Given that May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month, I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than by helping you do what you do best: help clients put together the best employee benefit packages for their needs. In order for you to maximize time and energy spent meeting new clients and making sales, you need to find ways to minimize time spent dealing with the intricacies of group disability products.
To increase time devoted to making sales, consider partnering with disability carriers that do much more for you than just offer insurance products. Specifically, some carriers provide services with their group disability offerings that can help ensure your clients are getting the most value from their benefits.
Knowing that “time is money,” take advantage of the following five benefits of partnering with group disability carriers to help you get back time in your day.
1) Assistance from onboarding to claims. Once you’ve secured a sale, disability carriers can help you implement the policy and help with the onboarding process to ensure new clients get up to speed efficiently and smoothly and can work through claims immediately — should the need arise.
2) Guidance through the disability process. When clients don’t know where to start to help an employee who is working through a disabling condition, they’re likely to call you for assistance. This same scenario may also play out when it comes time to proceed with a short- or long-term disability claim.
Partnering with a disability carrier that has consultants (vocational, nurse or mental health — depending on the employee’s situation) can provide helpful services that free up your time. These consultants are better equipped to work with your clients to talk through each employee issue and will work together with the HR department, the employee and even the employee’s medical team to find a solution, which could range from an ergonomic accommodation to a return-to-work plan.
3) Navigating additional offerings (EAPs, wellness program, etc.). Additional wellness offerings play a crucial part in recruitment efforts for many employers. To stay competitive, employers look to provide extra resources to employees — such as employee assistance, wellness and/or disease management programs — that go beyond their health and disability insurance benefits. But your clients may not have the best understanding for how and when to properly utilize these programs when employees need them. Consultants from some disability carriers can help make sure employees know when and how to use services from these programs, even if they are offered by another carrier.
4) Experienced workplace accommodations support. Beyond serving as a point person for your clients, these consultants can work directly with employees who are out on a disability leave or are working through a disabling condition. Helping employees navigate the claims process, working directly with medical teams to mitigate a health-related concern and implementing solutions to keep employees at work and productive are just a few examples of the benefits that consultants from a disability carrier can provide.
5) Local support when you need it. While some disability carriers provide support for your employees onsite, they also have resources to help you, too. From account managers to claims coordinators, you can have access to carrier staff to provide direct answers for questions about benefits, claims, underwriting or premium. Given that help is local to brokers and clients, the carrier’s staff can help provide unique insights into your clients’ industries and regions.
Working with disability carrier resources can save you time and utilizing their expertise can help reduce instances of disability in the workplace. Partner with carriers that have resources to address your client’s issues early and reduce the time you spend directly helping clients with the intricacies of group disability policies.
