Health Plan Benefits that are Most Appreciated
- By Mark Bajus, CEBS
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- 01 Feb, 2018
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When building your plan, it’s important to understand what features employees appreciate the most since the best benefit plans consist of a mix of the “highly appreciated today” benefits, and the less appreciated but highly valuable true insurance.
In general, employees appreciate the frequently claimed transactional benefits the most: dental, extended medical coverage that includes drugs, and visioncare.
For dental coverage, basic dental covers almost all kinds of dental treatments that employees and their dependents might use. You can add major dental coverage (crowns, bridges dentures) and childrens orthodontics. They are certainly nice to have, however, this is coverage with diminishing “appreciation” returns, as not many employees will use either of these benefits, and premium is payable for all employees.
For dental coverage, basic dental covers almost all kinds of dental treatments that employees and their dependents might use. You can add major dental coverage (crowns, bridges dentures) and childrens orthodontics. They are certainly nice to have, however, this is coverage with diminishing “appreciation” returns, as not many employees will use either of these benefits, and premium is payable for all employees.
Extended Health coverage is highly valued, especially for its protection provided in the event of high drug costs. Paramedical coverage (physiotherapists, chiropractor, massage therapy etc) is especially valued by younger employees who tend to claim less for drugs.
There is a fallacy that Visioncare has a different pricing arrangement than other transactional benefits: this is not the case. Again, glasses/contacts are not applicable to all employees, so this benefit is frequently added as the plan and the business mature and plan enhancements are needed.
And true insurance benefits are generally not as highly appreciated, but can be extremely valuable. Life insurance, which is easily purchased outside a benefit plan, is usually kept at a low level. Long Term Disability however, is highly valuable to employees, even if they might not at first appreciate it. The cost of Long Term Disability through a group plan is a fraction of the cost of trying to buy it on your own. As well, some if not all of an employee’s group LTD coverage does not require medicals.
And true insurance benefits are generally not as highly appreciated, but can be extremely valuable. Life insurance, which is easily purchased outside a benefit plan, is usually kept at a low level. Long Term Disability however, is highly valuable to employees, even if they might not at first appreciate it. The cost of Long Term Disability through a group plan is a fraction of the cost of trying to buy it on your own. As well, some if not all of an employee’s group LTD coverage does not require medicals.
BF Partners is a Financial Service company offering Employee Benefits and Financial Planning/Pension advice for businesses and business owners. The BFP brand stands for quality, integrity, commitment and professionalism.
Click here for more information on BF Partners Employee Benefits plans.
Mark Bajus - CEBS, CLU, CFP - is the Director, Group Benefits for BF Partners. Learn more about Mark.
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