Changing Healthcare

With the election past and a new president in office, our country can expect some decisive changes in the coming future. Like it or not, one thing is fairly certain: Universal Healthcare is on the way. And a change in healthcare means a change in human resource information systems.

At this point, it’s still difficult to pinpoint just what the phrase "Universal Healthcare" might mean. To some, it suggests a single-payer, government-run system; to others it means mandated insurance purchase, and still others expect that current government programs will be expanded to cover the working poor and children. Naturally, this vague UHC entity will take on a more definite shape over the course of the next year as legislation hones in on the healthcare issue. For the time being, however, the best we can do to prepare for the coming changes is to remember the two core principles of human resource management: strategy and communication.

Chances are good that the employee-based system of providing health care will remain in place, meaning that the task of communicating any changes in this system will fall to the employer. This is no small responsibility. Making changes in a company’s HR system will be an ongoing process over the course of several years, and HR departments everywhere will have to repeatedly ensure that their employees understand differences in benefits, costs, and access instructions.

The Benefit Statement

General consensus suggests that the best way of communicating changes to employees is through the use of benefit statements. Not only do benefit statements summarize the unique benefits of each program, they also set forth the cost of each benefit as paid by the employer. Statistically, benefit plans represent 42% of the company payroll – yet 80% of covered employees do not comprehensively understand these benefits. It is essential that employees understand the value of a benefit package as a whole, because this generates greater success in recruitment and retention, as well as a significant increase in employee satisfaction.

Recently, the benefit statement has gained importance as yet another kind of tool: a means of communicating business strategy. By constructing and conveying a sound long-term strategy, employers can make it clear that they care about their employees and have a plan for the future which involves everyone.

Stress Benefits, Not Costs

When it comes to delivering your employee benefit statements, half the battle is won based on the way you shine your sword. Too often, an HRIS spits out a single-page summary of benefit costs, with no detail or elaboration to help improve the employee’s knowledge of the package. Such benefit statements typically place too much emphasis on the employer’s cost, rather than the employee’s benefits; not only are they uninformative, but at times they can even lead to bitterness and resent instead of appreciation and understanding! A benefit statement should be a work of superior quality and pride, thus conveying the importance of the employee benefit program to the company.

A benefit statement should be attractive, professional, and above all, comprehensive. A benefit statement imbued with personally-tailored detail – often so much as 10 pages long – provides considerably more information to the employee, and is consequently treated with considerably more value. A benefit statement should be a method of helping your employee learn how to reap the rewards of their benefits plan; it could, for example, include extensive instructions on how to order publications from the Social Security Administration and Medicare showing the employee’s individualized projected benefits, or perhaps list contact information for the claims and service departments of various carriers.

Furthermore, the benefit statement holds a singular appeal as a method of indirectly communicating with an employee’s spouse. A majority of employees will take their benefit statement home to share with their spouse, who will be a key partner in making family decisions about employment and benefit options. Ensuring that this spouse thoroughly understands the compensations offered by the benefit program can greatly influence the future decisions they will make.

Preparing For the Future

With modern advances in software improving ease of operation and lowering cost, the job of issuing employee benefit statements has become decidedly less expensive. Oftentimes, benefits consultants will even provide the printed statements to the client free of charge as a value-added service to the customer. The bottom line is that a quality benefit statement is something no company can afford to do without. Benefit statements have always been essential to augmented recruiting, retention, and participation; now, they have become a priceless tool for communicating with employees about the impending problems and challenges employers will face if health premiums continue to rocket up. Benefit cuts may well be inescapable in the very near future and employees deserve to be aware so that they can prepare themselves for these changes.