Our last post talked about defining plan objectives for what you want your employee benefits plan to accomplish. The next stage of building a group benefits plan is Plan Design.
A few things to consider when designing your group benefits plan;
- It is easier to have a conversation telling employees you’re going to INCREASE coverage, rather than a discussion to DECREASE coverage.
- Your plan is shared across all employees and should be designed from a group perspective. All rates/premiums paid are based on group usage – this applies to all group benefits plans! If your group has someone who uses the plan heavily, the group collectively pays for this high user. Whether high users are employees who require expensive drugs regularly OR employees that max-out visits to the chiropractor, massage therapist and other paramedicals – the group collectively pays for abnormal high usage.
- A poorly designed plan will increase the amount of time you spend administrating the plan. With a poor plan deign, renewal costs continue to raise and spiral out of control. This means more of your time will be dedicated to re-configuring the plan design, searching for best pricing and going through the enrolment process all over again.
One of the biggest mistakes we see small/medium sized businesses make is biting off more than they can chew. There is a tendency for small/medium sized businesses to design a benefits plan from the perspective of a large corporation. This influence may stem from employees that come from large corporations or general expectations of what a group benefits plan should provide employees. In either case, implementing a benefits plan for a small/medium sized business based on large corporation plan designs, or general expectations of an employee benefits plan will likely not work for the long-run.
Northern Financial Group can help you design a group benefits plan that suits your needs. The Olympic Plan was structured to offer small/mediums sized businesses a benefits program that will help control costs and remain affordable in the future.
