kema-business-solutions

The Benefits Balancing Act

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:23:26 GMT

5 Tips to Manage Company Health Care Costs While Still Providing Valuable Benefits

One of the most frequent complaints we hear from clients and other business advisors is about the cost of health insurance. Employee benefits were costly already, and every year, without fail, prices go up. Employers want to offer benefits to provide a great employee experience and attract and retain the best employees, but with costs consistently rising, affordability and sustainability are ever-present concerns. The five tips below can help you balance affordability, competitiveness, and sustainability when it comes to your employee benefits plan.

#1 – View Benefits as an Ongoing Strategy

Renewal is once a year, but it shouldn’t be the driver when it comes to benefits decisions. Your annual renewal is one option to move forward, and your overall process should include a market review as part of an ongoing strategy cycle to evaluate the other options that are available. Doing so is essential to be sure you are getting the best benefits for the price.

A market review is part of our annual process with all our benefits clients. Our process is to start early, ahead of the expected renewal date, to allow time to discuss our client’s goals and any changes they’ve experienced throughout the year. We go to market to evaluate the options, considering a client’s hiring and retention goals, company size and growth stage, and employee needs and demographics. We then review the options with the client, and once decisions are made, we help with implementation.

#2 – Evaluate Medical Plan Structure

The structure of your medical plan can have a major impact on costs without reducing the value of the coverage. A fully insured plan is the traditional approach, offering lower risk but generally higher premiums. Another option to evaluate is a level-funded plan, wherein an employer pays a set monthly amount to cover expected claims, stop-loss insurance, and administrative fees. While they have stop-loss insurance in place to protect against high-cost claims, the employer takes on more risk than with a traditional fully-insured plan.

Our annual market review includes a look at plan structure to help our clients understand the different options available to them in the marketplace. Remember, each of these approaches is unique and has its own benefits and potential challenges to be aware of.

#3 – Give Your Employees Options

Everyone loves options, and the employees in your workforce probably need different things. You may have younger employees who don’t need much from the benefit plan, but you also may have employees with family members who need regular healthcare, including ongoing visits and prescriptions. Providing options allows the employee who doesn’t need much to opt for a base plan and the employee whose family needs more to buy up.

In addition, ancillary benefits are a great way to provide more options to employees without major cost increases. Employers may opt to fund ancillary benefits, offer them as employee-paid, or offer some combination of the two.

There is a vast array of ancillary benefit options, but the most popular include dental, vision, life, short-term and long-term disability insurance. Providing ancillary benefits helps to round out your benefits package and, in some cases, employees consider these benefits to be key. In fact, a recent Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA) survey found that employee satisfaction tends to increase when employers offer more benefits. For example, 63% of employees said they were satisfied when their employer offered 10-13 benefits options, whereas only 27% of employees said they were satisfied when their employer offered 1-3 benefits.

For more details on the LIMRA study, please visit the following URL:

https://www.limra.com/en/newsroom/news-releases/2025/limra-workers-benefits-satisfaction-tied-to-understanding-and-knowledge-can-total-compensation-statements-correct-the-course/

#4 – Think about Contribution Strategy

Along those lines, just because an employer is offering a benefit doesn’t mean the employer has to fund it. Many employees will pay for ancillary benefits that are valuable to them. When it comes to the medical plan, there are ways to incentivize plan selection as well, such as offering an HSA matching contribution for employees enrolled in the high-deductible health plan, which may serve as the base plan.

Another important practice is to help frame the total compensation package for your employees. If you are contributing any amount toward benefits, you should help your employees understand that their take-home pay is only a portion of the overall compensation you are providing to them. Our system generates total compensation statements that can be used at annual employee reviews to help explain an employee's total compensation.

#5 – Provide Employee Education

Employees are more likely to be happy with the benefits plan if they understand it and know how to use it. On the other hand, employee confusion can lead to administrative costs and frustration on behalf of the employee and the employer.

Our process includes employee education meetings, virtual or in person, as part of implementation. In a group setting, we cover the features of the plan and the essential details about how it works. We also cover best practices when it comes to saving money for the plan. Every plan participant contributes to the cost of the plan at renewal time, so we try to empower participants to make responsible decisions as consumers. For example, using primary care or urgent care rather than an emergency room for non-life-threatening emergencies is a major cost savings.

In addition, for employees who need a little more guidance, we offer one-on-one consultations to answer their questions confidentially. This service allows an employee to speak with a benefits expert rather than ask their manager about sensitive health questions.

Cost Management through Better Decisions

Benefits are a long-term investment in your workforce, and they are a wonderful way to both sweeten the deal for prospective employees and encourage current employees to stay put. Alternatively, benefits can feel heavy both administratively and financially. Therefore, it’s key to have a trusted partner in your benefits broker to help you keep ahead of the renewal cycle (focusing on strategy over reaction), structure the plan to provide the options that you and your employees need, and educate your employees so they understand the value of what you are offering them and are able to make full use of it.

Have Questions?

If you’d like to discuss your benefits plan, please contact our team.

With Benefits, “Set It and Forget It” Costs Way More Than You Think

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:23:10 GMT

Why Employers Should Regularly Shop Medical Benefits

Many business decisions take a lot of time and effort, not to mention, sometimes, sweat, blood, and even a few tears. We’d love it if these hard decisions would matter for more than a year, but the ticking benefits renewal timeline means that decisions need to be made again on an annual basis. If the benefits plan is working, the temptation can be to skip the investment of effort and go with last year’s decisions; however, you should know that sticking with the same plan year after year can quietly increase costs and limit options, or, in other words, result in getting less plan for more money . A smarter strategy is to make an annual market review part of your regular benefits renewal cycle to be sure you’re getting the best benefits for your budget. Read on to learn more about how an annual market review can save money.

What does Shopping Benefits mean?

Shopping benefits is a short-hand way to describe the annual market review, which includes a look at

Market: Comparing current coverage to market options
Pricing: Understanding how plan pricing compares based on plan design and funding alternatives
Goals/Needs: Validating that the plan still aligns with workforce needs

Change is incremental. While it may not feel like there have been dramatic changes when renewal time arrives, as time goes by, you, your employees, your business, and the benefits industry are all experiencing changes. An annual market review will highlight changes in pricing and plan structures. There may be new funding opportunities, network changes, or plan design enhancements. Staying informed can help employers provide better options for their employees.

Being prepared with a good understanding of the market can help an employer negotiate better rates with insurance companies. Finding a more favorable rate elsewhere may encourage the current carrier to reduce the renewal increase, so they can keep the client.

Renewal time is also a great opportunity to align coverage with current business needs. Has the employee count changed? Have demographics shifted? Have hiring needs changed? Are we approaching any compliance thresholds, such as the 50+-employee threshold to qualify as an “Applicable Large Employer” under the Affordable Care Act? Consider your annual benefits market review as a component of strategic growth planning.

Process: Strategic Annual Market Review

How do you conduct an annual benefits market review? Ideally, work with a trusted benefits advisor to help manage this process. Start early so you have time to evaluate your options and are positioned to negotiate when your renewal arrives. Doing so helps you avoid the common renewal pitfalls of rushed decisions, limited options, and reactive cost-shifting.

The process should comprise

Benchmarking current plans,
Evaluating alternative plan designs and network types, and
Evaluating multichoice options (such as “base” and “buy-up” medical plans).

An experienced broker will guide this process by compiling the research and presenting recommendations that fit within your budget.

Strategic Approach for Better Long-term Outcomes

Completing an annual market review enables employers to develop an evolving strategy for medical benefits rather than viewing them as a static expense. A structured market review can provide clarity, even if the decision is to stay with the current plan. The goal of the annual benefits market review is to evaluate the options that are available and help the employer make decisions that fit their needs and budget. Shopping for benefits annually is one of the most important steps an employer can take to understand their options and control costs within the plan.

Have Questions?

If you’d like to discuss conducting an annual market review, please contact our team.

Benefits Education for Better Outcomes

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:20:47 GMT

Why Employee Benefits Education Matters More Than Ever

Benefits are a huge investment for employers, not just in terms of dollars but also in time spent on administration. With all the work employers are already putting into providing benefits for their employees, it can feel frustrating when employees are confused about the plan or the options that are available to them. These days, offering a range of employee benefits is essential, but with insurance and financial literacy so low for a broad population, what can employers do to help ensure employees take full advantage of the benefits they’re providing? One simple solution is to provide employee benefits education as part of a company’s overall benefits strategy. Read on to learn about why employee education is important and the advantages it can provide.

Why Provide Employee Benefits Education?

The Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA) conducted a study in 2025 showing that 7 out of 10 employees who understand their employee benefits extremely well are very satisfied with their benefits. The study cites two ways to increase an employee’s understanding of their benefits: providing total compensation statements and offering opportunities for employee education, including both group and one-on-one settings. Data showed that

81% of employees value in-person, one-on-one meetings
67% of employees value in-person group meetings
63% of employees value speaking with someone about their benefits over the phone

Overall, only 43% of employees are very satisfied with their benefits plan, and 19% say they are dissatisfied. Poor understanding leads to dissatisfaction, underutilization of benefits, and—for those who are participating—increased questions and potential errors. Ultimately, all the negatives start to add up, and poor perceptions of the benefit plan may result in retention issues. Therefore, offering options for employee benefits education can help to protect the employer’s investment in benefits.

For more details on the LIMRA study, please visit the following URL:

https://www.limra.com/en/newsroom/news-releases/2025/limra-workers-benefits-satisfaction-tied-to-understanding-and-knowledge-can-total-compensation-statements-correct-the-course/

When & How to offer Benefits Education

Benefits education should be a part of your new employee onboarding, but what about for current employees? They know all they need to know, and if not, they have resources to help them, right? That is probably not a safe assumption. Most employees only think about benefits once a year, and even highly-educated people can have misconceptions about how the benefit plan actually works. Benefits education opportunities should be an essential element of a company’s annual renewal strategy. While enrollment deadlines should be covered, a benefits education meeting should focus on understanding and provide clear explanations of the plan options and changes from the prior year.

With our clients, we also like to cover best practices for using the plan and saving money on care. There are many simple practices that can add up to major savings. Overall, if the plan participants focus on saving money, it can help the plan save money on increases over time.

Then, throughout the year, share reminders about the plan. For example, if a company has an employee newsletter, it can feature a brief article on qualifying events or handling claims questions and reminders about where to find resources. Ongoing education helps to reduce confusion and reactive inquiries, which can reduce the time that your plan administrators spend handling questions and issues.

Technology Resources

Integrated technology platforms have simplified the process of benefits enrollment and reduced the likelihood of errors in the process. HRIS and benefits management platforms can be highly customizable to provide a wealth of resources to your employees, such as benefits summaries and decision guides, short educational videos, and on-demand access to plan information. However, as found in the LIMRA study, the most valued opportunities for employee engagement were those with a human touch, including one-on-one sessions and group meetings.

Remember, in the benefits arena, technology works best when paired with human support.

Confidential, one-on-one Support

Education in a group setting is a great way to start the conversation, but employees often have health or coverage questions they hesitate to ask publicly. Health and financial questions are highly sensitive and very important, and employees can feel embarrassed to discuss them with a fellow team member. When it comes to sensitive questions, employees value the opportunity to talk with a trusted subject matter expert who can help them evaluate their decisions.

With our clients, we offer an initial group meeting, then provide opportunities for employees to schedule a one-on-one consultation with a benefits expert.

Putting it all Together

To support your employees through each renewal cycle, which is another opportunity for them to make crucial decisions for their family, we recommend that you have the following elements as part of your strategy:

Group Benefits Education to provide an overview and best practices
1:1 Decision Support for the employees who have questions
Digital Resources for employees to access when they need them
Ongoing Reminders to keep benefits and the available resources top of mind for employees

We want employees to feel confident when making benefits decisions. They don’t need to be experts, so we don’t need to overwhelm them with details, but we should help them know the resources that are available and whom to contact if they ever need help.

Better benefits education equips employees with the information they need and can help them feel more confident and satisfied with their benefits plan.

Have Questions?

If you’d like to discuss your benefits education strategy, please contact our team: