University of Michigan.

Scott Stevens, RHU,

CDHC, is an employee

benefts and consumer-

directed healthcare

specialist, helping

employer organizations of

all types reduce their

health insurance and related employee

benefts costs. Scott has helped thousands of

organizations implement alternative health

insurance funding solutions and employee

educational tracts over a 25+ year period.

His career has included stints as vice

president of sales/marketing for a national

insurance company, co-founder and

executive vice president of a TPA and

founder of Te HSA Toolkit (employer/

employee education and sales system). Scott

earned a B.S. in marketing/economics from

the State University of New York at Oswego.

He is an MBA candidate at North Central

College in Naperville, IL.

Scott Wood is a principal

of Beneft Commerce

Group LLC, an award-

winning Scottsdale,

AZ-based employee

benefts frm with over 25

years of experience. He

recently received the Health Promotion Advocate of the Year Award from the Wellness Council of Arizona. He was also named Most Innovative Broker by Te Institute of HealthCare Consumerism in December 2011. Prior to Benefit Commerce Group, Scott held CEO and COO positions within insurance companies for 20+ years.