Every year, you have a conversation with your clients to match them with the healthcare benefits solution that makes the most sense for their business. Oftentimes your clients get too caught up in focusing on costs, and not about whether their benefits are truly supporting their workforce.
Part of your role as a broker is explaining why it's advantageous for employers to bring employees a great healthcare experience. This not only helps you connect your clients with the right solution, but also demonstrates your value as their broker.
Use these five talking points for self-funded health insurance at your next client meeting to help them understand the value of a great healthcare experience.
Is your client struggling to hire the top talent they need to help their business grow? Even if they can afford to pay top dollar, salary isn’t the only factor that candidates consider when evaluating a job offer.
Job seekers weigh a variety of options in relation to their salary; for example, if employees will be compensated less, then they value their healthcare benefits even more. According to Aflac, 55% of employees would consider accepting a job offer for lower compensation in exchange for a more robust benefits package.
Talking through the details of the benefits package is a crucial conversation your clients will have with an employee during the final hiring stages/early onboarding. If they can promise talent a stronger benefit offering than the competition, it could mean the difference between hiring a stellar new employee or losing them.
While your clients want to remain competitive in recruiting new employees, you’ll also want to remind them that replacing an employee who left for a job with better benefits will ultimately cost a lot more. In fact, it can cost 1.5 to 2 times the departing employee’s salary - and that’s a conservative estimate. These turnover costs add up fast, especially considering the lost productivity inherent in training a new employee.
Here are some quick facts to bring to your next client meeting:
Simply offering healthcare isn’t enough for your clients to keep their employees. While full-time employees generally expect to receive healthcare through their employer, particularly at mid-size and larger employers, they need quality healthcare. Healthcare networks with a high satisfaction rate can keep employees extra happy to work for your client.
A stronger healthcare offering leads to employees and dependents who are healthier both physically and mentally. The benefits of having healthy employees are endless. Healthy employees are more productive, less prone to errors and accidents and are more engaged with the workplace. Healthy employees (and their healthy families) are also much less costly because they’re more likely to receive preventive care to address any issues.
In recent years, companies have moved beyond simply providing an employer-sponsored healthcare plan to actually investing in their employees’ health with wellness programming. This has not only helped employers to incentivize healthy living among their employees but also serves as a recruiting and retention tool to demonstrate to workers how much the company cares about its employees.
Walking clubs and yoga classes are a great start, but just knowing that healthcare coverage isn’t an issue is huge for your clients’ employees. 31% of employees would not be able to cover an unexpected out-of-pocket medical bill greater than $500. If employees knew that they had options to help manage an unexpected medical bill, they’d have greater peace of mind.
Bettering a team’s physical and mental health requires creating a culture of health within the workplace. Your client’s benefits offering may be only one component of creating that culture, but it serves as the cornerstone. The health benefits your client provides to their employees send a signal for how much the company values its employees’ health and wellness.
Additionally, how your clients treat health and wellness says a lot about the company’s brand as a whole. There is a strong correlation between companies that offer great benefits and companies that have high satisfaction among current employees and alumni.
A robust, competitive benefits package sets the tone for the organizational culture. As with salary, your clients’ benefits offering is a measure of how much they value their employees. Giving them a comprehensive provider network with quality care at an affordable cost demonstrates how much your client cares about their employees.
Brokers know all too well that employers find health insurance to be cumbersome. They just want to get through the benefits meeting so that they can get back to their daily operations. While leadership would rather focus on improving an internal process or strengthening a customer relationship to increase revenue, adjusting the benefits plan can be just as impactful on the bottom line.
Self-funding can seem like a lot of work; however, the financial opportunities are great. Instead of paying a fully insured premium every year, employers pay only for the claims incurred by the plan, while pocketing the savings. In a fully-funded model, 15% to 20% of premium payments to large carriers go towards plan administration and insurer profits. Fees for third-party administrators (TPAs) are much less. Because the employer doesn't have to compensate a third-party insurer, they can charge lower premiums, which can be beneficial for employees.
HPS’s level-funded and self-funded health insurance offerings can help your clients build a creative, cost-saving health plan. Members have access to our broad independent provider network to receive the best quality care. Interest-free payment plans and our simple SuperEOB make it easy for employees to understand and manage healthcare costs.
Ready to introduce HPS to your clients? Snag this guide to help you promote the benefits of HPS, then grab this sell sheet to share with your clients.