Shopping for health plans through a broker is a fact of life for the vast majority of companies. But how well is your broker meeting your needs?

And how can you work together better to minimize costs while getting maximum bang for your organization’s benefits buck?

What’s New in Benefits & Compensation conducted an exclusive survey of 195 subscribers to find out how they view their company’s relationship with their brokers. Here’s what they said:

Half see room for improvement

The good news: Nearly half of your colleagues rate their relationship with their current broker as “excellent.” But that means the other half see some room for improvement.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents rated their broker relationship as satisfactory and said they were at least “reasonably happy.” The remaining 11% noted “unpleasant surprises” while 4% are actively considering a switch.

Tools for making buying decisions

Of course, the No. 1 reason any organization works through a broker is to find the best deals on health benefits. But many of your colleagues pointed to a few areas where their brokers could help make their lives a little easier.

First and foremost, your colleagues say they’d love for their brokers to provide user-friendly – but thorough – return on investment data they can use to benchmark different plans.

It’s worth discussing with your broker how much arm-twisting the broker can do with health plan carriers to get key data in your hands. Two specific areas of data benefits pros say they’d like help from brokers:

• obtaining and sharing claims cost data to compare to premiums, and
• benchmarking your typical plan costs against those of similar-sized firms in the region.

Unfortunately, claims cost data is often hard to pry loose from insurers, at least for smaller employers’ plans. Reason: Without this data, it’s tougher to judge if your premium rate adjustment at renewal time is fair. Fewer than half of respondents (46.3%) say they’ve ever discussed such information with their brokers.

Obtaining benchmarking data on similar-sized plans helps you see how comparably your costs and plan designs stack up in your area. Roughly 43% of respondents say they’re armed with at least some of this info when it comes time to decide whether to stay with the existing plan.

Earlier renewals

It’s worth talking with your broker about ways to push for the earliest possible renewals – and strategies for making sure your carrier doesn’t hit you with any unpleasant surprises.

One notorious game insurance companies play with employers’ plans is to wait until the last moment to reveal the new premiums at renewal. That way, there’s less time for negotiation – or to shop around with the insurer’s competitors.

About 28% of respondents report getting their renewals about 30 days before the rate kicks in. Different brokers use different benchmarks for securing renewals. A minority of respondents (19.5%) have seen them as early as 90 days ahead.

Taking work off HR/Benefits’ plate

The benefits brokerage marketplace is highly competitive. Some brokers try to set themselves apart by offering clients so-called value-added services.

Among your colleagues, the most popular services are those which relieve the company’s HR/ benefits manager of time-consuming tasks. Some examples:

• reviewing plan documents
• auditing (and, if needed, reconciling) carrier bills for errors
• monitoring plans for compliance (HIPAA, COBRA, etc.)
• offering tech support for a benefits intranet and/or employee self-service software, and/or
• assisting with employee education.