Benefits Think

Communication of benefits isn't easy. It's one of the reasons we pay tribute to the best of internal communication of benefits every year with the i-COMM Awards. Here's how to enter.

For individuals to be informed consumers, they need to be able to compare prices for similar healthcare services. You can do this when you buy a car, or a house, or a pair of socks, but until recently it’s been almost impossible to compare prices for healthcare services. This is slowly changing.

EBA blogger Mark S. Gaunya says there are some important strategies small employers need to know while heading into 2014.

In a recent survey, three-quarters of employees say they think their employer will educate them about changes to their health care coverage as a result of health care reform, yet only 13% of employers say educating employees about reform is important to their organization. This educational disconnect is troubling.

You may have binders stuffed with reports from your health plan, and still be starving for useful information. Guest blogger Linda K. Riddell offers two ways to cut the clutter and beef up your insights: Slow down the frequency of reports, and make sure reports have the right level of detail.

FSA usage should be encouraged throughout the year. Budgeting is easy when using an FSA calculator before opting into the plan to help participants estimate their yearly expenses. And a broker's role when communicating to clients about better FSA budgeting should entail having multiple communications throughout the year.

The California Bankers Association recently announced a long-term care benefit for employees of member banks throughout the state. The initiative is one of the first of its kind for any large U.S. association, and could be a bellwether for the financial field and beyond.

Guest blogger Adam Miloro maintains the issue concerning 401(k) loans continues to be the lack of education surrounding them. It’s true there are certain situations where taking a loan from one’s retirement plan could make sense, he writes, but for many employees loans signify a much larger problem: living beyond one's means.

Being present and competent is the order of the day once the ACA becomes a reality, says blogger and UBA CEO Thom Mangan. Brokers need to act as a conduit, or contract with a conduit, to help employees navigate through. A lot of these issues fall on the shoulders of the human resources department, but a broker or adviser needs to offer comprehensive care.

You say "tomato," I say "tomahhto." There's a big difference between questions and data requests. Guest blogger Linda K. Riddell says benefits professionals must learn to use the right language so they can ask relevant questions to get the most from their health plan data.