Brokers/advisers: Benefits technology: Helping employers embrace the digital transformation

What tools and systems make advisers' jobs easier? How can employers take advantage of new technology — and how can advisers get them to embrace it?

Transcription:

Stephanie Schomer (00:08):

Thank you guys for coming today. My name is Stephanie Schumer, editor-in-Chief of Employee Benefit News and I am joined today by this lovely panel to discuss benefits technology helping employers embrace the digital transformation. To my direct left is Brian Lacher, VP of Employee Benefits at Nielsen Benefits Group and to my far left is Kara Hoogensen, SVP for Special Benefits Principal Financial Group. Thank you guys for being here today. Thank you. I am excited to chat with you both. Before we dive in, I would love if you guys could each just speak a little bit about your organization, your role with it and kind of how technology is impacting your day-to-day in bigger ways than ever before. Care, we can start with you.

Kara Hoogensen (00:45):

Okay, well good afternoon everybody and thank you for joining us for the conversation. So principals of diversified financial services company and specialty benefits does not necessarily describe specifically what I do, but I ultimately lead our group insurance and individual disability insurance lines of business. So specifically principals got 18,500 employees all over the country. We offer retirement plans, asset management and then insurance products as well. Specifically with respect to group insurance. We have 93,000 customers that we serve. Most of those customers have less than 200 lives, so we really focus on trying to be the go-to solution and easy to do business with for those smaller employers as they think about the benefits that will be most meaningful to their employees and allow them to attract and retain the talent that they need for their success.

Brian Lacher (01:42):

Yeah. Hi everyone. Brian Lacher, vice President of Employee Benefits at Nielsen Benefits Group. So my role there is primarily as a consultant responsible for essentially ensuring that our client's satisfaction is maintained and that we are providing cutting edge solutions to them, which includes technology to groups of all sizes, anywhere down as low as two employees and all the way up to a few thousand. We serve groups all over the country, but really for us it is improving the employee experience reducing the HR workload and making sure that their health insurance and their employee benefits packages are sustainable. Obviously technology is a huge component of that as we have been, I think in one of the sessions yesterday was the advisor's new role and that was certainly one of the concepts and the topics and essentially in every discussion that we have had, technology is a huge component and in that discussion so looking forward to sharing that as well. And I also actually have a lot of experience on the carrier side as well, so Excited to be up here with Karen, combine our knowledge to share with everyone.

Stephanie Schomer (02:47):

 Cool. Well Brian, to your point we can start off with you. When it comes to employee communications, where does technology fit in here? What does this mean for engagement and utilization in the conversations you are having with your clients?

Brian Lacher (03:00):

So the first thing is technology can mean so many different things. It depends on who we are having these conversations with, whether it is employees, employers. What we are really focusing on is the technologies that relates to the employee benefit communication strategy such as EDI feeds, API integrations, benefit administration systems, cuz those are essentially the tools and the mechanisms that we are using to essentially communicate these benefits and make sure that the employees and the members have access to them. So it is a primary focal point of what we are doing at every stage in the process of our conversations with prospects and our existing clients. It is a staple in that conversation with renewal planning. I would also say too, it is a staple in the type of employees that we are hiring and the vendors that we are working with as well. The people that we are trying to bring on to our team it is essential that they are well versed, have experience in benefit administration systems because that is such a core component of our system and it is also what we are being asked to do of our clients. So that is a way that we are winning business. we are asking the questions and finding out what's important to them where they are spending a lot of time and it is teams like the overwhelming majority of the time, these employers really need help with the benefit administration systems and the ones that we are talking to they are not always getting support from their brokers and that comes from brokers in all shapes and sizes. Some of these larger consulting houses and some of these smaller ones. So when we are implementing this effectively and we are having the right people that are educated, skilled in this it is improving the employee experience. Employees are having a much easier time navigating care, getting benefits and there's nothing worse than an EDI feed that goes foul orry and an employee, a member is trying to go to the dentist and they are getting denied, rejected for coverage because they don't have it. So when we are able to implement this benefit communication technology, make sure that this whole process is working well, it is improving morale, employers are becoming better users of their health insurance, the benefits and just as importantly and most importantly the employers are happy with us and they are hiring us and keeping us on board. So it is affecting all parties in a major component of what we are doing.

Stephanie Schomer (05:24):

Well Kara, I wanted to get your perspective too, of course for employers. From your point of view, how does this ease the burden of providing and managing benefits?

Kara Hoogensen (05:33):

Oh, absolutely. So while Brian started his comments from the employee communication perspective, that is a critical component becomes, but becomes critical at a later point in time. So if we think about the selection process, the evaluation process, the setup of the benefit program or the change to a benefit program between one carrier and another, streamlining that and making that as easy as possible. And I think yesterday in one of these sessions the conversation was around these ben admin platforms and the couple in particular that have really risen to the top and are gaining quite a bit of market share out there. And so from a carrier perspective, making sure that we are tightly integrated with those platforms to make your lives as brokers or consultants easier, but ultimately making it easier on your employer customers, which then ultimately is going to free up time for those employer customers to help support that education process at the end of the day. And so we have made a big investment in API connectivity so that it is real time changes in the system both on our end and then for the broker so that those situations where you're, you maybe have miskeyed data into systems isn't happening, it is all digitized where you don't have members that are scrambling for coverage because they didn't have access to what they needed. So making sure that all of that is really just handled smoothly and easily. The thing I would also add, and maybe we'll explore this a little bit later is technology can solve for a lot and is clearly important to all of us. I mean the less time you and your staff have to spend sorting papers and inputting information into multiple different carrier systems but can use a ben admin platform or the employer can do that, that is a win-win. But technology can't solve for everything. And so really thinking about what the right combination of technology and the human element is to ultimately drive the desired outcome of making sure that people have got the peace of mind that will allow them to focus on their work and live their best lives.

Stephanie Schomer (07:52):

I wanna expand on that idea of using technology to create this connective tissue. I know you said that a lot of employer clients that you guys work with don't really get the support that maybe they deserve from brokers. So aside from making it possible to make these things easier, how can technology make it easier for all these parties to communicate together and get on the same page from employers to carriers to employees at the end of the day?

Brian Lacher (08:14):

I think that is really where the rubber meets the road It, it is bringing all these different components together. Bringing together our carrier partners, bringing together HR employers, employees and the broker who's helping facilitate this entire process. When an employee, one of the first things that they get when they start is in the email about their open enrollment and all the different benefits that are offered. So this is essentially one of the first impressions is an employer that they are making with an employee. So I really think it is an opportunity for the employer and really brokers too, to showcase our strengths and same thing with our carriers also as well. If we are making this a smooth process, if we are making sure that the employees are educated and having this very intuitive easy open enrollment selection process, making their benefits and then being able to actually use the benefits, know how to use them being offered the resources and getting that support when issues do go arry it, it is really our opportunity for all of us to shine. At the end of the day, these are Employee Benefits. We wanna make sure that the employee is having a great experience. So when we are plugging in these different techniques and these different communication strategies and identifying new benefit administration systems and new API feeds and carriers that integrate, we are really seeing that it is just everyone is shining and that is ultimately what we want here. I mean, we wanna look good we want our carrier partners to be seen in a good light. We want to try and renew business when we can. We want to reduce that HR workload and not create problems for them. But at the end of the day it it is really about making sure that this entire process is fluid as possible for employees. Whether it it is proactive and we are trying to reach out to them and let them know that there's something that they need to do or it is reactive is the result of a particular issue.

Kara Hoogensen (10:14):

The one point I would add to that Brian's comments is just around the ability that technology has to streamline everything and to the extent they are streamlining not only our processes going to take effect and more immediately and efficiently, but ultimately that is going to help from a cost perspective. So that is going to allow all this connectivity between the brokers, between employers, between members and carriers is ultimately what's going to help us drive down costs. And while I can't speak to it from a medical perspective because we are not a medical carrier any longer, but we definitely see as a provider, we see efficiency gains when we have brokers and employers on these ben admin platforms. Not every ben admin platform is the same. We do not see the same level of efficiency between each of the platforms. And I am seeing a few head nods, so I am thinking a few of you have experience with a few of these different platforms and can maybe speak to that firsthand as well. But for those where you have, where the ben admin platform actually does have the tech that enables a really tight carrier integration, there's efficiency gains and ultimately those efficiency gains are going to help keep rates at lower levels over the long term. I don't wanna sit here and suggest to anyone that carriers are going to immediately pass along those efficiencies because you've gotta have enough and aggregate and we are not at that critical point if you will, enough scale on these platforms. But longer term, to the extent you have more people using these platforms that is going to help us as an industry be more efficient and provide more affordable solutions.

Stephanie Schomer (12:07):

What's the best path to identifying the best Ben admin platform for your organization and making sure that it is not one that is getting those head nods saying it is not as efficient as we'd like it to be?

Kara Hoogensen (12:19):

I am going to let Brian go first cuz you do the evaluation more than or differently than we do.

Brian Lacher (12:24):

Yeah, that is a really tough one. I mean honestly there is trial and error, there's lots of great vendors out there and there's lots of vendors that we get tons of phone calls from or emails. We don't turn them all down. There's lots of great people that we are introduced to that put on great shows and we essentially have a questionnaire where we are evaluating these people and a lot of it too is just boiling down to the carriers. We know that there's certain carriers that are going to have integrations with particular HRS vendors that we work with. So we know from just asking the questions and this is a lot of information now that is also being publicized as well. If you go onto a website like Ease, they are advertising, they are carrier connection plus vendors, so we know now and because there's a little bit more information that is transparent, we have an idea of what's available. But not every client wants these, like you were saying, not all Ben admin systems are created equally. The other thing that we are finding out too as well that as it relates to some of our voluntary vendors that we are working with in voluntary products there are certain voluntary products that just don't fit into these systems. There are product parameters that are creating tons of headaches, especially around attained age products like critical illness or ultrasensitive whole life, things like that. Products that we do want to get out and that employees need, especially when they have high deductible health insurance plans. But we are trying to simplify some of those products as well and use product arrangements that we know work that are keeping it simple and that aren't going to complicate the system and create a mess with these EDI feeds and then get those weekly dreaded emails that I see sometimes where it says errors identified and file feed and then we have to go in there and figure out what's going on and that is a headache and it is a concern. So it is a little bit of trial and error, it is getting to know our partners, the vendors looking at the products and it is an evaluation process but it, it is tricky and there have been mistakes along the way, but I think having the right partners, carriers, good carriers that are investing heavily into their technology departments are critical for us so that when we deploy our technology people, we have the right people talking to each other. And I think that is a big part of it too. Lots of times it is just miscommunications. But if we have smart people that know this process and are connecting with people other than no offense to the sales reps who don't always know the EDI process as well and we are connecting them with the carrier or the vendor or the HRS specialist, that is when we are seeing these processes become more efficient.

Stephanie Schomer (15:06):

Great.

Kara Hoogensen (15:07):

The other thing, a couple of key questions come to mind and again, my experience is representing a carrier that connects into these platforms, but I know one of the things that we always ask and look for is what is the roadmap over the next 12 to 18 months for that particular Ben platform and what's the level of investment they are making to support that roadmap and then asking those same two questions over a longer period of time. Because the reality is as you are looking to support your clients as brokers and consultants, whether you choose to work with one, two or a whole variety of platforms, that is a lift for you and your team and you're going to want to make sure that you have an understanding of what that lift is going to look like for you for your clients, not only today but three years from now and potentially five years from now. Because I am guessing if you think about the growth of your respective businesses, you're not going to be wanting to help switch out Ben admin platforms every 18 months. And so asking those questions around the more near term and the longer term plans so that you can understand if this is a platform that makes sense to grow with and for your customers to grow with.

Stephanie Schomer (16:28):

Great. In terms of how data impacts the space, I am curious about what that means for both of you. I know Kara, we have talked about principal's comparison tool before. I'd love to if you could speak a little bit about that.

Kara Hoogensen (16:40):

Sure, absolutely. So I mentioned in my first set of comments just around the employee aspect is at the end of the process and certainly exceptionally important at the beginning of the process. And what we find often, and I am guessing many of you find as well, particularly smaller clients, they just don't even know where to start in terms of evaluating what makes sense for a benefits program. And again, I am going to set medical aside cuz that is not really my expertise, but I can speak to most of the other ancillary lines of business. So again, we have 93,000 group insurance customers, we have 40,000 retirement plan customers. So in aggregate across all of those businesses, we have got a pretty robust set of data as a firm. And what we have been able to do is take that data and make it available in such a way that if you, you've got access to it@principle.com and the name of the tool is the benefit design tool. Not super sexy, but it that is what it is. And you can go out and submit, put in a few pieces of information location, number of employees, industry. I am trying to think, there might be one other piece. I think that there's only three or four pieces of information. And what will actually come back to you when you hit submit then is an basic outline of what similar employers in that same general line of business geography and employee category size-wise, what they are offering for comparable benefits. And then you can actually go a step further and for your client you could put in their specific plan provisions, whether they've got a matching contribution and auto-escalation on their 401k plan for their short-term disability, what the monthly benefit is and what the elimination period is, all of that detail. And then actually have a side-by-side comparison. And it is not necessarily to say everything should look alike, but we all know human behavior is such that most times people wanna know what others like them are doing, including business owners wanna know what others who are trying to retract and retain the same talent, what they are doing from a benefits perspective. So it may be a very conscious decision to not offer something similar to competitors in the area. It may be a conscious decision to overinvest in a particular area, but at least it is a conscious decision to do those things and start to take the benefits package and think of it in terms of the total compensation that particular employer is offering to their employees. And again, this isn't just for employers. If you wanna go out and use it you are more than welcome to. it is available for, it really targets employers that have three to a hundred employees and again, available to anyone.

Brian Lacher (19:26):

I think that benchmark being is critical. And I am getting asked about benchmark data constantly from our clients and from prospects that we are working with. And not just medical, but the ancillary lines of coverage as well. Some employers offer very rich contributions to their medical insurance but offer nothing towards the dental and vision. And they want to get an idea of how everything compares across the board. we have talked about recruitment and retention as a critical component. A lot of the clients that we are working with are perfectionists and they want to know all the single details of the way that their plans compare. And so that is not just the medical deductibles and the contributions for employee and employee plus dependence, but they want to know what their dental maximum benefits look like. They want to know what the employer paid life insurance looks like. Hey, is a flat $50,000 competitive these days? Well, to some companies it may be, but some of these white collar heavy tech companies that we are working with, they are doing two times salary to $500,000 because the average salary's $200,000. So I think it is critical and I am so glad that principal is doing that. And then I think it kind of raises the question, how do we communicate that stuff to employers and employees and letting them know that a employer, what you're doing is competitive, comparable, and then also letting the employees know that they are getting a good deal too. Right. I mean I think that is one of the most difficult things that we are trying to manage as broker consultants and why we are hired on is to help with this benefit communication process and to let employees know what a good deal they have. So things like total compensation statements have been super helpful in letting employees see what they are getting, not just in salary but their non-cash compensation as well. And it usually tax on another 20% to their salary. So the way that we have been trying to communicate these things is one, we are trying to get it on the ben admin portal. Maybe this kind of raises some of the other questions that we we are talking about, but we are using text message campaigns to educate these employees. And I'd say the one thing that is been the most helpful for us in pointing employees to the right direction and announcements has been the creation of employee benefit webpages. So if you're fully insured, good chance you're probably changing medical carriers every three years. The same thing with dental and vision. It does get changed out from time to time happens with life and disability insurance. The point is that there's constant changes, whether it is a ben admin system dysfunctional or whether it is a carrier change that we need to prompt if we are storing everything on the employee benefit webpage. And that becomes the constant that is essentially becoming this hub of information that we are using to communicate all the other changes. Or when these employees run into issues, they know where to go. Employers are constantly referring their employees to these websites, to these systems. They don't essentially want to get bogged down with these questions. And depending on the type of client that we are working with, frankly if it is a smaller group that is high maintenance and a lot of work but not a lot of revenue, we need to be mindful of the time that we are spending as well. So we found the employee benefit webpages to be a great way to provide comparisons or let employees essentially know where all the resources,

Stephanie Schomer (23:01):

What kind of engagement are you seeing with those pages.

Brian Lacher (23:05):

So the text message has a very high open rate. We all get tons of junk email per day. I still think that is a critical component. I don't think it is something that should be overlooked and neglected. And a lot of what we are doing as well is providing these emails or these text messages and essentially creating a campaign so that the employer has a schedule and knows essentially what we are going to tackle for the first half of the year, first quarter, whatever. Sometimes we are even planning it for the entire year. Obviously things change throughout the course of the year. But it is exciting to see when there actually is change and when we are looking at the utilization and we are seeing people stay in network when we are seeing people use generic medication, when we are seeing an increase in virtual care and maybe a blue collar group where it is older males that aren't necessarily as open to some of these newer technologies. So, it is really yielding great results and we are happy to see that. And I think the thing that employers are really happy about too is when we are driving claims in network and using some of these efficiencies and these technologies and this claims recognition technology that we have to identify chronic conditions and proactively communicate to employees, whether it is a phone call, an email, or a text message that is when we are seeing meaningful impacts on people going to these centers where they are still getting high quality care but they are low cost. And an example that comes to mind just real quickly is last night before I go to bed I am watching TV and there's an advertisement from a dentist, they are talking about implants. Well, we all know how expensive implants are. So just outta curiosity, I go to the dentist's webpage and I try to see who the insurance providers are that they take. And they only take a handful of insurance carriers. In fact, one of the insurance carriers that they mentioned was aur, who's not even really a dental insurance carrier anymore. So the point here is that these employees are being communicated via television, radio, there's all sorts of advertisements and they are being drawn to these in our area, UCLA and Cedar Sinai and Los Angeles where we live. We wanna make sure that they are going to these providers that they are in network or at least they understand and have the tools and the resources to know where they are going. There's nothing worse than a surprise bill or someone going someplace where they are just uncertain of the cost and they find out that the dentist is out of network and now that $5,000 implant is truly $5,000 and they are not getting that full benefit of the in-network plan design that we created.

Kara Hoogensen (25:49):

And maybe just to tack onto to Brian's comments there another thing, we spent a lot of time talking about integrations with Ben admin platforms, but don't forget about taking a look at the capabilities that also exist around chatbots and call centers and the like to do benefit verification. So that again, that is something that can be taken off your plate can be taken off the employer's plate, but to use your example, the member can actually call in or go online and say, okay, if I am going to go have this done, what is going to be covered? And know that in advance and making sure that that is communicated on the example of your benefit pages or widely known so that it can just, again, make everything that much more efficient.

Stephanie Schomer (26:32):

Everyone is not on the same technological journey. How do you guys balance that for people who are engaging with these tools and prepared to engage with these tools in very different ways that can't make your jobs easier?

Kara Hoogensen (26:42):

It doesn't, but that is the reality of where we are at. So from my perspective, making sure that we are deploying our technology resources to create the integrations with those platforms that are gaining more market share is super important. But also acknowledging that, like you said Stephanie, not everyone is there. So also making investments to ensure that our website is industry leading and recognized and super simple to navigate in order to, for you as brokers to access on behalf of your clients or for the employers themselves to go in and make changes as needed throughout the course of the year. Again, also making sure we have got the right processes in place to take in paper. I mean I keep telling my team, my happy place is when there is absolutely no paper. And plus it is great for the environment, but we are not there yet.\ So making sure that we can continue to support that for those employers. I think oftentimes there's this kind of set it and forget it. So we start to go down one particular path, whether it is a technology path or whether it is continuing on this paper path, but being really conscious of taking a step back every couple of years to say, has something changed that would make a technology platform more beneficial or easier to implement now than it was two years ago? And constantly having that conversation. Not to the point clearly where we are annoying people, but to the point where you're bringing it up often enough that at some point I predict five, seven years from now, paper will be the absolute anomaly. We'll always still have to have it because there will always be some group that is not prepared to deploy technology. But that is definitely the minority of the business.

Brian Lacher (28:40):

The set it and forget it is dangerous and we see it all the time. I was recently talking to a group, it was smaller, about 50 employees, but they are still using paper enrollment firms and they offer medical only. And this is a prominent law firm in Los Angeles with very highly compensated attorneys. And the fact that they are still doing this and comfortable with it, I shouldn't say comfortable with it, but this is just become their process. And now we are talking to them and we are showing them how these benefit administration systems can work and solve some of those problems. So I think it is critical that we are also surveying the employees constantly, whether it is a new prospect that we are talking to, but there's so many different communication methods that employees want and it is constantly changing. we have talked about the diversity in the workforce that is not changing and there's going to be new technology. that is the exciting thing about technology. it is constantly getting better. But that is why I think it is so important to survey employees relatively frequently a couple times a year so that we are getting that information to find out exactly what communication strategies are working because not everyone wants to open a text message.

Stephanie Schomer (29:55):

And to that point, we just have a minute left, but I wanna make sure we, Carrie, you mentioned this at the top of the talk, how do you combine technology and that very important human touch to make sure that it still feels like a person to person interaction? How can you merge the two?

Kara Hoogensen (30:12):

Well I think there's a very direct way in terms of the experience that the technology is providing to make sure that that is actually an experience that appeals to people that not only will a drive adoption, but that will help keep people engaged. But then I think it is understanding the decision making process, whether it is at the employer level or whether it is at the employee level, and understanding where those critical moments of truth exist and whether that can be effectively kind of fulfilled just with technology or if there's some combination of technology and talking to someone. It could be the employer, it could be the advisor, it could be someone at the carrier to help support that decision. I think there's a lot of research out there to say that for most financial related decisions, people don't wanna rely on technology solely. It is some combination of doing research, leveraging digitization, the web, whatever may be accessible, but then having a touchpoint with a human of some sort before they actually commit to that decision. So it is really understanding that customer journey and where those key touchpoints are. And by understanding where the key ones are, then you can de-emphasize the human element elsewhere in order to drive the efficiency.

Brian Lacher (31:31):

I couldn't agree more. I think it is important to lot not lose sight of that human element to these employee benefits. There's lots of great artificial intelligence and decision making support and that is great. And Ben admin systems and benefit brochures and text messages and emails are great, but that is why we are also trying to focus by bringing people out to open enrollment and bringing them out onsite throughout the course of the year so that open enrollment and benefit communication is not just this essentially automated process. And certainly we want to be parts of it automated, but a lot of people work with us because they doing business with us. Mm-hmm. Not necessarily the technology, but it is really both and that is something that we are constantly trying to work on, but I think it is finding the right fit of the two, which is difficult and ranges from.

Kara Hoogensen (32:21):

And changing it will change. So that fit today will be different than the fit 12 months from now and 36 months from now.

Stephanie Schomer (32:28):

I'd Like to keep you guys on your toes. that is right. that is all the time we have today. Thank you guys so much for being here. Thanks to you both. Really appreciate the conversation.

Brian Lacher (32:35):

Thank you. Great. Thank you so much.