Employees need comprehensive education about their plan to understand how they can get the most out of their benefits–and employers should have a pretty good understanding of how it works, too. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Traditional benefits plans have changed so little over the years that many business owners don't even realize that changing their plan is possible. Stagnant, overpriced benefits plans can cause employers to develop misconceptions about how to make their plan more efficient, resulting in uneducated or even unhappy employees and benefits plans with wasted potential.
Here are five of the most common misconceptions business owners have about their health care plans:
1. “The insurer has my best interests in mind.”
Just because an insurer is working with you doesn't mean they're working for you. Misaligned incentives are a common factor driving up health insurance costs for employers. Insurers make more money as your premiums go up, so there's no real incentive for them to work to bring your costs down instead.
Rather than trusting an insurer at their word, business owners should look for advsiors who offer a performance guarantee. This ensures that your advsior only gets paid if they save you money, so you can trust that their promises to help you are backed by their own desire to get paid.
2. “If I provide a benefit, my employees perceive it as a benefit.”
A “great” benefits package is only going to offer great things for your business if it makes your employees happy, and your employees will only be happy with their benefits if they can afford to use them. In 2017, a survey from GoBankingRates found that 58 percent of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings. Even if they're the only person relying on their insurance, they may still have a $3,000 deductible, putting them at risk for going into debt even if they have insurance. This benefits system creates a population of “functionally uninsured” people who have insurance, but can't afford to use it.
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