Your Business, Your Benefits
Your business is unique and your benefits program should be too. With over 30 years of industry experience, we know just how to represent your needs to source the best plan design and the most value for your premium dollars.
Group Benefits Consulting
As a component of your total compensation offering, a well-structured and appropriately priced employee group benefits program is a key component of your talent management strategy.
We provide knowledgeable guidance and recommendations when it comes to:
- Traditional & Flexible Program Design Advice
Plan design is a key factor in managing your benefit program spend. We understand the importance of looking for added benefits value while actively managing costs. We navigate the employee health benefits space and ensure you have the right plan for your budget, your demographics, your industry and the needs of your employees. - Benchmarking
As a member of the Benefits Alliance Group, we have access to a proprietary database of over 6,000 group benefit clients of all sizes, representing many industries and geographic areas of Canada. We complete benchmarking exercises to provide you with relevant and valuable information. We're able to give you an immediate measure of how your plan compares to the competition or others in your industry. We analyze data from companies of similar size, geographic region, and other important factors. We share our interpretation of the objective data along with emerging trends in benefit coverage and claims administration to provide you with key insights and plan design recommendations. - Market surveys
Market surveys help determine the competitiveness of a benefit program’s pricing structure and cost. The days of going to market to simply get “a better price” are gone and create more disruption and added costs to any program. A properly executed marketing strategy can help you achieve your goals, including long term savings. Our well-established marketing process includes: a review of carrier services and pricing, sourcing the best match for your needs and facilitating the implementation process. - Quarterly claims experience reports
We believe in a no surprise approach so you're not waiting until renewal to find out if your rates are going up or down significantly. We provide you with a quarterly claims experience report with commentary that helps you consider any possible outcomes at plan renewal. We'll connect to discuss your plan's performance based on the report findings that include a drug utilization review, health and dental reserve analytics and a life and disability analysis. You'll be well equipped to make more informed decisions based on the claims experience data and risk modelling analysis we provide. - Group benefit plan funding alternatives: Refund, Non-refund, Administrative Services Only
Many clients prefer the financial security and peace of mind that comes with a fully insured, or non-refund accounting, plan arrangement. Some employers are willing to take some risk to gain rewards when it comes to the cost of their benefit program. They may look at alternative group benefit plan funding arrangements like Refund Accounting or Administrative Services Only (ASO). If claims are stable and the employer is not concerned about possible spikes in costs that may disrupt cash flow, these are viable alternatives. Careful analysis must be carried out before such a decision is made. These alternate funding methods are usually used by “larger” employers; however they are becoming more popular with “smaller” employers willing to take on some risk in order to save some money. We can provide the appropriate analysis to help you determine which alternative funding method best suits your needs. - Policy and booklet reviews
We thoroughly review each policy or booklet issued to ensure it is correct. While this seems a logical step that should be completed, we find this step is not always taken. When you work with us, we ensure that any wording errors are discovered before there is a problem with the adjudication of a claim. This quality control check is a preventative measure that helps avoid stress, additional cost and extra work for all. - Tax and legislative changes
We keep you informed and updated on any tax or legislative items that governments may be thinking of imposing or changing. - Annual renewal analysis
One of the most important services we provide is the expert analysis and process we conduct each year when your benefit program renews. The complexity of the renewal process is such that even a small unjustified adjustment to one factor can have a significant effect on the overall required renewal. This situation is compounded further if the adjustment is not corrected and is allowed to continue at each renewal. We analyze each component and factor affecting the renewal and ensure that it can be verified and is justified. We secure you with the correct pricing at renewal so you can experience long term cost sustainability of your benefits program. - Implementation of new program and plan design changes
Providing advice is not the only way we help clients. Once a decision is made to move forward with a specific program—whether it is a new program or a change to an existing one -, we are there to manage the implementation process to ensure a seamless and stress-free experience. We do this by co-ordinating and facilitating meetings with the insurer to complete any required paperwork and to conduct employee meetings where new plan features or changes can be communicated. - Employee communication support
We offer employee communication as an effective way to convey program details and to ensure that employees or "plan members" understand and value the program being provided. Whether a traditional or flexible plan design, communicating employee benefits helps your workforce better understand and use their benefits. When done properly, communications will help them be wise consumers and understand the value of their benefits program by raising their awareness of what might otherwise seem like value hidden away in their paycheque.
Your business is unique and your benefits program should be too.
Group Benefits Administration
Our experienced professionals can perform all of the required and important administrative functions ensuring an efficient and cost effective operation of your group benefit program allowing you to focus on what you do best -- running your business.
Whether a traditional, flexible or international program, we act on your behalf to ensure the efficient and accurate management of:
Flexible benefit programs
We developed an efficient and cost effective process that allows firms of 80 or more employees to enjoy the benefits of a flexible plan design. Such plan designs are normally too expensive or complex for smaller employers and therefore are offered exclusively to employers with hundreds or even thousands of employees. However, we have the expertise and knowledge to design, implement, and manage flexible benefit programs on behalf of smaller clients at an affordable price. Our services provide everything from the administration system, communication to members, day-to-day administration and annual re-enrollments.
Employee communication
We offer employee communication as an effective way to convey program details and to ensure that employees or "plan members" understand and value the program being provided. Whether a traditional or flexible plan design, communicating employee benefits helps your workforce better understand and use their benefits. When done properly, communications will help them be wise consumers and understand the value of their benefits program by raising their awareness of what might otherwise seem like value hidden away in their paycheque.
Specific member transactions
Some employers do not have the resources or want the responsibility of administering a benefits program. We provide this service and can execute all the day-to-day transactions such as: enrollment of new employees, termination of employees, lifestyle changes, beneficiary changes, helping employees with complex claims issues, reconciling monthly billing statements and complete record keeping.
Support for complex claims issues
As requested, we can support you and your employees with complex claims issues; especially in situations where the claim is for life insurance or disability. Understanding the claim requirements and guiding a beneficiary or claimant through the sometimes perplexing system can help alleviate what may be an already stressful situation.
Specific Legislated Responsibilities
We can assist you with specific legislated responsibilities, such as continuation of benefits during leaves, layoffs, termination of employment and conversion privileges.