A Changing Future for the Benefits Industry
Our CEO, Ed Walker, participated in a panel at the EBN Benefits Forum and Expo in Boca Raton, Florida this week. In a session called 7 Major Disruptions About to Shape the Future of Benefits, Walker and other visionaries in the health benefits landscape discussed the change coming to, and already taking place in, the benefits world.
Check out two of the issues they discussed!
One Size Does Not Fit All
When it comes to health expenses and needs, everyone is different. So based on your health stage, life stage and family, the amount and kind of coverage you’ll need is going to vary. That requires personalization.
Unfortunately, one-size-fits-all primary plans aren’t built to handle these variances. This leaves gaps and holes in coverage because primary plans lack the flexibility to accommodate different needs.
Health accounts (like FSAs) have contribution limits. With HSAs, employees have to wait until the money is built up. Voluntary plans, like hospital indemnity and cancer-only plans, are limited to a specific event (like hospitalization) or disease (like cancer) which still leaves sizable holes.
But expense reimbursed insured plans have more flexibility than other types of supplemental plans. They allow a broad range of coverage for routine expenses, special expenses and the unexpected expenses. Plus, these plans can ebb and flow with your life and health stage needs as they change, along with valuable health support services.
This new type of health insurance plan is going to allow for some positive change in how brokers and employers build their benefit structures.
Telehealth and Specialty Care
Finding the right specialists is not as simple as it once was. Today’s referral process is cumbersome and, in many ways, broken.
Medicine today is increasingly focused on narrower and narrower slices of expertise, which is great from the standpoint of doctors having deep knowledge. But it also means that you need knowledge about each physician’s specific expertise, and today’s referral system has not kept up with these changes.
There are about 30,000 diseases to think about, most of which have multiple treatment options. And no single physician can keep track of exactly what everyone’s focus is regardless of how well connected they are.
One solution is a referral service that operates much like an online dating service that keeps detailed profiles of each physician to enable more precise matching between the individual patient and physicians who have extensive experience in the employee’s specific condition. Getting quick access to the right, best specialist immediately translates into better health outcomes and lower cost of care for both the employee and the company.
Agents of Change
Armada has a commitment for solving these types of issues in the benefits world, which is why we offer supplemental expense reimbursed insured plans that have an integrated specialty referral service (also available on a standalone basis).
While change is constant in any industry, it is important to be able to adapt, and we hope that our products can help you do so.
Interested in discussing any of these topics or our products with our consultants? Email us at uhinfo@armadacare.com.