Health insurance can be complicated to navigate, and employees are often faced with important decisions when it comes to their employer-based health insurance. This is especially true for younger employees who tend to be less knowledgeable about health insurance, less comfortable asking questions of their HR department, and less clear on what their current plan offers them according to a recent study.
Helping employees understand their benefits leads to higher job satisfaction rates—that’s big for attracting and retaining young talent! Over 63 percent of employees said that their company’s health insurance offerings influence whether they want to stay there.
Here’s five reasons to provide decision support for younger employees:
Knowledge of health plan terms.
When employees have to read long benefit guides with confusing terminology and lengthy text, they’ll be less likely to choose an optimal plan. Nearly 70 percent of younger employees don’t understand the definitions of basic health insurance terms, such as the definition of deductible. With decision support, employees receive helpful guides and resources, including education around various terms to better understand their health plan selection.
Pro tip: advanced decision support, like Decision Doc, offers access to phone analysts who can walk employees through specific health plan terms and jargon.
Neutral third-party support.
Over half of young employees are uncomfortable asking their company’s HR department questions about health insurance enrollment. Health plan selection is a uniquely personalized experience. Younger employees, especially, benefit from a self-guided experience, so they don’t need to ask and share medical information with their employer. For example, maybe they are considering pregnancy, but aren’t comfortable sharing that with their employer. A decision support tool gives them self-guided plan advice and unbiased support. With Decision Doc, employees can schedule a call with a neutral third-party expert at any point.
Understand the full scope of any given plan.
Over 60 percent of younger employees are more likely to be unaware of the full scope of what their current health insurance offers them. Personalized decision support shows employees the right coverage based on their medical and pharmacy needs. Employees can model different scenarios, so they can fully understand the scope of coverage, and confidently choose the right plan for themselves and their families.
Minimize overbuying.
Fifty-seven percent of younger employees say they’re more likely to feel pressure to select the most expensive health plan because they want to make sure they have enough coverage. Along with wasting money, unnecessarily choosing high premium plans means missing out on health savings accounts (HSAs), which are paired with high deductible, lower-cost plans.
Decision support tools fix the two most common enrollment uncertainties:
- It tells them which plan best covers their medical needs, and,
- Their total health care costs for the year
When employees understand their options, including projected healthcare spending, they’re more likely to choose a better value plan.
Better guidance on the value of High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs).
Many employees are suspicious of HDHPs, because of misinformation about HDHPs, HSAs, and the significant savings that can come with them. But HDHPs are often the best option for employees, particularly young and healthy employees. Decision support lays out the economics—showing employees how to use premium savings to invest in an HSA and build a safety net of tax-advantaged dollars. When employees see these numbers and how they’re protected from the high deductibles, it’s easier for them to see if an HDHP is a good fit.
By offering decision support, you’ll help employees better understand and choose an optimal plan—one that best protects them and allows them to save more money. Employees who are in a more optimal plan will be more satisfied and happier with their employers and their benefits! And potential hires who will be more likely to be enticed by the employer’s benefits package.
Schedule a 30-minute demo and see the difference Decision Doc can make this open enrollment season.