Employee benefits packages are a tremendous component of public sector employer’s budgets, employee retention and recruiting efforts. An employer of 3,000 employees or more may need to budget upwards of 20 to 26 million annually towards employee health benefits. For our schools, this is an incredible amount of public funding and a crucial part of the overall budget spend. It is vital that your benefits program is well managed and forward-looking.
Most of us are quick to take our vehicles to an expert, as tinkering with brake repair isn’t something to experiment on-regardless of what YouTube may suggest. Likewise, we would not try to rewire our homes ourselves—we leave those tasks to the experts.
Employee insurance benefit consulting is not any different. There are detailed components to navigating the morass of healthcare options, population management, wellness, forecasting, compliance, best practices and budgeting that requires everyday expertise, which is hard to achieve unless that is your day-to-day practice. This is even more critical if you are in a self-insured scenario, or considering moving to one.
It’s a good rule of thumb to re-evaluate your consulting/broker relationship at the minimum every two years to be certain the services being delivered are in line with your expectations. Benefit consultant costs will vary according to the services provided, but can be in excess of 100k annually, so know what you are paying for, and that you are receiving all of the promised services and assistance. In addition, ensure the quality of the service is top level. Some questions to ask: What have your renewals looked like year over year? Has the broker offered innovative solutions to control costs and maintain quality benefits? Is your broker searching out and communicating all of your options, including collaborating with a Coop or Trust if that is in your best interest?
Valley Schools is a nonprofit, full-service benefits consultant that charges a fixed fee that is 30 to 50% below our for-profit competitors. Our five-year medical insurance renewal average for all members is an aggressive 3.54%. We believe in the effectiveness of strategic wellness and other innovative cost control options to stabilize your plans and rates. Valley Schools manages all benefit vendor relationships, renewal negotiations, assists with open enrollments, and more to make certain you are getting the biggest bang for your buck. We advise – you decide.
Contact us today to see how we can help your organization realize true savings and stability on your insurance products and plans.