We’re entering benefit renewal season. With healthcare and insurance costs increasing each year, it’s important to not leave dollars on the table. These funds can be used to inspire employees to make healthier choices, participate in new programs, become smarter healthcare consumers, and ultimately lower your claims and utilization costs.
What are carrier dollars?
Have you heard of the term ‘wellness dollars’, ‘wellness funds or ‘wellness credits’? What about ‘tech credits’, ‘communication credits’, or ‘transition credits’?
Many insurance carriers will offer certain clients a percentage of their healthcare or benefit premium to invest back in qualifying employee wellness, communications, or benefit programs.
It’s a great way to overcome the budget barrier when looking for solutions to enhance & create efficiencies in the benefit experience for your employees.
The catch? You typically have to ask for these dollars or credits.
How do you secure these funds for your program?
According to Patrick Mercer, Frost Insurance Wellness Director, there are a few key things to consider when working to secure these mystery dollars for your organization.
1. Know your numbers
Similar to knowing your biometric markers before starting a fitness or exercise program, a great starting point in identifying the possibility of wellness funds for your company is to look at your year over year medical plan loss ratio. Carriers are less likely to grant funding if they haven’t been profitable on your insuring your account.
2. Have a plan
•Make sure you have a general idea on how you plan to use the funds. Knowing who will be eligible, what you’re trying to accomplish, necessary budget, incentive structure, communication plans, and implementation timelines will go a long way to showing your carrier you mean business and their funding will produce a better experience and outcomes for plan participants.
3. Be realistic in your ask
•If your organization isn’t currently receiving additional funding from insurance providers, know that any amount is better than nothing. Great programming can be implemented for as little as $2-5 per employee per month. Use these numbers as a benchmark and multiply by the number of members that would be eligible for the program to help figure out what amount to initially ask for. (ex. 100 employees X $5 PEPM = $6,000/year)
4. Ideal timing
•Informing carriers of your desire for funding mid-year goes a long way, as brokers and carriers have more bandwidth to address your needs. As 4th Quarter and busy renewal season approaches, customers by default receive less attention. If unable to make the ask mid-year, success is possible last minute during your renewal discussions, especially if multiple insurers are vying for your business. If your health plan is running well, employers can use that as leverage to negotiate additional funds/programs
5. Find the right vendor partner
Lastly, you’ll want to find a partner that will help you meet your goals, fit in your budget, and offer effective solutions with broad capabilities. Motion Connected is an extremely flexible vendor solution that can maximize any dollars you’ve received and fit within carrier deadlines.
Motion Connected has worked with clients to:
- Build a custom company app featuring wellness + a suite of tools to help employees be better healthcare consumers and stay connected to company resources.
- Fund fitness device credits
- Fund wellness credits to gift employees to purchase a Fitbit or Garmin of their choice. Provide gift card rewards
- Use our rewards store to purchase gift card incentives.
Interested in learning more about the Motion Connected solution?
Or have questions about securing your own wellness dollars?