Employee Mistakes with Healthcare Plans
Posted July 10th, 2012
When it comes to choosing the best health plan, employees usually don’t do a very good job, and benefits managers can do more to help workers with their health plans, according to a report from the Pacific Business Group on Health.
Surveys have shown that workers just cannot make sense out of much of the terminology that is contained in the health plans. And so they aren’t able to figure out which plans will provide them with the best benefits at the lowest cost. And so they usually end up choosing a plan that is not the best for them. On top of that, things like health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements add more confusion.
The report says that benefits managers should give estimates each year of what employees’ medical costs will be based on what services they are actually using. The managers should also figure in what employers are contributing toward costs, workplace wellness incentives and other ways that employees can save money.
Workers also err on deductibles. They tend to avoid plans with high deductibles, even though they may end up spending more on plans with lower deductibles but higher premiums. A person may not want a plan with a $1,200 yearly deductible, but may actually end up paying more than that over the course of the year in premiums. Benefits managers can help here again by calculating the comparative costs and showing them to the employee so that he or she can see the difference.
Deductibles inspire fear among employees, often because they are not sure what they are or how they work, according to Pacific officials.
Also, health plans do not usually show workers how they can save money through different types of treatments, care options and care locations. People also are not aware of savings through the use of wellness programs and health reimbursement programs. They also don’t take the time to look at co-payments for things like emergency room care and inpatient care.
Also, many employees want to make sure their physician of choice is included in their health plan, and employers can do more to insure that physician choice and quality is included in plan choice information, according to the report.
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