Outsourcing portions of your business administration is now standard. Modern companies are constantly searching for flexibility and cost efficiencies; shifting duties to third parties can be a smart way to reduce your company’s investment in a non-core area while boosting your effectiveness.
Outsourcing employee benefits is an area that delivers improvements and savings when you work with a trusted partner like PT Business Solutions.
In this article, we discuss the key benefits of outsourcing your EB.
Options for Managing Employee Health Benefits
You have three options from which to pick to handle your employee health benefits:
- Self-insuring your employee benefits program and overseeing its administration in-house; or
- Outsourcing benefits from providers but still managing its administration in-house.
- Outsourcing benefits and management to an intermediary
1. Self-insuring your entire benefits program
Self-insuring a full benefits program has become extremely rare because it requires a large amount of upfront capital and an enormous investment in the systems and people needed to administer such a plan.
This method also opens companies up to a host of liability issues where the treatment of benefits may differ between staff members. Who decides when a claim is genuine? What happens if there are inconsistencies? How will staff complaints be handled regarding a disagreement over whether a benefit applies or not?
In-house, self-insurance programs generally require more than your standard Human Resource administrators. Companies that choose this route have often been doing so for decades wide a large staff, from attorneys to dedicated support personnel, whose sole role is ensuring the plan runs smoothly for their staff and their company.
2. Outsourcing employee benefits with in-house management
Many companies choose to purchase employee benefit programs from a third-party provider to save time, investment, and complexity of self-insuring.
This option reduces the liability issue. The decision-making power for who can claim what and what gets denied is put at arm’s length, and the provider, who has no special interest in your staff individually, treats each member the same.
Your upfront costs may be lower, but with in-house management, it is essential to ensure that your own HR staff has sound employee benefits knowledge to ensure your company can negotiate effectively with big-name providers. You may be torn between paying high salaries for benefits specialists or leaving benefits up to unfamiliar generalists.
This option also has the hidden costs of handing over significant power to a provider regarding data and your leverage come time for renewal. You also risk employee productivity and health as they attempt to navigate their journeys in our healthcare system.
3. Outsourcing benefits and management to a vested expert
Like the saying, “The third time’s a charm,” the third option is the winner. When it comes to your and your employees’ healthcare, fully outsourcing leads to better patient care and employee benefits.
Working with PT Business Solutions means working with top-notch experts focusing solely on health care coverage and benefits. As our client, we get to know you to understand your company’s needs, goals, and current situation, and then we create and implement your health benefits strategy.
Our support for you goes well beyond open enrollment. We are your “boots on the ground” for your employees, who can contact us anytime for assistance with claims and medical coverage guidance. We provide you with communication tools to reach employees before, during and after open enrollment.
We assess your plan’s performance and optimize for you year-to-year.