Look Back and Spring Forward: Reflecting on Your Healthcare Benefits Strategy

It’s finally starting to feel like spring in our hometown of Hunt Valley, Maryland. For many, this time of year means spring cleaning. But for those of you uninterested in channeling your inner Mr. Clean, the change in season is also typically a time for reflection and change. Sound better than picking up a broom? Then let’s take a minute to reflect and renew about our favorite topic: healthcare benefits, specifically as they relate to, you guessed it, the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Reflecting on the ripple effects of ACA.

The increasing rules and regulations following ACA have resulted in rising costs. Employers are being forced to tweak down benefits to control costs, which means more out-of-pocket costs for employees. These gaps in coverage can translate into employees not receiving the care they need.

Another ripple effect is one-size-fits-all plans, which has a negative effect on retention and recruitment strategies. The number one benefit that employees care about is healthcare. Not being able to offer diverse, flexible, and powerful healthcare may be what makes or breaks an employee joining or staying at your company.

These effects have the potential to negatively impact your bottom line by driving up claims cost, creating a loss in productivity, or losing a prospective employee or current employee and facing the cost of replacement.

Solutions to combat the ripple effects.

The solution that many companies are turning to is “layering.” By layering supplemental coverage on top of your primary plan, you receive the flexibility to provide the benefits that each select employee class needs.

First, you optimize your base primary plan inside of ACA restrictions, which may free up dollars that can be used to backfill with gap tools, including HRAs (if applicable), medical gap and voluntary solutions, such as critical illness or accident plans. These gap tools provide the protection that employees need that your primary plan is not providing.

Then, you deliver a supplemental healthcare plan for your key leaders, since this class of employee is at higher risk for health issues. And if those health issues do strike your key leaders, the entire business can crumble if they’re not handled correctly. So they need strong, flexible, and innovative healthcare: special protection against the risks and impacts that they are more disposed to than the other employee classes.

The season is changing, so should your benefits strategy!

With spring taking hold, it’s the perfect time to freshen up your healthcare benefits strategy with a more personalized and contemporary plan. Ultimate Health, a plan that sits outside of ACA as an Excepted Benefit, can be offered to select employee classes. This supplemental medical expense and limited benefit group insurance policy provides robust supplemental coverage, travel protection, and wellness components to thoroughly safeguard key leaders.

Even if Ultimate Health isn’t the choice for your key personnel, it’s important for the future of your company to break out of the one-size-fits-all mentality of the healthcare market. Use gap fillers to fill holes in primary coverage for your employees, and ensure key players have the healthcare protection they need in order to keep your company thriving. This is one change that could transform your bottom line.