Top 10 questions employees have about your health benefits
If you polled your company’s health plan participants and asked them what they wanted to know most about their benefits options, what would they say? This is a pretty good indicator.
Towers Watson, which runs a private health exchange called OneExchange, recently analyzed the questions individual participants in its exchange were asking and complied the following list.
It’s likely a pretty good barometer of the kinds of things your employees are wondering, and it may be a good starting point when trying to decide in which direction to take your benefits educations efforts next.
Here are the top 10 questions OneExchange participants asked (follow by HR Morning’s thoughts on each):
- Which plan has the lowest cost? As you know, this is not an easy question to answer when you offer multiple plans. Some employees just want to know what’ll result in the lowest payroll deduction. And your employees may not understand why you’re not just telling them which one that is. As you know, it’s because the “lowest cost” plan may be more expensive if the employee needs medical care (as it’s likely to cover less of those costs). Try to convey the message (in not such harsh terms) that they may get what they pay for with “low-cost” plans.
- What are the copays of the plans being offered? Not all plans come with copays. Some employees may not realize that, especially if they’re used to paying copays. Try to give employees as clear of a picture as you can of what they’ll end up paying in total for similar procedures under each of the plans you’re offering.
- Why does my health plan have a high deductible? Employees coming over from a plan without a high deductible may suffer from sticker shock when they realize what major medical care could cost them under a high-deductible plan. Sometimes, to calm their nerves it just takes an explanation of the merits of a high-deductible plan — such as using a health reimbursement or health savings account to help cover deductible costs, or lower plan premiums.
- What’s the difference between a gold, silver and bronze plan? Public exchanges have to place plans i metal tiers depending on the percentage of the cost of care they’ll cover. Some private exchanges have also adopted this plan comparison model. Your employer-sponsored plan may not offer “gold,” “silver” or “bronze” plans per se, but you may want to consider letting employees know which of these tiers your plans would slide into. That way employees know what open market plans yours compare to.
- What do I need to do to earn my wellness dollars? There’s still a lot of interest in wellness programs out there (Towers Watson said 50% of OneExchange enrollees would be interested in wellness activities). If you offer one, and tie financial incentives to it, make sure you clearly spell out during open enrollment what employees have to do to earn those incentives — as well as when and how they’ll get the money.
- How do I know which doctors are part of the plan? Make sure it’s easy for employees to find out which doctors are part of the plans you offer. This may require going onto your carrier’s website and looking up doctors yourself to find out what’s involved. That way, if employees come to you with questions, you have a better idea of how to help them.
- What’s the difference between an HRA, HSA and FSA? Make sure any terms associated with the plans you offer are clearly explained in plain English. Have a few employees read over your plan’s glossary, and address anything they find confusing before unleashing it on your entire workforce.
- What does the prescription drug plan cover? Employees will want to know if the drugs they’re taking are covered. When possible, direct them to a plan representative they can speak to about their individual circumstances.
- What’s the difference between insurers? In an effort to differentiate themselves, insurers try to excel at one aspect of insurance coverage. In other words, they’re all trying to “hang their hat” on something different. Find out what that is and communicate it to your workers.
- If I want to keep the plan I had last year, what do I need to do? If they’ll be automatically re-enrolled, make sure your open enrollment materials make that clear. Still, you want to remind them to review the coverage levels they selected last year to make sure they’re still adequate.
Source: Towers Watson
