Supplemental Employee Benefits Programs
from LifeSource Direct
Expand Your Employee Benefits Program
Employee benefits plans are part of the basic employee welfare programs implemented by employers. They aim to fulfill the basic needs of employees. These employee benefit plans include various health insurance programs including life insurance benefits.
However, with rising benefit costs, company benefit programs are shrinking and often are not enough to meet the basic needs of your employee. Can you expand and improve your current company’s employee benefits programs without adding company cost? What options are available to improve your company benefits program without passing on expense to the employee?
Human Resource Issues
The Human Resource issues surrounding today’s’ Employee Benefit packages are numerous and complex. There are a number of changes resulting from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PPACA, that will contribute to higher than average premiums increases slated over the next few years.
Unfortunately as a result of these trends many employer sponsored benefit packages will result in a number of employees being under insured and even uninsured as employer move to higher deductibles and a reduction in contributions. This expense trend in employee benefits programs has shifted cost to the employee in the form of large deductibles and restrictive coverage. Both human resource departments and employees are now looking for supplemental programs to augment existing services that don’t impact company costs or past additional expense to the employee.
Employee Benefits Strategies
A recent McKinsey report stated that senior executives in the United States should be doing everything they can to control the growing expense of health care benefits while maximizing returns on this investment. Within a few years benefits costs at some Fortune 500 companies may even exceed profits. Benefits costs are increasing three to four times faster than inflation, escalating into one of the largest expenses for companies.
The issue has gone beyond budgeting discussions by human-resources departments, as suggested by GM chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner’s call for a national health policy to address a problem he says threatens the competitiveness of US corporations.
Most companies don’t apply the same discipline to managing their health and insurance benefits that they bring to other business investments, such as research and development. Too often, executives consider benefits a fixed cost, with little room for savings. The McKinsey report shows that employers can continue to offer attractive plans while reducing expenses.
To achieve this goal, a company should take a developer’s approach to designing benefits packages. That is, by viewing its employees as internal customers and developing or augmenting plans that match their needs. This approach goes beyond offering à la carte plans and helps address the rising cost of health and insurance benefits plans.
A New Kind of Employee Benefits Provider
Some of the a la carte providers and human resource departments are still operating in the one vender fits all approach. The new model, as suggested by the McKinsey Report, will combine a hybrid of best practice vendors tailored to fit their employee base.
Under this new model, particularly for health benefits, providers and human resource departments will seek to address the escalating deductibles on health services. Rather than simply passing on higher and higher deductibles as means of keeping monthly benefit cost down, human recourse department will look for ways to provide negotiated discounts for deductible expenses incurred by their employees.
For example, an MRI that may cost over $2,000.00, now may be less than a $1,000.00 to the employee during their high deductable period with a negotiate discount program. This is a win/win for the employee and the health benefit provider as the employee gets significantly more health services for their dollar before hitting the ceiling on their deductable. This translates into a savings to the health services provider as more is being done for the employee before the provider is required to cover post deductible expenses.
The same is true for prescription drugs. As co pay and deductibles increase or as gaps in plans increase creating the underinsured or even uninsured, negotiated discounts plans augment these plans and provided added savings to both the employee and benefits provider.
Unique Employee Benefits
LifeSource Direct seeks to be a new kind of benefits provider addressing specific issues in the McKinsey report. LifeSource Direct tackles this on a couple of fronts, life insurance and health benefits. For health benefits, although LifeSource Direct is not a primary health benefits provider, LifeSource Direct deliveries supplemental health insurance benefits through discounts at no charge designed to augment existing company benefits plans.
This approach aims directly at the rising cost of both underinsurance (deductibles, co pays, etc) and the uninsured. By applying a best practices approach to suppliers, LifeSource Direct combines a unique combination of RX discount drug services including medical imaging and laboratory discount services. As deductibles and co pays increase, the discount plan services provide access to significant savings through pre negotiated rates. The drug RX discounts are available at over 50,000 pharmacies in the United States and through many chain operations including Walmart and the national pharmacy retailers. This wide access delivers a high degree of practicality for the end user or employee.
For life insurance, LifeSource Direct offers the industry’s most flexibility planning tools that allow the user to shop for insurance based on price or coverage amount without the user having to disclose their personal contact information. This allows the individual, family or businesses to review many pricing options from “A” rated insurance carries as well as coverage amounts and select the best plan. A broad range of life insurance options are available from term, to whole, universal, no medical insurance (insurance purchased online), and including premium financing for selected clients.
With today’s educated online user, LifeSource Direct allows them to do much of their own preliminary planning in private. Once much of the upfront planning is complete, the online user can take it to the next level by contacting a licensed LifeSource Direct agent by phone for both consultation and application process.
Part Time Employee Benefits
As the economy continues to shift and employment changes, companies manage their health care cost by increasing their part time employees, rather than full time employee. With part time employees, there are less benefits to pay out. This situation is a win for the company, but leaves the part time employee in a benefits gap without access to health plans or services that help them control or reduce medical costs when they are required.
For the underinsured or uninsured, the discounted RX drug, medical, and laboratory work plans can significantly mitigate and reduce medical expenses by up to 65%. For part time workers, participating in best practices discount plans from LifeSource Direct can be a considerable source of savings on drug and medical expenses. While part time employees are in the benefits gap, the discount plans are a means for human recourse department to provide meaningful benefits value for part time employees.
Employee Benefits Administration
The LifeSource Direct life insurance and medical benefits programs are designed to provide little or no administration. Programs can be customized by company, if large enough, or delivered under the LifeSource Direct brand. The LifeSource Direct web site is design to be user friendly so individuals can easily access the life insurance tools, print customized RX drug discount cards including locating participating pharmacies (ie maps) and get quotes and purchase medical imaging and laboratory work. In addition, toll free lines are available for information, quotes and application help.
Employee Benefits Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is this insurance or an insurance type program?
A: No, this is not insurance.
Q: Is there a monthly fee or a registration fee for this program?
A: No.
Q: How soon can I use my card to start saving money?
A: Your card is available for use immediately.
Q: Are all of my family members covered?
A: Yes, your card is valid for all family members.
Q: Is my information kept private?
A: Yes, WellDyneRx is HIPAA compliant.
Q: Do I need to present my card each time I buy a prescription?
A: Yes, present your card every time you buy a prescription not covered by your insurance or Medicare Part D. At the time of purchase, you are responsible for paying the entire cost of the drug, once discount is applied.
