Fall Season Brings Open Enrollment Time

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

As the leaves turn colors and fall ushers in a new season, agents and employers are also ushering in a new season – open enrollment time. There’s no time to rake the leaves, have a bonfire or enjoy apple cider, instead it’s time to review health care plans and see what changes are down the pike.

Due to the tough economy, many employers are reviewing their health care costs and some are making changes to reduce those expenses. According to a Watson Wyatt survey, more than 40 percent of employers plan to raise deductibles, co-payments or out-of-pocket maximums on health plans.

Experts recommend employers examine open enrollment offerings and policies with employees beforehand to ensure enough time to effectively communicate. A 2008 MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends found that among employees who believe their company’s benefits communications are effective, 72 percent say they feel a strong sense of loyalty to their employer and 68 percent say that benefits are an important reason why they stay with the company. This appears especially true for employers who compliment benefit information with calculators and decision tools.

However, there seems to be a lack of understanding as well. While there has been a lot of information in the news lately about health care and health insurance, when it comes to comprehending health care benefits, many employees (less than 20 percent of insured adults surveyed) consider themselves very knowledgeable about their health benefits plan (survey from Plan for Your Health). Most employees make the same benefits election from year to year and only 40 percent of employees will even review options during open enrollment.

While it’s important to educate employees about the health care plan, it is just as important to provide employees with how to become better consumers overall. For some employers, this has meant turning to wellness or preventative health programs as an initiative to reduce costs. Some are utilizing programs such as weight-loss and smoking-cessation and for those who participate and, more important, meet a goal, the employer may pay a small cash bonus (say, $50) or reduce health care premiums by as much as 20 percent. Others are just informing employees of their roll in health care, which includes providing educational awareness on how to take better care of themselves.

While all of this information focuses on the current employment base, it’s important that employers do not pass over those currently enrolled in COBRA. It is essential to provide just as much information for this group of individuals. COBRA participants are known to utilize the health care plan more frequently than active employees and therefore could gain by understanding their role in health care costs.

Employers should also not overlook COBRA regulations that require Qualified Beneficiaries (QBs) to receive an Open Enrollment Notification. Employers have an obligation to provide the same rights to COBRA Continuees during an open enrollment period that are offered to active employees.

Infinisource has the ability to process open enrollment information to COBRA beneficiaries. This can be managed as either an active or passive enrollment process. Any questions on the open enrollment period from QBs are directed to Infinisource. All changes are reflected back to employers and carriers through eligibility reports.

Clients interested in adding this service may contact a Customer Response Specialist at 866-320-3040. Clients will then receive a packet of information to complete including an agreement for service, a questionnaire on how to process enrollments and current reports with the plans, rates and continuees.

No matter which group is being addressed, it’s important to remember to communicate with employees about the importance of making value-based decisions both in terms of the plan(s) in which to enroll as well as the type of service. Secondly, it’s essential to look into the variety of tools available to encourage employees to make good lifestyle choices.