Along with helping employees choose their benefits, decision support can reveal unique opportunities to enhance benefit packages. In today’s competitive job market, these insights can make all the difference for employers looking to stand out from their competitors.
The Impact Report
Employers who purchase Decision Doc—MyHealthMath’s personalized decision support software—receive an annual Impact Report following open enrollment. By matching employees’ pre- and post-census enrollment data, the Impact Report takes a deep dive into how Decision Doc affected employee plan choice and how benefit offerings serve employees based on their health care usage.
Employers and their consultants use the report to optimize their benefit offerings in year two. Here’s how:
Six ways the Impact Report aids benefit planning conversations
Plan rankings: see which plans serve your employees best.
Decision Doc ranks your health plans by total cost (premiums and out-of-pocket expenses) for each employee based on their individual health utilization. The Impact Report bundles these results to show how often each plan came out on top, which allows you to see which plans best serve employees. For example, some employers may notice that a plan they thought provides strong, affordable coverage is almost always the lowest ranked plan. Alternatively, employers may discover they are over-incentivizing one plan, leading to unexpected movement among employees.
Employers and their benefit consultants can use this analysis to adjust their plan design for the coming year, ensuring that they provide a comprehensive benefits package that fits all their employees’ needs.
Plan choice: see whether employees moved into their optimal plan.
The Impact Report also shows whether employees chose their optimal health plan and details overall movement patterns (e.g., how employees moved from one plan to another). If employees aren’t moving into their optimal plan, MyHealthMath can find out why. For example:
- Is the cost difference between the second and first ranked plan very small, therefore diluting the argument for moment?
- Does the first-ranked plan have a high worst-case scenario (the most employees can expect to spend), making it less attractive for risk-averse employees?
- Is there a need for more targeted education—perhaps employees don’t realize their employer front-loads their HSA contribution, so they are put off by the high deductible.
Understanding movement patterns helps employers consider relevant plan design changes, and it helps MyHealthMath further customize education in year two.
Employee cost impact: see how much money decision support can help employees save.
The Impact Report highlights the average total cost savings for employees who changed plans, so employers can easily see how Decision Doc makes health care more affordable. This analysis also highlights the impact Decision Doc can have in year two if more employees participate. MyHealthMath partners with benefit teams to build out a robust engagement strategy for year two based on initial lessons learned and fueled by year one’s results.
Employer cost impact: help employers maximize value for them and their employees.
Every year, benefit teams try to identify plan designs that give employees more value without becoming cost prohibitive for employers. Finding this ideal scenario is a careful balance—and added data can help. That’s why the Impact Report shows how movement from Decision Doc affects employer’s costs: premium subsidies and payroll taxes, while accounting for the employer’s HSA/FSA contributions.
These numbers can help benefit consultants and HR teams:
- understand the impact of Decision Doc on employer costs, and,
- identify plan design improvements that will save employees money without breaking the bank for employers.
Usage of financial savings vehicles: how to help employees get the most for their dollar.
Decision support tools help employees understand and utilize financial savings vehicles, such as Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). The Impact Report highlights whether employees who used Decision Doc were more likely to move to eligible plans, and then open and contribute to these accounts. This data is critical for year two because it shows how education can be used to encourage employees to switch to HSA-eligible plans, and to use HSAs and FSAs. Benefit teams can then consider:
- Whether eligible plans are incentivized appropriately
- Whether more education is needed to promote health savings vehicles
Demographic information: build a more inclusive benefits structure
All of the information above can be broken down by demographic data, such as salary tier and age. Employers can see whether certain groups of people benefit more from certain plans, are more likely to change plans, and are more likely to take advantage of HSAs and FSAs. Together, this analysis helps benefit teams customize their benefits and their education strategies to speak to their full employee population.
What’s next? Learn more about the Impact Report, or schedule a demo to get the full Decision Doc experience.