Expertise for a changing world

Seitlin Benefits monitors health care trends to help clients make wise choices

By Len Strazewski

The employee benefits landscape is changing almost by the minute as President Barack Obama continues his quest for health care reform, and legislators debate public and private options for health insurance delivery.

How can agents and brokers stay ahead of all the legislative and market changes and keep their employer clients safe? It certainly isn’t easy, say the executives of Seitlin Benefits, the employee benefits division of Seitlin Insurance & Advisory Services, one of the largest independent agencies in Florida.

Being a leading provider of employee benefits services involves staying ahead of the social and political issues of the day and keeping employee benefits and human resources practices in line with the strategic goals of clients, says Seitlin Benefits President David Morgan. And until the nature of health care reform is finally decided, it’s up to employee benefits agents and advisors to do their best with the tools available, including the latest in consumer-directed health plan design, wellness and health management services, and administrative resources to relieve the burden of human resource managers, he says.

Founded in 1945, the parent agency of Seitlin Benefits has offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach and has a client list that includes the Miami Heat basketball team and Catholic Health Services, Inc. The agency posts combined property/casualty and employee benefits revenue of some $30 million and has about 200 employees.

Launched in 1982, the employee benefits division has grown to 40 employees and generates about one-third of the agency’s total revenue, Morgan says. Employee benefits revenue has been growing by about 15% each year and could eventually equal revenue from property/casualty insurance. Like many employee benefits arms of primarily P-C agencies, Seitlin Benefits was originally formed to accommodate commercial risk management customers.

Today the employee benefits division is a full partner in meeting the needs of Seitlin’s clients and offers cross-selling opportunities across the range of services provided by the agency. Producers can work separately or in tandem, presenting the agency’s complete menu of products and services, Morgan says. “All of our producers on both the property/casualty and employee benefits sides are capable of telling our story and identifying the resources Seitlin brings to its clients. Usually one producer takes the lead on new business development—it normally depends on the size of the prospective client—but occasionally we like to go in pairs to address all of a client’s service needs.”

Seitlin’s employee benefits clients include law firms and accounting firms, hospitals and other local businesses that range in size from fewer than 100 employees to as many as 4,000.

Cost and administrative issues

Health care costs dominate the attention of almost every client, Morgan says, but controlling health plan premiums is just one part of the cost issue. Small clients with fewer than 100 employees struggle with administrative demands, benefit communications and enrollment management as well as insurance buying. “For these clients, we need to relieve some of the work of the human resources department and the chief financial officer. This can involve a wide range of administrative support, including serving as a call center for employees and managing automated benefits services,” he says. For larger clients, the agency can suggest plan design changes, including self-funding and consumer-directed health plan designs, wellness and health management services, among other more sophisticated techniques.

Executive Vice President Shannon Alfonso agrees that cost management continues to be the most pressing client concern, but assistance with benefits administration can generate faster results than plan design changes.

“People are looking at the bottom line more now than ever, and our clients continue to ask for help in reducing their costs. In many cases, they have already taken steps to reduce salaries and implement layoffs,” she says.

Reducing benefits for current employees is a last resort, Alfonso notes. More often, employers are looking for ways to reduce benefits costs without causing more financial pain to their employees. Even before addressing plan design, Seitlin Benefits will examine employee benefits administration, she says. “The first thing we might do is clean up the employee census file. A lot of employers have not audited their health plan population and are surprised when we discover ineligible individuals, including former employees, former or ineligible dependents or others who have no reason to be in the benefits program.”

The dependent eligibility audit “is a pretty easy fix,” Alfonso says, and leads to an immediate reduction in premium and claims savings over the long term. The agency also reviews the client’s employee benefits communications and benefits automation, providing consulting services to employers who are willing to invest in employee self-service Web sites and other tools.

“Benefits communication helps to tell all employees about the true cost of their benefits,” Alfonso says, and can become the cornerstone of a consumer-directed health plan that puts health care spending decisions in the hands of employees. Successful implementation of health savings accounts (HSAs) and health reimbursement accounts (HRAs) requires a cultural change among employees, she explains, and employees must be prepared to accept greater responsibility for their health spending before an employer implements a plan design change.

The agency can work with the client’s human resources staff to create a comprehensive employee benefits communications program, including flyers and e-mail communication, as well as hosting small group meetings to explain benefits and describe the advantages of new health plan designs.

Technology is another important tool in managing employee benefits, Alfonso points out, and many employers do not realize how much efficiency and savings can be gained from automating employee benefits management, billing, claims reconciliation, voluntary benefits election and payroll deduction.

As employers struggle with their costs, many are adding to voluntary benefits offerings and encouraging employees to choose benefits that meet their specific life needs, including long-term care insurance, critical illness insurance and disability coverages, Alfonso says.

Wellness and health management

Employers are more interested than ever in wellness and health management services, Seitlin executives say, and the agency uses its own internal wellness program as a model. The agency mandates testing and a health risk assessment for all employees and varies the amounts of co-pays to provide an incentive for testing compliance. The agency is in the fourth year of its health risk assessment and wellness program, which includes biometric testing and health coaching follow-up.

“We began the program as a way of helping our employees identify their own health issues, not just control costs,” Morgan says, “but the two issues are related. Out of every 100 employees, employers are likely to identify three or four individuals with undetected high blood pressure and one or two undiagnosed diabetics.” Identification of medical conditions may lead to immediate cost savings, and control of the condition is certain to result in future claims savings, Morgan says.

“Compelling research has been done on return on investment for wellness programs, and there is certainly documented value in terms of improved productivity and quality of work life for employees as well as health care cost savings,” he asserts. “But more than that, wellness and health management is a good thing to do for employees and helps them become better consumers of their own health care. We have had a lot of success in selling clients on wellness services by using our own program as a model of what can be accomplished.”

Ramona Fiumara, vice president of operations, coordinates employee benefits account management services and technical support functions. The agency assigns every client an account management team that coordinates the delivery of ongoing services. “The most important task we have is learning about clients’ business and assisting them in aligning employee benefits management,” Fiumara says. “We are not just vendors, but also sources of expertise that can help with a technical needs analysis, budgeting and managing administration.” The account management teams are often called on to manage open enrollment for administratively swamped clients, Fiumara adds.

Legislative and compliance issues also fall within the purview of account management, Fiumara says, and the increasing complexity of government mandates provides a steady set of challenges. The agency produces monthly Webinars for clients on new issues, such as the COBRA subsidy that was an early surprise from the Obama administration this year.

“It’s important that we stay ahead of the issues as they develop and keep our clients informed about changing requirements. And it is critical that we are prepared to offer the services they will need in the future,” she says.

Since 2006, Seitlin Benefits has been a member of the Benefit Advisors Network, based in Worcester, Massachusetts. The national network of benefits agents and brokers provides advisory services for members that include a medical director and pharmacy benefits director as well as regulatory compliance consulting and auditing. The organization conducts regular educational programs and can assist with wellness and health management programs and claims analysis.

Seitlin also has a separate human resource consulting division, Seitlin Human Capital Management, that provides consulting and strategic services in talent and organizational development, total compensation and rewards management, and workplace wellness support.

Like other Seitlin divisions, the human capital management unit focuses on aligning benefits, compensation and human resource practices with the strategic goals of client companies.

With its finger on the pulse of trends in the rapidly changing arena of health care and employee benefits, Seitlin Benefits is strategically positioned to help its clients select, implement, and administer well-designed, affordable employee benefits plans and wellness programs.