The Issue
In today’s world, it’s not uncommon for a company to expand across state lines and have offices in multiple states. In this situation, a service sector prospect with 175 employees complained to us that the multitude of medical plans in place for their company (a different carrier for each state where an office was located) was placing a tremendous administrative burden on their HR staff, requiring extra resources, complexity and expense.
They explained that they had resisted working with a broker in the past, and as they expanded from one office to several, they simply went to one of the local carriers in each state and implemented a plan similar to the one in place at the corporate headquarters. This not only resulted in plans with several different carriers, but also plan designs that were to varying degrees, slightly different from one another.
Our Solution
We took their census data and went to all the major carriers serving their various business locales and requested a national plan quote with uniform benefits for all offices. After receiving and analyzing several proposals, we presented our recommendation for a triple option by one of the premier carriers in their region. Additionally, we were able to slightly enhance the benefits offered and still provide the employer with premium savings. Implementation went smoothly, especially since the new arrangement with one carrier and a common, 3 option plan design allowed:
- Identical open enrollment materials for all employees in all locations
- The same employer/employee cost breakout for each of the options, regardless of location
- The same employee service teams and contact information for each location
The Result
By providing a trio of benefit plans with one carrier serving all geographic locations for this employer, we were able to provide uniformity of plan design, pricing and servicing which greatly reduced the complexity and expense of their employee benefit programs. Additionally, the premiums we negotiated with the carrier provided a 15% discount over the sum of all independent carrier plan premiums from the old arrangement. When combined, this employer was able to save just over $300,000 annually.