Lexington, KY - Open enrollment is the time of year, usually around October and November, when companies give their employees a chance to sign up for health care and other benefits for the coming year. But as important as it can be to pick the health care plan option that best suits their needs, many employees spend only an hour or less reviewing their health benefits, according to a national consumer survey conducted by Infogroup on behalf of UnitedHealthcare. In comparison, people spend an average of 10 hours researching a new car and five hours researching a mortgage.
"It is something employees get confused about because they don't know a lot about benefits, health insurance and how the system actually works," said Paul Brophy, executive director of UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky. "They just want to get it out of the way, and they make a decision without really digging in."
Open enrollment can sometimes trigger anxiety or indifference.
"Historically, we've seen a lot of inertia around open enrollment," said Norm Kerr, a health and welfare consultant with Buck Consultants, one of the world's largest employee benefits consulting firms. "People don't always give it the thought they should. They say, 'What did I have last year? Put me in that again this year; it worked.'"
Even worse, some employees put off choosing their plans until the last minute, then ask a cubicle mate who may have a similar family situation what they chose and go with that same plan. Obviously, this is not what employers have in mind when they schedule open enrollment.
"Employers want to make sure their employees are picking the right plan," Kerr said. "Every plan isn't right for everybody, so employers want to make sure the employees get in the right plan and do the right things to maximize the value of their benefits plan."
More and more organizations are emphasizing employee engagement with open enrollment.
"Engagement is a relatively new term," said Rohail Khan, executive managing director in the Human Resource Services group at ACS, A Xerox Company. "Engagement, the way we define it, means the employee is involved and takes ownership (of their health-benefits choices.) If they are involved and take ownership, they're going to change their behavior, and that behavior change drives better costs and better service, not only for the organization that they're employed with but also for the employees themselves."
Employees need to ask questions about the kinds of plans that are available to them and carefully assess which one best fits the makeup and needs of their particular families. They should be aware of their health history and the ways they used their benefits plans in the past - for instance, how many visits they made to the doctor during the previous year, or what prescription drugs they used. They also need to consider future changes, such as the addition of a baby to the family or the likelihood of a surgical procedure. Experts say this information is essential when choosing the right health-care plan for you and your family.
Many employers and health plans offer resources that help employees accurately plan and predict health-care costs. Some of these tools let employees plug in the necessary information about their health and their families; the tool then uses that information to guide them to the best health-care plan for them.
One of these tools is UnitedHealthcare's www.HealthCareLane.com, a free website with interactive videos that explain different kinds of health benefits programs and terminology.
"We have provided people with a lot more ways to get at information that (will) allow them to make better sense of what options are available," Brophy said. "Health Care Lane educates people in a friendly way on things they should be thinking of. It's getting the member more into the decisions, more into getting good information."
ACS has also implemented a virtual benefits fair to help its employees navigate the maze of health-care benefits.
"Think 'Second Life' with an avatar walking you through the options, directing you to videos, Web links and town hall meetings, instead of getting everybody together in the cafeteria to hand out huge packets of info," said Chris Gilligan, who manages corporate communications for ACS in Lexington. "It really makes it more digestible."
It pays to be healthy
Many companies these days are offering incentive-based health plans, which sometimes include rewards for employees who are doing more healthy things, such as going to the gym, watching their weight and having health-risk evaluations and regular check-ups.
"There's been a clear shift of employers to focus on wellness and to drive folks into healthier behaviors and understand their current health," Kerr said.
UnitedHealthcare has a program that encourages employees to have their cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and body mass index measured. The employees are further encouraged to bring those numbers within pre-determined, healthier ranges.
"Let's say someone's BMI or their cholesterol is not within the target," Brophy said. "We give them the incentive to get those numbers under control."
The reward is generally in the form of a credit off the employee's health-care premium, although some companies give monetary rewards. "We've seen plans where employers will actually reward their employees upward of $1,000 a year for getting these results within certain targets," Brophy said.
Employees may be able to drive down the costs of their premiums by participating in these programs. Organizations understand that if they encourage their employees to get healthy and stay healthy, their own health-care costs may decrease because they will have to shell out fewer dollars for things such as emergency room visits or major surgery.
"Organizations are saying, 'If you're going to do the right things, we'll support you with more dollars or lower your costs,'" Khan said.
Brophy believes it's worth your time to check out these programs.
"If an employee is going into open enrollment, they should absolutely look for those incentive-based type of programs," he said.
It's another way for employees to be more involved with their own health.
"If we do a results-based type program, I think ultimately we're going to find ways to minimize health-care (cost) increases," Brophy said. "We're helping people live healthier lives."