Communicate to Help Employees Make Smart Medical Plan Decisions

Last week, we blogged about the importance of using your benefits communications to more effectively engage employees. Today, guest blogger Elizabeth Borton, president of Write On Target, a benefits communications firm, provides practical tips you can use in communicating your healthcare options to employees. 

TIPS TO HELP YOUR EMPLOYEES MAKE SMART MEDICAL PLAN DECISIONS

Guest Blogger: Elizabeth Borton, President, Write On Target

As benefits specialists, you understand the differences between the various medical options offered through your organization. However, those differences are not so obvious to your employees. In fact, MetLife 2008 Employee Benefits Survey found that 55% of employees felt that they didn't get the resources they needed to make informed decisions and felt either confused (25%) or frustrated (24%) while selecting their benefits.

So how can you design annual enrollment materials that truly assist employees in the decision-making process?

The following are tips which have worked well in past enrollments:

• In addition to providing side-by-side comparisons of plan designs, use real-life scenarios to illustrate the different types of medical users and the plans that best fit their situation (e.g. - a single person versus a family versus an empty nester). In this way, your employees can easily identify which plan might best fit their needs, based on their medical usage.
• Mail targeted post cards to homes that compare plan costs, side-by-side (segment your mailing data based on the plans and cost paid by various groups within your organization.)
• Illustrate possible cost savings through easy-to-understand examples. (For example, a section entitled "Are you paying too much for coverage?" could show the difference between the cost to buy versus the cost to use.)

Many health care providers provide a similar tool on their websites, which you should promote in your enrollment materials. Employees enter certain information (such as an estimate for the number of times they went to the doctor the year before, types of services they needed, etc.) and the tool compares the cost of being in "Plan A" versus "Plan B."

• A Flexible Spending Account (FSA) can help offset costs if moving to a higher deductible plan, but you have to provide quality education about what an FSA is and how it works before employees will take advantage of the plan.
• Employee meetings work well. If you have a small population and are making big changes, you may require attendance. Or you could pass out the enrollment packages ONLY at the meeting to encourage attendance.
• Don't forget to send materials home, and if necessary, hold webinars! In general, research shows that families make up 60 to 70 percent of healthcare costs and are often making the benefits decisions. Do not overlook these important decision makers. They can heavily influence the decisions make at annual enrollment. 

What communications have you used to more effectively get benefits information out to your employees and help them make more informed choices? Share your insight with us by clicking on the comments section below and adding your ideas.