In a recent survey conducted by Fractl, among the benefits most important to job seekers, better Dental, Vision and Health Insurance overwhelmingly landed in the number one spot with over 60% of respondents. What does that mean for your group? It means, if you don’t think about benefits, you could end up with a weaker job force.
At Primary Care Insurance Solutions, we actively support our clients in Houston, Texas, in making calculated decisions regarding benefits and insurance plans. Our job is to help you identify the weaknesses in your overall benefits offerings and strengthen it to support your team.
But what if you already have a health insurance agent working for you? How can you be sure they are doing their best to get you the right group benefits? What other areas of expertise should you expect them to support you with?
Whether your group includes 10 members or 1,000, you need a professional health insurance agent to secure the best benefits. Here is what else you can and should expect from your agent.
HR Compliance and Support
Companies as small as just two employees have to follow the latest health insurance regulations. To make matters worse, there is a whole host of compliance issues that you have to adhere to, to avoid more complicated issues with local and federal agencies. And with most employees receiving their insurance through their employer, there is little else more important than staying compliant.
For example, at Primary Care Insurance Solutions, we consult with our clients on their administrative best practices to ensure they are not only compliant but also not losing money on unnecessary processes. We also evaluate our clients’ benefits and human resources technology business processes to guarantee it is up to date and on track with the latest tools available on the market.
That hands-on support is invaluable. Recommending appropriate benefits and human resource solutions whenever needed can save you a bundle on the everyday administrative tasks you manage. Something as time-tracking software could be costing you thousands, and some businesses have saved as much as $1,600 per year. But is your agent recommending changes to your HR technology? If not, it could be costing you big time.
Additionally, your agent should also be supplying you with advanced recruiting tools, employee onboarding tools, performance appraisal tools, payroll processing, and a wide library of HR legislation and compliance information.
What about employee benefits administration, after all, is that not what you use a health insurance agent for?
Employee Benefits Administration
The primary goal of any health insurance agent should be to save you and the members of your group money. With employee benefits administration services, they should be able to do that easily.
Some of the issues that your agent should assist you with for your employee plans include managing employee enrollment (which we will touch on later), eligibility management, carrier premium billing and reconciliation, FSA and COBRA Administration, Benefits Benchmarking, and benefits surveys to see where your employees stand.
Your agent should be working tirelessly to see exactly what the members of your group want. If they aren’t they are probably losing you money.
Areas such as retirement planning, claim analytics, and benefits webinars can contribute to a more satisfied employee base and lead to financial gains for your business. The opposite is equally true. Every business is unique, as is every employee. If you are not adjusting your benefits plans every year, then you could find yourself with very unhappy employees.
There is so much more to health insurance agents than just shopping for a group plan. They should actively reorganize your plans to ensure that you have everything you need to not only support your employees but also to maximize their potential.
The bottom line, a qualified health insurance agent can take the stress out of complex compliance issues.
One of the most important benefits of hiring a professional health insurance agent and consultant company is personalized support. For example, enrollment is a stressful time of year, and an agent can take the stress out of that process.
Hosting In-Person Enrollment Meetings
Enrollment season is stressful. The right health insurance agent will host enrollment meetings to get your entire staff on the same page. These enrollment meetings will ensure your staff is getting the benefits they want and walks them through the process to properly sign up.
They say that knowledge is power, and when it comes to health insurance this is all the truer. It takes time to figure out precisely which benefits are right for you. Our employee benefits specialists will talk to your team on their level, getting to know their concerns.
The question is, is your current agent doing that for your group? They should if they have the knowledge and resources available to them.
Personalized care is what we do best, but it is precisely what you should expect from your health insurance agent.
However, where an agent earns their right work with your company is in the shopping for benefits.
Shop For and Find Dental and Vision Plans
Dental, vision and long-term health care are all very important to your employees. Securing a health insurance plan for each of these services can be overwhelming, particularly when you don’t want to pay more than you have to.
Your health insurance agent or broker should walk you through your options. Vision and dental benefits are some of the most highly prized by employees. This means that making them a part of your insurance plan is beneficial.
A few questions to ask yourself about available dental and vision plans might include:
- How much coverage should be offered to dependents?
- How do my employees feel about copays?
- What can I afford in my vision and dental packages?
As your health insurance agent in Houston, Texas, we can discuss these questions with you and your employees to give you valuable feedback. Ultimately, the decision for your plans will fall on your shoulders, but we are happy to walk you through the process of making that decision.
Additionally, for over twenty years we have helped local businesses secure the best group policies for their employees. We have a wide network that allows us to isolate the best insurance coverage options for you.
When you are ready to make the move to a better group health insurance plan, we would love to speak with you.
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