According to a recent study by Quantum Health, 56% of employees do not fully understand their benefits or know how to effectively use them. This highlights a significant need for greater clarity, education, and guidance when it comes to explaining benefit terms and helping employees make informed decisions about their care. Education is key for improving healthcare outcomes and impacting an insured member’s ability to access the right care, at the right time and for the best cost.
Effective Strategy
As an employer, you could have the best benefits plan in place, but if it’s not understood it won’t be fully utilized and is essentially being wasted. When employees are engaged with their healthcare benefits, they are more likely to be smart healthcare consumers—they utilize preventive care, take advantage of perks, follow treatment plans, and are more likely to make better healthcare decisions. At BSI, we’ve found that the most effective strategy is providing frequent reminders and presenting information in clear, easy-to-understand segments. This ensures employees fully utilize the benefits they’re paying for. When employees are well-informed and reminded about the resources available to them, they are more likely to get the care they need. This proactive approach helps reduce absenteeism by enabling employees to stay healthy, manage stress, and balance work and personal responsibilities. Ultimately, it fosters a supportive environment, boosting both employee satisfaction and long-term retention.
Focusing on One Benefit at a Time
A great way to tackle the plethora of benefit information thrown at employees during open enrollment is by making benefits education a continuous, year-round conversation. By focusing on one benefit at a time, we can dive deeper into specific benefits and hone in on why they’re valuable and how to use them. Our “In the Loop” newsletter is created specifically for employees and relays benefit information in simple terms. Along with relaying information about one specific insurance benefit, we also focus on one of the eight realms of wellness: emotional, financial, social, intellectual, environmental, occupational, and spiritual well-being. The goal is for employees to understand how all these elements work together to support their overall health and how best to navigate their care at the time of need.
Multi-Channel Communication for Maximum Impact
We understand everyone learns differently and has a different style of interacting with benefit information and resources. That’s why we feel it’s important to provide insured members with multiple channels to learn about and access their benefit information. Here’s how we ensure every employee stays informed and engaged:
- “In the Loop” Email Newsletter: This newsletter is sent the first Wednesday of each month and focuses on one benefit and one wellness topic. Click HERE to view the 2025 calendar.
- Tip: Designate one person in your company to forward this information to all employees, even those not on the health plan. This eliminates the guessing game of assuming someone is taking this initiative. The more educated employees are, the better the outcome for making better decisions and maintaining overall wellness.
- Mobile Apps: We provide clients with a personalized benefits app for employees to access all their benefit offerings including ID cards, plan summaries, etc. at the time of need. In addition, many of our benefit partners also offer mobile apps and we encourage insured members to download apps, such as HealthiestYou telemedicine, that will make their healthcare journey easier.
- BSI’s In-house Customer Service: We provide employees and their covered family members with access to our in-house customer service department, free of charge. Insured members work directly with a specialized team that fully understands their benefit offerings and can help guide members to make informed decisions, find an in-network provider or when needing help understanding a charge or carrier explanation.
- Printed Posters and Flyers: We provide clients with eye-catching posters and flyers to display in highly visible areas. These typically reference reminders about their benefits; how to access information; upcoming events; preventive exams; and wellness plan deadlines.
Ultimately, the goal is to create a culture of engagement that drives the effective utilization of employee benefits. By focusing on connection and accessibility using multi-channel education, we can increase both benefits utilization and employee well-being.
Empowering Employees
By adopting a multi-channel approach and focusing on one benefit at a time, we can empower employees to fully utilize their benefits and make informed decisions about their healthcare and overall wellbeing. Engaging employees with their benefits not only drives higher utilization but also boosts employee retention. An engaged workforce is healthier, happier, and more productive, with a lower likelihood of seeking opportunities elsewhere. BSI supports HR teams by providing the resources needed to streamline benefits education. All we ask is that you leverage these tools to enhance your employees’ understanding, maximize the value of their benefits, and improve their overall wellbeing.