The Top 6 Reasons Companies Need Insurance Benefits Management Software

By Jason Glathar, TEAM Software Application Developer

In today’s competitive market companies need to maximize productivity at every level. One of the most overlooked parts of a company when it comes to investment is its human resource department, in particular, the tedious and time-consuming responsibility of managing the company’s employee insurance benefits. While the cost of health insurance has been one of the most significant costs to small and large businesses for some time now, with the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, having an insurance benefits management solution is even more paramount. Here are the top 6 reasons companies need insurance benefits management software. (See Metrics for justifying the cost of automation on the compareHRIS.com blog for additional Information.)

1. Reduce the Need for Additional Staff – By properly implementing a software solution, HR staff become more productive. With data and information already stored or when new information is entered directly by the employee, staff has more time to analyze areas to improve or eliminate inefficiencies and find cost savings.
2. Reduce Costly Errors – An integrated software solution leverages a single data source, which reduces the chance of costly data entry errors can result in increased costs. In some instances there can be as many as five or more people handling/entering the same data when it comes to insurance benefits, from the employee, to the manager, to the benefits staffer or administrator, to the insurance broker to possibly a person at the insurance carrier’s office. There is also the payroll clerk that will need to process some sort of payroll deduction after the employee is enrolled. With a single system integrated from employee election information through payroll, information is manipulated far less, thus vastly decreasing the possibility of errors.
3. Better Risk Management – In the litigious society we live in today, a company needs to take every precaution to manage their liability. For example, improperly notifying employees of COBRA benefits can result in severe and increasing penalties. With the imminent regulations surrounding the Affordable Care Act, insurance benefits traceability will become even more critical.
4. Reports and Access to Data – In some instances, gathering, analyzing and then creating a report or presentation can take days or weeks depending on the project or request. By leveraging a software solution that has a relational database rather than a spreadsheet or even paper to manage your benefits, companies can drastically reduce the time and money needed to produce valuable reports needed for government compliance or when competing for new business.
5. Report Terminated Benefits Faster – Without the proper measures in place, a company can be billed for terminated employees’ benefits for months without even realizing it. Companies can eliminate this from happening and greatly reduce benefit costs by properly terminating benefits on timely basis by using software that can produce a report or file that then can be submitted to their insurance carrier or broker. In some cases by doing so, companies may receive some additional cost savings directly from their carrier.
6. Improve Employee Morale – By giving direct and immediate access to their insurance benefits, and more specifically coverage details and related information and links, employees feel empowered to make their own health and benefit decisions. This helps at the time of enrollment but also throughout the year as different situations arise.

This article will be the first of a series discussing insurance benefits and how TEAM Software and our solutions can help companies in the building service and security industries better manage them. TEAM Software realizes that having a solution that not only helps manage insurance benefits, but one that helps improve productivity and efficiency is of the utmost importance. Our recent release of the Insurance Benefits module, which includes traceable eligibility testing and integration with payroll, shows that we are fully committed to providing our customers the necessary tools to help them succeed. With the upcoming release of our Online Benefits feature for eHub Employee Self-Service, which includes an “open enrollment wizard,” we will be offering a complete software solution to not only manage your insurance benefits, but one that directly helps you improve your bottom line.

Jason Glathar is an application developer with TEAM Software and has over 16 years of experience in the software industry. As part of the Insurance Benefits and now the Cross-Platform Agile teams he serves in a key role working closely with Customers, Product Owners, Stakeholders and Development team members to provide high-value, user focused software solutions.