Employee Benefit Planning: It’s About More Than Health Insurance

07/08/2024

Posted by: Altura Benefits in Informational

employee benefit planning
Have you noticed that rising healthcare costs are causing high levels of stress and prompting employees to delay care? Even workers with good benefits feel the strain of rising out-of-pocket costs. By expanding your employee benefit planning, and including options beyond health insurance, you can provide additional support for your team’s wellbeing and job satisfaction.

Health Insurance Doesn’t Cover Everything

Health insurance is great for covering preventive care, like vaccines and annual check-ups. It may also cover medical emergencies and serious health conditions. Many workers depend on their employers for health insurance, but unfortunately, health insurance doesn’t cover everything.

For example, health insurance doesn’t cover vision exams, glasses, or contacts. According to the Vision Council, 166.5 million U.S. adults wear prescription glasses, meaning this lack of vision coverage impacts a large number of people.

Health insurance also typically excludes dental coverage. Although the ACA created requirements for dental care for children, adults do not have this protection. As a result, many adults have to pay out of pocket for routine dental care as well as for fillings, extractions, and other dental procedures.

Beyond dental and vision care, there are numerous over-the-counter healthcare costs that health insurance doesn’t cover. These include non-prescription drugs, hearing aids, first-aid supplies, and many other health-related items typically purchased at a drug store or grocery store. These costs add up.

Many Americans Struggle with Healthcare Costs

The Center for American Progress says rising health insurance premiums are cutting into take-home pay and putting financial strain on employees.

Unexpected medical bills are even worse. Although health insurance often covers certain types of preventive care without co-pays, emergency room visits, urgent care visits, hospital stays, diagnostic lab tests, and surgeries all come with out-of-pocket costs. Many people struggle to find the money.

KFF says 41% of American adults have medical bills they cannot pay. Although people with no health insurance are more likely to have had healthcare debt in the last five years, even those with insurance report high rates of debt, with 61% of people with health insurance saying they have had healthcare debt at some point in the last five years. This means there’s a good chance your employees are dealing with medical bills – even if they have health insurance.

Some Workers Are Delaying Care

Instead of taking on medical debt, some Americans put off healthcare.

Research from Paytient found that 40% of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance have delayed care due to costs. This includes 32% who delayed regular visits and check-ups, 38% who say their health has gotten worse because they delayed care, and 25% who say they still haven’t received all the care they need.

The results are often detrimental. Imagine one of your employees goes to the doctor about some ongoing health issues. The doctor wants to run some diagnostic bloodwork and scans, but the employee delays these tests due to the out-of-pocket costs. In the meantime, the health concerns that brought the employee to the doctor worsen. When the employee finally pays for the tests, they show cancer. The delay means the prognosis is worse and treatment costs may be higher.

Unfortunately, scenarios like this are a real possibility when people neglect their healthcare due to costs. Although they may save some money up front, their long-term medical costs may end up being much higher and their outcomes much worse. The good news is additional employee benefits can prevent scenarios like this.

What Should Employers Offer?

Health insurance alone often isn’t enough to shield employees from medical-related financial stress or to support their wellbeing. Even a robust health plan with a low deductible and small co-pay leaves many uncovered costs. However, with careful employee benefit planning, you can offer an employee benefits package that includes health insurance along with some additional perks that could make a significant difference for your team.

Options to consider include:

  • HSAs or FSAs. If all or some of your employees are enrolled in high-deductible health plans, they may benefit from health savings accounts (HSAs). These accounts offer a tax-advantaged way to pay for many eligible health-related costs. Even better, the money does not expire, meaning HSAs also help with retirement planning. Other employees may be interested in flexible spending accounts (FSAs), which also offer a tax-advantaged way to pay for eligible health-related costs. Employees can use FSAs with any type of health plan, but the funds do expire if not used.
  • Vision Insurance. Many adults need glasses or contacts. Since your workers may also have children who need vision tests and corrective lenses, vision insurance may be a tremendous help.
  • Dental Insurance. Going to the dentist is painful enough without an expensive bill. Without dental insurance, workers may put off dental care.
  • Critical Illness Insurance. Medical emergencies like cancer, a heart attack, or a stroke often lead to major medical bills, even for people with health insurance. Critical illness insurance alleviates the financial strain by providing a benefit if the insured is diagnosed with a qualifying condition, often in the form of a lump sum payment.
  • Disability Insurance. When workers suffer from an illness or injury, medical bills aren’t their only financial problem. If workers miss work for a prolonged period, their lost wages may lead to financial disaster. Most employers only offer limited paid time off, which may not be nearly enough for an employee dealing with a serious health condition. Disability insurance can help make up for these lost wages.

Are Extra Employee Benefits Worth the Cost?

Supplemental employee benefits help employees manage their healthcare costs. However, workers are not the only ones coping with rising expenses – employers are also feeling the pinch.

As you begin employee benefit planning, consider the costs as well as the expected return. There are a couple of things to consider.

Supplemental employee benefits may:

  • Help you achieve your goals. Consider why you’re offering health insurance in the first place. It might be simply to meet ACA requirements for large employers, but it’s likely also to improve employee wellness, support employee engagement, and help you with your employee recruitment efforts. If health insurance alone isn’t enough to achieve these goals, adding supplemental benefits may be exactly what you need.
  • Be less expensive than you think. You can offer many benefits (including vision, dental, disability, and critical illness insurance) as voluntary benefits enabling employees to pay for them using payroll deductions. With FSAs and HSAs, employees decide how much to contribute. Employees benefit from the group discounts that come with voluntary benefits and the tax advantages that come with FSAs and HSAs.

Is it time to round out your employee benefits package? If health insurance alone isn’t enough, Altura Benefits will help you facilitate employee benefit planning and structure a benefits package that includes additional benefits. Learn more.