Are Your Health Insurance Premiums to High? Your Controller or CFO is Most Likely to Blame!

Many consumers spend a considerable amount of time in researching the best options available to them for buying a new flat-screen television. However when faced with their annual health insurance renewal, they fail miserably!

Is it your fault? Depending upon your situation it could be, but if you are participating in an employer sponsored group health insurance planYour Controller or CFO is most likely to blame.

Employees that go to work every day struggling to live paycheck to paycheck are placing a substantial portion of their money and trust in the hands of their very own Controller or CFO.

The people assigned to these executive positions are most likely considered highly compensated. They dont place as much emphasis into researching their options for a new television as diligently as a rank-and-file employee would, yet they are the decision makers for their companys health insurance program and are allowing their programs to spiral out of control.

Here is how the process works: Executives typically entrust their annual health insurance renewal to an insurance broker. The broker will compile the necessary information regarding this employer and send to the insurance marketplace in order to attain bid offerings. This is also known as shopping the case.

Where the travesty occurs in the insurance business is that most brokers merely show these executives the proposals they received from each carrier, period. That is ittheir job is done!

Now I realize I am over-simplifying the process as well as the value of a competent insurance broker or agent because I am one myself. Brokers may align all the quotes they receive on a pretty spreadsheet to ensure the review process is more efficient. Sometimes they will assist in the enrollment process, but for the most part handing off the proposal is all they do and they receive compensation for doing this.

The Controller or CFO at your company feels that they have a solid relationship with their respective insurance broker and this may very well be true, but what they are getting paid handsomely to do and are not doing is SHOPPING THEIR BROKER.

Fact: Some athletes are better than others Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, and Cal Ripken to name a few.

Fact: There are insurance brokers that are better than others.

My high hopes of becoming an insurance representative was to help employers improve their bottom-line, save their employees money, enhance benefits, improve moral, as well as generate an increased understanding of their benefit offerings. This can be attainable without a doubt at virtually every prospect I have ever visited.

Our agency was established in 1969. We have over six hundred clients and have implemented medical expense reimbursement plans and other consumer directed programs since the early 1970s. We have literally rescued employers from the health insurance death spirals they were facing.

The programs we recommend allow for employees to pay substantial less in premiums, receive reimbursements for their co-payments, co-insurance, and amounts spent towards their deductibles. Employers significantly improve their bottom-line via premium savings and tax deduction as well as inject additional budget dollars to attract and retain quality employees.

The associates in our agency are revered for their extraordinary level of service. They have received hugs during enrollments, cards on the holidays, and invitations to employees weddings. There are no compliments higher than these.

The disturbing trend we seem to be witnessing though is a false security that upper management executives have in their existing brokers. Please understand that not all executives are in this category. There are some very brilliant people in these roles, but a majority of them are not doing their job when it pertains to health insurance.

The unwillingness of your executives to explore other insurance avenues stems from several possible reasons: 1) Lack of education regarding health insurance which an executive is most likely not going to admit, 2) Poor perception of insurance agents. A great deal of brokers say they have the bigger better deal, and 3) Change. Implementing new programs are viewed as more work for the human resources department and possible strife relayed back to the decision maker. Should you entrust your health insurance needs to a professional full-service insurance brokerage, this should not occur.

We are coming up on a Presidential election which will hold our nations health insurance as a highly debated topic. I am vehemently against our government intervening in our ability to make health insurance decisions, but unfortunately it is the Controllers or CFOs in a multitude of group sizes and industries that are failing you!

Ask your Controller of CFO the last time they were open to new health insurance ideas and actually SHOPPED THEIR BROKER? After all, it is your money too.

Diversified Benefits is an affiliated agency with Diversified Insurance Brokerage Services established in 1969. Proud member of the Murphy Chamber of Commerce, Dallas Association of Health Underwriters, National Association of Alternative Benefit Consultants, and holds the Advance Insurance Designation as a Chartered Benefit Consultant (CBC). http://www.diversifiedbenefits.org