How to communicate about high-deductible health plans

Michelle Hicks

Many companies are trying to find new ways to reduce the cost of health care for both themselves and their employees. One idea is to help employees have more “skin in the game” by implementing high-deductible health plans, coupled with health savings accounts to help pay the higher premium.

Any kind of major health plan change is a lot of work for the benefit departments responsible for administering them. Often, the complex coordination of establishing plan rules, updating legal documents, and ensuring enrollment systems are updated can consume the majority of the project. And then, one of the most important details to the plan’s success gets pushed off to the last minute, if it gets addressed at all: employee communication.

When employees don’t understand how the plan works, they are less likely to change plans. Or, if they do enroll, but were not told in plain and clear language about their increased responsibilities using the plan, it can result in time-consuming appeals and poor employee morale.

Last year, I spent two months conducting focus groups with employees of a company that made the mistake of not clearly communicating about their new high-deductible plan when they rolled it out. The unfiltered responses provided a lot of good insights to help any company considering this change.

One of the most important findings was the direct correlation between the amount of time employees spent understanding the plan and their satisfaction with the plan. Those who were heavy health plan users who read the fine print and created their own cost comparison tools were generally more satisfied with how the high-deductible plan worked. Most employees at this company, however, did not put in the time.

Instead, they were blindsided by the higher deductible when early in the plan year their health savings account was not fully funded, and they took on considerably higher out-of-pocket expenses for services.

The lesson is that employers can avoid this misunderstanding by pro-actively creating learning scenarios for all employees prior to enrollment.

To get started, employers should be prepared to explain the business reasons for moving to high-deductible plans. Beyond rising medical costs, which most people in this country understand, high-deductible plans with savings accounts can help employees be more in control of what they spend, be rewarded for making wise health care spending choices, and be able to contribute to a fund that can provide financial security for health care needs in the future.

Employees should be provided resources, and be told where to find them, to help them be better informed health care consumers. They should also understand how their health savings account will be funded and the consequences of the funding plan.

For example, if you’re planning to match employee contributions dollar-for-dollar throughout the plan year, employees need to understand if they only contribute $20 per pay period, the match will only result in $40 in their account after the first pay period. If they receive services at the end of the first plan month, they may not have enough in the fund to cover that expense.

After enhancing its communication efforts in year two, based on the focus group feedback, the company I mentioned saw a 25 percent increase in HSA enrollment and the HSA account balance increased by more than $500. Employees will step up and do their part when they clearly understand what is expected.

Communication that sets the right expectations for their responsibility in high-deductible plans, coupled with easy access to tools that help them shop for the best health care deals, is key to higher enrollment and higher satisfaction with high-deductible plans.

Michelle Hicks is a communications consultant with Buck Consultants.

NEW! Online only subscription. 24/7 access to premium online subscriber content for only $79.00 a year!
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TODAY!

Comments are closed.