The right benefits strategy can help you attract top talent to your organization and may even impact your bottom line. But selecting benefits packages that deliver the value and service your business needs can be a time-consuming and confusing process. And if your benefits packages don’t also meet employee expectations, you could stall valuable productivity—or worse, lose valuable talent to competitors. If you’re experiencing any of the 10 challenges that follow, you might want to consider re-evaluating your health insurer.
1. Benefits onboarding is a pain point…for everyone.
Starting off on the right foot helps boost positivity, productivity, contentment, and confidence in your company. And it’s important—the majority of employers in a SHRM survey report that effective onboarding practices improve “retention rates (52%), productivity time (60%) and overall customer satisfaction (53%).”
But the onboarding process, which may last for months, can create confusion and frustration for everyone. The Harvard Pilgrim SmartStart program, however, helps alleviate some of the pain points your employees might feel when it comes to changes to their benefits by supporting them through a switch of insurance plans quickly and easily. From employer education to decision support, pre-enrollment guidance, and clinical transition for enrollees, SmartStart helps your company and workforce seamlessly move to new health insurance.
2. Employees don’t feel supported when they select their health benefits.
Unfortunately, many companies with lean HR teams lack the resources or the time to fully educate and support their workforce on what benefits are available. Research shows up to 37% of employees receive no education or advice on benefits from their employers or benefits company. And left to their own devices, 41% of employees spend 15 minutes or less researching their benefits options. That may be why a full 73% of workers sometimes, rarely or never understand everything their benefits packages cover.
Instead of leaving your workforce without proper guidance on their benefit options, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care helps support your HR team by offering access to resources that help employees make informed decisions on choosing a health care plan no matter what health scenarios they may be experiencing. A service such as MyHealthMath offers employees a one-on-one call to discuss their health needs, resulting in a personalized report of plan options (with price comparison) based on the conversation. This way, they select the plan that’s right for them.
3. Help is automated, not personal.
While digital tools make some experiences more efficient, reaching out for help—and getting a machine—can be incredibly frustrating and impersonal, especially when it comes to something as personal (and often complex) as health care.
Service is how Harvard Pilgrim, on the other hand, lives our not-for-profit mission. Every day we aim for measurable responsiveness, dependability, and impact. We emphasize a personal connection to our broker partners, our employer accounts, and our members because we know service is much more than just a business efficiency.
Whenever you need us, we’re just one call (800-424-7285) or email away—whether it’s Broker Relations, Consumer Sales, Medicare Sales, Member Services, or the Broker/Employer Service Team. Real people dedicated to providing real support.
4. Response times to questions (or requests) are slow.
According to Statista, 12% of Americans rate “lack of speed” as their number-one frustration with customer service. And up to 56% of people around the world have discontinued business with a company due to a poor customer service experience.
At Harvard Pilgrim, we make things faster and easier for everyone with online quoting and Express Enrollment. We streamline an employer group’s transition to Harvard Pilgrim—paying particularly close attention to members in treatment—to ensure their continuity of care as part of our SmartStart onboarding program.
In addition, we offer a number of self-service tools through our website, such as allowing employers to quickly enroll employees in group health plans, make membership changes, and review and pay invoices. Your employees can also log onto our site and immediately access digital ID cards, review services covered by their plan, and see how much money has been applied to their deductible.
5. Your health plan’s benefits packages are “one-size-fits-all”.
Today’s workforce is more diverse than ever. From millennials to baby boomers, each person on your team has their own unique health care needs. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to health care, so why partner with a health insurance carrier that builds its plans this way?
Harvard Pilgrim recognizes the diversity of thought that comes from our broker relationships and our accounts. We listen—a lot—through our state- and-market-driven Broker and Employer Advisory Council meetings and surveys. This input, coupled with listening to our members and monitoring market conditions, is why we have a broad portfolio of products, programs, and services to meet your employees’ needs.
Harvard Pilgrim offers plans for small businesses and large corporations—whether it be local, regional, or national coverage—with fully or self-insured funding options. If you are looking for a flexible plan design, we have that too—by way of robust network options that all include high-quality doctors and hospitals, unique benefit design that addresses the utilization needs of certain populations, different cost-sharing structures and a menu of robust wellbeing options.
6. Employees don’t understand their coverage options and rely too heavily on emergency care.
Many health care consumers utilize emergency care services for common ailments, particularly when they’re unsure what their options are to receive care. Studies have found that nearly two-thirds of emergency visits are avoidable.
Harvard Pilgrim plans offer a variety of options for your employees to access medical support and care in different settings than the ER, that may also save time and money. This includes some coverage for visits to urgent care centers and convenience care clinics, as well as urgent care visits through Doctor On Demand covered in full on some of our plans. Visit here for more details.
7. Employees lack support for health conditions.
As many as 6 in every 10 Americans are living with a chronic disease like heart disease, diabetes, or chronic pain. Serious medical issues like these account for almost $3.5 trillion annually in health care costs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronic conditions and related lifestyle risk factors are the leading drivers of health care costs for employers.
Harvard Pilgrim’s care management programs are designed to help your employees manage new or existing medical conditions. Our team of highly skilled health care professionals help individuals understand their condition, coordinate care and take actionable steps toward better health. Your employees can count on navigation through the complex health care system in order to access and receive high-quality care in a location that best fits their needs.
8. Only a portion of your employees are truly engaging (and using) their health benefits.
Modern health care isn’t just about managing diseases. Instead, the delivery of health care services is trending toward involving each aspect of a person’s life, including their physical, mental and emotional health.
Harvard Pilgrim takes a holistic approach to managing care, offering tools and resources to meet each individual’s specific needs, and to support them wherever they may be on the health spectrum, even those who are healthy and living well. In fact, our Living WellSM Program offers a robust platform to help engage these employees in achieving their wellness goals with tracking tools, health activities, well-being challenges, and rewards for their healthy behaviors. Plus, we’ve included some modules to help employees better understand (and utilize) their health insurance benefits as part of the program.
9. Digital health tools are not meeting employee expectations.
The modern workforce is more technologically savvy compared to any other generation. It makes sense that employees want digital tools to help manage their health.
Harvard Pilgrim offers a suite of digital health solutions to support your entire workforce. For employees suffering from chronic health conditions, we offer connection and communication with our online care management team through Wellframe, a digital health management platform solution that works with each individual’s health plan to deliver daily tips, and help them stay on track and communicate directly and securely with their nurse care manager about their health plan through HIPAA-compliant SMS text, video chat and email. This multi-channel communications approach offers both user-friendly technology and direct human support.
For employees looking to improve their wellbeing, as part of the Living WellSM Program, we offer a robust, immersive wellbeing platform that is powered by Limeade. This platform supports holistic physical, emotional and financial health, and includes trackable health assessments, fitness and nutrition “gamification”, personal step trackers and more, enhanced by personal recommendations to help engage users and support them in achieving goals.
10. Your premium increases are unpredictable.
Health insurance premium increases are common, and with the continued rising of health care costs in the United States, the increases are common when offering health insurance benefits. However, some predictability in terms of the rate of increase is often desired.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is committed to working with you to deliver consistent, competitive pricing on all our robust health plan coverage, both at purchase and when working with you at renewal time.
We’re here for you and your employees’ health care needs.
Finding the right health benefits partner for your employees, business needs, and bottom line isn’t one-size-fits-all. Talk to your broker to learn more about how Harvard Pilgrim can help work with you to identify the plans that work for your workforce’s needs.