The Renewal Readiness Self-Assessment

How do you define the word “renewal”?

Does it mean restore, replenish, recharge?

Or, does it mean do again, do over, repeat?

Why is it that when it comes to the “renewal” of employee benefit insurance, the process is so stressful, disappointing, adversarial, frustrating and not at all rewarding?

Our experience shows there are many reasons behind the train wreck the annual renewal process too often becomes. Especially these days with massive legislative changes, all the compliance headaches riding on the coat tails of healthcare reform, and the crushing economic conditions that stubbornly persist in driving revenues down and costs ever upward.

Our experience also tells us the only way to address these and any other challenges, and to be able to see clearly enough to recognize and seize new opportunities is to be prepared.

What better time than now to prepare for, and take control of your employee benefits insurance renewal?

We can help.

We have created a quick and easy do-it-your-self tool called the Renewal Readiness Self-Assessment.

Click here to download.

Our self-assessment will give you immediate insight into how you can take advantage of the renewal to bring new life, new value and greater effectiveness into your employee benefits insurance, all while controlling costs and receiving more return on every dollar you spend on insurance.

The Renewal Readiness Self-Assessment comes from The Shared Responsibility Process™ our proprietary strategic planning system that helps hospital executives and medical practices create and sustain a culture in which responsibility for delivering high quality patient care, controlling costs, and protecting profit is shared by all employees.

The Cost Control Calendar

A strategic thinking tool for developing sustainable, effective employee benefit programs.

Gaining control of the cost of delivering a competitive employee benefit plan, one that serves your organization's financial and strategic needs, requires a long-term, multi-faceted approach. In our experience, a dedicated and sophisticated plan manager or administrator supported by a senior management team that values the critical contribution engaged, productive, high quality employees make, is the first and most essential ingredient for success. But, even with the best leadership and management team in place, the current health care environment makes gaining control of costs extremely challenging.

There are many factors working against you including:

  • Medical trend at the highest level ever… and still rising! (Even the best groups expect at an 11% annual increase.)
  • Medical claims frequency and severity are steadily trending upward
  • Economies of scale work against smaller groups as – generally speaking – you have very little negotiation power unless you have at least 100 employees
  • HIPPA and the entire compliance set up frustrates innovation and eats up time and resources
  • Health care reform unleashing a torrent of new regulations

But, all is not lost. In our work with dozens of health care organizations, hospitals and doctors groups, we have found a long-term approach (minimum of three years) and a combination of tactical and strategic initiatives in three key areas, provides the very best opportunity for cost control. These areas are:

  1. Communication;
  2. Financing benefits (financing the risk), and;
  3. Managing usage (managing the risk).

The Cost Control Calendar is part of The Shared Responsibility Process™: a proprietary process for creating and sustaining a culture in which responsibility for delivering high quality patient care, controlling costs, and protecting profits is shared by all employees.

Click here to download.

The Benefits Tool Chest

The Benefits Tool Chest contains an evolving selection of products, services, capabilities, technology, strategic partners, and learning resources. Driven by client needs and a constantly changing benefits environment, we are always looking for and developing new and better ways to help our clients.

The Benefits Tool Chest contains health insurance, disability benefits, life insurance and other employee benefits and is organized in these categories:

  • Communication
  • Cost Control
  • Wellness
  • Administration
  • Compliance

For an in-depth tour of The Benefits Tool Chest, please schedule your Benefits Tool Chest tour by completing this form and sending it to us. A HealthSure representative will call you to schedule an initial conversation with one of our advisors.

Benefits Tool Chest Tour (required ∗)

The Benefits Death Spiral™

As they meet the challenge of protecting the long-term survival and success of their organization, most healthcare executives are faced with a growing number of increasingly significant challenges.

In the face of these challenges, many are finding the conventional, annual renewal based approach to managing employee benefits to be ineffective. As each renewal brings higher premiums, their options diminish and most often feel they have no choice but to reduce benefits, or transfer costs to employees, or both. This approach can leave the organization vulnerable to increased employee turnover, and a decline in employee quality, engagement and productivity… a situation we have seen so often, we now call it The Benefit Death Spiral™.

As the expectations of patients, board members, and communities, remain constant or increase, The Benefit Death Spiral™ can lead to declining patient care, loss of community trust, and financial turmoil for the organization.

To discover if your organization is vulnerable to The Benefit Death Spiral™, start by doing a little self-analysis, download The Shared Responsibility Scorecard™.