take out the annual "juggle".
group insurance consulting
Do you have an “open wound” in your budgeting process every year while you wait for your dreaded health insurance renewal? Are you tired of the annual “juggle” of your health insurance costs where you either pay more, change carriers and plans, limit coverage, shift costs to your employees, or a combination thereof?
none of these are long-term solutions!
our 5-step process
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intellicents has a 5-step process for gaining control of your organization’s health insurance costs.
step one
accept these undeniable truths
Health insurance is extremely frustrating for most employers. For many, it is their LEAST favorite thing to work on. But it is your most-used benefit by your employees and their families! Understanding how it works can point you in a direction for long-term solutions.
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step two
put your team together
Controlling the cost of your corporate health insurance program is actually a team effort, and the key is to understand and coordinate every teammate’s responsibility.
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step three
plan design that emphasizes consumerism
Do you want to get your employees engaged with you to fight the battle against rising health insurance costs? Put them in charge of some of the money by considering the following cost savings strategies:
step four
implement a wellness plan
The vast majority of your employees do not understand that their health, and in many cases their poor lifestyle choices, affect their health insurance premiums. Most of your employees do not shop for high-quality, lower cost health care providers or prescription drugs. Many of your employees do not understand how taking a long-term approach to their annual health insurance choices could save them literally thousands of dollars over the next five years. Your employees desperately need not only a physical wellness program, but also financial wellness education and advice.
step five
participant advice
This is your most expensive benefit program, the cost of which is determined by your employees’ behaviors and actions. What kind of help are you giving them?
client support services
participant education
participant advice
an intellicent service structure
to learn more
select a category
client support services
hr support
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Vendor Management
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HR Automation for Benefits Eligibility, Enrollment, Billing, and Administration
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Supporting ERISA Documents
financial support
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Benefit Marketing and Brokerage
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Vendor Negotiation
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Defined Contribution Approach
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Consumer-Driven Plan Design Strategies
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Network Analysis
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Claims Analysis
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Alternative Funding Strategies
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Private Clinic Feasibility Study
participant education
1. Participant group meetings
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Plan specific enrollment group meetings
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Choosing the “Right” Health Plan to Fit Your Family’s Needs and Budget
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“Maximizing” Your HSA
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The Cost of Poor lifestyle Choices
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The importance of your physical wellness plan and onsite biometric testing
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intellicents university financial wellness program
an intellicent service structure
To do this it all starts with great people, and then we complement them with progressive technology solutions – with the underlying goal of becoming your partner in delivering an employee benefits program that helps attract and retain your most valuable asset... your employees.
Your Consulting Team
Their job is to help you build an employee benefits program that not only fits your corporate budget but makes you a great place to work. They will assist you in defining goals, determining your funding strategy, analyzing and putting together the supporting cast of carriers / administration, developing participant education and advice campaigns to accomplish those goals, and delivering progress and benchmarking reports to you.
Your Relationship Manager
Has the same training and licenses as your consulting team, but tactically is responsible for the day-to-day execution of the strategies put together to deliver a comprehensive employee benefit program. They typically will lead all participant education and advice efforts, plus can be your advocate for nagging or chronic issues with your carriers and administrators. Accordingly, they also take the lead in the annual renewal process.
Personal Financial Management Team
Their job is to help your employees become financially fit, taking a more holistic approach to their overall financial situation. Accordingly, they would typically lead any workplace financial wellness initiatives you elect to implement, including detailed financial planning for your people, and be a resource for your participants’ benefits and HSA investment questions.
Personal Financial Management Chief Investment Officer
Dedicated specifically to designing “intellicent” investment strategies for HSA utilization and holistic financial planning for your participants.
Client Services
Our dedicated internal staff for the fulfillment of required benefits information for your employees and employee education material.
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passive vs. active investment managementActive money managers generally employ high-priced humans to manage the underlying investments. Most often their goal is to out-perform their pre-defined benchmark. Historical data shows that many active managers fail to provide this performance premium. Therefore, another option is to actually “buy the benchmark” by instead hiring low-cost passive index managers. For most plans, investment management costs are the biggest expense. Numerous recent fiduciary lawsuits center on plan sponsors failing to monitor this expense.
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utilization of low-cost mutual funds and ETFsWhether your plan offers active or passive funds or both, higher investment management fees do not buy you better investment management talent. There is no correlation between higher fees and higher performance. The one thing in the investment management equation that is controllable is cost. And several 401(k) recordkeepers today allow low-cost ETFs to be in the plan’s available universe of funds to choose from.
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cheaper share classesPlan sponsors should always be evaluating whether there are cheaper share classes of their existing funds available. Most fund families offer lower cost “institutional share classes” for retirement plans. Recent rulings by the Department of Labor and the courts illustrate that this level of analysis is clearly an expectation of fiduciaries.
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CITs versus mutual fundsWithout question, mutual funds are the dominant form of investment vehicle found in plans today, but they are not the only legal investment vehicle for plans to choose from. Many large plans have further reduced their investment management expense by moving to Collective Investment Trusts (CITs) for some or all of their investment options. Mutual funds were invented to allow the small retail investor to adequately diversify, and they are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. CITs, however, are regulated by banking law, and are not available for the individual to invest in outside their 401(k) plan. Consequently, their cost for doing business can be lower. Once available only to very large plans, many are now available to even the very small plan. And many mutual fund companies are actually coming out with lower cost CIT versions of their mutual fund options.
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buying in bulkThere is no question that more money buys you a better deal in the financial services business. Consequently, big plans have a lower overall cost structure than smaller plans, measured as a percentage of total plan assets. There are, however, ways for smaller plans to band together and collectively become a bigger plan, and thus get better pricing.
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benchmarkingPlan fees have come down dramatically over the last several years. Proper fiduciary governance warrants plan sponsors to do a total cost analysis on an annual basis, and benchmark their plan relative to plans of a similar size. Fortunately, there are national data bases available for this comparison.
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RFPDespite dramatic industry fee compression, plan service providers seldom voluntarily offer to reduce their fees. If you’ve been with a service provider for five years or longer, nothing brings them to the negotiating table faster than issuing a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) or briefer Request for Information (RFI). Plus, the results of this exercise don’t look bad to have in your Investment Committee or Administrative Committee minutes from a fiduciary governance standpoint.
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hire a fiduciary investment advisor for the planThe vast majority of plans hire an experienced fiduciary investment advisor to not only assist in selecting and monitoring the plan’s investment menu, but to also oversee the responsibility of controlling plan costs. In essence, you are outsourcing some or most of your fiduciary responsibility, allowing you to focus on what you’re an expert at – getting more of your product or service out the door. Plus, the really good advisors will help you identify and decrease a huge hidden expense for most employers – the cost of delayed retirements.