Employee benefits and the new health care landscape : how private exchanges are bringing choice and consumerism to America's workforce / Alan Cohen, with Jami Kelmenson.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Cohen, Alan, author.
• Kelmenson, Jami, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Employee fringe benefits--United States.
• Employee fringe benefits.
• United States.
• Employer-sponsored health insurance--United States.
• Employer-sponsored health insurance.

Physical Description:

xvii, 260 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Other Title:

How private exchanges are bringing choice and consumerism to America's workforce

Place of Publication:

[United States] : Liazon Corporation by Pearson Education, Inc., [2018]

Summary:

Using private benefit exchanges (a.k.a. "online benefits marketplaces"), employers can bring a consumer contric online shopping experience to benefits. Alan Cohen, a benefits technology pioneer, details how these platforms can offer unprecedented flexibility and choice to employees, revolutionize the way employers attract and retain talent, strengthen cost control in an ear of skyrocketing premiums, and promote much-needed innovation in the U.S. health care system. Discover How To, Make sense of today's challenging benefits landscape and plan breakthrough changes that have been successful for thousands of employers of all sizes, Leverage the lessons of the online shopping revolution to drive radical innovation, Incorporate the 7 key pillars of a true private benefits exchange into your benefits mindset, Gain indispensable practical insights from early adopters' experiences, Clarify the new roles of employers, HR, insurers, brokers, employees, and other stakeholders, Accelerate your transition away from inefficient employer-managed plans, Assess the ongoing impact of health care reform, public exchanges, health care consumerism, and other trees. Alan Cohen was instrumental in creating one of the first private exchange platforms and has pioneered this approach for more than a decade. Now, in a candid discussion of how the economic principles of choice, consumerism and defined contribution are at work in an exchange environment, he breaks down the concept for HR professionals. CFOs, CEOs, entrepreneurs, brokers, insurers, health care reformers, policy makers, and employees. Cohen looks to social and economic implications to forge a future in which all eyes are on a new model of the consumer for the benefits age. With insights from industry veterans, Employee Benefits and the New Health Care Landscape brings a fresh perspective to the debate on health care and health insurance in America. Book jacket.

Contents:

• Introduction 1
• Attracting and Retaining Employees 3
• A New Paradigm Shift for Benefits 5
• The Exchange Evolution 8
• "Try It, You'll Like It" 9
• Overcoming the "Wait and See" Mindset 11
• Part I The Changing Benefits Landscape 13
• 1 Building a Better Benefits System 15
• Principle #1 Give Them Money and Let Them Shop 19
• Principle #2 Provide True Price Transparency 23
• Principle #3 Provide Meaningful Choice 24
• Principle #4 Offer Guidance in the Form of Decision Support 27
• Principle #5 Optimize the Shopping Experience 29
• Principle #6 Ensure a Cultural Fit Within the Organization 33
• Principle #7 Refine, Iterate, and Improve 33
• Summary 34
• 2 Benefits: The Accidental Entitlement 35
• Not Really an "Exchange" 38
• "Modern-Day" Insurance 40
• Benefits as Compensation 41
• So Where Does This Leave Us? 46
• Brokers Join the Bandwagon 49
• Summary 50
• 3 They Don't Know What They're Missing: Flipping the Status Quo on Its Head 51
• The Problem with the Status Quo 53
• Disrupting the Status Quo 56
• Meaningful Choice 57
• Price Transparency and Defined Contribution 59
• Personalization 67
• Concumerism 70
• Summary 73
• 4 Making Sense of Benefits Solutions: Public Exchanges and Private Exchanges 75
• The View from the Top: Public Versus Private Exchanges 75
• Who Runs These Things Anyway? Types of Private Exchange Operators 79
• Pure-Play Providers 79
• Benefits Providers 80
• Benefits Advisors 80
• Traditional Benefits Administration Companies 81
• What Should You Consider When Moving to a Private Exchange? 83
• Single-Versus Multi-Carrier Exchanges 83
• Self-Versus Fully-Insured Models 84
• Funding Strategies 86
• Who Can Benefit from Private Exchanges? Markets Served 86
• A Look at Products in Private Exchanges 89
• What Else Can Private Exchanges Offer? 95
• Summary 96
• Part II Stakeholders: Making the Move from "One Size Fits All" 97
• 5 Employers Find Skin in the Game 99
• A Big Bet Pays Off: TitleMax, Part of the TMX Finance Family of Companies 100
• Customer-Focused Luxury Resort Gives Back to Its Employees: Sandestin 104
• Summary 107
• 6 Six Questions to Ask Before You Choose a Private Exchange 109
• What Makes for a True Private Exchange? 111
• 1 Is Elasticity Built into Its Foundation? 113
• 2 Does It Include Decision Support and Educational Tools? 114
• 3 Are Prices Transparent? 116
• 4 Does It Integrate with Value-Added Services? 118
• 5 Does It Provide Year-Round Support? 119
• 6 To What Extent Does It Handle Benefits Administration? 120
• Summary 120
• 7 Brokers and Exchanges: Better Together 123
• Rick Strater, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. 127
• The Role of the Broker 128
• Overcoming Misconceptions 128
• Employees Don't Care About Choice 128
• Cost Is All That Matters 129
• Defined Contribution Is "Cost Shifting" 129
• Rob Harkins, Willis Towers Watson 130
• The Changing Role of Brokers 131
• How Can Brokers Win? 131
• The Role of HR 133
• Technology Is the Future of Benefits 133
• Summary 135
• 8 Insurers Find a New Way to Move Product 137
• The Private Exchange: A Bridge to the Future? 139
• What Insurers Can Gain from Private Exchanges 143
• Innovators Embrace Private Exchanges Early On 148
• Jessica Moser, MetLife 148
• Kevin Hill, Oxford Health Plans/UnitedHealthcare 150
• Insurers Aren't the Only Ones Innovating 152
• Summary 154
• Part III Future Vision 155
• 9 Innovation in Benefits (Yes, Benefits) 157
• Expanding the Aisles in the Benefits Store 163
• Letting Individuals Create Their Own Preferred Networks 165
• Creating a National Individual Insurance Market 169
• Summary 173
• 10 The "Law of the Land," Insurance Tax Reform, and the November Surprise 175
• "The Law of the Land . . . for the Foreseeable Future" 178
• The Viability of the Individual Market 183
• What Else to Note on the Legislative Front 185
• The "Cadillac" of Taxes-And Other Pending Legislation 186
• The Medicare Marketplace as a Model 187
• Small Businesses and Individual Benefits Marketplaces 188
• Tweaking the Tax Code 190
• Summary 191
• 11 Who's Afraid of the American Consumer? 194
• Some Potential Ways Forward 196
• Tax-Protected Savings Accounts 197
• Employer Funding for Individual Insurance 198
• Consumer-Centric Provider Networks 200
• Data and Digital Tools for Patients and Consumers 201
• Patient-Empowered Healing 204
• The Utopian Vision 206
• Shopping for Care 208
• Using a Marketplace to Purchase Non-Emergent Health Care on an As-Needed Basis 209
• An "In-Network" Conundrum? 212
• Final Thoughts 213
• Part IV Appendixes: A Practical Guide to Private Exchanges 215
• A Private Exchanges 101 217
• B Making Sense of Benefits Terms 223
• Terms Related to Benefits 223
• Terms Related to Health Care Consumerism 226
• Terms Related to Private Exchanges 227
• Guide to Common Benefits Products on a Private Exchange 230
• C Real-World Data and Applications 233
• What Really Happens on Private Exchanges? 233
• Data from the 2017 Private Exchange Research Council (PERC) Analysis 233
• What Do Employers and Employees Really Think About Liazon Exchanges? 237
• Data from the Liazon 2017 Employer and Emplyee Surveys 237
• The Exchange Experience: A Look at How Benefits Are Selected on Liazon Exchanges 240
• For the Benefits Geeks: A Health Care Timeline 246.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

• 9780134665306
• 0134665309

OCLC:

1021183481