- Key insight: Learn how spouse-comparison tools enable cross-household plan optimization during open enrollment.
- What's at stake: Misaligned benefits risk higher employee costs and coverage gaps.
- Expert quote: Comparing external plans builds trust and yields better plan fit, says Wayne Wall, Flimp CEO.
Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
Having a good
HR communications platform Flimp has added a spouse comparison tool to their existing Decision product, allowing employees to see a side-by-side analysis not just of
"This enables more flexibility, more transparency and more options," says Wayne Wall, Flimp's CEO. "The more good options, the better the fit you're going to find for the employee, and that's the objective at the end of the day."
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Simplifying the decision-making process
The spouse comparison tool allows employees to enter in current health information like ongoing medical conditions and needs for themselves and their dependents, possible upcoming events like a planned surgery or having a baby, and geographic location information. Personal health information is de-identified to protect employee privacy.
They then upload their spouse's summary of benefits coverage (SBC) to be analyzed alongside their own, and Flimp's AI-powered technology will present a score rating out of 100 for each plan option to help people make a more educated choice from both a medical and financial perspective. The entire process takes around five minutes, and the average completion rate among employees is an industry high of 60%.
"[Health benefits] are a meaningful cost for most employees," Wall says. "[These tools allow them] to tackle this very simply and know with confidence that [they're] choosing the right plan, not just in terms of cost, but in terms of fit for [their and their family's] healthcare needs."
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The perks for benefit leaders and businesses
A reliable, digital solution that helps employees better understand and manage their own health insurance choices not only saves benefit leaders time, but can also provide key data and analytics that can help them see what offerings are most valuable to their workforce. Employers can elect to have Flimp track and measure the plans being compared, then decide if theirs should be modified to better meet their employees' needs.
Wall points out that whenever employers incorporate the type of closed-AI technology used by Flimp into their overall benefits engagement strategy, they're empowering benefit leaders to create buildable, trustworthy, digestible resources to distribute to employees on a consistent basis.
"Our value-add is being able to take that complex aggregation of information, digest it, and parse it out really fast," he says. "You can create all kinds of different guides — whether it's print and mail or digital videos — and it's accurate and customized."
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For businesses, there is a chance for cost savings if an employee finds that their spouse's plan is a better option, or they may find that their benefits are highly valued, which is also a win, Wall says. Whatever workers choose, their employer is building trust by giving them this decision tool as a resource, he adds.
"We don't live in a world filled with transparency, and that's frustrating for people," Wall says. "The trust factor here is, 'We're going to allow you to make a comparison of other available plans to the plans we offer. If it's better for you, that's great, if it's not, that's fine — our plans are better.' That's a win-win."
Read more about the latest open enrollment tools and trends:
MetLife shares 4 key strategies for a successful 2025 open enrollment How leaders can prevent 2 of the worst open enrollment mistakes How benefit managers can navigate open enrollment amid OBBBA How this new AI tool is taking the stress out of open enrollment Open-source platform transforming health plan advising
