Who are the influencers in your company?

Think for a minute. The answer may seem obvious at first. But have you ever surveyed your company to understand how the power and influence structure really works?

-Are the people or departments that should be working together doing so?

-Are the managers in your company actually adding value to the work product?

-Who are the diamonds in the rough? Those people that are the quiet ones but that others look to for advice and support?

- How does HR fit in? Is there an arms length relationship with employees or are they viewed as an integral partner?

As anyone in HR knows, their job goes way beyond benefits, but the typical benefits broker only looks to solve the "rates and plans" problem. In order to be a better trusted advisor and add greater value to clients, the broker must think outside of the box.

To that end, technology now exists that allows you to easily survey your employees and graphically help you understand how your company is humming.

This is social network analysis on the corporate level and I’m not talking Facebook! This is a methodology that can quickly help you affect positive change in your company especially if you’re planning a reorganization, restructuring, implementing large scale change, measuring employee perceptions, doing leadership development or simply looking to improve internal communications or employee productivity.

Recent clients have found some interesting patterns in their employee communications and discovered employees that have significant influence that were people that generally "flew under the radar".
 

Benefit Strategy: Medical Networks are a' changin'

As a nod to Bob Dylan visiting Sacramento this Saturday...the times they are a-changin':

Many employers continue to offer their employees significant choice in the way they access care. That means that a full network plan (Sutter, Mercy, UC Davis and beyond) is generally offered next to Kaiser. In order to lower costs, carriers have begun to offer more limited network options.

We now see Sutter only (offered through HealthNet, United Healthcare and soon to be offered by Sutter themselves), Western Health Advantage (offering UC Davis and Mercy), and other limited products offered through Anthem, Blue Shield, United HealthCare and others. Blue Shield recently launched Blue Groove which is an accountable care organization (ACO) model with their partner Hills Physicians.

Kaiser can be considered the "ultimate" accountable care organization as they are their own limited network including the hospitals, medical offices and doctors. Due to Kaiser's integration, many health systems will take years to catch up to them technologically and culturally. They have the benefit of being the insurer and health provider.

But none of this carrier innovation will matter until employers decide to limit their employee’s choice. If an employer is serious about controlling their health care costs, they should consider the inconvenience of change in the short run in order to get long term cost control.

Why? The old model of offering choice is losing effectiveness as the carriers want deeper partnerships with their employer groups to roll out critical care, chronic illness management and wellness programs. Carriers can offer many resources to help an employer control costs such as employee education and wellness resources, but it is difficult to manage in a multi-carrier environment. Carriers want participation and don’t like to share your employees with other carriers. There are a few exceptions, but employers should begin to consider this in their employee benefit strategy.

As hospitals and insurers continue to innovate to reduce costs, they need a willing employer populace to come along for the ride.

Make strategic benefit planning a priority

After a busy hiatus, it's time to relaunch my employee benefits blog. Stay tuned for weekly updates and feel free to give me feedback on this and other topics you might like to see.

Strategic Benefit Planning Is The Way to Go!

Whether you are a large group or small one, rates for benefit plans never cease to rise. This is exceptionally true in northern California where there is limited competition in the major metropolitan areas like Sacramento where Sutter, Mercy, UC Davis and Kaiser dominate the landscape.

Ten years ago, when the cost of health and welfare benefits represented about 2% of payroll, most C-suite executives left all the decisions up to the HR staff. They developed a comfortable relationship with a local broker and over the years managed the renewal process trying to minimize disruption. The rules have now changed.

Now, the cost of health and welfare benefits represents 15-25% of the cost of payroll and the existing process to evaluate renewals has not yet changed to meet the new realities. If the broker delivers a low increase, everyone breathes a sigh of relief and moves forward with open enrollment. On the other hand, if the broker delivers a 20% increase, the wheels fall off the wagon and everyone begins the annual firewalk to decide what gets changed: insurance carrier, broker, employer contribution, plan design, etc.

If you have a $350 composite single health insurance rate today, it will grow to over $800 in 5 years if you continue with 20% increases. No matter your scenario, health insurance will continue to cost more, so how will you bend the curve in your favor?

Perhaps the best approach is to consider a strategic benefits planning process that allows for scenario analysis so that no matter what happens, you have a plan. In future posts, I'll be discussing:

- Choice of medical carrier and carrier mix

- Managing employee well being

- Changing your employer contribution

- Making benefit planning a year round activity

- Developing an employee communications plan

- Making sure your broker is compensated fairly

and other great topics.

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