One of the major concerns when making the decision to offer health care benefits to your employees is cost. Health care costs continue to rise each year making it difficult to start or continue offering benefits. There are several steps you can take to help manage your costs.
Work with an experienced broker or agent
A broker will get to know you and your business and can compare your needs to what you can get for your budget. An experienced broker will research different plans and carriers to select the one that’s right for you and fits your budget. As your broker, Agri-Services Agency (ASA) will not add services fees to your plan.
Access to wellness programs and technology
Technology and wellness programs are becoming important tools in health and health care management. On-line wellness management systems help to engage employees and encourage them to make healthy choices using fun, easy, and trackable activity platforms. Easy access to doctors through telemedicine services such as video chats, phone consulting and mobile aps is becoming an increasingly important option. Additionally, for larger groups data analytics are being used to spot concerning trends and offer options to help employees make changes that improve their health. A full-service agency, like ASA, can help set up access to all these services.
Utilize flexible contribution programs
You can offer flexible spending arrangements like Health Savings Accounts (HSA), Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) or Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA). These plans allow you as the employer (HRA or FSA) and your employee (FSA or HSA) to contribute to an account that can be used to pay for approved medical expenses often on a pre-tax basis. These tools, in conjunction with plan design, help manage health care premiums and as the employer, you maintain control over the program. Your broker can provide access to administration programs for these flexible spending plans.
Keep track of legislation
Unless you are constantly monitoring changes in healthcare legislation, there is no way to keep up! Your agent can keep track of updates to laws surrounding healthcare and keep you up to date ensuring you can act quickly if changes are needed. ASA can handle this for you.
Advocate and Educate
In the event of a claim, your agent will advocate on your behalf and for your employee. Access to on-line tools and your agent’s expertise can help educate your employees helping them make better choices which can lead to lower costs for both of you.
As a full-service agency, Agri-Services Agency (ASA) can provide access to all these services. ASA has been providing healthcare solutions to the agriculture industry for nearly 50 years. Created by farmers, ASA is focused on the unique needs of the agribusiness industry. We can help design cost effective health plans for small businesses with only a few employees or large multi-location operations with hundreds of employees.
Please feel free to contact your local agent. You can also contact our Customer Service Center at 877-466-9089 at any time to ask questions or for more information.