3 Ways to Boost CDH Awareness and Adoption
Published on August 23rd, 2016
With healthcare costs on the rise, it comes as no surprise that employers who offer CDH products (like HSAs, FSAs or HRAs) are looking for creative ways to engage their employees to create awareness and increase adoption. These healthcare saving and/or investment vehicles help to ease the burden of increasing expenses while enabling both employers and employees to move with the market shift toward consumerism.
We have realized from our own independent consumer research, that while employers are increasingly jumping on board to offer these CDH products, employees lag in adoption because they don’t fully understand the benefits and opportunities that come with these accounts. Supported by the Kaiser 2015 Employer Benefits survey findings, since 2010 the number of large firms (1000+ employees) offering CDH account options, has risen 20%, from 32% to now over 50%. During that same time period, enrollment in these types of plans has risen only 10%, from 13% to 24%.
So, the question becomes, how do we move employees toward greater adoption of healthcare benefit accounts?
Education, education and did we mention, education?
While these account-based benefits have existed for a number of years, the limited focus by employers and resulting lack of awareness and understanding by employees, has hampered what would otherwise surely be even greater growth, given the significant tax benefits associated with these accounts.
With this in mind, we’ve generated a top three list of educational tracks that we recommend most often when helping clients grow their employee CDH adoption:
- Test existing employee knowledge Leading to open enrollment, distribute and monitor quizzes or survey’s that gauge employees pre-existing knowledge base, tailoring follow-up materials to fill any fluency gaps.
- Provide account comparison tools During open enrollment, provide materials and tools, such as calculators and tip sheets, that allow your employees to understand the main differences between the benefit accounts that you offer.
- Separate fact from fiction During open enrollment, leverage resources that highlight misconceptions and replace them with facts, such as: HSA contributions are forfeited at the end of the plan year: False.
With these three simple steps, you will be on your way to driving CDH awareness and adoption this open enrollment season. And remember, Alegeus clients have access to all these materials within the Alegeus Marketing Portal. If you have never used the portal, prepare to be impressed. Simply request new credentials for validation of your account.